Actually, maybe I was wrong about the Paliament being the most popular tourist attraction in Budapest. Perhaps it's the themal baths and spas. Grace had booked online in advance at Széchenyi Baths (Széchenyi Gyógyfürdő) in Városliget, the "City Park".
She had also identified a place for a healthy brunch, because the hot waters would make it a healthy day, OK? The cafe, Szimply, was a bit further away than anticipated, in a little court beyond the big Synagogue, and also it was very busy and we had to sit at the outside tables (and the weather wasn't very warm).
Grace had the veggie bowl with salmon and I had the avocado toast. I think that's healthy.
Then we got the Metro on the familiar number one line, past our "home" station at Oktogon, and all the way to city park and Széchenyi baths.
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| Szimply a cafe. | Széchenyi baths. | Széchenyi baths in artwork form. | Castle in Városliget. |
The baths complex at Széchenyi suffers from a lack of organization and signage. No indication of which queue to join if you had pre-booked tickets. No feedback on waiting times. (I'm not complaining about a lack of English information. There is nothing in Hungarian either, and unfamiliar Hungarians were as comfused as we were.)
But after a 20-minute wait, we got in, and got changed. There are two options for changing: lockers in sex-segregated halls, or "cabins" -- compact, lockable cubicles. Grace had booked us a cabin each, but with the crowds on the day, the staff were over-riding the bookings and making making groups share. We had to change alternately, which worked OK, but I overheard the hen party saying plaintively, "But there's eleven of us!"
It was freezing out, but the water was warm. The Bride of the hen party bravely wore her Captain's hat with wedding veil into the pool. She also wore a white swimsuit with "Bride" in sparkly silver. They had a lot of fun, but we had to wait until they cleared out of the rotating cyclone feature.
The main pools, as can be seen in the artist's rendition, consist of warm ones at each end, and a less warm between for serious swimmers to put in the lengths. There was no-one in the latter. The pool nearest out changing facility was 34°, but the distant one was 38°, which made the cold trot across the site worth while.
We stayed in the warm water for about two hours, dried and changed, and had a walk around the park and castle. The lake (ice rink in Winter) was entirely empty of water. We crossed the road to the adjacent "Heroes Square".
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| Castle in Városliget. | Statue in Városliget. | Anonymous. | Heroes Square |
Heroes Square presents a heavily fictionalized version of Hungarian history. In particular, one guide book I read pointed out that the fierce column of big Magyar warriors, on their warhorses, heavily armoured and carrying big swords and axes, doesn't correspond at all to how the Magyar would really have looked: small Central Asians on shaggy Mongol ponies. One of the statues even has a helmet with crows' wings, like a Viking.
The Metro station at the baths took us straight back to Oktogon, and then it was a short walk home. After a rest, we ventured out to a falaffel bar that Grace had scoped out. Informal, cheap, filling and entirely vegan. I think the owners were Lebanese.
On the way home, we briefly elplored Gozsdu Udvar, which isn't just your average "ruin bar". It's a complex of six interconnected courtyards and buildings, filled with bars and clubs, on several levels. Since it was a "healthy day" we bought no drinks, but agreed that it would be good for a pub crawl on another day. It was raining slightly as we made our way home.