Greetings from Budapest

My busy weekend is finally over, and I’m a long way from where it started. I’m typing this in the Hotel Intercontinental in Budapest, which I’m delighted to learn has broadband net access. That’s one way to keep a journalist happy.

I’ve really lucked out with this trip. I’m here covering the Corenet Global conference, and have been given a 9th floor room with a view overlooking the river and the palaces opposite. Pictures in the morning…..

I am a terrible air traveller, by the way. I hate flying with a passion, although I can distract myself from this fact with a really good book, if I try. The journey over was fairly painless, though. The drive to the airport was delayed by roadworks on the A12, but that was compensated for by a happy, chatty bus driver from the car park to the airport departures. “You’re flying Hungarian Airlines are you? You’ll be alright,” he opined. “The pilot’ll want to get home this time of night.”

The guy was spot on. We arrived in Budapest airport early, and a chatty taxi driver whisked me in a Mercedes (!) to the hotel. He’d visited London, he revealed as he overtook a stream of traffic at 120 kph, before neatly slipping back into his own lane. “It was nice for a visit, a week or two, yah?”

“But?”

“It is too busy. I would not like to live there.”

He also, to be fair, hated the speed cameras that litter London’s roads. The city would not suit his driving style at all.