22nd January - Budapest
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2008
1
27
28
Trip End
Jan 26, 2009
Budapest,
Hungary
Thursday, January 22, 2009
It was raining again, so we decided to do rain-appropriate activities, and of course the rain stopped. So instead of going straight to the House of Terror museum, we took the metro to the Parliament to take some photos of that and the Museum of Ethnography opposite, which used to be the Justice building. That accomplished, we hit the metro line no. 1 again up Andrassy utca to the House of Terror, which was the headquarters of the evil Arrow Cross and the equally evil Soviet secret police. The museum's exhibits focussed mainly on the latter.
Again we were greeted by a school group on its way out, which was a fine thing. We skirted around them and went into the ground floor of the atrium area, where we were greeted by a Soviet tank and a display of photos of victims of the Soviet secret police
Best of a bad lot
. We then, as directed, went up to the 2nd floor for the beginning of the exhibition, about the Arrow Cross and then the Soviet occupation of Hungary. The beginning was accompanied by thumping music that Darren thinks is by the Dust Brothers and from the Fight Club soundtrack. In short, the museum mostly tells the story of the Communist secret police in Hungary, their modes of operation and their victims. Apparently it has been criticised for not presenting enough material about the Holocaust, but that is really only a small part of what it is about. We found it really really interesting, although a lot of the material was not in English. A highlight was the carpet in one room that was a map of the Soviet Union - how cool! In the basement were reconstructions of the interrogation and detention cells that actually existed in that building - quite chilling, especially as we got down there by means of a very very slow lift that played a DVD with a former cleaner describing how executions were carried out.After this we thought we deserved a coffee - well, actually that had been the plan all along. We walked the few metres up the road to Lukacs which was once the favoured coffee house of the secret police agents who, we imagined, would drop in for an espresso during a long and arduous interogation. We, however, each had a cappuccino. Darren had another heavenly piece of Esterhazy torta while Penny had the Lukacs torta, basically a chocolate cake
House of Terror
. Both were great. We had both been expecting a dingy Communist-era atmosphere with Eastern bloc concrete architecture but we were pleasantly surprised to find a stunning white, silver and golden Art Nouveau interior with very modern, plush conveniences. Darren didn't even dare take a photo for fear of embarrassing us. Service was great too and the service charge was stated clearly on the menu and applied as promised.We then strolled up Andrassy utca to the City Park and thence to the Szechenyi baths, where we eventually found an English price list, which told us what to ask for, and bought two "mixed thermal pools with cabin" tickets. Actually it was quite easy to work out what to do as the staff was very helpful and kept pointing us in the right direction. We changed in our little cabin and then proceeded through an almost endless series of hot, warm and cool baths, plus about ten seconds in the sauna, which was enough for both of us, eventually coming across the door to the outside pools. The first was 37-39° and carried a warning to only stay in for 20 minutes, although there were quite a few people playing chess in it. The next was somewhat cooler and we swam exactly one lap - to the other end, where we exited and quickly moved to the next, at 35°. This had a spa in the middle that was a bit crowded and a number of jets off to one side that were also all occupied
Ice rink at City Park
. When they stopped and people moved away, we went to take up position there, but were soon corrected in a mixture of Hungarian, English and German by a gentleman who told us that they were only on for 10 minutes at a time, and that we should go to the edges of the pool. His gestures towards the circular area around the spa were soon explained when it started to whirl like the Albany Leisure Centre whirlpool, only faster. This was cool fun. Then we staked out a position over the jets just before they came back on, and enjoyed those for a bit, before reversing the whole procedure to eventually arrive back at our cabin relaxed and refreshed. Here we shared Penny's travel towel to remove most of the water from ourselves before going back to the hotel.We collected our tickets for the evening cruise on the Danube then went to the room for Penny to have a quick non sulfur smelling bath and rinse out our bathers. We then, very lazily, caught the metro to Vorosmarty ter and found our way down to the docks. The views over the Danube to the palace and the castle were breath-taking as they were both lit up as was the Chain Bridge. Making our way to dock 7 we boarded the boat and headed off on our cruise. The accompanying video presentation was a little naff but not as bad as the one we had in Paris last year. We enjoyed a champagne followed by an interesting wine for Penny and a Hungarian version of Emu Export for Darren
Outside Baths
. The views of the city were quite magnificent and we knew in advance that no photo we took could ever match them.The boat made its way back to the dock and we headed back to Gerbeaud to have dinner in the Brauhaus. Even though we were both a little pissed we had some more of their excellent beer then Penny had the goose again while Darren tried the meatloaf, both of which were excellent. So excellent in fact that Penny said we could come again tomorrow, which made Darren very happy as he wasn't 100% committed to Penny's previous plan for dinner, the cafe at our hotel. The compensation for the change of plan was dessert - Darren's second for the evening - at the hotel. Penny had chocolate souffle and Darren had what he insists was custard pie with berries on top, while we typed up this blog!
It was an awesome day.
