Buddha Baths

20 May - Day 66

I won't know what summer is like in Budapest, but the temperature in Budapest this week has been in the late 20C. It is very warm and we have been wearing shorts for the last 3 days.

In our final full day, we started by taking the metro to Andrassy Avenue. This is a beautiful wide avenue that houses museums, embassys, boutique hotels and offices.

It is also one of the longest streets and connects the city centre Vorosmaty Square to Heros Square. We didn't walk all the way, disembarking at the 5th of the 7 metro stops on this avenue.

 

We checked out Vajdahunjad Castle in the nearby large park. And then went to the zoo.

Most of the interesting animals were very lethargic due to the warm weather, especially the monkeys (who slept with their tails wrapped around their faces) and the gorillas who were all snoozing in the shade. We went to the Australia house and found the only koala bear there was toy one.

The white snow owl (Hedwig) got a big laugh out of Marcus when it took a huge dump in front of a couple near their cage. The furry camels looked comical and you can buy food to feed them.

These birds looked like they have been dyed red.

Then on to lunch. My goulash soup was served out of a small pail.

After that we went across the road to the turkish bath house. You get an electronic wrist band to let you in and also to activate the lock on the lockers. There are various indoor and outdoor mineral pools in this bath complex. The temperatures range from a chilly 18C to a warm 38C. The ones near the sauna (45-50C) are the colder ones.

The pools outside were larger and warm 34C or 38C. The indoor pools come in various sizes. As do the patrons, a lot of the older men had Buddha tummies, and I think they could make a lot of money busking good luck tummy-rubs in Thailand.

We were there for a couple of hours. When our fingers got wrinkly, we went for a beer and ice cream and departed. At the metro, the ticket machine was out of order. So we didn't bother paying for our trip back to the apartment.