Tuesday, 13 September 2011
There is a huge spa in the National Park and it was something that Dennis the LowCostel owner recommended a must visit. Culturally, the Hungarian Bath is really popular among the locals. It did seem a bit awkward but with Jesse, who is a guy by the way. So we discussed this issue at length and decided strictly bromantically speaking it was “ok” as long as there was no touching. Perhaps, one might argue I should not have been this comfortable, but we were in Continental Europe.
The spa was really relaxing. Personally, I am not a bath person but for that one day I made an exception. There was also saunas available throughout the spa multiplex. Like a cinema with lots of screens and different movies it had baths with different elements dissolved instead, apparently copper ions were good for you.. There were also saunas in different temperature scale. My limit was 50-70 degrees Celsius. I tried the 70-90 one, it was not fun. However my skin was feeling pretty tender afterwards.
The House of Terror was another place of significant historic values. It was a sobering experience. It used to house the secret police during the dictatorial times from Pre Nazis, to the Nazis under German Occupation, and then the Soviets. The house was situated ironically in the picture perfect, pleasant embassy district. However, the behind those shell of this wonderful piece of architecture lied a sinister past. The basement was sound proofed and converted into prison cells. The atmosphere was very hollowing indeed. There were some really horrific images there. It showed the responsibility we have to remember history, to remember those who died under and lived through tyranny for freedom. It was the same evil but different faces.
The castle district was great with beautiful architectural style. We kept walking and walking. The city was a lot bigger than it looked on the map. I guess that was why map are produced. The good thing about walking in a city as suppose to a desert or mountain was that dehydration was not really in my mind. There was always a Starbucks to pop into no matter which city. Other cool feature was the metro system. Old school, it was like only 2 metres underground. It was like, why bother keep digging.
Over all Budapest was great, definitely worth a few days. Leg 1 of the trip complete.
This was my second night train. I think it was pretty safe. The last one I took was in China, the same type of train which had a disaster in the summer. Similar to the Buddha Air Everest mountain flight I took last year, one of those plane crashed recently. Not to mention the night bus in the Himalayas but sometimes calculated risks had to be taken because I cannot be wrapped in cotton wool all the time. Off to Krakow, Poland.
Adventures of Delboy 