Ah Pest...

My original plans went awry today when I slept until noon. I guess I was tired! But that's ok...I am on vacation after all.

I left the hotel about 1pm, and went up to the Ferenc korut Metro stop. I took the blue line to the Deak ter Metro stop, which is where the three lines meet. The Metro here is a lot like the Paris Metro...you just have to remember your desired stop on each line, the terminus stop for that line (so you go the right direction), and the color of the line (easy, the subway cars are that color). The doors open automatically, which was better than Paris, but the stations are far more utilitarian, unlike Paris. Another big difference is the escalators that take you up and down from the street level to the subway level. Those babies are moving! They're twice as fast as a US escalator...I sure hope you're not elderly or handicapped, because you'd probably hurt yourself getting on or off. Then I took the yellow line up to Oktogon, where I got off and had lunch at Menza. The yellow line is the oldest subway in Europe, opened in 1896...definitely neat.

There is such a cafe culture here. Everywhere you go at almost any hour of the day or night, people are drinking and eating on patios. It's nice for people watching. Menza is a great patio on a tree-shaded park-lined street. They had a big variety of food and excellent homemade limonade.

Then I walked up Andrassy utca, which is the equivalent of Peachtree Street. It has lots of shops and in one area, lots of expensive looking old homes. At the end of it is the Varosliget, or City Park, which contains Szechenyi Furdo (Szechenyi baths), the zoo, Vajdahunyad var (Vajdahunyad castle), and Hosok tere (Heroes Square), and several museums, among other things. I walked through the cool, green park and took some pictures of the castle, which is a mishmash of several different architectureal styles--really interesting looking! Then I walked up to Szechenyi baths and experienced one of the coolest, most disorienting experiences ever!

First off, Szechenyi furdo is huge! When you pay your 2600 Ft. ( about $14), you get a magnetic card. Then you go through a turnstile in a narrow hallway where you swipe your card. Then you enter a big area with rows and rows of dressing rooms, called cabins. You find an open cabin (in my case with the help of an attendant), go in and change into your bathing suit, then leave your stuff in the cabin, only taking your towel and flip flops. The attendant locks the cabin behind you and gives you a triangular metal piece on an elastic cord, which is your "claim check". Then you go out into the bath areas.

I looked around before I decided on what to do, but I went through room upon room..at least 10, all filled with different kinds of soaking pools, until I got to the outside pools. It was absolutely amazing...there were 3 big outside pools of differing temperatures. I swam out there for a while until I got a little cool, then I went back inside.

There are 20-30 public pools in the interior of the baths, they're all of differing temperature and mineral percentage or makeup. It smelled slightly sulfur-y but not unpleasant. There was even one pool that had a circular current...like a huge whirlpool...you had to grab the railings and pull to get yourself out onto the steps. While you were soaking, if you looked up there was usually a big carved dome way above. The whole building felt more like a palace than baths. They also had saunas of varying temperatures and a steam room.

What was so disorienting was that almost none of the signage was in English, and I had to wander to find my way in and out. No big deal, I had all the time in the world. I spent a couple of hours there, then went back to my cabin. Apparently the lady who let me in didn't think I'd spent enough time relaxing, because she said I was too quick:) I changed and went back out into the park.

From there, I went back through Heroes Square to Andrassy ut and caught the subway south. I went to Szant Istvans...Saint Steven's Cathedral and checked that out. This city has a lot of domes:) Then I wandered over to Vaci Utca, where there was a Hungarian music group singing, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen". Weird:) I think it was some kind of talent exhibition because a dance group came on next. I walked on down to the Danube where I got some great shots of Buda. Can't wait to go over there. Then I went to dinner along the Danube at a place called Taverna Dionysus...Greek, if you couldn't tell. Good lamb, great fruit and yoghurt dessert.

Then I was going to check out a bar called Cafe Eklektica, but it has moved locations. So I gave up for the night (it was 10pm) and came back to the hotel. I am going to try to get to bed at a decent hour tonight so I don't sleep so late again. Tomorrow I'd like to go to Buda...I would also like to buy some Unicum and Palinka to bring back...two popular local liquors.

Good night!