Yesterday, I started the day, after running and breakfast by going to the Roman Bath's. Budapest is on top of geothermal springs, so there are many baths in town.
The bath I went to is called Szechenzi, and is one of the biggest complexes in Europe. I went in, promptly got undressed, and took a shower before I got into the first bath. Of course, I went into the wrong bathroom accidentally, and in a moment I was accidentally staring at my second pair of boobs on this trip. As mentioned, the first pair belonged to someone in her 20's or thirties, and this pair belonged to someone significantly older.
Anyway, she didn't even notice me, so I ran out, and went to the first bath, which was warm and had the characteristic sulfur smell. It was relaxing. After this bath, there was a seemingly endless corridor of different rooms and baths, with varying temperatures. I tried out most of them. In the middle of the entire complex was a huge giant bath-which looked, felt, and smelled like a huge swimming pool. Although it is in the 90's here, and the water was nice, to someone from South Florida a swimming pool just isn't that exciting.
And besides, I was in Iceland a couple of months back, and compared to the giant outdoor Blue Lagoon complex surrounded by lava fields, this just doesn't compare.
After the baths, I planned on a free tour of communist spots, but the relaxation of the baths combined with just a few hours of sleep the night before caught up with me, and I went back to the hostel to take a nap. (but stopped for a lunch of horrible Mexican food on the way-what do you expect in Hungary I guess?)
After the nap, I headed back downtown and stopped for a meal of falafel (also horrible but cheap). Afterwards, I met Yudith ,the same tour guide as I had yesterday on the free walking tour for a pub tour-not to be confused with a pub crawl. The tour had some cultural elements to it, such as learning how drinks we're made, and a stop at a tree that was a shrine to Michael Jackson. But mostly it was an excuse to go to multiple bars and drink a lot, including drinks indigenous to Hungary, although I forgot what they are called. And I did-I met people from the Netherlands, Korea, Austria and other places. The final bar was actually the same bar I visited a few nights before.
I went back to the hostel at 1:00 am (once again-turning in at 1:00 at a party hostel is akin to going to bed at 9:00 pm anywhere else). I hung out in the bar/club downstairs for a little while, and then went to bed.
