Water, Water Everywhere

The Baths of Budapest and Eger

We spent nine days here and went to six baths. They were by far the highlight of Hungary for us. Dave has been wanting to come here for years to soak. 

The Budapest baths were all different. There was the Rudas Baths, where we hoped to get in the Turkish part but arrived too late for that. The baths there were way too crowded and loud for me, but I liked the “sauna world” which included a salt sauna where part of the walls are built of salt bricks. Never heard of a salt sauna before, well neither had I. The health benefits are supposedly due to “negative ions created by salt caves for immune deficiencies, asthma and allergy sufferers”. All I know is it was really relaxing.

We next went to the Szechenyi baths, the biggest complex in Budapest often seen in photos. Built in the early 1900s it is ornate and big. There are three big outdoor baths and more indoor baths than we could count. Saunas, steam rooms, and “beer baths”. We did not take a beer bath, which mean soaking in water mixed with hops and the other ingredients for beer, while drinking beer. Although we arrived early when it was less crowded it was still too many people for me. Széchenyi baths:

Bath three was the Gellért baths, the most elegant. The tile work inside and out is colorful. The outside was especially soothing because there are trees and lots of place for lounging around. The biggest outside bath has a wave pool which was fun, almost more fun to watch other people in it. The whole thing is in an old hotel with a large high ceilinged front lobby covered in dark wood, stain glassed windows and marble. 

First the wave pool:

  

Next the inside

Now the hotel lobby:

Our last Budapest bath was the most local, Király baths. Here we finally got to experience the Turkish style bath experience which in Hungary at least is centered around one large pool under a dome with different temperature pools around it. In this case the dome was old and not remodeled as they are in some other places. 

The Ottoman Empire, which I knew next to nothing about before coming to Eastern Europe and reading about it, brought thermal bathing to Hungary. The Romans may have as well earlier but I didn’t read or see any evidence of that while here. Király baths was funky, local, but relaxing. There were no plastic bags or spinners (that dry your wet bathing suit) like the other more tourist oriented baths had. It had a crumbling feeling and was kind of dark and dank but there was an outside part so it was okay. It felt like you were back in 1600 when it was built originally so thats kind of fun. 

We next traveled to Eger by train and checked out the baths. Eger has a huge indoor outdoor bathing facility, a separate in door and  out door Olympic sized pools (where the water polo and Olympic swimmers of the country practice) and a Turkish bath. The first day we went to the Thermal baths. Again I lost count of how many different pools there were. It was a Sunday and it was full of Hungarian families so the people watching was as good as the water. The pools have fountains and waterfalls and slides. Some are just for children 4-14, some are for adults only, some are for swimming laps, some are for “activities”. One activity we saw was water aerobics to music. It was so endearing ! Every kind of person joined in, young, old, male, female and moved to the music with the teacher. Made me miss Jazzercise!

Last but not least was the Eger Turkish baths. Esthetically they were my favorite. Not too funky not too elegant, kind of simple and understated. Well the dome was gold tile so I guess thats not understated, but not a lot of glitz other than that. The only bummer saw of the five baths four were the exact same temperature, only one on the verge of hot. There was a good sauna with a an interesting cold option, a bucket with a rope you pulled to have it dump the cold water on your head. There were also resting rooms which are always a nice addition.

It was clear from our experience that bathing is part of the overall culture of Hungary. This means there are many options and reasonable prices. It was fun and interesting to watch whole families relax together, old people using baths for treatments and young people for socializing. 

One more post on Hungary and then on to Croatia.

Food in Hungary- Every Blog will not be about food

Food in Hungary- 

I promise every blog will not be about food! The next will be about the baths, which were the highlight of this country for us. So skip this if you don’t want to know about the food.

Our first few days we were not impressed by Hungarian food. Then we had a couple of outstanding meals. Two things stuck for me; pickled things and desserts. They have all kinds of pickles and sauerkraut is sold in big tubs in the supermarket and farmers markets. Its fresh, crunchy and good. So are the variety of pickles, pickled peppers, pickled onions, pickled cauliflower, picked things I don’t know what they were!

We did a lot of our own coooking shopping at Spar supermarkets. But in Eger there was a local market hall with good produce we did not see anywhere else like spinach, lots of fruit options and this:

Piles of chanterelles and other mushrooms, clearly foraged. We wished we knew more so we could buy more. We settled on chanterelles and made a great pasta dish with them.

And desserts were excellent. I think they were competing with Austria to have the best desserts, they compete with Austria since they were part of the Austrio- Hungarian empire. Especially good were sour cherry anything, pie, beer, pastry. Chesnut paste which I can’t even describe was amazing. Surprisingly nothing was too sweet, it was actually on the less sweet side. Chocolate cake with fresh berries and whipped cream, homemade gelatos, cake with cinnamon, sour cream and cottage cheese (I know sounds weird but it was good),panna cotta with raspberries. I even liked the sour cherry beer, and I never like beer. Some how I did not photo any dessert, maybe I was too busy eating them!

