hungary 3

Monday Oct 25, my first full day in Budapest, waking up here too, well since I never really fully slept on the overnight train from Dresden. Wanted to make the 10am tour of Pest organized by the Budapest tourism agency and free with the Budapest card, not a bad deal, less than 30 euros (~$37) for unlimited use of public transit, trams, busses, and subway for 72 hours, plus a comprehensive walking tour, plus a couple discounts, to the museums, and the church. Sunday night I guess I was so exhausted that just by closing my eyes around 12mid, I knocked out right in front of my computer on the bed, hadn’t remembered to lock my door, brush my teeth, get stuff ready for the next morning, so when I opened my eyes at 8:15am, it was a scramble, I figured I should leave by 9, because I had to take the 7 bus and walk over from Astoria to Deak Ferenc Ter to catch the 16 bus over to Buda in the Castle District, Unfortuantely, after I situated everything, I did not leave til almost 9:30, ran to the 7, and then ran to the 16, got off 1 stop too far on the 16 and had to run up the hill, and by the time I got to Hermostag street it was 10:10 I found the address of the meeting place but no sign of a group, frantically searching around and showing people my Budapest Card until finally I was told in a booth to look for a girl with dark hair and a colorful scarf, down by the Fisherman’s Bastion there was a such a girl, I was relieved because I did not want to self-guide myself for the morning. Though Sunday was a good day, I wanted to learn some things. There was a large mix of people, mostly older, though the tour was in English, I don’t think many people came from native-English countries. We saw the palace, some archaelogical ruins, digs, learned about some monuments, and old Church of which only the steeple was kept, and the fact that after WWII no houses in Buda were habitable, and houses in the hills these days are very expensive due to the real estate and the views. Though they were not included in the tour, we were recommended the castle labyrinth and the King Matyus church, which I have to say after the next day is more impressive on the outside than the inside. It has been standing since the 1300s but has changed hands many time including as a mosque during Turkish rule, and there are some cool designs inside indicative of Islam. Buda is much older seeming and quieter than intimidating, industrial-looking Pest, it’s a hill village, Buda is with many nooks and crannies and windy streets. We were ended the tour with a surprise tour of a small, private art gallery in the former home of Amerigo Tot. After that, it was close to 1:00, and I was tired and hungry from having walked around hills for the past 3 hours and still haven’t  had fully recuperated from the lack of sleep thurs-sun, which was a total of 6 on thurs, 0 on Friday, and maybe a combined 3 hours on the trains on Saturday, so 9 hours, from getting up at 10am on Thursday to arriving at Budapest at 8:30am Sunday, great I know. I sat in a park for a bit to gather my thoughts and figure out what to do the rest of the day. I consulted my internet suggested itinenaries which had various ideas on it, so one in particular tickled my fancy and that was going back to Moszkva Square where there were a lot of good lunch restauruants. I was going to find some Hungarian place near the Mammut mall, but instead settled with a pub called Trompitas, that said to have pizza and salads, I went in, found out the waitress spoke no English but sat down anyway, very light crowd, definitely a good choice. I ordered some goulash soup, and a filet of fish dish with crokettes, and a ½ liter mug of Grusser beer which was advertised by its logo outside. The goulash was amazing. It came in a cauldron, heated by a coal, and I had a bowl I could scoop it into. The fish was ok, and the croquettes were good as was the tartar sauce and the small cucumber/cole slaw salad, the beer was nothing special, but I was satisfied and had a good lunch, all in all about 3000 HUF, about 11 euros on today’s forex rate, I know Hungary has strange denominations, the biggest bill I have seen is 30,000 HUF which is about 107 EUR. They actually have coins for amounts UNDER 100 HUF, they have 5, 10, and 20 HUF coins. In the XR rate of 1 EUR ~ 275 HUF, it is about 2 cents, well I guess that’s not so bad, but a 5 HUF coin seems miniscule compared to most things cost at least a few hundred HUF, but we come from places where ‘hundreds’ seem big. So after lunch  I was tired and figured it would be a good idea to take a ride on the Ex-Pioneer Railway, some former Communist thing that is a 40-minute train ride through the hills of Buda, after 1 dead end taking the 18 to the 2^nd stop where there was clearly no connector next to I figured out to take the 61 tram 2 stops to Varosmajor and switch to the Fogaskereku, #60 which reminded me of a ski lift at a winter resort. The cogswheel railway as it is also known is slso an attraction, as it uses the same mechanism to get up the hill as a roller coaster uses to get up before beginning its ride. I got to the last stop and then walked over the Railway, but found it to be closed because it was working Monday. It was eerily desolate around so I made my way back to the Fogaskereku. My next adventure would be the labyrinths which I figured I had to take the 60 cogswheel cars down to switch to the 61 and at Moszkva Sq catch the 16 bus back up to the Castle District. At about 3:45, I found  the labyrinth, and paid with a discount, and began my journey through the underground, it was really dark and mad scary in some parts with the darkness, shadows, noise effects and images of iron-clad horsemen riding through the tunnels to cut off people’s heads. It had many different rooms and hallways, and artifacts. The guide book I had had some sort of weird satirical humor about the things and ‘finds’ including a footprint that has not been identified to any living creatures so apparently there is a new species of humans which anthropologists have