Bath Houses and Bad Ass Buildings in Budapest

An unfortunate side effect of travelling is cynicism. You’re always on the look-out for someone to rip you off, for things to not go quite as planned. In some places this cynicism may be warranted – Budapest, capital of Hungary is definitely not one of them.

After traversing four countries to get here – Poland, Czech, Slovakia and Hungary, it’s after ten pm when we pull into Budapest Keleti Station. Tired and thirsty, we get our first taste of the Hungarian laid back attitude. “Taxi will cost 20 euro (that’s expensive) but there’s a cheaper company around the corner. Whatever you want. No matter”. We opt for the expensive option.

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Budapest by day proves to be striking – an architectural paradise. With a diverse blend of Baroque, modern and medieval builds, Gothic-styled cathedrals, traditional Turkish baths and Roman ruins intersected by the gorgeous river Danube, our eyes continuously skip from one bad-ass build to the next and our cameras are kept busy.

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Our daughter Paige made us come to Budapest, she was here two years ago. She was particularly adamant that we take a river cruise and whilst it wasn’t the night-time cruise she had enjoyed, our leisurely daytime cruise along the river Danube was great, made more enjoyable by meeting poms Lyle and Rebecca.

Sitting on a patchwork of almost 125 thermal springs, Budapest is famous for its thermal pools and bathhouses. Visiting the Gellert bathhouse, weeks of travel aches and pains dissipates as we hop from heated pools to steam rooms, to saunas and finish with a delicious massage each.

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Like Warsaw, Budapest is preparing for Christmas and sadly, Christmas in Australia is never going to be the same again. Every Square here seems to offer an unbelievable Christmas market, open daily from about 10-11 am but really coming alive at dusk – 4 pm. Glowing Christmas lights and Christmas trees everywhere, little stalls full of unique gifts, maybe an ice-skating rink and best of all the food and drink. Stalls groaning under the weight of food, the air fragrant with the scent of warming mulled wine. I partake eagerly, greedily and happily of all.

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When not eating or drinking or lolling in the Christmas markets, we spend our time visiting the Grand Market, riding the funicular to the top of Budapest Castle and visiting the many places available when utilising the Hop-On buses; again, a great transportation option in these abundant cities.

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Tonight, we are country hoping once more – this time to Croatia. We are looking forward to some warmer weather in Game of Thrones town Split but first comes capital Zagreb.

Fun facts – the inventors of both the Rubik cube and biro were born in Budapest. Paprika was invented here. Budapest has more thermal springs than any other capital city in the world.