After checking out and leaving our stuff at another hostel by the same owners we started the day with a proper breakfast at a cosy café, a freshly baked croissant for Mirsada and sizzling bacon for yours truly.

We then did some empirical studies on how to use the phone booths when making international calls. On the plus side we concluded that it works well when calling the correct number and keeping a steady flow of coins into the belly of the machine. However, we also found out that the place we were going to didn’t allow reservations over the phone (?) but agreed to jot down Mirsada’s name and said that there probably would be vacant rooms around 5 am.

The weather was wonderful, not a trace of the expected rain, we decided to take a stroll to the Citadel/Castle Hill. After some walking upwards with a backpack we rested at the Citadel with a rather nice view over Danube. At this point we realized that Castle Hill and the Citadel weren’t exactly adjacent to each other. Well well, next stop would be Castle Hill be then, it didn’t look that far away on the map.

A good walk later we had the Castle Hill in sight, however it was on the other side of some tunnel which didn’t seem to allow pedestrians. Used to riding buses cheap, we jumped on a bus and rode one stop through the tunnel only to see pedestrians and bikers on the smaller sidewalk we hadn’t spotted before. To my objections we took some funicular railway, Sikló, rather than walk and after a minute the not-so-well-worth-the-money ride was over. At least we were now on Castle Hill.

It was much bigger than we’d realized and we took our time strolling and enjoying the views and architecture. The few drops of rain gave us the needed 20 seconds head start to hide in an archway while the rain poured down at the same time the sun shone brightly. The rain stopped as suddenly as it had started after some five minutes and we continued our little excursion now with enhanced smells. After circling the whole area we sat our eyes on some shopping at West End, a mall of the larger size.

Maybe it was the warm weather or ample walking in combination with my black leather boots but my toes started to grind against each other in a not only pleasant way so we ventured into the Metro again and got off at the mall. I managed to pick up a cable to my iPod which I’d cleverly left in Gothenburg so now it looked like I could get some music on the flight, yay.

After grabbing some turkish food we found a free wifi I managed to publish the blog. Then various important social networking sites had to be logged in to as well. Rather satiated and lazy we thought we would save the House of Terror until next time. We took the Metro back to the hostel and picked up our gear and I made some quick blister-surgery with alco-gel and after changing to my flip-flops I was once again ready to walk the earth in a more enjoyable fashion.

We decided that since we had rather plenty of time we would try to take the metro and then some buses from the suburbs to the airport instead of a less adventurous taxi. It worked out rather well and after some time we reached the correct terminal well ahead of our departure time.

Mirsada quickly learned the ways of power outlet scouting that Ulf and myself studied during our Japan trip and now armed with power as well as iPod cable I was one happy camper. I managed to sleep within a minute or so after the plan left ground, next time I’d breath fresh air it would be on Syrian soil.