Szechuan Beef Washed Down With Mellow Yellow

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Had a very ordinary night's sleep. A guy got in at about 4 a.m. into our room. He sat on the edge of his bed for ages. He had woken me up so I lay there quietly warily watching him. He got up suddenly after what seemed forever and left the room. He came back soon and went straight to sleep. I got back to sleep, but broad daylight poured into the room from 5 a.m.
We didn't get up until the agreed time of 8 a.m., and I went and had a shower which wasn't too bad. The other two people in the room proved to be an older Australian couple from Wollongong. The plan was to go upstairs for breakfast, but the Australian guy told us about a supermarket nearby which sounded good. So off we headed and got stuff for lunch as well. Beck managed to order 100 grams of salami ok, but I had the feeling we were getting in people's way while we tried to work out what else to get. At the register we found we hadn't followed the right process to purchase the bananas so we gave up on them. Kate managed to wangle some spoons for our yoghurt, and our breakfast proved to be successful.
Over our breakfast we spoke to the Australian couple while the poor bloke who got in late tried to keep sleeping. The Australian guy heard of our plans to head south to Croatia after our time in Budapest, and he suggested we head there now. He proceeded to bag Budapest which made us feel really uncomfortable. They are at the end of their travels and head home shortly so maybe they've had enough. We think we'll make our own judgement of Budapest though.
Despite having a bad sleep last night we took the punt and booked another night at the hostel. We couldn't get a room with only 3 beds so hopefully we'll manage to get some sleep. From here it was off to see the sights. The plan had been to go on a bus tour, but on looking at the map we thought we could do everything on foot. In choosing to do this we miss out on the commentary, but gain the freedom of looking at whatever we want. We did think about a ferry tour that took in Margaret Island, but gave this a miss as well.
Our first destination was the Castle District which took us over the Chain Bridge. At either end of the bridge there is a pair of lions who are famous because they don't have tongues. The story goes that the bridge was designed by a Scotsman, who is said to have committed suicide upon finding that his construction was ruined by the lions failing to have tongues. Good story, not so sure that it's true.
From the bridge there were excellent views of the city. The architecture behind the buildings is amazing, and so impressive. Some of the landmarks would have taken so long to build. On the other side of the bridge we found ourselves at the base of Castle Hill. We could have taken a tram to the top (which looked cool/unique), but we decided to walk instead. The path took us through a rainforest and every now and again we would get fantastic views of the city through the trees. At the top we stopped for a break and had the rolls we prepared earlier.
There was a little market which we explored, and then we continued to walk around and admire the architecture. The girls have been giving me stick about taking postcard pictures, versus taking photos with someone in the shot posing. So I did my best at every opportunity for the rest of the day.
The rain started getting heavier as we walked around which made it hard to take photos. We managed to sneak a few shots of the impressive church on top of Castle Hill, as well as part of the palace. A quick detour to a shop that was the equivalent to a milk bar gave me the unique experience of tasting Dips 'N' Dots. The views from the top were understandably fantastic, and there was one impressive building which stood out more than any other. We worked out that it was Parliament.
From the top of the hill we headed back down towards Andrassay Utca. We had already done a lot of walking today so we stopped half way along the main drag and went into a bar. Wow, what a great idea! We needed to have a rest and recharge, but we also grabbed a bowl of goulash which was amazing, and the beer that washed it down wasn't bad either.
We had been working towards Szechenyl Baths (which we have affectionately dubbed Szechuan Beef Baths) before our excellent pit stop, and so before long we were back on the road. The route to the Baths took us through Hero's Square. Through the square and there appeared to be a little festival or market underway. Opposite this was the Baths. The interior of the entrance to the Baths was amazing, I've never seen anything like it. It was like a church with frescoes and other art work, but we weren't allowed to take photos. It was very impressive.
We paid to get in, got a little booth, we took turns to get changed and then it was down to the baths. It was pretty busy, but there was plenty of baths to choose from. We were very relaxed and comfortable in the bath we had chosen, but I left the girls and went looking for the hottest bath they had. It was bigger than I thought in size, and it took me a while to navigate, but there was a huge pool size bath outside that was hotter than any of the others. I went back and got the girls, and then we settled in the baths/pool.
This is the life, there was so much to take in. People sipping on beers, playing chess, and the odd girl in g-string bathers just to remind us that we're in Europe! While we were trying to take this in there was also an airshow taking place directly above us. I've never seen an airshow before, and it seemed very surreal being in the baths. None of us would really admit that we were nervous it might crash into us, as it wasn't far above our heads.
As good as the baths were, there is only a certain amount of time you can spend in the water before you need to get out. We headed inside to the whirlpool, before having a shower, getting changed and moving on.
Upon leaving you have to scan out, and when we did we got a fair bit of our entrance fee back. After we had left Beck realised she still had the key to our booth, and Kate and I had to persuade her to go back and return the key. After the baths we felt fantastic, a little bit dry, but all the tension was gone, and we were nice and relaxed. We definitely need to get a spa at home.
Next we went across the road to the market which had music pumping. We were wary all the same, but it looked like good fun. Beck bought a cool pair of shoes really cheap, and we also bought some Sugar Pretzel Bread (at least that's our name for it!). At the end of the market we ended up back in Hero's Square. There is so much space here, and the buildings surrounding and within it are amazing.
Even though we had already walked so much today we made our way towards the train station to buy tickets for our journey to Zagreb. After walking around the busy station we finally found the right booth and bought tickets for 17.30 tomorrow.
For some reason a return ticket was cheaper than one way, which caused us to raise our eyebrows, but after questioning it and getting the same response we just got the tickets. Didn't seem right but we were too tired and just accepted the tickets.
Back down the stairs I noticed a commotion and noise out of the corner of my eye. A guy was attacking a woman, and it spilled over towards us, and I had to grab Kate out of the way before she was in the middle of it. The attack stopped soon after, but no one did anything. I certainly wasn't going to step in being a foreign country, but I felt sorry for the girl. I don't know if she was his wife, girlfriend, prostitute or what. To show how close we had been we could smell the stench coming off the man, like he had been wading in his own filth. We discussed the possibility later of it being a distraction for some type of crime, but I think it was just domestic violence in a very public venue.
By this time we had had enough of walking, but we still had to get back to the hostel. No one was prepared to make a decision, and some how we ended up on a bus heading in the right direction but without tickets. I felt bad, I had this terrible feeling we were going to get caught. We got off safely though and went back to the hostel. We had arrived back too late to get to the operetta, and we were probably too tired anyway. This tiredness led to some indecision about where we were going to have dinner, but we settled on a restaurant that was down in a cellar. The building itself was very impressive, but the food was lacking. Mind you I had a very hot chilli (that I thought was green pepper!) with mine which meant I barely tasted what I was eating. We shared a bottle of wine that wasn't anything flash either, but maybe we were too tired to appreciate any of this. I couldn't work out if we were being served by a waiter or waitress, I think waitress but she had a deeper voice than me.
On the way back to the hostel I grabbed a thickshake while the girls had sundaes from McDonalds. Back at the hostel it was good to find no one in the room, and to get some much needed sleep.

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