Day 7 - Budapest

---

After a nights rest I was refreshed and ready to explore the city. I planned on attending another free walking tour of the Jewish District but first I headed to the City Markets. This was in a massive beautiful building near the river. It had all manner of fruit and veg, meats and of course souvenirs. It was hilarious to see some of the things being sold at the markets – Brazilian flags and patches, Egyptian papyrus, Eiffel Tower statues (seriously, who buys this stuff when they are in Budapest?). I can just imagine admiring someone’s Eiffel Tower necklace and having then turn and say ‘thanks, I got it in Budapest’. One thing that I have been incredibly impressed by in Budapest is there collection of t-shirts. I love a good pun or play on words and I must say that I was sorely disappointed that my budget would not have allowed me to splurge and purchase many of theses shirts – though some were a bit controversial so it is probably a good thing as I wouldn’t be able to wear them in Russia anyway. In particular their was on that said ‘the KGB is still watching you’ with the G made out of a sickle and a hammer. I don’t think Putin would approve. After stopping for lunch I headed to join the tour. This one was led by a guy named Zoltan. It was really interesting to learn about the Jewish history in Hungary.

- During WWII over 600 000 Jewish people were deported and sent to the concentration death camps.

- In a situation similar to the Kinder Transport, a man named Gabor Sztetilo was responsible for saving around 2000 Jewish children by placing them into hiding in Christian households. Once the war was over and many of the parents did not return he set up an orphanage to care for the children.

- Only 1% of the current population is Jewish.

Halfway through our tour it started raining, at first nobody minded as the weather had been incredibly hot. However as it started to get harder it became a mission to seek shelter whilst listening to Zoltan’s stories. Eventually after leaving the Weeping Willow Tree memorial we started to notice bits of hail coming down in the street. Feeling slightly amused, then slightly alarmed we headed for shelter. We managed to get under cover before the real onslaught began. Medium sized hailstones were coming down quite persistently for around 10 minutes. The road literally turned white with hailstones. After awkwardly waiting for around 20minutes for the hail and rain to clear we continued on the tour. One positive was that the weather felt much more tolerable. The tour finished up in a ruin bar, the Szimplica. The ruin bars are a fascinating part of the Jewish District. These are derelict building that has been, over the years converted into bars. They is generally a ramshackle feeling about them as the owners who initially created them did not want to spend a lot of money so you will find random things like bicycles and children’s toys stuck to the wall or hanging off the roof as decorations. Seating is also a bit unusual. The bar I visited had a gutted car, a bath tub chopped in half, an old fashioned hairdresser’s chair and old theatre seats functioning as seating. It was brilliant. I decided to finish my night off by visiting one of the famous Hungarian Baths, Széchenyi Thermal Bath. I have previously been to this bath, in fact it was have been almost exactly a year ago, but I decided to go again as it is open later than all the other baths (staying open until 10pm), plus it is also the biggest. It costs 4200forints (14 pounds). I remember it been amazing the last time I was here and I was not disappointed. The scale of the pools is impressive, added to that is the design of the buildings and the architecture. By the time I had arrived and gotten changed the time was 7:30pm and I was straight in enjoying the outside pools before venturing indoors. Inside the spa you could find numerous Saunas ranging from 40degrees up to one that way 100degress. It was literally like walking into an oven. You were also able to work your way through the indoor pools. There temperatures ranged from around 28degrees up to 38degrees. The set up of the pools often involved large variances in the temperature of the pools, so you would go from one that was 38degrees and the next one was 28degree etc. It was all very relaxing. In no time at all it was 9:45pm and they started to shut up the pools. The night was still warm so I just put my dress on over my swimsuit and started making my way back to the hostel. Along the way I came across the Budapest version of the London Eye. It wasn’t too expensive so I thought, I would give it a try in the hopes that I would get a good view of the Danube at night. The result was very anti-climactic. Whilst the view was alright it definitely wasn’t something worth paying for so I was left a little disappointed.

---