A Trip To Remember

After a long time, if you can't remember when the last time was, it's been too long, I decided I needed to get away and have a holiday.  Making the decision was the easy part and the trip itself is only the culmination of almost a year's worth of planning.  So, with the decision to go actually made comes the choices of just exactly where to go.  With some vague choices bouncing around my head, I wandered into the local travel agency and gathered a couple of brochures.  After a couple of days of flicking through, the choices were made.  I'd settled on a tour of 4 great European cities that I'd always wanted to see.

They were Budapest, Salzburg, Vienna and Prague.

With everything all booked and paid for, it was just a matter of playing the waiting game, and soon enough, it rolled around and I was ready to depart.

Whoever said "Half the fun is getting there" obviously never flew halfway across the world. After the initial excitement of actually knowing your on that plane for your well deserved holiday wears off, about 30 seconds after take off, it becomes nothing more then boring, blank stare at the seat in front of you, wishing the person sitting in that seat wouldn't put the seat back because my legs are getting crushed and I can't see the screen!  Ahem...Anyway, after the initial 7 hour flight, I arrive at my stopover, Kuala Lumpur.  Now, normally airports aren't all that inspiring, but after seeing this one, wow.  It is massive and from the small part that I saw, seemed to cater to just about everything.  It was like a giant shopping centre.

 It even had trains that came right into the terminal to pick up passengers.

And this is where the well laid plans start to show cracks.  What should have only been a 2 hour stopover billowed out to a 5 hour stopover due to delays.  But, as I've said before, there is nothing I can do to fix this, so out came the book and I took a seat and began to read.  Now, as much as the delay was really annoying, I could not find a fault with the service of the flights that got me from home to Rome.  Malaysia Airlines staff were there to answer any request a passenger had while flying, the seats were relatively comfortable and the food was actually some of the best airline food I've ever had, and it actually had the look of real food!

After finally boarding the plane we had a lovely 12 hour flight over to Rome.  I for one knew there would be no problems at all because of one simple thing.  Our flight had several of these people on it.

Yep, nuns.  And as everyone knows, a flight that has a nun on it is guaranteed not to have any problems.  However, due to the long delay, we arrived quite a while later then we should have, and what should have been a 2 hour wait for my final connecting flight to Budapest was only about 40 mins.  I had to run from one end of the airport to the other only to arrive at the gate as they were boarding the flight.  Damn that was close.  

So, up we go again for one final flight, this time only an hour and a half.  So we land, everyone scuttles to the baggage carousal like good, well behaved children, and we all wait for our bags.  And as I watch others grab their bags, I still wait...and wait...and wait...until finally...the gates to the carousal close and no more bags appear.  Blast, this is exactly what I need, been flying for the last 20 something hours and now my luggage decided to take a trip without me.  So, I stand in another queue to fill out a lost property form etc, but the person in line ahead of me decided to chat up the lady behind the counter. Meanwhile I've got a transfer outside, waiting for me, but is already late because of the later flight and blah blah blah. So after finally filling out the lost property forms I make my way out and...sure enough, because I'm so late, my driver had to leave.

So I hop in a taxi and head off to my hotel. At this point, the only thing I care about is getting in and taking a nice shower. I arrive at my hotel and check in.

It's quite a nice place.  So I give my bag details to reception, as my luggage will be delivered here when they find it and go up and take a nice hot shower.

Now, seeing as I have almost a whole day, I decide to go for a little wander around this area.  The state Opera House is two steps away from my hotel and the building is absolutely amazing.

After snapping a few pics of it, I decided to look for a place to sit and enjoy some nice local coffee.  I turn around, and as if in answer to my thoughts, I find this place.

So I wander in and order a cappuccino and a piece of Esterhazy cake.  A layered cake of some kind that was so delicious.

The other thing that struck me as fantastic was the service. It truly puts Australian restaurants and cafes to shame. The quality of service? Impeccable. Speed? No sooner had I ordered was it on the table ready for me and to top it off, there was no hurrying you out the door. They were content to let you sit there and relax as long as you'd like.

After the coffee and cake, I headed back to my hotel room. It was getting later in the afternoon and I began to feel the effects of travelling that long without a proper night's sleep, so I turned in early so I could get a fresh start for my first tour the next day.

Day 2.

After a quick breakfast, I waited for my pickup to take me to my tour for the day. A tour of the Parliament and the entire city.  Our first stop was the Parliament building. Along the way, we got some interesting facts about the country by our tour guide before stepping inside the lavish building and wandering it's magnificent halls.

Just before we entered, the tour guide mentioned that there were in fact 3 Parliament buildings here.  Amid the confused looks she explained that when the government was taking commissions to build the Parliament building, they liked the designs of the top three so much, they decided to build all three.  The fist place winner, shown above, is where they hold Government sessions now.

The second place winner, shown above, was used for the courts. The statues on top represent figures like "Justice" and "Truth" and "Enlightenment" etc.  Now it is some form of museum.

And the third place is currently housing the ministry of agriculture.

So we head inside and the beauty of the place inside is simply amazing.  Gold leaf has been worked everywhere, stained glass windows over 100 years old, the Crown Jewels.  Just wow.

After finishing this tour, it was onto a bus for a tour of the whole city.  The city itself is actually made up of 2 cities called Buda and Pest. Buda being on the west side of the Danube and Pest on the east. Another interesting fact about the name is that the locals don't pronounce it as pest, like an insect or vermin, they pronounce it as Pesht, with an sh sound.  The names themselves mean water - Buda and ovens/fire - Pest.

Anyway, a drive up to the citadel offered a great view of both cities with the Danube flowing between them.

Following on from this we drove up to what is called the "Fisherman's Bastion" which stands as a lookout over the city.

After this we headed back to the drop off and ended the tour.  It was quite a day. The next tour is a trip out into the country side and back into the city via cruise ship down the Danube.