Cheering BE-SU-BO-RU style!

Yesterday I had a great experience with my school. We travelled by bus from Senmaya to Morioka - ok that was not so great on the winding roads, but we all travelled up to Morioka to watch our school take on the SIchinoseki Gakuien (or a school that sounds like that) in a baseball game. Now I mentioned once before that it's pretty serious, the high school baseball here, so with the news that we had won the first game, the entire school bar office staff and one of the vice principals was bussed two and a half hours away to support the team! Quite a feat. Interesting choice too as the schools are only 35 minutes apart to play all the games in Morioka. The team actually had stayed in Morioka since the knockout tournament began. Perhaps this is the power the prefecture capitals have here in Japan.

The ground was wide and open, and left me wondering why baseball is played on dirt with a grass outfield. Nicer to play on grass all the way, surely?? Anyways, we waited outside the ground for 20 minutes and were finally let in. The cheering is all very organised, and every student knows all the chants and dare I say it? - dance moves!When your school is batting it's your turn to cheer. Our school was very very good at cheering, with lots of songs, many apparently anime songs, and the strange custom of dunking three buckets of water on the three cheer leaders at the start of each batting innings. The leaders, by the way, are all boys and were in full school uniform!
Thankfully it was sunny, around 24 degrees - perfect. The rain, as mentioned, has delayed this tournament big time!

Preparing the playing area.

The game went on, and I was encouraged to dance and cheer and I joined in. I don't want to dob on the other teachers, but they weren't quite so enthusiastic. The brass band and the cheer leaders led everyone, and we had a blast. Half-way through the seventh innings, the game was called off because it wasn't close. we were losing 9-0 at the time! The opposition looked much bigger than our students I must admit, and I was told they ran 10 km a day! That's what I mean by taking it seriously. I was also told our players didn't run so far.
And we piled back into the buses and headed back, another 2.5 hours, to school. At times the cheering overshadowed the game. Actually, it did most of the time. The result didn't matter, a good time was had by all, and in a country where there is so much pressure on students to do well in tests and the like, where they are worked incredibly hard, that's a very good thing!

The Rainy Season

Last year I was warned - 'oh the rainy season is coming' around June. It never really did. There was a day here and a day there of rain, yet I thought 'rainy season' was a bit of an exaggeration. This year, however, It's the reverse, a day here and a day there of sun, but generally rain is the default setting. We've had one day without rain this week, that was Tuesday.
Today I was supposed to be joining the entire high school in going to Morioka by bus to cheer our baseball team on. It didn't happen because the weather gods were not with us. In fact the entire high school tournament - many games of which are televised here in Japan, is four days behind schedule because of the rain!
Still, although it rained all day and last night too, it's not raining right now. The temperature is down too so I should be thankful for that small mercy. As a break approaches, I hopefully will update more for you.

Today I'd like to share some photos around the Morioka castle site. Well, it's more of an old fortress and now a garden with impressive (restored) walls and a very pleasant place to spend some time. I was there three or four weeks ago and the weather was perfect for that day! And then it rained the next!

Sorry muchly for the lack of blog posts for the last month and a bit. Life can get on top of you sometimes and before you know it SNAP! You haven't blogged for ages.
I've been having some severe issues with Kindle - but I finally received a payment (of around 10 bucks!) last week. It was all a matter of matching names correctly for my bank account and my kindle account, but I kept getting bad information. It was rather frustrating.

 At least I was finally able to see something for my work - and if you're interested in my travel writings, don't forget to check out my Amazon Kindle Author page -
Andrew Boland's Kindle Author Page

It's always been a tiny trickle of money, but I use that to validate my whole existence on this Earth.
I hope to blog again soon, maybe Monday or Tuesday! Hopefully the baseball will be on tomorrow, and Sunday there should be more cricket in Morioka! Until then, take care!

Sending a message to Sendai

Hijinx amongst the day trip to Sendai. Yes, that's me!

I was lucky enough to have my sister visiting Japan. Just for a short week, basically staying only in Tokyo, but we managed to work out a meeting - in Sendai. This was great, because I had never been to Sendai before last weekend when I drove down to meet her.

