Budapest, Hungary -- December 26 - 30, 2008

It's 6:20 a.m. and we're waiting for the metro at Florenc. We've got exactly 10 minutes to make it to Holesovice station to catch our train. No problem...right?

We really, really enjoyed the first two hours of the train ride to Budapest.

"I knew we should have taken a left turn at Bratislava."

We finally made it! The train, after breaking down near the Hungarian border, arrived at Budapest two hours late. It's strange how exhausting it is to sit on a train for 9 hours. Luckily, our rented flat was nearby.

Once again, we turned to craigslist.org to find accommodation. We'd much rather stay at a local apartment than a hotel. The place we rented in Budapest, a 3-bedroom, 2-bath apartment only 15 minutes from the train station was great. We were surprised twice by the apartment. First, by the price, less than 50 Euro per night. Second, by the soothing sounds of the discotheque next door that played until 4 a.m. every night. Good times.

The next morning, the first thing on our list was a visit to the wonderful Szechenyi Baths. The bath complex, located inside the grounds of the city park, offers a number of indoor and outdoor pools. We opted for the outdoor pool experience. We planned poorly by not taking any big towels, bathrobes or sandals with us. The experience of changing into a swimming suit, showering, then making a wet, barefooted mad dash in sub zero temps to the warm pools is one we're sure to remember.

Finally, after hours of soaking in the warm waters of the Szechenyi Baths, we dressed and went back outside to face the cold. Time to catch the metro and go back downtown for lunch, then on to Chain Bridge and Capitol Hill.

"Wow mommy, this metro is really old." The metro line running from downtown to Szechenyi Park is the second oldest metro line in the world, built in time for Budapest's 1,000th birthday celebration in 1896.

After crossing the majestic chain bridge, we rode a funicular to the top of capital hill where we proceeded to die from hypothermia.

It was so cold on capital hill that we started to wonder if the statues we saw were really statues at all and not... (insert Soylent Green style joke here).

Andy and Melinda practicing some tai chi at the top of capital hill.

Szoborpark, Budapest

While in Budapest we just had to see its famous communist statue park. The park lies in a remote suburb of the city and features a collection of Soviet-era statues including Lenin, Marx, Engels, local Hungarian Commie leaders, and several worker-hero statues which were removed after the fall of the Communist regime in Hungary in 1989.

Did I mention that the park is in a remote suburb of the city? Take our advice and spring for the tourist package. It includes round-trip bus transportation from the city center and entrance to the park. It sure beats taking public transportation with a toddler, especially in cold weather.

St. Stephen's Basilica is the tallest building in Budapest and you can be sure that it isn't named after some silly apostle. Instead, it's named in honor of Stephen, the first King of Hungary (c 975–1038), whose mummified fist is allegedly housed in the reliquary (a.k.a. tourist trap).

That's all folks! We had a great time in Budapest and hope to come back again when the weather is warmer. Why don't you join us? From Budapest's beautiful St. Stephen's Basilica, I'm Melinda King, so long and happy travels.