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Published: June 24th 2011
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Day 33 22nd June Budapest
We cycled to the station. Boris & Big Bess were left to fend for themselves for the day – unceremoniously chained up outside the scruffiest computer railway station I have ever seen. Evidence of the communist era was everywhere. Every bit of concrete underfoot was crumbling and bulging up like an earthquake victim, everywhere was grey, very grey, no flowers or flower beds and almost no signs. We struggled to locate the ticket office which was a room accommodated in a sterile concrete building, the floor and walls were covered in dirty cracked tiles and the ticket attendant (who resembled Kleb from the James Bond films) was encased behind metal bars with a small window through which she put her hand (or was it a claw?) and a disgustingly dirty speaker system through which she communicated with her clients.
The train stood on the station. It was gloomy, covered in graffiti and no more inviting than the ticket office. The journey took 40 minutes to the centre of Budapest and I can confirm that one city suburb, be it London, Birmingham or Leeds, looks just like another. The only difference here is that the
communist love for grey concrete is evident in spades and there is a great deal of indecipherable graffiti.
Finally we stepped out into Parliament Square and instantly the gloom of communism disappeared for here starts the beginning of the grandiose buildings that make up the PEST side of Budapest. The Danube, a giant of a river, runs between BUDA and PEST and PEST seems to be gifted with most of the architecture and shops as it is this side of the City where the merchants & artisans lived. The temperature was now 30 degrees in the shade, hardly surprising since Budapest is built on hot springs where temperatures reach a sizzling heat of 77 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Fahrenheit) – mmm nice underblanket! There were few tourists so jostling with humankind was not an issue – thank goodness. We made our way on foot, with the help of our American guide book (!), from Parliament Square down through the old Pest town to the Grand Market Hall. What a market Hall, it had everything from fish swimming in tanks right through to lace tablecloths – a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of goodies. A definite must-visit if you ever come to
Budapest.
After eating lunch at one of the recommended stand-up food joints in the market we caught a tram and then the metro out to the City Park. Budapest is remarkably easy to get around once you have grasped the layout – buses, trams, trolley buses and metro abound. City Park is at the end of the Andrassy Ut – it is Budapest’s Champs de L’Elysee or Unter den Linden – the long tree lined avenue at the end of which is a large structure commemorating/celebrating………….in the case of Budapest it is Heroes Square – the Millennium Monument (built in 1896 to celebrate 1000 anniversary of the Magyars arriving in Hungary) is surrounded by (in)famous Magyars. It is worth recording here who the Magyars were: Tribes who thundered into this, the Carpathian Basis in AD 896, who were, according to our guidebook… “a mysterious rough and tumble nomadic people from Central Asia who didn’t like to settle down in one place and yet they found ‘home’ in the Hungarian Plains. They would camp out in today’s Hungary in the winter and in the summer go on raids through Europe” OK, jolly lot then! Heroes Square was indeed impressive. From
there we strolled through the park and to the Szechenyi Baths – yes, we were to sample an essential part of Hungarian life: “taking the waters”.
Szechenyi Baths are housed in an opulent yellow palace with shiny copper domes. Truly it is Budapest at its most relaxed. There are oodles of baths & pools housed inside and outside. The temperature of the water varies from pool to pool but bubbles up from the hot springs at 77 degrees Celsius. It is then mixed with cooler water to achieve the desired temperature which was anywhere between 38 and 28 degrees Celsius. All the pools were marked with the temperature and the type of minerals contained therein. The smell in some of the pools was overwhelming. The water is slowly drained out and replaced with fresh water from the hot springs thus negating the need for chlorine. We made our way round the pools relaxing in the minerals (and the heat) and then enjoying the whirlpools and the jets. If you have ever seen a picture of men playing chess ‘in the water’ with steam rising around them then this is where it was taken. Men playing chess, housewives relaxing and
very large Hungarians or perhaps the old ‘walrus’ pack out these baths which were the busiest place we visited all day! And, don’t worry, dear reader, you CAN wear your swimsuit!
Having soaked up enough minerals (through our pores!) we left behind the gleaming copper domes & sunshine yellow of the Baths .After a much needed glass of wine outside Budapest’s opulent Opera House we caught our metro…. then our train…. then our bikes back to Big Bess. Exhausted!
The BUDA side of Budapest has fewer attractions and given the daytime temperatures we have decided not to visit that side of the Danube. We feel we have ‘done’ as much of Budapest as we would like to.
Day 34 23rd June Budapest
Not much to report today. We have stayed ‘at home’ and done a lot of work (real ‘office’ work that is!). We have also been doing our research and have decided to move up into Hungary and visit Eger, the county seat town in northern Hungary. We are going to stay for three or four days just north of Eger on a small horse-riding farm and hope to get a feel for the ‘real’
Hungary.
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Lorna Crosse
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Pest
Really enjoyed our day here! What's next? Lxx