Our bus from Prague dropped us off in Budapest at 5:30am. We left our luggage at the train station and hit the town, finding a seat at one of the only open places in town- church. We arrived just in time for morning service and managed to stand when the congregation stood and sit when they sat. We struggled to stay awake, not only because we were exhausted, not only because the service was in Hungarian, but because the priest himself seemed pretty bored. We left when the second priest made his way to the confessional booth and people jumped up to form a queue.
We walked for a while and stopped in a park for a quick snooze. We walked a little further and stopped in a cafe for another quick snooze. And we walked even more and stopped in front of a big museum for yet another quick snooze. You get the picture. We had lunch in a big open market- sausage for Brian and kraut strudel for me. We walked across the Danube River (leaving Pest and entering Buda) into a giant park on a hill. There, we snoozed again, admired the cave church and eventually walked up towards the citadel on top. We could see the whole city below us and the weather couldn't have made a day in the park much nicer. The sun was shining, leaves were turning and short-sleeve t-shirts sufficed. Down the other side of the hill, we made our way to the fortified old city where we found old buildings, squares and lots of museums. Again we delighted in a wide panorama of the city. Of note was the Parliament building just opposite us on the other side of the Danube. On foot, we made our way to see the Parliament up close before heading to our couchsurf host's flat. Gabor greeted us excitedly and we talked of travel, bikes and photography before retiring on his hardwood floor.
Other highlights in Budapest include Margaret's Island, sandwiched between Buda and Pest on the north side of the city. We rented squeaky bikes and rode around admiring ruins, gardens and waterfalls. On our last day, we had our first Turkish-style bath experience. We entered a yellow Roman-influenced building with a large outdoor courtyard. In the courtyard, families lay in the sun by 4 heated swimming pools. Inside, we had 18 different hot and warm pools to choose from, in addition to cold plunge pools and 8-10 saunas of differing temperatures. One sauna had a stone fountain supplied with ice chips. We happen to know that this bathing complex also had mud baths, massages and underwater jet massage pools, but we just couldn't find them! We stayed 2 hours alternating the hot pools with cold pools and sitting in various saunas. The place was packed with people, only one of many such bath houses in Budapest. Amazing!
I left Brian in Budapest in order to make my way towards Thailand. But first, I stayed in Dusseldorf, Germany for one night with a couchsurf host named Susanne. She set me up with a friend of hers for a tour on foot of the town. I had a good time with Dominick and Susanne- it was a great end to my time in Europe. I hopped on an 11 hour overnight flight, unable to sleep and partially entertained by the 3 sappy romantic comedies they showed throughout the night. I've landed in Bangkok safely while Brian makes his way south to Italy for yoga, meditation and helpxing.
*a note about the blog: since the world has different paths for Brian and I, the blog will continue following my adventures alone. Brian is considering creating a blog of his own- stay tuned for the link!
Pics here:
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| Budapest |
If you missed our last two days in Prague, click HERE.
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