The inside was awesome, incredibly elaborate, the best parliament I've seen in Europe. The tour only lasted 45 minutes and we saw about three rooms, but I got to see the crown jewels (with the crooked cross on the top) and the house of commons area with cigar holders on the outside where they used to be able to tell how good a speech was by how much the cigars burned when they were inside.
After we walked down to Margaret Island, one of the few places I haven't seen before. It was pretty much a park with trees and whatnot. Nothing really out of the ordinary except for a fountain that went off to orchestrated music and the ruins of an old church.
We walked back into town and went into Jerbud, which is where I celebrated my birthday in 2007 with cakes. I had two, one a chocolate layered cake and the other a not-so-good cake with a stronger taste to it. I also had a great cafe late, and it was super cheap. I might go back tomorrow too. Dunia wanted to stop in Coffee Heaven and we split a cheese, tomato and spinach wrap.
We went to the hostel and then I went down the other end of Vaci Utca (which I didn't know existed) down to the market, held in an old two story building. They had a ton of cool foods (cheap) and some good souvenirs. I got an apple pastry, which was alright.
I went across the Liberty Bridge to the Gellert Hotel to go to the baths. I had no idea what to really expect and I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. They give you a ticket and you go in and I rented a really lame shark swimsuit (for like $2) and changed in a locker room. From there you can go outside or inside first, I picked outside since the sun was coming out a little for the first time.
There was a big wave pool that I started in. It was nice but not super warm. The waves were pretty tame, nothing like in Italy. I spent about 40 minutes in there and went into the big hot tub and hung out. It was an interesting mix of young and old and tourists and locals. I tried to stay away from the Americans as much as possible, the story of my life. I also went into the sauna for a few minutes and then I went inside.
There is a big pool for swimming surrounded by impressive architecture. To the back of it is another hot pool. I did some laps and then went into the hot pool before going back outside to the hot pool out there. I then spent maybe 20 minutes trying to figure out if there were more pools and how to get out. Turns out there was I think, but I'd already turned in my stuff by the time I found them. On top of that I could have got 300 forints returned if I made it to the exit five minute earlier. I was a little upset.
I'm glad I went and it was pretty relaxing, but I didn't feel like I did something all that incredible or that different from going to a pool at a hotel. I think I might have missed the interesting pools though.
I came back and me up with the Bucharest girls for dinner. We were going to go to a vegetarian place around the corner but it was closed, so we took a long trek to Hummus Bar in the Jewish Quarter. I had a great falafal wrap and the place was cool too.
We went down to Vaci Utca and got ice cream. I had an apple and pear, African fruit, and some sort of random colored one. It was ok.
We came back to the hostel and I went out for one last walk around my parts by the river, past Dr. Schmidt's, and then hung out on the Chain Bridge for a while. I really love this part of town. The moon was out and it was amazing to think that the same moon is in Troy or London. Budapest is always there. I really love it here, it's one of my favorite places in the world.
I was bummed about Tiger Stadium tonight after reading about Val Kilmer and how they're going to tear it down before I can get back. I'm thinking of writing a column for the Free Press, I figure it can't hurt. Tomorrow I'm leaving and better make my flight. I'm going to leave around noon, maybe earlier.
No comments:
Post a Comment