A trip to Budapest
This year, a trip that my friends and I planned to make to the Crimea failed and we had to urgently plan our vacation on our own. In my work (a teacher at the university) there is one plus, the holiday is always in the summer! Since you can't afford to indulge in money, you had to choose between Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. I visited the Czech Republic last year, I was not attracted to Poland, Hungary remained. After looking at the options, I stopped on a trip to Hungary from Lviv. I wanted to see this city for a long time, but somehow I didn't get there. Thus, I fulfilled two of my desires at the same time - to see Hungary and visit Lviv! Since trains from Poltava to Lviv come very specifically, and I would have to spend the night at the station. decided to get there by bus.
There is truth and the train that goes from Poltava to Lviv and comes in the morning, but this summer it was allowed to bypass, through Sumy.
So there was one option. For a week I booked tickets for the luxury apartment and then faced the first unplanned situation, tickets to Kiev from Lviv can be taken only at the Lviv bus station. Why I never understood. I got there with transfers through Kyiv, so I guessed the flights so that it would be less to waste time at bus stations. On the way to Kiev, the films of Rodriguez Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico were shown by bus. I can only say one thing about this - Mexican actresses are very beautiful, especially Eva Mendes (Once in Mexico) and the movies are complete nonsense!
At the bus station in Lviv I encountered a typical Soviet rudeness! Having ordered a return ticket for the bus, I asked for a seat near the window, for which I received ticket 8, which clearly could not respond to my request.
In response to my remarks, I was told that I could see a TV set that I didn't need at all, but the bus left at 10.35 pm and nobody showed movies there! Requests to change the ticket were refused! Here is your Lviv hospitality! Maybe I would understand this if our dialogue took place in Russian, a kind of revenge on the Muscovites, but I spoke in Ukrainian! Not clear.
Getting from the bus station to the railway in Lviv is very problematic. The only direct bus № 18 is very rare and others only reach the suburban station. In principle, it is close if you navigate, but it is problematic if the first time in the city. Transport in Lviv is very slow and the distance that we would have traveled in 20 minutes in Lviv had to cover 45 minutes, no less!
Fortunately, I arrived at the gathering place of our group on time and went on a tour of Lviv.
Lviv is a beautiful city, but not well maintained. The houses that could be its decoration are unrestored, the facades are semi-shabby. If in Prague every such house is a picture, then we have a victim of mismanagement! But still Lviv is worth seeing! No wonder they want to include it in the list of UNESCO attractions! And he deserves it! We went only in the evening, so that during the time that passed after the sightseeing tour, we had enough to meet a travel companion and go to taste Lviv beer. Beer is a separate topic!
In the evening after the beer I had a detailed conversation with the guardian of the church of St. Elizabeth, that near OK. d. station.
He thought from my language skills that I came from Lutsk or Rivne. To answer no, I heard from Poltava that my compatriots are traitors and similar Western provocations.
I had to remind you that the classic of Ukrainian literature IP Kotlyarevsky was born and lived here, Panas Mirnyi and Shevchenko were not born in Lviv!
About 21 we got on the bus and introduced our leader. Her name was Alesya Tsybulskaya. We simply could not have a better leader! Pleasant voice, deep knowledge of Hungary, responsiveness, amazing patience and self-control (to endure a group of 47 people with their whims and problems is not a very easy task), and there were enough people who tested her patience! So we were incredibly lucky with our leader! In principle, they say that it is better to go to Hungary and Poland through Lviv travel agencies, because their guides know these countries better than their colleagues from Kiev. Next year I will go to Poland only through Lviv. Do not forget to buy drinking water in Ukraine, because in Hungary it is quite expensive.
We stood at the border for 3 hours during which time we watched in duty free. Pinned that there is a liter bottle of tequila costs 11 euros, although you can take for the hryvnia. We thought to buy on the way back but on the way home we did not stop there. At the expense of exchanging money at the border, do not change more than $ 25, as the exchange rate there is very low, which Alesya warned us about.
Indeed, the dollar is exchanged there 1 to 170 forints, and in Budapest already 1 to 175.5 I think there is a difference!
In the morning we arrived in Miskolc - Tapolca where purchases were planned.
We bathed in Hungary every day in different baths, so I came home tanned as from the Crimea, only better! In Miskolc - Tapolca baths with water that varies from cool to hot, there are indoor pools, there are outdoor special pools and water attractions for children, so there were many couples with children.
Such a vacation is just what you need after a long move, in order to gain strength before the new excursions, and we were still waiting for Eger and moving to Budapest.
Rested and refreshed, we went to Eger.
Eger is a wine center and a pretty town with many attractions. We had a very good guide to Eger named Anna. It was nice to listen to her, her stories were quite informative and fascinating. After the tour there was a wine tasting in the local cellar. It is very nice to get after the heat in the cellar with a temperature of plus 18-22 degrees. As for wines, I'm not a big fan of this drink, but still!
First, they gave a sample of 50 grams of dry wines of white (in my opinion, Eger girl) and red (Bull's blood). Not a fan of such drinks. Then there was the red fork.
