Today was an incredibly long travel day.  We left our apartment in Zadar around 9:30 in the morning and arrived at the apartment we are renting in Budapest around midnight.  In that time frame we have traveled by foot, bus, tram, train and metro. I could go on a long rant right now about how much I hate traveling by train (especially in Eastern Europe!), but I’m too tired. We are here safe and sound and that is all that matters.

I realized how spoiled we have been the past couple of weeks because everywhere we went, we were able to speak English and be understood.  And if in the off chance that no one spoke English, Croatian is very similar to Polish, so Michal was usually successful communicating.  However, here in Hungary, their language is very unique and not similar to the other slavic languages.

So far we have not seen much in English and it has been our first experience truly traveling where we do not know the language at all.  It will be interesting to see how it is inside the city when we go out exploring tomorrow.  What I am most looking forward to at this moment though, is that this city has several Starbucks.

Usually I roll my eyes when I see places like McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, etc (all of those I saw in my short walk tonight but not where we were staying in Croatia).  However, I have been drinking nothing but instant coffee for the last two weeks now.  Believe me, I will welcome the American influence while indulging in my cup of coffee tomorrow.  Then I’ll go on to indulge in famous Hungarian cuisine. My travel idol, Rick Steves, claims that Hungary has the best food in Eastern Europe.