Day 53: Budapest

Today has been one of the most enjoyable days of our trip, a mix of kicking back and really enjoying life's pleasures. This is the good life.

Over breakfast we debated whether to go to the thermal baths in Pest or to the far side of Buda to visit Memento Park (a collection of old Communist-era statues that were collected after the fall of the Soviet regime). We elected to go to the baths because we were both a little sore from our run the day before (getting to relax our strained muscles was very enticing) and it was a bigger Budapest “must see” for us. 

Hungary has many baths, most of them nude and gender segregated. Fortunately, we selected a more tame and very popular option, the Szechenyi Fordo Baths. It was built in 1913 and includes 15 indoor and 3 outdoor pools. The whole complex is split up between cool, warm, hot, and very hot baths, with some even mineral spring fed. We packed our suits and caught the subway to City Park, wherein lie the baths. This is also where we have been running during our stay in Budapest.

*Main entrance to the bath complex

The check-in procedure was described in our guidebook in a fair bit of detail. While it sounded complicated we thought we understood the gist of it. The procedure has been streamlined through the use of RFID tags that you wear on your wrist like a watch. We passed through security and headed to the basement to rent flip-flops. This proved to be the biggest problem we experienced all day. Despite our guidebook saying that you could rent swimsuits, towels, and sandals, the only thing we could rent were towels. This had Jackie thoroughly upset (almost to the point of being irrational though I would never say that to her). Ultimately, we went without sandals after watching a few others donning the 'barefoot' look. For interest sake we were definitely in the minority, with only 1 in every 20 people or so people not having proper footwear (don’t even get Jackie started about Athlete’s foot). 

We opted for a changing cabin instead of lockers and despite the fact the cabin was smaller than a broom closet (see below), we got suited up and were ready to hit the baths. We began with the three outdoor baths. The central pool, the cool bath at 28C, is just used for lane swimming, but was drained for maintenance work. The two remaining baths are kept at 34C and 37C respectively, and are mainly used for relaxation. We started with 34C pool with the plan to work our way up to the warmer temperatures.

The water was pretty nice. There were a few air jets around, but most were claimed by locals. To dissuade jets being hogged by the same group of select individuals, the jets are turned off every once in a while to break up the crowds. After floating for a while and enjoying the scene (mix of old and young, single bathers and families) we transitioned to the warmer 37C bath. In the corner of this pool are a couple of benches filled with people sitting and playing chess, a very popular Hungarian past time. 

We moved back and forth between the two baths before working up the courage to go inside and try some of the hot mineral baths. Now began the true relaxation phase. We began with one of the warmest pools that we came across, which was 38C, although supposedly there are some that get as hot as 40C (that’s 104F for our backwards American friends). We also came across a 20C bath, which was hard to enter but felt very refreshing once we had gotten out. 

In total we spent over 3.5 hours in the baths. While our worries and running pains had melted away, we were extremely hungry. It was now about 2:30, so we took a few more photos and then checked out.

We dropped off our stuff at home. As it was later in the afternoon than we had expected, we decided to eat a light lunch and stroll around Pest for the afternoon. We headed towards an open face sandwich shop that we tried to visit on Sunday. They do a variety of small sandwiches and seem to market themselves to the catered lunch business-meeting crowd. We grabbed a few that caught our eye:

They were tasty. After lunch we were close to our favourite outdoor mulled wine stand so we swung by for a cup.

*For our readers who have forgotten, the little figurine is Ampelmann, the crossing light symbol used in East Germany; we picked him up in Berlin (bonus points to anyone that can figure out his utility)

We walked around a bit longer before it started to get cold. We were close to a recommended cafe so we stopped in for a couple coffees. We stayed until it was clear they were setting up for the dinner crowds and headed back to the apartment. Jackie wrote up a blog post, while I fashioned a shipping package out of cardboard and bubblewrap, and stuffed it with all of our most recent purchases (expect a new package in the mail Mom and Dad). 

When we got hungry, we decided to try a restaurant nearby that was well reviewed. We were excited to try it, and I must say, it did not disappoint. The restaurant was a little more fancy than we had anticipated. To our luck, there were two tables available without a reservation and we were seated right away. 

The night started a bit awkwardly for Jackie, although funny for me (and the waiters). A waiter took my coat before I was seated. As Jackie prepared to hand her coat to the same waiter another waiter approached her from the side while holding out his hand. While he was planning to take her coat, she mistook his meaning and firmly shook his hand. Needless to say, Jackie was embarrassed, but the waiter seemed to get a kick out of it. We had a good laugh about that the rest of the night. 

We split a bottle of Hungarian semi-dry white wine (from the region of Tokaji) and both ordered the veal ragout. The food and wine were outstanding; for those who know about our favourite restaurant in Cambridge MA, 10 Tables, this place ranked right up there. 

To top it all off, half way through our meal we noticed two of the stars from last night's opera sharing a table, the lover and the lover scorned (Adorno and Paulo, respectively). We were tortured between going over to tell them how much we loved the performance and letting them eat in peace. On the one hand, they may not be big celebrities and may be flattered to be recognized. On the other hand, the Canadians in us screamed out that they were just regular people out to dinner and wanted to enjoy it in anonymity. Ultimately we left them in peace. 

As I said, today was one of the best days we've had so far. Not so much because of any great museum or tour, but because we felt like we lived a bit of the local culture, we relaxed, we ate well, and we enjoyed each other’s company. Once we got back to the apartment we started looking into how long we’ve travelled so far and ironically found out that the following day, October 20th, marked the halfway point, making today the end of the first half of our trip. What a way to commemorate!

P.S. Firstly, I am reading a book about dry-farming at the moment, in preparation for growing my own crops [vegetables, barley (for beer making), and other things] in the very dry Nevada climate. I bought the book on Amazon and it was free and had no reviews. I thought it might be because it was pretty bad, but I got into the book. Only about ¾ of the way through, when the author began talking about horse-drawn plows, steam engines, and the Dominion of Canada did I discover it was written in the early 20^th century. Oh well.

Secondly, in our continuing series, this is what you can buy for the price of two pints in Oslo:

• All day access for two to the Szechenyi thermal baths, which includes 18 pools
• 3.3L of mulled wine at our favourite outdoor cheese market
• 30 traditional open face sandwiches