And then there was the competition for who will drink more: white sweet wine is poured right into your mouth and the rest of the group thinks how long you will be able to last! From such a competition, I could not help but be! Where else can you drink Hungarian wine for free! Lasted a little more than a minute drinking 400-450 grams of wine. Unfortunately, I didn't remember the name quite pleasantly. The one who lasts longer than the other receives a bottle of such wine as a gift! The last one was a pretty nice red semi-sweet wine called Melora. I brought him home as a gift. One nuance that has greatly offended our gourmets - all varieties of wine will be poured into one glass in turn. Well, if you are not an esthete, but a simple proletarian like me, you will not care.
In the evening we arrived at our hotel in Budapest Panda.
The hotel is located on the Buda side, which is considered very prestigious, near the Match supermarket, which is open from 7 to 20, but there is a 24-hour shop nearby, literally 100 meters from the hotel. Nearby is the final stop of the № 5 bus to the Elizabeth Bridge, from which you can take the metro to the city center. There is a church nearby. The place is just great! Due to some problems, my friend and I, who we met in Lviv, settled us together in the room where our leader Alesya was supposed to stay, but she gave it to us, for which I thank her once again!
The rooms are spacious, quite comfortable in this Hungary is favorably different from the Czech Republic, where we lived in small rooms, although we were happy about it. The room has a refrigerator, TV, telephone, in general, everything you need!
Television catches Hungarian, Chinese, and Discovery. e.
channels and only one Russian-language channel RTR planet, so all the news about the accident on the Lviv railway had to be received from there. However, after midnight there are channels 3 or 4 that show porn software! Here is the care of customers, they suggest what you can do if you do not sleep so late! -)
The food is quite decent: omelet, salads, cheeses, sausages, rolls, coffee, tea. We stocked up on groceries for the whole day.
The next day was a sightseeing tour of Budapest. Our guide in Hungary was Maria, a woman aged 50-55. She spoke Russian with some Estonian accent, gave little and not very interesting information, so I almost did not listen to her, and ran to photograph all the sights, good thing I bought a book at home to find out where I was and what I saw! -)
The architecture is quite beautiful, although after the Czech Republic it is a little less impressive.
We toured the parliament by bus or at night, when part of our group was riding a ship, we managed to see it better. Of course, this is just a masterpiece, but as we were later told without scaffolding, it is only on brochures, and so is its constant restoration. Stunning building to see for yourself! Of the local names, I liked the name of Vaidahunyad Castle the most! Honest word! -) In my free time we decided to go to the baths of Secheni.
Several pins in these baths:
1) you will have to change clothes first, and then look for a person for a long time who will close your locker with things and give out a number. It is good if this number can be worn on the hand, and then the comrade was given only an iron plaque without a rope. What to do with it in this case is not clear!
2) you will not be allowed into the pool with cool water without a swimming cap!
The fact that she must have you just "forget" to warn at the entrance! You are offered to rent such a hat for 200 forints!
In general, we went to pick up our things and swim with a friend in our baseball caps.
So it is better to go to this place at least together, so as not to leave your belongings in storage. Indoor pools - Jacuzzis there are very small, the water is dirty, the people are immeasurable! The sauna there is 40 to 55 degrees while outdoors the same 40 degrees! Outdoor pools with a temperature of 35 and 26 degrees.
In the evening we went to the shopping center of Campona where we visited the aquarium. Not bad, but to be honest, I was expecting something more grand, although I recorded a couple of funny videos with ocean fish. As far as I understood, for a fee you could swim in the aquarium. It must be fascinating, though I haven't tried it.
The next day was a trip to Lake Balaton. On the way we visited Szé kesfehé rvá r - the first capital of Hungary.
Very cozy town. It reminded me of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. Baloton for Hungarians is also for us Crimea. Expensive prices, well-developed tourist infrastructure. The entrance to the water is rocky, so there are special steps to the sandy bottom. The bottom is quite small, you can go quite a long time and the water will be around your neck. I will not say that I really liked it there, although it is worth a visit, suddenly you will not agree with me!
On the last day we visited Szentendre - a tourist town near Budapest. What was very gratifying that there is an opportunity to buy souvenirs for blood hryvnias, and even delivery was given by our native hryvnias! The Marzipan Museum in Szentendre is small and, to be honest, not very impressive.
On the way back in front of the border we visited the water park in Debrecen.
I have never been to such places before, so I have a lot of impressions, I especially liked the open slide on which a fairly high speed develops. It's very scary at first, and then you just can't get out of there! I just got scared once in a big pipe, because I suffer from claustrophobia.
Just before leaving, we visited the TESCO supermarket, where our hryvnias were also accepted in the exchange office at the rate of 1 hryvnia 33 forints. Here I bought my friends a package of local beer Dreher (Dreher) seems to be nothing, although in no case do not take Borsodi beer advertising which literally flooded the whole of Budapest - a mess is rare!
They stood at the border for 1.5 hours for about an hour on the Ukrainian border, and at 6 am they were already in Lviv.
