On the Buda side of the river are two large hills, they may even be mountains. On Thursday (28th August) we walked up Castle Hill to take in the views which were pretty damn impressive if you looked the right way, looking the wrong way you'd just see an eastern european city, smoggy and dirty. The other hill is the one with the actual castle on it. We spent a while in The Labyrinth, which is a cool set of tunnels now converted into a sort of museum on cave paintings and a comment on modern consumerism. With theme lighting and dramatic music it is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in the area. There is also an impressive church on the hill, and beside it is a small bronze version of it (maybe 1ft high) with braille labels of the various features. What a great way to help the blind visitors to the site, I hope it catches on.

   We wandered the city a lot, enjoyed dinner across town and the safety of our own room when we returned. Though there was never any real hint of danger somehow the image I have of Budapest at night has always been a slighty shady one. Though we had constantly been assured there was no reason to book tickets on the train to Austria, we were lucky to get seats. It's always hard to tell if they mean 'Reservations are not needed (but this is a really busy line so you should buy them or risk being thrown off)' or 'Reservations are not needed (because you are the only people interested in going there at that time)'. We walked the length of the train, and found spare seats right at the end, then headed back to Austria.

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