of first and seventh class...

well the train from prague to budapest was absolutely amazing!!!
we were actually in first class, and it only cost around 10 pounds!!
we had our own beds, room service, and double locks so we could sleep safe and sound after hearing the horror stories of people gassing the train and doing mass roberries.
i couldn't believe how smooth it all went, with only two passport checks we arrived in budapest around 8am, and straight away we had offers of taxis to the festival.
we'd decided it would be amazing to head off to the fest on obudai (think thats right) island in the middle of the danube.
we arrived in the rain thinking this would be the final catch in an otherwise smooth arrival, but the second the tents came out of their wrapping, the rain stopped!!
result!!
ken was most displeased at the idea of no showers and chemical toilets but the promise of radiohead and cheap beer soon brought him into the festival spirits :-)
the sons and daughters warmed up the day, followed by deuce. the penultimate act were a hungarian band called heaven street seven so i struggled through an hour set of hungarian lyrics until the main headers radiohead arrived. they played a pretty good set including most of their biggies like street spirit and karma police which i've heard is pretty rare for them.
a very wet night ensued and we returned to base camp a bit soggy bit in high spirits after meeting two brilliantly cool amercians (weird eh?)
they have been studying over here as part of their degrees in music and human geography, though are flying back today/tomoro.
after a reasonable nights kip (sleep for you non-brit readers)
we got up early and the remaining american girl offered to be our city guide and took us on a tour of budapest, including the castle, st stephen's (istvan) cathedral
and an art gallery of all places!
budapest isn't much compared to the beauty of prague but it definitely has its charms, and the big attractions are absolutely gorgeous.
st stephens cathedral is outstanding even by catholic means, the sheer volume of gold and marble is amazing. however this only leads me to be extremely cynical of the purposes of these buildings and the fact they've got a 1000 year old preserved saints hand there which you have to pay to see is a bit sick.
still, its a gorgeous place, and shows well on the archicetcs/engineers CV!!
the art gallery was something different for me, but was quite enjoyable and our guide had a great great uncles paintings there.
by the time we sclaed up the hill to the castle we were tired/hungry/thirsty so decided to call it a day.
its been a really fun day, if not a little hard on the feet, and we saw off our guide with a nice hungarian meal with a lager. that brings us up to date so more posts from slovenia/croatia (which ever we decide'!!!)
more soon..