The incredible expanding brain.

I'm actually not too fond of Hungary. It seems sort of trapped in a second-world frame of mind. I bet it's just Budapest that is so grubby and needful, and that the countryside and smaller towns are great, but this isn't my favorite place on this trip. The bootstraps the Budapestians are pulling themselves up with are the tourists', not their own, and even the grubby hostels are expensive. I got warned about scams by almost everyone I met.

I did like seeing all the copper statues. They're everywhere, and they tell the history of the town if you can read them in the right order. Instead of puzzling it out, I went to the Hungarian History Museum. They started with the Romans in the basement and worked their way up to the fall of the Iron Curtain and modern times. Either I forgot everything except the Austrio-Hungarian Empire at the end of my history courses, or Hungary's getting largely skipped. I learned a ton. Every exhibit had something else to say about Hungary, something I didn't have any idea about. They've done a great job with their museum.

I also stopped by the synagogue and the incredibly Gothic Parliament building before crossing over to the Buda side of town to climb up to the Citadel. I think it was a fortress for a while, but now it's a museum and tourist trap. It does have great views, though. I hiked over to the castle afterward and checked out the National Art Museum. If you stay out of the downtown area, Budapest has some decent places to go. I don't think I could find anything for a second day, though, so I'm going to catch a night train to Kraków. I'm a bit wary of security and my ability to sleep on a night train, but they seem like a good deal and a great way to skip some travel time. I do like watching out the windows on trains, but these trips are such long distances that I probably couldn't stand that much countryside.