The morning was spent taking a flight to our next destination of our journey - Budapest! Budapest has been on my list since I first studied abroad in Sweden as I wanted to do the Vienna, Prague, Budapest train route. I did Vienna and Prague already and there was no way I would have been able to do all 3 in one weekend so I was now completing the route.
One of the things Budapest is best known for is its baths. Hungary is a landlocked country but sits along a fault line which creates hot springs. There are over 100 hot springs in the country. The Romans were the first people to utilize these natural resources with the creation of the Roman baths.
We had booked tickets for the Széchenyi Baths in the city park. It is the largest of the baths in Budapest with 15 indoor and 3 outdoor pools. We took a nice walk through city park admiring Heroes square, the castle, and a hot air balloon until we saw the building for the baths. The building was more like a giant castle and when we initially entered it seemed like we were the only ones there. I was nervous as I had been warned the baths were overrated and typically overcrowded. Lucky for us the fact that it was a Wednesday and very hot kept the crowds away.
Holly and I loved the baths! In fact we loved them so much we spent nearly 5 hours at the baths and stayed until they were chasing us out the building at closing time. There wasn't any particular order to the indoor baths and it seemed they alternated between hot and cold. The coldest bath we plunged in which Holly made me sit in for about 5 minutes was 20 degrees Celsius. It was freezing cold and comparable to an ice bath. The hottest one was about 48 degrees Celsius in comparison. There were several in between temperature pools to avoid going from super hot to super cold. We hopped between baths very frequently wanting to make sure we tested each one to find our favorite. I much preferred the warmer baths but didn't mind the lukewarms ones in between to cool off a little.
The grand baths where you see all of the photos from are the 3 outdoor pools. In the middle they have a lap pool and the two sides are heated pools. In one of the side pools they have a whirlpool which I had never seen before. It was so fun to just be moved around in the water without doing anything.
Indoors, they also have a steam room and sauna both of which we tried. I really like the steam room as it opens all my sinuses. The sauna we did last to dry off a little bit before heading home.
Holly and I had a blast at the baths! Was it the only thing we did today? Yup! And zero regrets. It was a nice and relaxing day after all the walking in Italy. For dinner that night we ate at a traditional Hungarian place called Paprika. I had a fried halibut that was breaded with almonds and it was surprisingly good!
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