Saturday, October 30, 2004

The bird in Budapest


Bird baths
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. After I took the Kylie pic - which I'm glad you liked - I've been super duper busy at work, with a few days' holiday squeezed in the middle.

The picture above was taken on those few days' holiday, in Budapest with my fiance, my best pal Simon and his girlfriend Ruth. We went from last Saturday until this Wednesday night and had a really cool time. Here are my off-the-top-of-my-head highlights (in no particular order)

1. Szechenyi Gyogyfurod es Strandfuro baths
This is where the picture was taken, an amazing complex of baths and thermal pools, built in about 1920. As well as the hot outdoor pools, there were plenty of saunas, steam rooms and eggy sulphur pools Inside the buildings you can see behind Robin. Great place for a relaxing day out - and only cost about four pounds (seven dollars).

2. The 6-3 Bar
Not a particularly nice bar, but it was named after a football (soccer) game in 1953 when Hungary became the first team to beat England at Wembley. I like that 50 years on a little pokey bar commemorates that.

3. All the other bars
Cheap, good beer is hard to argue with, especially in cosy, stylish places. Some great restaurants there too.

4. Our flat
We stayed in a flat in the centre of Pest, which very much confirmed my theory that self-catering and having your own space beats hotels everytime.

5. Buda
The place is called Budapest because it's made up of two places either side of the Danube - Buda and Pest. We stayed in Pest, but had a lovely time up in Buda, which is like the old town, with a pretty castle etc. Funnily enough the only pest we met the whole time was in Buda - some loopy fella who was desperate to be our (paid) tour guide and didn't like to take no for an answer. He said 'Allow me to say one sentence more...' at least five times. We just wandered off eventually.

6. The cake shops
There are some amazing cake shops in Budapest. Okay, so they do like to put goose fat and cabbage in an alarming number of their pastries, but the sweet cakes are superb. And again, extremely cheap (30p/50c will buy you a properly amazing chocolate cake).

So, there you go, the highlights of an ace few days away - can really recommend a visit if you ever get the chance.

Hope you folks are all well and sorry for not posting for a while.

5 comments:

Dawn said...

I am amazed at the number of places to which you travel. When I lived in Europe I didn't travel nearly as frequently as you.

Anonymous said...

He goes all over the place but sayin that we all have, even ma and lollipop. Glad you all had a good time. Malaga is not too far away. Those hot baths look good. Be perfect after rugby! Edward/Brother

Anonymous said...

"...cost about four pounds (seven dollars)..."

Ouch. The exchange rate that is. I seriously hope it gets better before next October as I'll be heading across the pond to Portsmouth for some Trafalgar celebrations.

Sounds like it was a great holiday. Good, cheap beer and cakes (without goose fat and cabbage) is always a bonus. :)

~ Cathy in NJ

Anonymous said...

Robin looked like he couldn't wait to jump in and get wet! I hope he enjoyed the baths.

How are wedding plans coming along? Only a few months to go!

KJ in the USA

Anonymous said...

I wanna go Buda or Pest or both :-) Lovin the look of those baths... Rob x