pancakes & bananas?: Sept 1, Hungry in Hungary

tired is the word to describe how i feel now. pretty much out the entire day. Started the day off with crawling through the labyrinths of Pal-volgyi cave. Almost didnt go there cos me and toad were kind of lazy to travel there. It required a 2 bus transit to get there. But when i got there, i didnt regret anything. The guide was fluent in english (although it was quite fast at times) and fun! It was caving on a different level man, we had to squeeze through tiny holes which even I had problems crawling through, nothing which i've experience on other caving trips. I'll recommend you to do this if you want a break from walking through towns and ancient cities. You can check out their website here. You can drop them a email for their caving timings and reservations.

Ended about 1 plus. There was a free communist walk that runs only on mon, wed, fri and sat and we kinda rushed to meet it, but did not regret much. The guides lived through those hard times and it was a real insight to how Budapest was during the communist and post communist period. I honestly did not know how a young democratic state it was. However, i think because of the sudden transition from a communism to a democratic system, the country faces alot of hardship and corruption due to the lack of good governance. They were ruled with an iron fist during the initial communist period and relaxed during the years of 'happy communism' and transited into a democracy in 89, but i still think they're ruled by a dictatorship with political parties opposing each other on surface but are allies behind. But optimism hangs in the air, the people are looking forward to better days ahead, trying to dislodge from the past which i think is the key to change. So i finally realized why stuff are so cheap here. Their cost of living is actually v low with an average income of 600 euros/mth (specialist only earn 800 euros wts). Inflation was 40% after communism ended. Taxes are high and i fong get it that although there is a public healthcare system, you need to bribe the doctors to get proper attention in the hospital or you'll get neglected or given less care or like what the guide said, normal human service. I think this actually tells alot about how much the country has to progress. But it definitely has it challenges of being a post communist democracy overnight with the lift of the iron curtain. Kinda no time to write much on this but if you're interested on my experience on the tour can just facebook me. The guide was great and very knowledgable on the topic. You can get more information on their free tours here.

so gotta run! gotta pack and head out for my last day in budapest. hope the 11 hrs overnight train to krakow has wifi.

This is an interesting documentary about the hungarian revolution during the communist times.