Enter Pest. Then Buda.

We arrived in Budapest, and after some excitement managed to taxi to our hotel. Or, more accurately, apartment. As it wasn't a real hotel it wasn't in the prime hotel district. This meant a trade-off we considered favourable on all fronts (so ... not a tradeoff?): a more authentic neighbourhood with sane food prices and real people in return for walking well over 500m to reach the touristy core.

Reception was hard to find as compared to a typical hotel front.

Sadly early checkin - we'd arrived fairly early - was unavailable so we ditched our bags and went in search of food. Instead of food we found a building. And then food in the form of delicious almost free ($1.5 CAD) pancake things.

Turns out in Budapest old buildings - something we are both suckers for - are *everywhere*.

And the chain bridge of course.

Stern men with moustaches were everywhere. If it had occurred earlier a collection of stern men with moustaches, similar to the one of proto-bagel sellers, might have been prepared.

Budapest has the curious characteristic that food prices vary wildly in VERY small areas. For example, fresh squeezed juice might go between 300 and 3000 Forint (1 CAD is a little over 200 Forint) in the span of two blocks. Also, despite proximity to Italy, they don't know how to make a margarita pizza :D

After a good walk we came back and checked into our apartment. Not to be confused with hotel room. The apartment had two really nice things going for it: in-apartment laundry (the situation was critical) and enough space to pace.