Budapest

We spent most of the day on Sunday sightseeing.  We ended up finding ourselves in the National Museum which was amazing.  Well laid out with history all broken down in to centuries - the first one being the 13th century!!  Hungary has an amazing history and it was interesting to read about it and see all the relics, clothing, furniture etc that came with it.  We then went to the Holocaust Museum which was depressing but one of those things that I guess you have to do and learn about in more detail as its such a huge part of European history.  We were surprised to hear about the long history of persecution of the Jews dating back well before the first world war and of course the second world war under the Germans was just awful to read about.  It was very tastefully done though and not all about disgusting stories and photos.

We got to our cruise ship mid afternoon and boy did we feel like royalty when we pulled up in the taxi.  3 very dashing sailors came straight out and welcomed us and took our bags off us and led us to the cruise ship.  There are several cruise ships here in Budapest from all different companies but we feel that we made a good choice going with Uniworld.  The ship is just lovely with all the little details you could want - though the cabin is a tight space, living in a caravan has stood us in good stead for dealing with this. 

We have met a lot of people so far - there are a lot of Americans on the ship and yes they are loud and some are a bit obnoxious but so far so good.  There are also a lot of Aussies - only one other couple from NZ apparently but we haven't met them yet.  There are 132 passengers on board so its pretty small and intimate with good staff ratios so the service is fantastic.  The food is just to die for though in small portions thank god and the wine so far is awesome!!!

We went on the city bus tour today and I have posted photos on facebook - I am using my ipod with wireless to do that as I can't get them on here as the ships computer won't take my camera memory stick.  The tour was great and gave a really good overview of Budapests history - this place is so beautiful and full of history - it really is a great place to come and see and the people are lovely.

After lunch we caught the ferry across to the Pest side of the city - Budapest is split in to two by the Danube River - the Buda side is older and hilly and the Pest side is flat.  We went to the great market hall that was closed on Sunday - a huge local market of fresh food and meats downstairs with touristy stuff upstairs.  It was packed but I managed to buy a couple of things - yes I know I said I wasn't going to be shopping over here but you know how it goes......Mal is already threatening to take my Mastercard off me!!! LOL

Tonight we had the Captains dinner so it was dress up time and we had a lovely evening finished off with authentic Hungarian music and dancers.  Oh have I mentioned that I am the youngest person on the cruise and Mal is second youngest????  Great for the ego as I have no other competition....LOL

We are sailing out of Budapest tomorrow morning and spending a whole day on the river Danube through to Vienna.  Apparently we have 68 locks to go through on this entire trip and they sound amazing so we will be out on deck watching and taking photos as we go through our first one tomorrow which is apparently one of the bigger ones.  In case you don't know what a lock is - its a way of getting from one part of a river to another over land basically.