The goal of Sunday was to get to the thermal bath that everyone had been talking about. Since our tour was cut short on Saturday, we were able to use the bus again on Sunday. We hopped on and headed towards Stop #4 (Hungary’s largest city park and home of Széchenyi Baths) only to find out that we had to get off at Stop #3 because AGAIN this part of town was closed down for the day, reason unknown. So we hopped off and found our way over to the park and realized the reason the park was closed was because of a half marathon. We walked along the marathon route and it soon became clear that the Bath House was on the other side of the route, so our next feat was to get to the other side. We eventually just climbed over the barricades and quickly crossed the route (this wasn’t in the middle of the course, it was in the cool down zone, after runners had crossed the finish line) and made it into the baths. Széchenyi is a huge, beautiful old building and has lots of different rooms with cold pools, hot pools, whirl pools, sauna rooms, massage rooms, changing rooms, etc. It’s really actually just a big maze and you’re never sure what’s going to be around door #2. We wanted to go in the outside pools, and it probably took us about 30 minutes to find our way outside. Once we did, we went in the strongest whirlpool I had ever been in. You literally got sucked in and then zipped away by the current. After we had our fair share of going round and round, we went to the warmest of the outdoor baths and lounged for about an hour. I am glad I experienced these baths, but I don’t know if I’d go back. Since they are all naturally spring fed, I am wondering how clean they really are (chlorine was nowhere to be smelled) and as the day went on it got REALLY crowded. I think I’d rather lay out at the BAC.
After the baths, we enjoyed a great lunch at a restaurant in the park then headed back to the apartmenthouse to catch the cab to the airport. Our cab driver was a husky Hungarian man, who was rocking out to 1960s rock and kept whipping out different photos of himself, his wife and his children the whole ride to the airport (all black and white, taken 20-30 years ago). The only English he knew was numbers so he tried to tell us his life story using this limited vocabulary. Not too effective.
Back in Geneva I have hit the ground running trying to stay ahead of my assignments. I can’t believe I will only be here for about a month more!
Picture: Outdoor at the thermal baths
No comments:
Post a Comment