In the wilderness of regular weekends and assignments, hysterical giggles and stale beer in smoky pubs ( don't get me wrong, I quite enjoy those too), sometimes comes a sunday so luminous that it merits a blog post all to itself. And while it wasn't exactly a religious revelation, it was completely surreal. It all began on saturday night, around 11.55 pm. We (S and I) were lounging around in our hostel room in Budapest waiting for the rest to come back and take us out. We had already played two games of foozball (well, that's how it sounds anyway!) and I had been soundly beaten at both, and now we were eating day old yoghurt with plastic spoons. The phone rang. 'We're too far. You guys come out and join us. Take the left near the synagogue onto ustica ter, a right on palvas verne, and the small underground pub on your right.' We stared at each other, got our jackets and went for a walk instead, looking for a pub that was located in our own dimension. We found one called 'Mylord' which should have been a warning, but we went in anyway. And yeah, not exactly on our dimension. So we spent Sunday evening in a gay bar, being treated very well by very nice gentlemen who were clearly wondering what it was we were doing there.
Sunday morning we decided we owed ourselves a treat, and ran off to the famous Hungarian baths. 2000 years ago a wily old hermit set up a clinic treating people with the medicinal waters of the Danube, and was awarded a sainthood for his pains. So on Sunday morning we lined up to be anointed.
May I please say here that four hours lying in dense, mineral-laden water, heated to just the perfect temperature, staring up at deep blue tiles, surrounded by 1920s decadence, and glass roofs, is not a shabby way to spend a Sunday? Not to mention the saunas, the freezing water pool, the massage jets...and all for the princely sum of 10 euros? (I only hope they weren't saving the money by skimping on the cleaning..)The plan is that you loll in the baths for about twenty minutes, jump out into the freezing water, run into the sauna, sweat all your toxins out, jump in the swimming pool, roll back into the baths, stagger into the freezing water, run into the sauna, wheeze for a bit, and then sink gratefully into the water jets........by the end of it, i was singing ABBA songs with a silly grin on my face.....and yeah, I did get to see rather more raddled old white European flesh than I strictly would have wanted, but hey, that was nothing a little counselling won't cure....
How to get there: From the city centre, cross the bridge connecting the Central Market and the Rock Cathedral. The Gellert Spa is at the foot of the hills. It costs about 7800 florints per person.Where to Stay: The Domino Hostel in the city center is a great place to stay if you're a penniless student. If you're not, I don't know what you should do. I am a penniless student.