Traffic was ok on the expressway - that's why you pay for it! But near the centre of Sendai it's another matter. Sendai is a big city and the capital of Miyagi prefecture. I had sensibly decided to meet my sister on the east exit of the station, which may actually be on the west side of the station, but is labelled east, and was the one I had known when I had transferred to the bus from the train earlier this year.
At least I knew where to find her, and after the struggle to get from one side of the station to the other by car, I picked her up and we drove back to the other side! HA!

Sendai

Knowing what to do was a bit of a puzzle. So I had my old guidebook out and we headed to the City Museum, where there was free parking! There was also a school tennis tournament going on, and I tried to park in the car park for that initially but wasn't allowed. I am still amazed at the size of the events that sports day are here. Inter-school baseball gets on the TV!

Outside the museum.

The museum itself was actually a bit bleh. I might be permanently off museums I think. Lots of pots and rocks, my FAVOURITE (not). But some interesting paintings and art work about the Date family, who built a castle up on the rock above Sendai, lots of plans of Sendai hundreds of years ago too. Seems Matsumane Date was the main man in history, even if most explanations were in Japanese I could work that out. My sister later read in the book (something I should have done I guess :)) that most of Sendai was destroyed in the Second World War. It was also hit by the tsunami, but that part of the greater city was a little way away from the centre.

We went up the hill to the see the castle, just a fifteen minute uphill walk from the museum. The weather was splendid so it was a pretty good choice. Even from there we couldn't see the ocean, or much of a castle either. Now there are a few shops and restaurants, and soft serve place which hit the spot! The views were good however, if a little blocked by the occasional misty cloud.

The base of the castle, the only thing still 'castlely'

Following that, we parked at a carpark close to the station. We had to wait for cars to leave before the gate in this automated place let us in, parking is a serious issue in any big city in Japan. I guess it stems from being so populated over the years, but on street parking just doesn't exist here, at least not in the cities. There really isn't any here in Ichinoseki.

The falls.

Temple at the falls.

We grabbed some lunch and headed for some waterfalls about 20 km from Sendai, although I took the 'long way' and we drove about 35km to get there! Much faster on the way back. The roads were typically windy but the scenery beautiful. The 55-metre Akiu Otaki (falls) were lovely as it started to cool down. It looked like a perfect place to go hiking too, but time and my wife's shoes did not allow! Back to Sendai, my sister had a train to catch! A great day for a tired old teacher! :)

Cricket. In Japan.

Yes, you read correctly. Last weekend (well, the one 8 days ago now) I went up to Morioka to play cricket! The Morioka cricket club is run by two people, Dean and Jamie I think, who are surprisingly from ... America!
I was glad to get a bit of exercise, and there were plenty of people around keen to give it a go. Some were Japanese, and there were guys from America, Tanazania and Denmark who had never played before in their life either. So it was a bit of a clinic.
There were also a collection of Brits, Australians, one guy from Bangladesh and one from Nepal who had all played cricket before - some could bowl really fast. Luckily we used a plastic ball not a leather one, as there were no pads!
The location was Kitakami Park in Morioka, and the weather turned out to be really nice despite the forecast. The only real downside was the next day at school I was walking like a cripple. I decided this just proves that exercise IS bad for you. Thanks to all involved for a wonderful day. It just goes to show that people have all sorts of interests wherever you are in the world! Now if I can only find the Japanese Doctor Who fan club!

that's mean throwing the ball to the keeper. I think that's what I was doing at least.

The bowler here was a naturally gifted sportswoman. She batted well too stayed in for a long time. First time she'd played the sport.

Haishiwa Jinja

Dear peoples who read my blog,
I don't have much to update you with sadly :(
School has been busy since 'Golden Week', and the weather has been windy and wild, with a couple of decent days thrown in for good measure. Today it just rained most of the day in Ichinoseki. Goodness me! I am blogging about the bloody weather!
Anyways, I did manage a visit to Haishiwa Temples, some very old temples in Ichinoseki. The temples are around 1900 years old, although as they are all wood I presume they have been rebuilt a few times since then!
Although perhaps unremarkable in appearance, they are located, as are all temples it seems in Japan, up a bloody great hill! I went up a whole lot of stairs to get there. The forest was really beautiful too, and I saw a few possibilities for nice day-hikes! Or one-two hour walks!
So I thought I would share some photos with you!

