danube bend

yesterday we continued our venture to the danube bend. we took an about 2 hours train ride (that only cost $2.50!) to Esztergom, a town right across the river from Slovakia. there we saw a huge and gorgeous basilica, that is also the tallest building in Hungary. we climbed up a monnnstrous tower to see a view that was well worth it, and also probably helped burn off all of those calories from the ice cream places our director tells us to try. we were lucky enough to catch a hilarious little "tschu-tschu" train that drove us all around though.
after our climb, we caught our little train again and took it across the bridge to slovakia. it was quite the site i imagine to see a funny little "train" full of 20 american students going through border patrol. once we got our passports checked and stamped, we had a slovakian lunch of cheesy dumplings and beer. about 45 minutes after arriving in slovakia, we headed back to esztergom to catch a bus to another little town. we hung out there for a while, then took a 2 and a half hour boat ride down the danube back to budapest.
overall, an incredible weekend :-)
p.s.-pictures are updated - http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2064743&l=85a29&id=2808002