We arrived in Budapest early in the morning with only one objective in our minds... the Turkish thermal baths!
Even with the morning traffic jam in the Hungarian capital, we drove quite well thanks to their large roads that connect the main boulevards. Before starting the trip we decided that, when we travel to big cities, to stay outside the city and use public transportation or to search for hypermarkets or shopping malls with large parking place, but this time the luck was not on our side... the parking that we planned to go had a height limit lower than our campervan...but no problem!... we made a fast search on Waze app for large boulevards that might have a good place to park and we found it on Stefánia ut which is even closer to the Széchenyi Thermal Bath.
Map to Budapest
We've put the swimming suits and the flip-flops in the backpack and off we went! To reach the baths we passed through the pleasant City park, Városliget, and got surprised by several tents placed all over the park with people actually living there. Seems that in the summer of 2016, a private company prepared a development plan for the area by building four modern cultural institutions and according to them, enlarging the green spaces, however many activists opposed the project and are still fighting for the protection of the trees (more info here). I really like and support the protesters' determination and courage that motivates them to fight at this level even after more than one year!
City Park and banners of protesters
We left behind this sad but encouraging image and crossed the park until we reached the Neo-baroque palace that hosts the famous Széchenyi Thermal Bath. According to the official website there are 15 indoor baths and 3 grand outdoor pools with medicinal natural hot spring waters and 10 saunas/steam cabins which, of course, we tried all of them. The price for a day is 16.5€ for a weekday and 17€ for weekends. Since we visited the baths on a weekday in the middle of October, we expected less people inside, however tourists and locals alike, were taking their pill of relaxation and tranquillity. We made a slalom between the warm indoor swimming pools and hot saunas (up to 80º-100º degrees) for more than 3 hours and we spent a great time in the big outdoor pool. Our daily objective has been successfully reached, spending quality time together.
The outdoor pool in Széchenyi Thermal Bath
One of the many warm indoor pools
To finalize the day we couldn't miss a walk along Danube in the evening, which was not easy, since we lost almost all our entire energy at the baths. We took the metro from Bajza utca station on line M1 until the end of IT and continued with a little walk until the river. Definitely the best time of the day to be amazed by its beauty is at night! The lights, the water sounds, the monumental buildings that raise from Pest's hills and the magnificent Neo-Gothic Hungarian Parliament building on Buda's side are actors in creating this dreaming atmosphere. After we let our eyes to get stolen by these views, we hid on the streets behind Parliament in search for a quiet and unpretentious restaurant.
City Lights
If you have a day to spend in Budapest, then choose smart and don't go running from a museum to another, from a touristic objective to another...enjoy a city like a local and do it with open heart and mind, just do not only check your lists.