Life in Japan - an update

Howdy folks. I know recent blogs have been about Australia, so a good chance to blog about life in Japan I thought today. Today we are enjoying an extra long weekend. It's called 'Golden Week', a week that us celebrated around the start of May each year. It's a very very busy time in Japan, and exists because of a string of public holidays around this time.
In fact, it's kind of two weekends, rather than an actual week. Last weekend we had Monday off, this weekend it's Fridays and Monday. Yes, four-day weekend is nice.
Here in Ichinoseki it almost coincides with the Cherry Blossoms blooming, but not quite. Last year it was timed perfectly, but this year most of the cherry blossoms have been and gone. The weather has been cold, wet and windy too which doesn't help.

Thursday last week was a special day at my high school. It was a volunteer day. In 2012 I stayed at school all day and used the day to walk around the school chatting with students, as I'd only been at the school two weeks. Half the students, at a guess, spend the day pulling up weeds from the school grounds. Not a great way to spend the day in my opinion! Others head out around the town to pick up rubbish and help out in similar ways. This year I jumped on the coat tails of the brass band, who were playing at a nursing home ten minutes drive from the school.
I was surprised to find brass bands so big in Japan. Most high schools have one I think. Much of the music does seem to have an American influence, but that's brass bands for you. The brass band at my high school is pretty darned good, the girl who did the saxophone solo was brilliant. At the nursing home the cherry blossoms were blooming, and the elderly people there really appreciated the music. The brass band put on a show with some singing as well. It was a great day. And I got to help load and unload the instruments.

After this weekend, we will be in for some solid teaching. No public holidays for two months! Still, we are paid to work! I've uploaded a couple of pictures. Sorry there aren't more but we can't put students pictures on the web, and that's fair enough.

Also, please take the time to visit my Amazon Author page.
Andrew Boland's Amazon Author page.

Over the next four days, I am running a free promotion - on the Romanian chapter of my book, the eighth chapter over all and the second chapter in Europe (second) book.
Dhaka to Dakar. Book Two: Europe. Chapter Eight: Romania

Geeking out at a professional level.

As the sun set on my short trip home to Australia, I geeked out like I have only geeked out once or twice before in my life. I went to the biggest Doctor Who convention in Australian history – ‘Lords of Time’ at Rydge’s Hotel on Exhibition street. What a day and an evening it was!

I feel bad because it all seemed a bit too geeky for me, despite the fact that I happily put my hand up and say ‘I’m a geek!’ Hell, I write and produce my own Doctor Who fan fiction! However, sometimes it is a bit confronting. When there was a costume contest at the event I went to in England back mid-2011, the contestants were children. This time they were, in the majority, adults. As someone said to me ‘nothing wrong with a bit of cosplay’. Hmmmm, living in Japan I’m not sure that I would class a forty-year old woman as participating in cosplay because she dressed up as the TARDIS.

A bevy of Doctors.

A fan made (?) TARDIS console

Anyhoo. There was a stage shared by the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Doctors – Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann. Other guests included John Leeson, voice of K-9, Nicolas Briggs who does the Dalek voices but more importantly is the man behind the Big Finish productions – a series of audio stories that began back in 1999 when Doctor Who was not on the tele, and my personal favourite the feisty and very funny Janet Fielding who’s time on stage with Peter Davison was incredibly entertaining. Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy also make for a very fun time when they are on stage.

Janet Fielding and Peter Davison

There were autographs, photo-opportunities and much more. Some people were prepared to fork out $650 for a VIP pass that got them a meal and cocktails with the stars and I think their own photo with them. At that price it seemed a bit over the top but if you’re a fanatic then you’d be saving your pennies from way back. Photos with the stars cost $40 each so that on its own is steep and if you want one with each person...

The stars themselves are very well behaved, and extremely friendly towards the fans despite some of the awkward questions they get. I found myself overwhelmed trying to think of something to say to Paul McGann and embarrassingly talked about the weather and daylight savings time. Better, I guess, than asking some continuity-based question about his 17^th Big Finish adventure. By the way, the Big Finish adventures are excellent for any ‘Who’ fan out there reading this and hasn’t listened to a few yet!

