Dates : 17th to 22nd August,2008
Hotel Sofitel Budapest Maria Dorottya
Budapest was my first destination for my two week long meetings in August. Located on banks of river Danube, Budapest is indeed a very beautiful city. I was in love with the city right away. After a longhaul from SFO to Budapest, I reached here on Sunday evening. After checking into the hotel, i just went for a walk across the famous bridge on Danube. There was some kind of fair on the bridge with people just chilling out. there was music, food, plenty of beer and lots of liveliness in the place. The atmosphere was just rocking.
After a short walk, I along with couple of colleagues from the meeting, went to a Hungarian restaurant. Restaurants with patio style dining, common of all europe, just add to the liveliness of the place.
For the whole week i was stuck in the long meetings. This time the meetings lasted from 8AM to almost 9.30PM 
giving no time to even see the sun 
. But on Wednesday we finished early mainly to enjoy the Hungarian National Festival. August 20th was some kind of national holiday in hungary. People gathered out on the banks of Danube to enjoy. There was air show / air race, some other musical events throughout the day. At night, they had a spectacular fireshow on the main bridge. I have not seen a fireshow like this in my life. it was truly amazing.
On friday evening, i did a mini sightseeing tour of budapest. Just walked along Danube river, went to the top of the castle. I also wanted to try the “public baths”, one of the major attractions in Budapest, These baths are some kind of spas and they have a lot of historical significance. But i didn’t have swimming costume with me too bad i could not try it.
I had a flight early morning out of Budapest going to Nice, France.
PS:: this is very hastily written blog post. i will post some pics soon.
Filed under: Travel
