I like thermal baths

  Budapest, Hungary
Friday, November 16, 2007

I really liked Budapest as a city.  It has a lot of interesting buildings and may not be as outwardly pretty as some other cities, but has a lot of character.  It's also very easy to walk around even though it's fairly spread out.  It used to be two separate cities - Buda and Pest, but was united into one city in the late 1800s.  Most of the modern city is on the Pest side, while the Buda side has the old castle, some other monuments, and a small residential area.

When I checked into the hostel Friday afternoon, I decided I was too tired to go exploring, instead opting to buy some groceries, cook dinner at the hostel, and hang out with some other people watching Back to the Future in the common room.  That night I also spent in the very social hostel, once again bumping into the Polish guy who had gone to my high school.  He had been staying there for the last couple of days and was leaving on a night train that night.  There's definitely some truth to the song It's a Small World.

Saturday I walked over to the Buda side of the Danube (my hostel was in Pest) and spent some time walking around Castle Hill, eventually finding my way to the Labyrinth.  A number of travelers I had met along the way, including a couple of girls I was talking to in the hostel on Friday night, had talked about how great the Labyrinth was.  I didn't really get what they were so excited about.  It was a network of underground caves that was kind of neat to see, but nothing super special.  Plus, it wasn't the kind of labyrinth you could get lost in since it was just one big circle with maps and arrows posted everywhere.  The spooky music playing out of the not-so-well-hidden speakers throughout the cave didn't really add much to the experience either, except in the humor factor.

My favorite part, because it was so incredibly not scary that it was funny, was a segment called Free the Sun.

In the Labyrinth - Free the Sun

It began with a sign telling you a story (see the picture to the right).  You then enter a dark room and walk along the edge of it holding onto a rope until you eventually reach an small LED "sun" display.  Rather anticlimactic and lame, if you ask me.  If it were geared to children, I could almost understand it, but it didn't seem to have anything indicating that it was meant for children and not adults.

Sunday I went with Joe, a British guy from my hostel, to Heroes' Square en-route to the Széchenyi Medicinal Bath in the city park.  It's the largest thermal bath complex in all of Europe with 3 outdoor pools, 7 indoor pools, and 2 saunas at varying temperatures ranging from rather cool to ridiculously hot (they had the actual temperature posted on each one).   The place was packed with people - both tourists and locals.  In the changing room, a local woman started talking to me and telling me how much she loves coming to the baths.  I had some difficulty getting away from her so I could actually get in the baths, but I eventually escaped.  We thought we would be at the baths about 2 hours, but ended up staying almost 4 hours because there were so many different pools to try and it was so relaxing.

That night I spent some time walking around Pest checking out all the major sites like the Basilica, the Opera House, and the Synagogue.  I attempted to take some pictures, but my camera isn't the best at night shots so they didn't all turn out.

Monday was a bit of a lazy day.  I went to the big indoor market where they sell everything from fruits and veggies to cooked food to souvenirs to raw meat.  The specialty seemed to be any possible variation on paprika from fresh chili peppers to ground up sweet paprika.  Paprika is definitely used a lot in Hungarian cuisine.  While at the market, I bought all the ingredients for a lentil and eggplant stew (including white eggplant that I had never seen before) to cook for dinner that night.  Before dinner I went to the Photography Museum.  It wasn't exactly what I expected since it was just a couple of exhibits by two different photographers, neither focusing on Budapest or Hungary, but it was interesting none-the-less (and it was one of the few places open on Monday since most museums are closed then).

Tuesday Joe and I went for a walk around Buda up Gellert Hill to the citadel and the Soviet Independence Monument.  We walked all around the hill, up one side and down another, passing by the church in the cave on the side of the hill.  Afterward we went over to the Terror Museum, an interesting museum detailing the history of Nazi and Communist rule in Hungary, particularly focusing on the atrocities they committed.  Not exactly an upper, but really interesting information to learn.

Wednesday I did very little, except for the minor detail of figuring out where to go next and how to get there.  I knew I was going to head into Romania, but hadn't yet read enough in the guidebook about Romania to know which cities/towns I wanted to visit and whether the train even went there.  But I figured it all out and got ready for an early morning train to Sighisoara.