Rob Lloyd and Vicki Kyriakakis in the improvised show 'Time Lord'

The second day was wrapped by the incredibly talented Robert Lloyd, a Melbournian (originally from Dubbo) who has his own Doctor Who themed one man show called ‘Who, Me’. It was perhaps the highlight of the entire day and a bit, a very funny show indeed. Rob is now touring it around in different conventions and festivals. In fact, later in the year it has its premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! Rob was also involved in an improvised Doctor Who show called ‘Time Lord’ on the opening night, where he played the Doctor! 

For more information on the shows and Robert, please visit his website :

Rob Lloyd's Website

The next day was awesome weather. We had a BBQ in the back yard enjoying a cloud-free day, friends and warmth. Before I could say ‘Jack Robinson’ my time home was over, and that evening I was on a plane on my way back to Japan. It had felt like possibly the shortest three weeks of my life...

Great Ocean Road, Great Victory

Official start to the Great Ocean Road

I am lucky enough to have some very wonderful friends i n Melbourne and it was thanks to them that I, without car, and my wife and we had a chance for a day trip down the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean  Road follows, logically enough, the ocean along to south coast of Victoria heading westwards towards Adelaide.
The scenery is what makes the Great Ocean Road worth the journey, and if you go far enough along it eventually you will reach the 'Twelve Apostles' and 'London Bridge'. The London Bridge was an arch formed out to a platform of earth, the twelve apostles are a collection of 'limestone stacks' not too far from the coast. There used to be twelve of them, now I think there is about eight, and the bridge collapsed. Back in my childhood we visited them as they were, so erosion has taken its toll in a short amount of time recently.

But this time we didn't make it quite so far. It is a long drive along the road to get them, more than two or three hours past Melbourne. So up and back in one day was going to be too much. But the cliffs and scenery were worth it as we journeyed as far as far as Apollo Bay, a popular spot during the summer. We stopped also at Lorne, a very popular place at different times of the year for festivals, sun, sand and a big New Year's Eve celebration too.

Beach at Lorne

.

The ride was long, windy at times, and the weather was around 20 degrees so not very warm, but a great day with friends. One of the highlights were the frequent signs on the road reminding people to drive on the left hand side of the road! Obviously a lot of foreign tourists take the road - there must have been some incidents! Australian freeways often have signs on the exit ramps telling cars 'WRONG WAY! GO BACK!' But I fear if you see that sign it may already be too late!

And there was lunch at Lorne. We stopped at a hamburger place which makes delicious, gourmet, organic hamburgers. If you thought hamburgers were just crap fast food, think again! And if you didn't change your mind, this wonderful Lorne eatery 'The Bottle of Milk' WILL change your mind. A walk on the beach followed. I have always lived on the eastern side of the city, so if I have been to Lorne before, I don't remember it.

The players line up for the national anthem.

A few days earlier I had taken my wife to her first game of Australian Rules football (Aussie Rules). My team is the somewhat maligned at times Western Bulldogs, formerly known as Footscray. One thing I miss living here in Japan is going to games live, although as the Bulldogs have been struggling over the last couple of years (we won only five games last year, losing our last eleven by an average margin of around ten goals. That's bad.) it's not so bad I guess. I get a live stream on the internet of most games which is nice. Well, we had a rousing 11 goal victory in this game - the opening game of the season, so my only game for the year was a good one!

One of the bulldog players kicks a goal.

Packing in as much as I could in Australia was a must, and there is still more to come. Next blog I get all nerdy again! Stay tuned!

Melbourne Visitations.

Hello folks, the absent blogger is back! Not just blogging but in Japan. Over the next couple of blogs I will try and cover some of the things I got up to whilst home in Australia for three weeks.

Journeying back to Australia for a break is quite a different experience from coming back after a holiday. With three weeks and a list of things to do and people to see as long as the arms of an octopus combined, I was never going to achieve everything I wanted to. One thing that was high on the list of priorities was visiting my grandparents. They are both into their nineties and still doing pretty well considering, so I was bundled into the car for a trip to Kyabram.

