6/7/23
Day 14
Budapest
Hello everyone and welcome back. I apologize for the surplus of emails that come through. I can not figure out why, but it sends multiple times and only one of those emails has all of the photos. So please ignore the emails with less photos and check out the correct ones. Thank you!
Our second full day in Budapest just so happens to be Aydan and Nathan’s last full day on the Europe adventure. Tomorrow morning they will be flying back to the states, Aydan is going back to film his friends wedding and Nathan wanted to fly back with someone. Luke will be staying with me for the rest of the trip.
Seeing as it is their last day, we decided to start off the day right, by sleeping in… after rolling around and getting up we went out to get food. Our only plan for today was to go check out the Széchenyi Thermal Baths.
The main pools is supplied by two natural thermal pools. As a result the water is warm and mineral dense. The whole bath house has a total of 21 different pools, all at various temperatures. They also have many different saunas and steam rooms.
We initially were going to eat at the same sandwich shop we went to yesterday. It was so good that we wanted to go back and try different sandwiches. However, on the way some delicious looking pizza caught our attention and by then we were too hungry to be persuaded otherwise. We made a good decision because this pizza was our #2 pizza we had the whole trip.
After eating we hopped on some scooters and went across town. On our way to the baths we checked out Hero’s Square, one of the only monument structures in the city. The actual location is technically a plaza, but the back half of it is the structure. In the middle on the top is the archangle Gabriel, and below him are the original 7 chieftains of Hungary. On either side of them you will see the significant leaders of Hungary over the years. This was cool because there was a statue of a King and below him was an artistic depiction of the major event he oversaw during his reign.
On the top, in the middle you can see two chariots charging at each other. On one side there is a man with a snake as a whip, he represents war. On the other is a woman with a palm branch, representing peace. Cool symbolism.
After Hero’s Square, we made our way to the baths. We didn’t get many pictures because we were swimming around! The whole experience was very fun, we stayed for about 3 and a half hours. Testing out all the various pools, saunas, and steam rooms. My favorite pool was… you guessed it, the cold pool. I really enjoyed going into a sauna or steam room for a while and then going into the ice bath. It felt so good for my body. Many minutes were spent in the cold baths. We watched some people play chess for a while, but we forgot to bring our own board. I think it might have been for the better because we would have just played all day instead of checking out the whole bath house. Aydan got a quick nap in and then went to the bathroom before we left.
We scootered back across town and went to a Chinese restaurant near our Airbnb, very yummy and lots of food. After that we continued the tradition and got some gelato. Today we only got one. This quote from Aydan perfectly sums up yesterday’s decision to get two cones, “we were so busy asking if we could.. that we never bothered to ask if we should.” Very insightful. After our gelato we walked home while the rain dumped on us. We all chilled out on the couch and watched a movie. Everyone is getting packed up now and preparing for a early morning and a long day.
