23.45 train on tuesday and the nice conductor let me have a couchette with no reservation just 25 euro supplement. Three other good people in a 6 berth and I slept horizontally. Did I mention I hate the rucksack? Szusza in my compartment was kind enough to phone ahead and book me into the marco polo hostel for two nights. When we stepped off the train her brother was there with metro ticket and directions to the hostel. Means a lot to me when people go out of their way or - as Blanche Dubois put it - "Ah have always relied on the kindness of strangers'.
Budapest is fabulous! Grand, cosmopolitan, busy, the metro is easy to negotiate, there is so much to see. I checked into MP at 2 then set off for the great synagogue tour with agnes (aggie). Inside elaborately beautiful with a tragic history - of course, how could it not have? Lots of little gravestones outside and all the ones I saw end '-1945 '. Go and see.
Hungarians,I was interested to see, are possibly even plainer than the English. Generally not a pretty people so we have much in common.
Lunch at Hanna, kosher restaurant, very basic, very good.