Hitting the road, country Victoria

Getting a lift in, around and out of Melbourne is a good thing when you have no car, especially considering public transport in Melbourne. It’s generally agreed, Melbourne public transport is poor and a nightmare for tourists to navigate. Hell, I’m technically a local and it was difficult for me. But enough of that – for now!

Kyabram is a little country town around three and a half hours drive from Melbourne. Once you’re out of Melbourne, the roads are pretty free unlike Japan and you can move at a decent pace, but you do have to be careful most places in Victoria – speed cameras abound and there’s plenty of police with radar around too. In Japan the police are pretty lenient if you’re not doing more than say 10km over the limit, in Victoria, Australia they nab you at over 5% over the limit I think it is now. And that’s only to allow for error.

Well. The Victorian countryside was looking in reasonable nick. There had been a bit of fire here and there, and a very hot dry summer but the trees and grass had a distinct green tinge to them. That’s always something people like to see in Australia. Not a lot to see in Kyabram I guess, but a nice couple of days away nonetheless.

Ardmona Shepparton, a worthwhile stop in rural Victoria!

Shepparton park/lake/swamp area with boardwalk.

We stopped at the Ardmona factory – or what was the Ardmona factory, on the way back. Well, this warehouse has lots and lots of food very cheap and in bulk. Shepparton itself is rather pleasant with a beautiful lake and surrounds, but I think this place is the highlight! You can buy boxes and boxes of tinned fruit, but there’s all sorts of jams, tomato sauces and most things you’d use to stock a good Italian restaurant. Great place for a bargain!

Back to Melbourne and I spent a day near the Yarra River at the wonderfully named Andrew’s reserve. The city is all around, but there in the suburb Kew if you looked the right way and ignored the cyclists you might think you were out in the Victorian bush. Wonderful relaxing place to spend the day – a place I had no idea existed beforehand.

Travelling back home from the city by train I rediscovered Melbourne’s transport woes. My train was 10 minutes late. That’s one out of one late. Then, because it was late they announced it wouldn’t be stopping at most of the stations on route – so that they could claim it was on time by the time it reached its final destination.  So three quarters of the people waiting patiently for the train sat back down and had to wait for the next one. I was lucky, mine was one of the stops it was keeping. I was ten stops at least down the line, but it only stopped once before my station!

As if that isn’t bad enough, then there is the ticketing system.

‘Myki’ has had problems from the very start, I haven’t met anyone who likes it or indeed understands the payment structure, plus billions and billions put on it to get it to work right. It seemed to work ok when I used it, but I understand there are still chinks in the armour. If you are tourist heading to Melbourne you do well to read up on the system before you arrive! – rant over, this is one topic that has got a lot of (bad) press already.

Next blog I will cover my trips with some great friends down the Great Ocean Road, one of the most stunningly beautiful drives in all of Victoria. Stay tuned!

Shameless plug!

Hi folks!
Whilst I have a second to sit down and think... (always nice) people may or may not recall that I have an ebook available through kindle.
It details my journey from Dhaka in Bangladesh to Dakar in Senegal - much of which was before I started blogging. I cut the book into three volumes as it was HUGE - Asia, Europe and Africa. However after getting the first book ready to go (Journey through Asia) I realised that it might be better to chop it up into chapters as well.
Thus I put out the second and third books out as single chapters (one per country with a couple of exceptions) and then later released them as whole volumes as well. I never had the chance until last week to do release the first book in chapters. Now, I have done so! If it interests you - I think the Iran, India and Pakistan chapters are very interesting! - maybe you'd like to take a read. Here are the links:


Chapter One: Malaysia and Singapore
Chapter One at Amazon

Chapter Two: Bangladesh
Chapter Two: Bangladesh (at Amazon)







Chapter Three: India
Chapter 3: India (at Amazon)

Chapter Four: Pakistan
Chapter 4: Pakistan (at Amazon)











Chapter Five: Iran
Chapter 5: Iran (at Amazon)







Chapter Six: Turkey
Chapter 6: Turkey (at Amazon)





And of course, the whole first volume is also available:
Dhaka to Dakar: Volume One: Journey Through Asia


OK - sorry for the shameless plugs, normal service will be resumed soon....

