Da - Di Mosca

Howdi all and sundry...
I stepped off the night bus from Budapest this morning; I only spent 2 nights there, but there wasn't a bus available today, and I figured I needed at least 2 nights in Prague. As it is, I'll have three. Insufficient for the second most visited city in Europe, maybe, but there's always next time.

Yesterday Jonas borrowed his mum's car and we drove to the castle ruins of Vishegrad, once the seat of royal Hungarian power in the middle ages; several conferences were held there with the Polish and Czech kings. Perched on a windy crag above the Danube, Vishegrad has lots of cold stone and great views. The exhibitions inside are dodgy (Def: of uncertain quality), but I did find out that the massive, reptilian-looking fish I've seen everywhere between Kharkiv Ukraine and here is the Sturgeon: up to 700 kg, hunted with spears and canoes in the middle ages on the Danube.

Afterwards I checked out the Hungarian national museum (free), and managed to gather still more information about warfare and folk life in the middle ages. This is on top of what I saw Friday at the Budapest Museum, including the somewhat disturbing skulls of Huns (who practiced head 'remodelling' using bandages during childhood).

I'd like to return to Budapest: its got loads of character, and there are plenty of things I didn't get to  see. After Copenhagen, it was cheap cheap cheap as well. Not that I took advantage: except for the bus trip to Prague, I lived off the spare Danish money I changed into Hungarian in Copenhagen....  Of what I did check out, the Parliament building has to take the cake: its big and gothic, right on the river-bank, and looks more like a cathedral then a seat of politics.

Anyway, I'm at the Atlas Hostel in Prague .... I only got one offer for couchsurfing, and that was Tuesday night.

So, only 3 more sleeps (plus one on the plane) until I'm back in Darwin, hot as hell and havnig a Dorothy moment, from Wizard of Oz: "But it was real! It wasn't a dream!" And emailing the folks met along the way: "You were there, and you as well ...?"


Liam, dimanche 18 décembre 2005 09:08.