Day 8 - Wien, Austria to Budapest, Hungary - 2637 Miles

We took our time leaving the the hotel in Vienna as we knew we'd be in Budapest in plenty of time to see the city. The breakfast in our hotel was pretty ordinary affair but hotels in Vienna are expensive and it was chosen simply because it was the cheapest I could get. During breakfast we made further failed attempts at connecting to the internet which was disappointing. We also realised we didn't take many pictures yesterday and Kit took a few through the car window as we left Vienna. It remains a picturesque city right up to its edges but the city traffic made it impossible to get more than a few shots.

The drive to Budapest was an easy one. We stopped just before the border for a drink and had to buy yet another vignette for Hungarian road tax. The relatively small price of 6 Euros confirmed we were ripped off on the previous day. The Hungarian system is different from others. They entered the car's registration number onto a computer database and issued us with a till receipt. The lady who sold us the vignette didn't deal with many English people and asked me about what we were up to. She was particularly interested in my search for my mother's birthplace and insisted on the web address for the blog so she could take a look.



Crossing the border into Hungary involved slowing the car down and driving through. They stopped some cars for checks but the border was more or less open. Hungarian drivers are our favourite of the holiday so far and are very polite. Driving in Hungary was a very relaxing affair and the Hungarians have the best roads since Germany. Initially the Hungarian countryside consisted of wide open flat plains but as we approached Budapest we drove along river valleys and hills with rocky outcrops. We arrived in Budapest to glorious sunshine. Our hotel was the cheapest of the trip at 25 Euros so I wasn't expecting anything luxurious but it was fine for our needs and on reflection not the worst we've stayed in. They again boasted wireless internet that didn't work and we were only yards from the main hub so the blog fell 3 days behind. We knew we would be doing quite a lot of walking round Budapest and it was a very hot day so we didn't fancy carrying the guitar around. We decided to sing 'Child Of the Superficial Age' in the hotel with the receptionist, who clearly thought we were very eccentric, taking the video.



We walked from our hotel to the main railway station where I used a phrase book to order a day pass for the public transport which we got good use out of. Budapest has a great transport system consisting of a metro, trams and buses and we used them all. We first walked down to the river and looked at the Hungarian parliament building, which I've read is modelled on our own houses of parliament. I couldn't see the resemblance myself. We then took a tram across the river and walked around the Pest district. We headed uphill to the Jewish quarter having to scale several hundred steps to get there. I may be getting old, fat and grey but I leave my son standing in the climbing of stairs stakes. Pest is a pretty place with great views across the river but the main areas are a bit touristy with superfluous tourist tack shops and expensive restaurants. We walked round for an hour but saw no reason to hang around or to stay and eat. We took a bus down to river level and bought some little pastries for a snack to keep us going. The pastries are available all over Budapest in a variety of yummy flavours and shapes for very little money. I saw a father buying a bag of them for his children for a treat so they are obviously enjoyed by all generations.


We crossed back over to the Buda side of the city which is dominated by a shopping centre and wandered around for a while. We were disappointed not to discover any authentic restaurant area. The few we did see were again touristy and not to my taste. Our guidebook didn't really help and we ended up eating a Chinese on the walk back to our hotel. I was expecting Budapest to be more exotic than it was. It was more Western European than East, more Germanic than Slavic. We were told German is a second language in Budapest but everyone we communicated with spoke English as a second language and I never used my German once.

I liked, rather than loved Budapest but my anticipation of travelling to Novi Sad in Serbia began to fill my thoughts. As we settled down back in our hotel room I felt like a child on Christmas Eve in anticipation of meeting Miloš and Sonja, internet friends who I have never met in the flesh. Miloš sent me an album, 'Vreme Ispred Nas' by their band, Prkos Drumski, for review and it blew me away. It was my favourite album of last year and will remain a favourite for whatever time I have left on this earth. It is an album of beautiful modern folk music with an aching, yearning melancholy about it. Since receiving the album correspondence began to develop between us and I began to develop an understanding of the context in which they make music and the Serbian and Croatian music scenes but Miloš and Sonja's openly honest, lyrical and humble correspondence made me wonder about them. Who are these people? Those who know me and how important music is to me will understand why I had to meet them and why I had to hear the music live.