Air Asia to Melbourne

How time flies!
I am home for three weeks in Melbourne, with a lot planned. Hopefully can bring you some info on the city and some pics of course.
I took the Air Asia way home, by far the cheapest. I left fair Ichinoseki on Saturday morning and took a train, a bus and another train to get to Haneda airport. So I had been travelling for 11 hours before I checked into my flight!
Then seven hours to Kuala Lumpur. A little sleep, on and off. The LCCT part of Kuala Lumpur airport is a special terminal (LCCT = Low Cost Carrier Terminal) which I have now been through a number of times. It's not so clean, few shops or eateries, bad internet but it serves and I make it sound worse than it is. Basically it's only there for Air Asia, who are based in KL.
The main airport is one of the nicest in the world I think!

Air Asia though get my thumbs up! Okay you have to pay extra for food, choosing a seat, bags over 15kg but they do have great service and generally run on time. I can't recall an Air Asia flight that left more than 15 minutes late that I've taken, and I've taken a few now.
But this isn't a plug. I slept on and off the whole journey from Ichinoseki to Melbourne. An hour.45 minutes here or there, but never a nice long sleep. Such is the way with travel.
The second flight, to Melbourne, was again around seven hours. It seemed longer, but finally touched down. Through via the new 'e-passport' system and in my old home town.
Whew.
so
soon something else i am sure
stay tuned!

Two years ago....

Hello folks,
as many may be aware, yesterday marked the 2 year anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake, the tsunami that followed and then the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Crisis.

Here is a little information via BBC, because I was not here when it happened.

BBC - Japan Marks Quake and Tsunami Anniversary

BUT I am here now, in a region devastated March 11th, 2011. I read a friends recollections/diary yesterday and I wondered how I would have coped if I had been here that day. The only conclusion I could reach was that I would be a gibbering mess.
In December last year there was a pretty decent quake, 7.3. I turned off the iron, the gas stove and ran to the bathroom. A few things fell to the ground. We have a shake now and then, in the last month it's been rather quiet - which make me rather nervous. Last year for the most part we have a tremour every one to two days. In some way that was reassuring because it felt like the Earth was letting out its anger little by little. If it holds it inside for longer though...

Here in Ichinoseki, away from the coast, the damage was done by the quake. There was no power for two weeks, and I am told manhole covers popped out of the ground, the building opposite my apartment block was severely damaged, and still stands unoccupied today as a reminded. A marriage hall in town was also severely damaged and is no longer in use.

Water was a huge issue after March 11th 2011. People couldn't flush their toilets. Many stuck it out in shelters. I know someone who lost their home and didn't know for a while if their family was alive. Everyone here who survived had a similar worry over friends or loved ones. And here I sit, I came over to live here just under a year ago. For me, it's hard and terrifying to imagine.
Those who survived went through so much, and rebuilding their lives must at times be very difficult, and very brave indeed.

Then we have the Fukushima situation, still a situation today. I hear varying reports about the dangers. Last year one of my schools had a think layer of top soil removed because of radiation. And Ichinoseki is a fair way from Fukushima. From near as I can understand, there is a lot of danger still at the plant, and another massive earthquake could have dire consequences. Few people realise, it seems, that there was a full-on nuclear meltdown there.
A couple of articles:

Ravages of Fukshima Nuclear Disaster will never end (The Age)

Pictures from the affected area (from The Guardian)

But still life goes on. People rebuild buildings and lives with incredible courage and determination. That's the human race for you.

Brilliant Budapest!! (no I don't work for their tourism department either!

One of my friends here in Japan is heading to Hungary later this year, so I was prompted to think about my very very short stay in Budapest, the amazing capital of that country.

Bridge over the Danube in beautiful Budapest

Hungary is one European country that I have visited that I would really like to return to and explore one day. Budapest is one of Europe's secret gems, up with the best capitals across Europe, but with only a fraction of the tourists visiting.
Okay, so I visited in 2004, but even today when compared to the likes of Prague, it doesn't receive the amount of tourists it deserves. Now that's good for the tourists who do go there of course!
My memories are of arriving at a fairly chaotic train station early in the morning, but it was already quite warm - about twenty-five degrees. I navigated my way via public transport to find my hostel.

