11 july 2005

I had a plan for today but in the end I just flitted around magpie -like whenever I saw something fancy down the street.

First it was the Basilica of St. Stephen, named after the saint whose right hand is alledgedly contained in an ornate gilded glass box in the chapel. According to the plaque: His right hand found intact has been highly esteemed by the nation ever since.

I took a funicular up to Varhegy, Castle Hill, where a collection of castley things overlooks the city. Then I hopped a metro to Varosliget city park, where I found the sad news that an obscure museum I had much anticipated visiting - the agriculture museum, with exhibits on such lively topics as sheep breeding and Hungarian viticulture - is closed on Mondays. Just about then it started to pour, so I took shelter in the nearest attraction: Sazecheny Furdo, a Hungarian bath house.

Being slightly hard to find, the bath house had hundreds of Hungarians and only a few dozen tourists. Housed in a rectangular palace with a huge courtyrd in the middle, the baths comprised room after room of pools in different shapes, sizes, and temperatures: small steamy marble basins, jacuzzi-like tubs with ice cold water, whirlpools the size of tennis courts, and hot to unbearably hot saunas that smelled of eucalyptus or cedar. Each room had unmarked doors into other rooms, so the whole experience was a scavenger hunt for new forms of aquatic fun.

Just when I thought I had explored every passage - after two hours - I went down a flight of stairs in the back of a shower room and found myself in the courtyard, which had three enourmous pool-like fountains: one for lap swimming, one with cool water that swirled around and bubbled up, and one with steaming hot water that shot in massaging jets from a central sculpture.

Bathing was a very social affair: people of all ages were talking, playing, even holding chess matches in the water. Lots of couples, multi-generational families, groups of teens. Bathing together. In a palace.

From the outdoor steam pool I watched a thunderstorm roll in.