Getting my Buda on

Buda Castle

I'm off to Budapest in a few weeks to meet The Daves. MRN is opting out of the hols (as they say in England) because he's not into the city vacations (and he thinks that I'll have more fun without him... not true!!). All the same, it's my first time in Eastern Europe (well, I've been to Austria, but Salzburg which is decidedly west...), and I'm super excited. I've been listening to Learn Hungarian! podcasts (I have absolutely no chance of speaking Hungarian despite my daily lessons, but it's fun to try) to prepare for the trip, and reading up on the history of the fair city (I like to know my history before traveling). Mostly I'm excited about the seeing the beautiful Neo-Gothic architecture and to walk along the Danube (on both the Buda and the Pest sides). And of course visit a medicinal bath (not for the swimming part because I'm super not into being in a bathing suit in public, nor am I a big fan of public pools). But I've been told that it's what you do, so I'm going to suck it up and give it a go-- because I'm not anything if not someone who will try anything at least once (well, so far...).

The fabulous thing? It's a quick 2 hour flight (as opposed to the poor Daves' nearly 15...). I'm meeting them in Amsterdam and we'll fly together to Budapest. Seriously-- I need to be taking better advantage of living in Europe.