Day 16: More Budapest

I’ve spent the past few days exploring more of the city, and I like what I’ve seen.  Budapest has done a great job of keeping with the old while embracing change.

Greg and I caught a ferry up the Danube one day to the small village of Szentendre, to see what life is like outside the city.  It wasn’t THAT special and not much of a draw-card, but it was a pretty little town nonetheless with its many churches, cobbled streets and heaps of arts and crafts for the tourists that pour in during the summer months.

On the way back to the city from Szentendre, we took the time to track down my grandfather’s old address in Budapest (he grew up there before migrating to Australia before the Second World War).  We eventually found it in a slightly shabby suburb of Buda – amazingly the building still stands!

My grandfather’s old apartment at Kis. Rokus utca 3.

The next day we caught a tram and a bus out to Szoborpark (Statue Park), where some capitalist entrepreneur had the great idea of rounding up the disposed Communist statues spread around the country after the fall of communism.  It was a fascinating glimpse into what it must have been like in communist Hungary – and it didn’t sound like much fun…

   Check out the size of this guy!!

We rounded off the day with a visit to the fantastic local market where I gorged myself on all sorts of salami and spicy sausages and heaps of fresh veggies.  After that we headed across the river to go to one of the famous thermal baths in Budapest – the Gellert Furdo.  The baths are located in an Art Nouveau palace at the back of a majestic hotel and are AMAZING!  There were all sorts of baths, from an outdoor and indoor swimming pool to heated baths (up to 38 degC), three saunas of different temperatures (from 50 to 70 degC), a blisteringly hot steam room (80 degC – ouch!).  Oh and an icy 8 degC pool to go with it.

   
Aaaah, enjoying the delights of the Gellert Furdo thermal baths.