April 21, 2004
Budapest, Prague...
The great thing about Budapest is that it has the feel of a real city. There's plenty to do and see, but tourists are relatively uncommon and it's easy to spot the many normal Hungarians going about their daily business. I spent my first few days in Budapest with Adam, Damian and two British girls on their gap year, then after they all left, with a group of six American students on break from their studies in Berlin. A good time was had by all and many a delicious meal was cooked at the hostel (minus one pasta dish that was covered with liquid hot magma that looked a lot like plain tomato sauce). On our last afternoon in town we ventured out to a mineral bath for a nice relaxing soak. We were a bit intimidated by the lack of English speaking staff, tourists and any indication of where to go, but before long we found the hot indoor baths. It seemed like it was all locals and although we got some odd looks for probably not observing some important customs, we managed to figure things out enough to have a good time.
After almost a whole week in Budapest, I took a train Sunday to my last Eastern Europe destination - Prague. I quickly decided to move my flight back to give myself four days instead of two and I think it was the right choice. At breakfast Monday morning I chatted for a bit with Ali who's from Texas and then joined him on a walking tour of Prague where we met two American girls who are studying in Paris. The tour was a great three hour introduction to the city and made me wish I had done more tours like that in previous cities. Oh well, hind sight and all that. Tuesday was museum day, including the Museum of Communism and a nice gallery of 20th century Czech art. The Museum of Communism especially was really informative and almost made me want to take a class on recent European history or something. Almost. I've got one last day in Prague and the sun is out, so I think I might find a park and sit and read for a while.