documented. After the labyrinth finished at about 4;30, I made my way over to the King church and went to buy a ticket and the guy said they close at 5 and I’d only have 20 minutes in the church (had I known from going the next day that all it is is a sanctuary and all you need is 10-15 minutes see it all. Disappointed that it was the 2^nd thing today I would not be able to see/do. As it was getting late and I wanted to make it to Rudas bath, I located it near Elizabeth bridge, and decided it to make it my next destination. I caught the 16 bus down to Moszkva Square and hopped on the 18, once agin one stop too far, and then walked the street up as it started to rain, I gtot there about 6 and thankfully the door said they would be open til 8. I went in and purchased 1 ticket very easy, went thru the turnstile and into the locker room, here it was interesting, your locker doubled as your changing room, but inside it was soooo hot, I do not know why, got my stuff, and made my way to the pools (which this time meant baths and not actually pools). I took a ‘preliminary shower’ and made my way into the pool room. This was modeled after the Turkish bath that originally occupied the site and the roof and walls were petty much the same, the main 36 degree bath was in the middle, it would be the first I would try. Rudas is much different than Lukacs because there is no mixed bathing and on odd days it is men only and even days women only, in Lukacs most people wore bathing suits or speedos, here bathing suits were a drastic minority instead replaced by these white apron looking things, I didn’t know what to think, just that people must be really comfortable with themselves.and others. Rudas was architecturally much more appealing than Lukacs and the considerable unpretentious atmosphere was nice too. I rotated from bath to bath, starting at 24, working to 28, to 33, and then I went to check out some room that someone had a bucket of water pour on him, I found out these rooms lead to the steam and heat rooms. My first visit was to the steam room, but it was so crowded and really hot, I could barely breathe. I spent maybe 10-15 seconds in there, and jetted, this is when I discovered the big bucket, it reminded me of something at a water park that fills up over a period of time and some buzzer sounds and it pours everything out in the kiddie section like in Hurricane Harbor at 6 Flags. I went under it , pulled the rope and was greeted with several gallons/liters of freezing cold water, Ah! Its so you can cool off after coming out of the steam room, ingenious! My next trip was to the sauna (?), it was hot, but wasn’t steamy, just really hot, Although it was humid inside this was more bearable, they had a 50-55 degree room and a 72 degree room. I don’t remember the degrees of the first room. I went straight to the 72 room, and let me remind you that is not Fahrenheit, that is CELSIUS, I don’t even know the conversion off the top of my head, all I know is that 40-50 degrees in the summer time is considered hot! After that I tried the really hot bath, 42 degrees, that was too hot for comfort and stupid me had forgotten my water bottle in the changing rooms so I was stuck drinking the sulfur-reaking hot water from the fountain on the wall. I then retreated to the 36 degree bath in the middle for a while longer, until about 7:00, that was enough. I got dressed, gave back my bracelet and figured my next course of action. The stretch I had walked the night before after Elizabeth bridge was nice enough and I had even seen some nice restaurants so I thought Id see it again. Of course it started raining as soon as I walked outside but it wasn’t bad like Holland rain can get, and the one thing I sacrificed because I couldn’t fit in a bag was my umbrella and look I survived to lived to tell about it! Since it was dark, I was hungry, and it was getting late, I made my way over the bridge, this time on the right side so I wouldn’t have to pass any homeless people. I found the bread place again and thought about getting something but continued on, to eat something a foot long and greasy you need the right time. I saw some restaurants along the way and after seeing some that seemed too cozy or too expensive I decided on an Italian one called Cucina that seemed fair enough, went in, got a table, and ordered a glass of house red wine, a tomato soup with buffalo mozzarella, and a pasta dish with marinated strips of beef/chicken in a creamy garlic tomato sauce. Ever scrumptious and the service was good and the food was quick, and I read while I waited. The only downside was they took forever to bring me the check, oh yes and I also had a cappuccino to top off the meal, fine and dandy again, all in all about 6000 HUF ~ 21 EUR. After I left I, I am actually having trouble remembering what I did so obviously it was not that significant! Oh yea, I went to go see if I could find the Godor Klub, I had heard good things about it, like live jazz/bar scene, so I walked to Deak/Elizabeth square, around it a couple times, and finally located  sign advertising its schedule for October, I was tempted to ask someone but I wanted to figure  it out myself. Finally I found some stairs descending and noticed a sign that said Godor, no wonder I had been told it was ‘on the square’ I heard some noise reminiscent of live music and walked down, it was a tight place, like your local live music bar, there was a band playing blues.rock music and lots of tables and people around the corner stage, a very energetic time though I did not stay long, after this, I walked from Deak square to Astoria, and caught the 7 to go home. I was too tired to try the internet so I just wrote some logs of my day, went to sleep around 1, though I had dozed off from 12-1 and woke up again around 7:30, I figured I had a lot to do the next day, Jewish tour, Terror museum, Matyus church, and the communist railway if I could manage it, it was going to be a load to do in 6-7 hours including getting from place to place so I thought to leave around 9…the next day awaits!