Budapest: Day 1

The first day in Budapest we woke up a little later because we were so tired. Today was our day to relax. We woke up around 9 AM and got ready for a day at the Hungarian bath. Hungarian baths originated from the Turkish, when they occupied Hungary during the largest expansion of the Ottoman Empire. Ana double-checked the quality of this bath with the Brazilian woman on the bus and she confirmed it would be fun and fun it was. It was near the end of the second subway line, but it was worth all $15 we paid. On our way to the subway, we passed by a large building that we had passed by the night before. We decided to walk through and found out it was a giant market. It was only after getting our guidebooks that we discovered we lived 5 minutes walking to the central market of Budapest. Here they sold Hungarian sausages, cheeses, meats, delicacies and liquor. It was a great building, with the air of old Hungary and with paprika drying from the ceiling (Hungarian paprika is famous!). It was really cool.

When we arrived at the bath and walked inside I was so happy to see it was a wonderland of water. First and foremost was the building itself. It was beautiful and looked like a palace. It was yellow, with white columns, statues, intricate carvings and the such. We just hung out all morning and afternoon in the sun. The pools were amazing. Inside, are about 25-30 pools. Mineral waters, different temperatures, saunas and everything we could ever dream of. The best part was, it was mostly adults, and not too many little children running around splashing. In fact, we were the little kids compared to all the older people there. There were three outdoor pools, one warm pool, the other cold and a perfect temperature one. The perfect one was obviously the most crowded, first because it was a great temperature, and second because it had bubbles coming from the floor in random places, and an "inner pool" with benches and real Jacuzzi jets. The best part was around this inner pool. The "inner pool" or Jacuzzi was a circle, but around the circle was another circle. So think of it as a bullseye, with the center being a Jacuzzi and the first ring and then the rest of the pool around it. The first ring was actually a stream pool that turned on every 5 minutes or so, when the Jacuzzi turned off. The stream pool created a clockwise current to flow through the first ring and it pushed everyone along the first ring. We had the most fun in this stream pool because we would all hold on to each other, pick our feet off the ground, and "ride the waves" around and around the Jacuzzi. We were clearly a source of entertainment being young, internationals and loud. We weren't the only young people there, and sometimes some other groups of kids would join us. At one point, I had a little boy clinging onto my arm riding with us until his older brother took him away. It reminded me of Finding Nemo, when Squirt was riding the EAC.

We spent the entire afternoon at the bath, taking a nap, getting tan (except for Jolin and Ekta who don't like to be tan), cooling off in the pool, relaxing and everything. Totally perfect. But all good things come to an end, and we decided not to waste our entire day at the pool, so we packed up and decided to head to Buda to go to the castle on top of the hill overlooking the Danube River and Pest. When we got off the subway, we found a McDonalds (our favorite place) and KFC (our second favorite) ate and made our way to the castle. Arriving at the castle was a nice little walk, but it ended with a bunch of stairs. After ascending the stairs and entering the castle walls, we found ourselves in almost a little city. There were streets, buildings, hotels, restaurants, and other things. Unfortunately, St. Matthias Church, Budapest's most beautiful and famous Catholic church, had closed an hour before we arrived. It was built in the 14^th century, in a neo-Gothic style and is probably remarkable inside. Bummer. Maybe next time.