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We arrived at Budapest's Keleti station with 15 minutes to spare. We found our train simply, and got on. It was odd, as there was no one else on the train. I walked to the next carriage, and no one on that one as well. I thought it was a bit weird, and then a few seconds later, I saw a station person looking in our carriage. He found me through the window, and motioned to exit the train. When we did, he pointed to the 3 carriages down, and communicated that these carriages weren't going anywhere!! Glad he was there, because we probably would have sat on the train and wondered 25 minutes later why we were leaving so late :).
The train station was only 1/5 mile from the hotel Klastrom ($71 w/o breakfast). They only had 2 nights available. So, while we had intended to stay 3, we might just stay 2 and be on our way to Prague. Most of the streets of Gyor are pedestrian only, so we spent a little time walking around town, and shopping for restaurants to eat lunch at. We liked one of the menus, and ended walking 2 floors below the ground into this dungeon like cave. It was a nice escape from the heat and humidity, so we didn't mind the slight musty odor. I had a greek salad and Jaimie a paprika'd turkey breast salad. Both were great, and we washed it all down with a few beers. While we were sitting talking, a random American walked up to us and asked us what we were doing in Gyor, as I guess this isn't a popular tourist destination. We told him, and began a conversation with him for the next hour or so. Nice guy from New Hampshire (who have you met from New Hampshire that's not nice? :)). He moved here to teach English a few years ago and is now married and a Hungarian citizen! After a few drinks, we walked around town again. We picked up a few bottles of water, and headed back to our room to rest. The room was very hot (no AC), and the setting sun was shining right into our room! It was a difficult rest. As soon as the sun began to hide behind some trees, and I was finally looking forward to some relief, a very loud synthesized music and horrible singer started up right in our hotel courtyard! Oh well.
We weren't feeling tired enough to turn in, so we walked down the street to get a glimpse of the church and castle. It was a fun light stroll through town. We returned to our room. It was still very warm, and the music still loudly echoed into the room (it was louder in the room than when we were downstairs - strange). There's also a few other very loud karaoke quality music and singing going on in the neighborhood (I guess that is popular here). At 10pm, we heard the one at our hotel say good night (we were very excited). Unfortunately, the other location's music continued. While we are still having a fabulous time on our trip, with only about one week left, I'm looking forward to a solid night of uneventful sleep at home :) (that might be a new "most missed" for me :)). Day 177 - Budapest < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 179 - Gyor and Wrapping up Hungary © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
Another morning at Leo Panzio hotel in downtown Budapest. Unfortunately, the air conditioner started loudly squeaking around 4am, so much that it greatly disturbed our sleep. Always seems to be something disturbing our sleep :). I was happy to have my 3rd day of having cereal for breakfast (too many omelettes in the past 180 days :). We checked out at 9:45am, and headed to the train station. 
We didn't reserve our seats on the train, and ended up playing a shuffling game trying to find an unreserved seat. We only had to move 2 times, so not too bad. We were on an Intercity train, so we had few stops (which we were happy, as to not have to keep on switching). After our 1.5 hours, we arrived in Gyor, a small university town, where 3 rivers, Mosoni-Danube, Rabca, and Raba join. There's the usual castle, church, cobblestone streets, and the necessary outdoor baths. There's really not that much to see here. In fact, we mostly came here to just relax in the baths and enjoy the small town atmosphere. 
We went out for dinner, and ended up at the pub across from the hotel that the American we met earlier had mentioned. It was great, we shared a caprese salad and broccoli and cheese stuffed Turkey. Seems like they are big into poultry across Hungary, with turkey and chicken breast comprising much of the menus (good for us - as Jaimie likes turkey :)). We finished our meal with a pancake a la gundel, which is a crepe filled with creme, walnuts, some kind of liquor soaked fruit, and topped with chocolate sauce. Yum! :) . The entire dinner cost only $14, which is unbelievable :)