We started our third day in Budapest with the craziest bus ride I’d ever taken. Budapest’s public transit is pretty excellent, with a mix of subways, trolleys, lightrails, and buses (all of which arrive regularly and on time)—but this particular bus ride, grounded as it might have been to the electric lines overhead—was about to give us both a heart attack. We averaged somewhere around 60 MPH through winding city streets heading northeast, toward Pest’s Heroes’ Square and City Park, with plenty of brake-slamming and near-pedestrian-hitting. Ryan ended up giving his seat to an older woman who couldn’t keep up with the crazy turns, and she sat down next to me and gently crossed herself while staring straight ahead.
No more buses after that.
But we made it to Heroes’ Square in one piece, and wandered through the monumental statues of Budapest’s and—more broadly—Hungary’s key leaders over the centuries. Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden was just across the street, which we caught quick glimpses of while making our way to Vajdahunyad Vára. (“Vára” means “castle”.) This castle, which looks like something out of a Disney fairy tale, was yet another building constructed for Budapest’s millennium celebration in 1896—and from what we could tell, the building was only being used as an agricultural museum (something we weren’t too keen on experiencing firsthand). So we took a much calmer trolley back south along the Danube to Central Market, which we visited with András on our first morning. There was a mission behind this particular visit: I was determined to buy paprika paste, my new favorite addition to any dish.
We walked across Liberty Bridge (the Szabadság had) to Gellért baths, the same thermal spas we visited with András—but this time, we had reservations to actually enjoy the baths, and not just the beautiful stained-glass lobby. Gellért features a fun assortment of indoor and outdoor pools, some more heated than others, and even an outdoor wave pool. It has five sizable thermal pools with temperatures between 34º and 40ºC (93-104ºF), and even two ice baths at 15º and 16ºC (about 60ºF—cold enough to induce hypothermia after too long. (The recommended length of an ice dip was no more than 30 seconds.) Sarah and Monty, who sponsored our trip to the baths, recommended going between the hottest thermal pool and the coldest ice bath at least a few times “for maximum relaxation”—and after Ryan got a good laugh watching me follow this recommendation, he finally joined in. It felt like thousands of pins and needles were pricking every centimeter of body surface possible, but I’ll admit it felt pretty damn good after a while.
After hopping from pool to pool, I headed upstairs to get a massage while Ryan stretched out in his bathrobe and slippers on the second-floor pool deck and watched House of Cards. In all, it was a perfectly relaxing afternoon.
We washed off the sulphur-smelling water and dressed up back at the hotel, grabbed quick lattes at Central Coffee House, and then headed to Pier 7 on the Danube—the dedicated pier for Legenda Dinner Cruises. Legenda was an András recommendation: Its point wasn’t to help tourists sightsee along the Danube, but rather to provide them the perfect vehicle for enjoying Budapest’s shores by night, along with music and a delicious four-course meal. The cruise started an hour before sunset, and journeyed north—past the Parliament building to the west—all the way around the island of Margitsziget, and back down. We went so far south that we couldn’t recognize any of the buildings in Buda or Pest, and then headed back north again—and we repeated that course two and a half times. We were lucky to be seated on the boat’s top deck, where only five other couples were dining; we got thick blankets (which were necessary—it was cold after the sun went down) and had perfect panoramic views of everything around us. Each course was a unique homage to Hungarian cuisine (but alas, no paprikás), including cold, fruit soup that we loved far more than we expected to. But best of all, we were so happy to see the Parliament Building and Castle District lit up at night, which was one of the best views we’d had in our entire time in Hungary.