Monday 30th May

We gave ourselves a sleep in and had a leisurely breakfast before packing up our stuff. We made the call to carry our bags with us for the morning as it would take too long to go back to our hotel. Typically it had to be the hottest day we had in Budapest and we were sweating up a storm. We wanted to check out the few things we had missed, so we found The Great Synagogue which is the second largest of its kind in Europe, seating 3,000 people. There was a tour to go inside but we passed. It was amazing to see how many of the external decorations they could make into the star of David. We then went back to the St. Stephens Basilica to get some photos without it raining and then up to our final monument – The Shoes on the Danube Promenade.

By this stage Hamish's shoulders were starting to burn from carrying both bags

The monument was pretty cool. So basically, the Jewish people in Hungary got just as much stick as the rest of Europe even though the Hungarians were on Hitler's side. One night a whole lot of Jewish people and Hungarians who had been safeguarding Jewish people were rounded up and shot by an execution squad with their bodies falling in the Danube. The 60 pairs of iron shoes were meant to represent the things they left behind. It was pretty incredible to see, and good to see that a former Soviet country took responsibility and wanted to memorialise their wrong doings.  

It was now time for us to start out journey home. We found the train station (not wanting to take risks with a taxi driver again!). It is fair to say that the station was pretty third world! But we managed to get some tickets and succumbed to getting McDonalds for lunch (which is against our code of conduct) and onto the right train.

We chillaxed at the airport before flying into Gatwick late afternoon and home. We definitely really enjoyed our long weekend, and in terms of destination it was right up there with the likes of Paris and Berlin, and made us keen to explore the rest of Hungary.

Highlight: The bronze shoes were quite incredible, and again the weather.
Lowlight: Carrying our bags around (correction: Hamish carrying the bags round)
Interesting Fact#1: There are 50 McDonalds and Burger Kings in the city of Budapest alone. They really love it. 
Interesting Fact #2: Hungry has problems with corrupt politicians who hold all the wealth. A third of people live below the poverty line in Hungry and the average wage is just 550 Euros a month - about NZD1100 - Hamish was in more at the fish factory.