Budapest: Day 2

On Easter Sunday, we woke up and celebrated Christ's resurrection with a visit to the traditional Hungarian thermal baths!  This is a crazy experience in and of itself.  It was a cold and rainy day but we didn't let that dampen our resolve to sit in a public pool with fat men in Speedos.  No sir.  Not today.  We hopped on the metro for a day of fun/weirdness.

Did I mention that the "subway" system here is archaic and very shallow in terms of depth below ground?   I want to say it was one of the first underground systems in all of Europe and I'm pretty sure it hasn't been changed since it's construction in 1896.

This is Drew with the archaic train barreling towards us.  Check out the wooden old school ticket booth behind him that's still in use!  Another fun fact: you literally have 8 seconds to get on and off the train.  That's not an exaggeration.  We counted.  8 seconds.

Though there are several baths to choose from, we decided to check out the Szechenyi Baths in City Park, based on several people's recommendations.  There's a relatively tricky entry procedure here, with many people who don't speak English or anything close to it selling you something you think you want but aren't actually sure.  We somehow managed to buy tickets and paid for our own private changing room (closet), got the plastic bracelet that allowed access to the changing barracks, somehow finagled our way in and managed to do everything correctly.  

Szechenyi Baths.

The hallway/changing rooms.

Basically like a dressing room in a department store, but smaller. And weirder.  And dirtier.

Now...neither one of us has been working out too much.  Neither one of our bodies have seen the sun in 9 months.  I can only imagine how we looked in our bathing suits.  Luckily there were no mirrors in the room so I wrapped my towel around me with a death grip and bolding stepped out onto the freezing cold cement to jump in that hot bath.

The great news?  It doesn't appear that any of the Hungarian people had been working out in years either!  What a relief.  

The water was amazingly warm and comfortable and they have bubbling jets all over the pool.  So you can just sit and relax and not think about your family all together in the States for Easter or the fact that you can see way too much of the Hungarian man's junk next to you.  Ahhhh.  Bliss. 

See that circle in the center (below, with the arrow)?  The rest of the pool is bubbling still water but pass through this small cement entranceway and you're transported to lazy river heaven!  It has super strong jets that propel you round and round and round the inside ring of the pool and it is SO. FUN. providing your swimsuit bottoms don't come off in the chaos.  Drew went around a few times and took a rest on the underwater bench in the center, while I stayed and played in that thing like a little kid for what seemed like hours.  I seriously couldn't get enough.  Ahhh.  Bliss.  

Pretty historic building.  With a man in a Speedo.

We got changed and jetted back to our hotel before heading over to the Buda side of the city for more exploration.  (Did I mention that Buda and Pest are technically two different cities, separated by the Danube River?  We stayed on the Pest side but the Buda side has lots of cool stuff too.)  One can cross the Chain Bridge on foot and take the funicular up the steep hill that is Buda to check on some of the local attractions atop the hill. 

One of the lions that greets you on the Chain Bridge.

The funicular!

Falcons staring at me.

Gentlemen knights with interesting facial hair.  And a pretty view.

Mattias Church, named after King Mattias (a popular Hungarian king from the 1500s), but built in the 1000s under a different name.

Like the other places in this city, every surface is COVERED in elaborate, colorful detail.

We got to witness the changing of the guard, which was cool.  The Hungarian soldier in the front was pretty good looking, I'm not gonna lie.

This is a Budapest city bus.  I had to capture it on film, so unbelieving was I with how OUTDATED this stuff is!  It's seriously like an old Soviet era bus from the 50s and these things are still running all over the city.

After much walking around we [I, reluctantly] went to the House of Terror.  This unassuming building on an idyllic street was the former headquarters of both the Nazis and (then) the Soviets for years.  It became known as the House of Terror because they literally terrorized innocent people here for decades.  I didn't want to go but I knew it was something I probably should see.  And you should too if you're ever here.

The museum itself is well done, though mostly everything is in Hungarian (which I understand: it's THEIR COUNTRY but this is a tourist attraction!  Can you not translate a lot of things?)  The upper three floors are tolerable but the tour ends in the basement/dungeon.  I finally got down to the dark basement area and briefly looked around at the darkened rooms and damp cells displayed there.  I was beginning to feel panicky and a cold sweat broke out all over my body.  I turned a corner around a secret room off to the side and saw a couple of gallows in there and my heart started racing and I felt sick to my stomach.  I high tailed it through the quiet underbelly of the museum, past people who were actually viewing things with reverence and looking at me funny cause I probably appeared disrespectful and made my way back up the stairs to civilization before a full blown panic attack ensued.  It makes me sick to my stomach to even remember it and think about it...that people could actually treat other humans this way with no problem.  So terrible.  This country has an incredibly rough and sad past but seeing the city as it is now, full of life and commerce and happ(ier) people makes it slightly better.  Everyone should go see it but it's not particularly fun.  Anyways, enough of that.

We both immediately agreed we needed a drink or five and went to another ruin pub!  Instant is another former condemned building with multiple rooms, large and small, with trippy music playing, strobe lights, and odd knick-knacks covering every surface.  You've gotta check one out if you're in Budapest.

Just a bunch of rabbits, scampering across the ceiling.

A winged woman owl...thing!  With hooves, of course.

A picture of a doe holding a human heart.

Beeeeeeeers.

Just your typical Hungarian family portrait.

A couple of beers and some cheerful conversation later, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the Opera!  You can do full tours of the place during the day but we figured we didn't particularly need one since we were going there.  It's a beautiful, ornate building that's even prettier inside than it is outside.  We saw Requiem and enjoyed some beautiful music.  After the opera, we went to perhaps our favorite restaurant of the trip, Menza.  This place came highly recommended by our acquaintences who live there AND my brother so we had high hopes.  This place didn't disappoint.  It offered authentic Hungarian dishes in a very trendy atmosphere but it wasn't so clubby that you felt uncomfortable if you're not into that.  (Which we...aren't.)  Two thumbs way up on this place!

Another glass of wine back at the hotel and then bedtime for these tired bozos.  More on our last day later.  Goodnight!