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Published: September 5th 2023
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What a beautiful city! I flew into Budapest last night, following the directions given by the host of the home exchange apartment that we're staying in. Elly flew in from Athens earlier in the day, so we planned to meet at the apartment.
The directions were very clear, and public transportation is well laid out. I took a bus, then the metro, then a streetcar. Got to the apartment and caught up with Elly, and then we caught a bus into the centre of town to walk around a little, and have dinner together. Mexican, which seemed kind of wrong, but in the long stretch of restaurants, there didn't to be any real Hungarian cuisine (though the typical dishes that I read about were all meat based anyway). There was Italian, Japanese, Spanish, American, Mexican options. Kind of funny. Anyway, we had a nice dinner out, and then back to the apartment a little after 10.
This morning, we woke early, and headed out a little before 9. We took a bus to the centre, stopped for a coffee for Elly (I had already grabbed a diet Coke at a shop), and then decided to walk over to Budacastle.
The walk over the bridge was lovely, and so many beautiful views. We walked from the castle over to Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastian, then wandered through the neighbourhoods around there. The plan for the afternoon was to go to the thermal baths at Szchenyi. We started walking that way, and figured we'd stop at a cafe on the way for a rest, and then maybe take the bus, as we had already been walking a lot. We took a different bridge over the Danube, and halfway over the bridge, there was a turn off to get to Margit Island. I had heard about it, so we decided on a detour.
The island is a haven of nature and greenery in the city. It looks a bit like the parks in Canada. Lots of green lawns and trees, pretty flower beds. There were paths going all around it, and also options to rent pedal carts. A few little cafes, but they didn't look as nice, so we kept walking all the way through, and then on the far side of the island, another bridge connects to it, so we exited that way.
By then, poor Elly's knee was
throbbing (she's had a few surgeries on it), so we stopped at a cafe, got a drink and some ice for it, and rested a bit before catching a tram to the thermal baths.
We had really been looking forward to the thermal baths. Not cheap, just under $40CAD to the basic entry, and then another $45 if you wanted a 20 min massage, but we thought it would be great. No massages were available til 5- I didn't mind so much, as I had decided that was out of budget, but Elly had really wanted one. So we just paid the entry, and went to change and get into the thermal pool.
It basically just looks like a huge swimming pool. The water temperature isn't any warmer than my pool at home during the warm months, and it was packed with people. All the lounge chairs were taken as well. We stayed in the water maybe 30 min or so, and then sat on some steps in the sun to dry off. Definitely, definitely not worth it!
Took the bus home from there, and now having a little downtime before figuring out dinner.
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