So I'm back in Budapest. After an adventurous week through Austria and some of the far west sights of Hungary, we prepare for the next phase of our visit. Uncle Janci rented us a car for the next 2 weeks and we plan to make full use of it. That is if my grandfathers driving doesn't kill us. We drove back to Budapest from Esztergom this morning and I have to say it was a little scary. My grandfather is a little out of practice with a stick shift; sadly I think it still may be safer than me driving since I last drove a stick about 8 years ago... when a friend was teaching me.  Never again since. SO I guess my life is in his hands.

It was nice knowing almost all of you.

But I get ahead of my self. We last left off in Vienna. That night we drove back to the hotel in Fertő and stayed the night.

The next morning we packed up and headed in the direction of Salzburg, allll the way on the other side of Austria.

Did I mention how awesome Kris was to drive the whole time? No? Well he was. And I'm not just saying that because he knows this page exists. Really.

It's a beautiful drive through the mountains.

Along the way we stopped in a little town called Hallstatt, home to one of Austria's 3 salt mines that have been mined since the prehistoric era. It's a cute little town.

Whew. That was longer than I expected. I actually have quite a few more pictures but I thought these summed it up best. It was actually really interesting and a lot of fun.

I was hoping to get more caught up but I need to head back to Ilonka's. I'm supposed to be back by 8pm since they have no way to get a hold of me, and I know she'll start freaking out if I'm not back on time. I may be able to get another post in tonight. That is if my grandfather doesn't insist on checking his 3 spam traps he calls email accounts.

Oh and your Hungarian vocabulary word for the day: hideg (pronounced he-day-g). It means cold. I think by my last count my grandfather has said this word about 43 times since I've gotten here, and that's just in Magyar (Hungarian). Never mind the many times he's said it in English as well.