Day 3 - Finally into Budapest (Monday 15th April 2024)

Ferenc Liszt International Airport appeared on the horizon on time at 7:00am. It’s not a patch on the one we just left, somewhat reminiscent of Melbourne Airport to look at and without the technology to speed up the customs processes. :( . But we got through, found our bags on the carousel and proceeded through the “Nothing To Declare” area along with two plane loads of others.

The Budapest transport authority has an app called Budapest GO which I had downloaded weeks earlier. Onto the app I had Ioaded tickets for the 100E Express bus to Deak Ferenc ter in the centre of town. I just scanned and validated the tickets on each phone with the young girl directing traffic and off we went…. into a traffic jam. The journey should have taken 15 minutes but took at least 45 minutes, I reckon. At least we had a seat. I have also loaded a 72-hr Travelcard on each of our phones. That’ll workout to be about AUD$8.00/der day for unlimited travel on the network.

With Maps.Me in hand we walked the 600m from the bus stop to the hotel. Checked-in, we dropped our bags in the room then went back to a cafe we had passed earlier for a late breakfast. The City Hotel Budapest is really well located not far from the Opera district of Budapest which holds many fine buildings (including the Opera House), a couple of grand boulevards, upmarket retail stores and oodles of places to eat offering all sorts of cuisines at a great range of prices. We didn’t approach our hotel from this angle in the first instance so got a very different perspective of it’s location. The room is comfortable and clean and a great price for the location. We chose it because it’s from where our tour with Intrepid Travel will start. It’ll do the job for the next six days.

From the time we left Bendigo at about 9:00am on Saturday morning to the time we finally checked-in to the hotel room in Budapest we'd been "on the move" for 57 hours. A BIG day in anyone's language.