Thursday, August 28, 2014

"All Aboard" if not actually "Anchors Aweigh"!

Well here we are actually on board the "Scenic Diamond" on the Danube in Budapest! We were asked to gather at the Marriott by 3 pm for "embarkation" so we did some easy wandering around town in the morning as Kevin had agreed for us to leave our bags in the flat which was great. We bussed it to Heroes Square and wandeered around the delightful park and a rather folorn "Castle" before catching the UNESCO heritage listed Metro ( perhaps the first in the world) back to the centre. We visitedd the Markets and which were bustling and filled with a lot better fruit than Mick had seen the day before - it was good to see but the quality still wasn't like other EU countries! Swinging home via the "shoes on the river bank" we gathered our bags and trundled to the Marriott.

Almost immediately we had that feeling "has this really been such a good idea"!!!  There are lots of "old people" around, surely that isn't our demographic!! We sat and read until we were called to the buses which took us on a twenty minute run down the river a little where the boat was tied up. Being the first evening we gathered earlier than is usual with dinner, buffet style, and very tasty (with lots of vegetables!!!) before gathering in the lounge for the safety talk and a general orientation for the next day. Drinks are "complimentary" so the room was loosening up a little (there are lots of Canadians, a few Brits and us Aussies - still not sure just how many but the Canuks dominate in more ways than one!!) There was an excellent performance of traditional Hungarian music and dancing during which Mick had a recurrence of the"has this been such a good idea" feeling and, just for a few moments, felt like he was trapped on a floating Fairfield RSL Saturday night!!!! 

We took our drinks (our own teapot) back to the excellent cabin where we settled much more easily into this being a good thing to do!!! Each cabin has its own balcony so you can get away from the cheery crowd when you want to! It seems incredible that this has been almost a year in the planning as we first approached the Travel Agent in Septembe 2013 and this leg, from Budpest to Prague became the pin around which all the rest revolved - including Mick's diagnosis  ..... Mick is always an "inverted snob", feeling uncomfortable with things like people making the bed or treating you like the landed gentry so hopefully he can relax and simply enjoy this time together. The boat stays in Budpest until tomorrow evening and we moved up and parked off the Pariliament buildings for the night.... It is really lovely! 
Happy cruising!!

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