Square in central Budapest

This was not easy, it was in some big apartment style building, I went into a couple of wrong buildings, and finally found the right one. Took a rickety lift up to the right floor, to find a sign on the door saying there was an electricity problem and they were closed until it was fixed. Very frustrating, as I had booked online and received a series of confirmation emails and then they didn't bother to contact me.
So I had to pull out the book, buy a phone card and ring around until I found a hostel with a bed. Budapest does not have a wealth of budget digs, although if you want to pay a bit more you can find a place to stay. I found a hostel that had backpackers packed in in every corner. It was a house with mattresses on the floor, a backyard and a decent kitchen for cooking.

Memento Park - one of the monuments.

There is plenty to see and do in Budapest, a city on the Danube river and a city with a lot of history. It's dalliance with communism for many years of the previous century can not be forgotten, as the images of Soviet tanks rolling through the streets will certainly never be. If you want a reminder then there are two places I recommend visiting.
The first is the strangely named 'Memento Park'. A park featuring a wide array of Soviet era statues. The communist times were punctuated by  giant statues of communist figures - you know the dudes. Lenin, Stalin, Marx and the like. Instead of destroying them when communism fell, statues were taken down and put into this park. It's an unusual tourist attraction, but I have to say that it's not the only one of it's kind. In Semey, Kazakhstan I visited a smaller park with lots of Lenins. However, this one is probably the biggest and most interesting. These remnants are important in some ways, because the era these days is well hidden. Budapest has many Gothic buildings obviously pre-dating communist times, and walking around the city it's very impressive how they outlasted what many regard as a dark period of Hungary's history.



The 'House of Terror' Museum also gives a window into the Communist times. Not just that, but it looks at World War II and oppression and violence in Hungary and Budapest. A very eye-opening museum indeed. I found it confronting and worth visiting.
There are a number of museums in Budapest, as one might imagine. There's a beer museum, history museum, Holocaust museum and a Bath museum. One thing Hungary is famous for is it baths, its banyas. I visited one in the city centre, there are many. I just went for a swim, but if you enjoy steam baths and the like, then Budapest surely has the sauna fix for you!

Parliament building from Castle Hill.

I ventured to a place called 'Castle Hill' - no prizes for guessing why it got that name. It's a wonderful area of Budapest. It sits above the Danube, and across the river you can see the Parliament building - one of the most remarkable Gothic buildings in Europe. Very grand and very large, the view of it from Castle Hill side is superb.

Matthias Cathedral - exterior.

On the Castle Hill side you find the 'Matthias Cathedral', an interesting church (if you haven't been in Europe too long and seen a hundred thousand churches already) with museum attached and the Hungarian Crown jewels. NOT what I expected to see there.
The streets are cobblestone, it's delightful. The walk along the Danube is predictably nice too, with little enclaves along the stone footpath called 'Fisherman's Bastions'.

Inside the Budavari Labirintus

Inside the hill itself is a wonderfully interesting and exciting set of catacombs, a must see for visitors and catacomb-enthusiasts alike. The Budavari Labirintus is a system of tunnels up to sixteen metres below Castle Hill that stretch for 1200 metres.
 

Budapest also has more churches, bridges, baths and parks than you could count, not to mention a wonderful history seeped in music. I took in a wonderful orchestral performance at the Opera House. Still using their own currency and not the Euro, Hungary is a good place to see classical performances and opera for a much cheaper price than say Vienna. It has festivals too, I had just missed a wine festival by a day when I arrived. One day, I shall return!

A night out at the Opera House never goes astray!

It's a true gem. I had three days there, one of them lost completely to walking about and finding accommodation, but that was enough to recommend it to anyone I hear is going to Europe, I always spruik for them to make a visit to this glorious city on the Danube. What I saw was only the tip of the iceberg!


For more information on Budapest, here are my writings containing further details available on Kindle.

Chapter on Budapest, Zakopane, Olomouc and Vienna from "Dhaka to Dakar Book 2"

Dhaka to Dakar Book 2: Europe