Up and out today to be in the next neighborhood over by 10 am. Lance signed us up for something called “Claustrophilia”, which is a popular game concept that goes by many different names. We enter a room, sign a waiver and then spend the next hour trying to figure out clues and find keys to get back out of the room. Plenty of locks and clues and things that look like clues but are really there just to throw us off the track. Fun AND frustrating, we start to get the hang of it after a bit of help from a mysterious voice. We are on the last step to get the final key and open the door, and time’s up. The mysterious voice comes out and helps us get the final key and then we’re done. She says that about 30% of people make it out. I think it would be a really fun game to set up in Vegas and make a bit of money – who knows?
Then we catch the metro and head northeast of the city to Varosliget, a huge park with Heroes Square, the Millenium Monument, the Vajdahunyad Castle, and most importantly, the Szechenyi Baths. Home to 80 geothermal springs and the worlds largest thermal water cave system, Budapest is a mecca for people to enjoy natural baths. After 150 years of Ottoman rule in the 15th and 16th centuries, both unisex and segregated baths became part of daily life.
We headed to the gorgeous baths straight from the metro, only the women’s lockers were filled by the main entrance, so we headed around to the side. Upon entering, we ran into a woman who asked if we were interested in getting some Thai massage. A little wary, we agreed, and she walked us around to the back and up a couple of flights of steps. It was a bit strange, but we signed up for massages about an hour later, and proceeded to our separate locker rooms and out to the pool. They have a pretty cool system where you get a plastic, waterproof band, kind of like a watch, and that is used for exit and entry, as well as to lock your locker. We tried the moderately warm pool, where I only put my feet in, and then went to the nice and warm pool, where I dipped in much further. The really large and deep middle pool was drained for service.
See how beautiful? And someone is waving at me…
The thai massage was lovely, and as always, a bit of a contortionist party.
Feeling very mellow after, we walked through the park and grabbed gourmet burgers for lunch,
then headed across to boulevard to see the Vajdahunyad Castle, which is actually an amalgam of different building and castle styles from Romanesque to Renaissance that were utilized throughout Hungarian history.
Very grand and beautiful, and kind of funny, we walked around, into the park that it neighbored, and then slowly back to the metro and to Palazzo Zichy for a short rest before the evening program.
Back over to the neighborhood of St. Stephens and to Borkonhya Wine Kitchen for dinner. High hopes, but though the smoked salmon trouth looked yummy,
Lance said it was just okay. Our entrees were excellent, though, and he had rabbit terrine with fava beans
while I ignored my “go to” on any menu, duck confit (sorry, Tay!) and went for the special, which was venison saddle on pureed sweet potatoes. Good and extremely beautiful presentation.
Dessert was a must – for Lance – because they had a special lemon sponge cake with gorgonzola ice cream that I’d read about.
It was highly unusual, although the gorgonzola was waaaay subtle. I ordered the basil treatment, and you can see how pretty it is….basil ice cream, freeze dried candied lemon rind, something chewy and green that i couldn’t identify and a blue stick of meringue sprinkled with toasted black sesame seeds to keep it from being very sweet.
Anyway, we finished up and headed over to St. Stephen’s (as the story goes, he was given the crown to Hungary by Archangel Gabriel and was canonized after he died. In real life, I think he received it from the standing Pope of the time) for the concert. A long line of people were already headed in. We took our seats and chatted while waiting for the concert to begin. Lights came up at 8:07, and the organ began, just like in a movie. I closed my eyes and enjoyed being wrapped in the pipe music that swirled around me and filled up the basilica from top to bottom (and videoed a couple of minutes on my phone – to be posted after I returned). The piece lasted about 10 minutes, and then the Hungarian Philharmonic entered, the National Choir and 4 members of the National Opera company.
After all of the introductions in English, German and Hungarian, the music began. I was quite overcome and tears filled my eyes. The voices, the acoustics, the chambers – a banquet for my senses and I was filled with rapture (no, not THE rapture) of the whole experience. One of the things I loved the most was the way that the sounds and energy from the musicians’ notes and singers’ voices would vibrate in the chamber after they stopped for a full 5 seconds. It was just so much wonderful energy that they’d created that was filling the spaces around us and dissipating into the domes and our bodies. Mmmmm….
The concert lasted about an hour, and we walked home slowly and contentedly. What a night!
…laundry time! Lance finds a creative way to use our bidet:
