Day 31: Budapest

Got on the bus for another morning sight seeing tour. It had rained all night and was continuing during the tour, making photos extremely hard to take on the bus (the camera kept focusing on the rain drops on the window).

We were caught in a major traffic jam as we left the hotel, taking over 1 hour to travel 3 km. As such, and with the rain, we did not stop at Hero Square, which was a real shame. There are a number of statues of Poland's heroes on top of an ...

We got off the bus at Halaszbastya, which is the old town of Buda. Got to spend some time exploring the old walls and a beautiful staircase that has been built to now allow people up through the fisherman's Bastion. The views over Budapest from the bastion are amazing.

After the sight seeing, it was time to go to the dentist. Luckily, it was only a few blocks from the drop off point.  Christina was not able to get a set appointment time, and advised I would just have to wait until the dentist had time to see me.  So with a book in hand, I headed down the road, leaving the others to do their souvenir shopping.

I found the address of the building the dentist was in easy enough, so pressed the buzzer on the front of the building and was admitted into a labyrinth of buildings and lifts.  The apartment complex was actually 4 buildings, each with their own lift.

After scouting up 1 building and not finding the address I wanted, I proceeded to ask some construction workers if they knew where to go - lucky I have the address on a piece of paper.  One of them directed me back down stairs and across the entrance area into another lift.

I eventually found a door with a small picture of a pint tooth on it and walked inside to join 5 others waiting to be seen.  Thinking I was in for a long wait, I opened my book only to be called in 15 minutes later.  A quick chat to the dentist and 10 minutes of drilling and filling and I came out with a new temporary filling.  With the exchange rate of 150 to 1, it worked out to cost about AU$20.  I suppose this is why people come from all over Europe to Budapest for dental work, and with English being spoken by more and more people, it isn't too hard.  So after 30 minutes from arriving, I was out the door with a letter for my dentist back home.

Walked through the streets admiring the city when all of a sudden I came across Ross, Ros and Elisha.We stopped off at a restaurant by the Danube for a cool drink and to once again admire the views of the palace and river before heading back to the bus to get ready for dinner.

For dinner, we headed off to the forest to a restaurant to our Gypsy Night dinner.  We were greeted with an aperitif of spirits in a cup in the shape of a small person (which we got to keep).  A floor show was put on with some traditional dances to music played by a small ensemble.  The violinist was amazing and had such a beautiful sound.  Although the dancers were mostly quite old (there was one lovely young lady) the dances were fantastic.