One of the questions I was asked a while ago (and apologies for not replying!) was whether I had more info about the Underground Military Hospital in Budapest which is on my Top 10 List of Things to do in Budapest – also known as “Szikla Kórház” (Hospital in the Rock). Any info I have is purely anecdotal, but if it’s of help to someone, great!

We found out about it totally by accident: after visiting Matthias Church (Castle Hill), we happened to notice an A4 piece of paper stuck to the window of a glass-paned stall near the church. There wasn’t a lot of info there – I think it was just something like “Underground Military Hospital Tours” and the times they ran. We took a punt and hoped a tour guide might arrive (which she did). Our tour guide was very helpful. At that time (back in September 2007), the tours had only been running a short time (a few weeks I think). Our tour guide offered the tour in Hungarian, German or English. Our preference was English, but German would have suited – however, our tour guide wanted to practice her English, so English it was.

I have since found a site for the hospital, and whereas it was only in Hungarian until recently, they’ve now got an English site (thankyou!!!!). From this site, it also seems that the Nuclear Bunker next door (same cave system, just next to the hospital, hmm) is also open now – that will definitely be on our list. Last time we visited the Nuclear Bunker was only open on Thursdays for tours when there was an appropriate person available (not entirely sure who that was).

Thankfully, from their site, it seems that the entry fees haven’t gone up since we visited (they were about 10EUR each), but that 10EUR now includes the Nuclear Bunker. One of the things I enjoyed the most last time was getting to go into the actual bare caves “behind” the hospital, after the tour. Finding out about the history of the original caves was really interesting too. They’ve been used for a very very very long time it seems, for all sorts of purposes: storage (of food and people), crypts (?), etc.

Finding this tour was one of the highlights of our whole trip – as much because it was so totally random, as the actual historical interest (which was very cool too). I also liked that people 50-odd years ago had seen the hospital as being of so much significance that they preserved it, and that it eventually was opened to the public as a museum for tours. I’m so pleased to see now that the Hospital in the Rock seems to have become a popular Budapest tourist attraction compared to two years ago (from how often I see it mentioned in Budapestian tourist literature!). Hungary has a fascinating history and this is a great way to see a slice of that history.

It’s been almost two years now, so it’s about time we headed back over to Europe! This time it will be for longer, and with no work component (hoorah). So, the planning begins: where to go, what to see.  We have the airfares booked already, and will be making the trip about 4 1/2 weeks long. We enjoyed the sampling we did last time so much that we’re thinking to do a similar trail again. I know, I hear some of you wondering why we don’t choose a completely different track. To be honest, while we would one day like to visit the more mainstream areas of Europe, we really enjoyed the time we had last time, visiting some of more central European countries. This time we will also have a bit more time on our hands, so will be able to actually visit more. And, because I won’t be having to attend to work while over there, I’ll be able to catch up on a lot of what I missed last time.

Very excited, can’t wait to get back over there. Hmm – things that I’m particularly looking forward to: european pastry shops, the Budapest metro system (is that 4th line ever going to be finished?), getting to see Prague castle and not arriving 10 minutes before closing time (sigh), good strong coffee, the challenge of making myself understood, and best of all – getting to catch up with some family!

We found after our last trip that we came home and researched some things that we had seen, but which the translations of had just passed us by a bit. We ended up finding a lot more than we thought, and are really determined to get back and see and appreciate these things properly. Of course there’s so much to see and do that we won’t be able to fit it all in, but hey we can try The plan will be to use our longer stops as a base, rather than having to pack up everything and move to somewhere different every couple of days. I have found in the past that having to pick up and move every couple of days gets very wearing very fast. And, it wastes a lot of time – having to pack up, get to a train station, get to the new place, find the accommodation, dump luggage off, then go out and hit the town. Being able to base ourselves in places and then do day trips allows us to avoid that, and also gives us the opportunity to really get to know somewhere a bit, before we have to move on.

My next series of posts leading up to our trip will mostly be about things we saw last time, and things that we’re interested to either re-visit, or visit for the first time based on research we’re doing. Any suggestions / comments welcome