We had two out standing meals, one traditional Hungarian and one that was more international foodie-esque. Almost every desert was stunning. This is not an easy place to be vegetarian or vegan although it you try you can do it, Budapest had more options, like any big city. 

This is a Hungarian antipasto plate, notice lots of meats and cheeses.

This is the best traditional meal we had, maybe the best meal period. Wild boar with purple potato gnocchi, red cabbage, pickles and cucumber yogurt salad. First we had venison goulash and a white bean veggie soup, after panna cotta (lots of Italian influence in the cooking here) with fresh strawberries.

Our best meal in Budapest combined trading and international. Pictured in an Asian greens salad, cold sour cherry soup and bread. The other photo is buffalo mozzarella and tomato’s. Simple but so good!

There are also all kinds of snack and street food but they were mostly fried bread, and meat oriented or meat and potato oriented. Not our favorites. Now a few more market photos because I can’t resist:

Last Night London - Travel Magic

We have been gone just over a week and it feels like a life time. So much has happened after we left London and explored Budapest for the last five days. Tomorrow we move on to the much smaller town of Eger. But before Budapest stories on last story from London. 

Our last day in London’s we were taking it kind of easy. We wet out of a walk before dinner to Telegraph Hill park which is about ten minutes form Sam’s house. The stroll was pleasant, lots of families out with young children playing in playgrounds, riding bikes and scooters. The diversity and variety of families was wonderful. There are tennis courts and a great view of central London. And of course signs explaining the historical significance of the hill.

We left the park and ambled toward home. On the next corner there was an interesting art installation that drew my attention. The building looked like a cafe and turned out to be that and a community center. As we read about the community art project that had caught my attention a woman came out to set tables on the front deck. Then we realized it was a pop up restaurant. We spoke to the woman, looked at the simple menu and made a reservation. She runs the place with her boyfriend who is the chef, from Italy. Everything is home made and locally sourced. 

We came back with our friend Sam and had negronis and aperol spritz (both very popular in Europe right now) grilled octopus, grapes and cheese with crostini. Fresh ravioli stuffed with fava beans and lemon, fehttuchini pasta with ragu. Finally dessert was pavlova with summer fruits. All was served on old mismatched plates that looked like they came form someone’s grandma’s house. The inside where we sat felt like a living room. The service was so sweet, with the chef coming out to explain where we got items. We found out after we ate that the pigeon on the menu was caught and smoked by the chef’s father. We wished we had gotten it.

It was so fun to stumble on this place our last night and have a memorable meal. This was one of those meals that is so carefully and lovingly made that you feel special eating it. Everything tasted great and was presented beautiful while also being very simple, with kind service. Sam didn’t even know this pop up was happening so she was especially happy to know about a new place in her neighborhood. This is the kind of travel experience that feels magical, like the stars aligned just for us to have this special meal.

We were so completely entranced by the experience the only photo I have is the sign for the pop up. I wish I had photos of the food!

We spent our three nights here in a neighborhood most tourists don’t come to. Brockley is close to Goldsmith’s University, Anika’s school in South East London. We know the parks and restaurants. We took it pretty easy, recovering from jet lag, taking walks, went to yoga class down the street and talking with our host/friend Sam.

                                                                Hilly Fields Park

                                                             Vegan pho at Bite Mi

We did walk to Greenwich where there is a tourist presence yesterday. It was a very grey, drippy day so we didn’t explore the park which includes museums and an observatory. Instead we went to the movies and walked home.

 We did run into this international convention about the medical use of psychedelics and Santa Cruz was represented by MAPS! The other photos below are just bits of Greenwich.

Tomorrow on to Budapest!

London Home

It is so great to arrive after a long flight to a place you know. This is our London view from our Air BnB host Sam’s house. We have recovered and are ready for the next part of the adventure.

I am keeping these posts short until I know someone is seeing them. please comment below or email me so I know you are listening and watching. 🙏🏽 thanks!

Today we are leaving.

Leaving Today!

Getting Ready to go feels like it takes forever!

Getting Ready to Go and Getting Ready to Blog

Here I am back, due to friend's requests, with my travel blog renamed Lysa's Big Trips, formally "The Big Trip".

Preparing for a trip can be a hectic, anxiety stimulating experience, at least in our house. We have been running around for weeks preparing ourselves and our home for us to be gone for three months. This is the longest we will have been traveling since the Big Trip in 2011-2012. This time things are complicated by the fact we have a house mate in one part of our home, our daughter in another and a new tenant renting our studio where we live. Lots of pieces to move around, including furniture and boxes!

Just seven years since the last long trip there are many changes in our lives and the travel world to take into consideration. Even blogging and reviving this blog was a task that created some tension for me. But I hope it will serve as a positive way to share our travels in Eastern Europe with our friends and family and maybe even fellow travelers we don't know.

Back to getting ready to leave! I promise future posts will be more interesting.