I realize it’s been a couple of days. After three late nights my immune system was depleted and I got a little cold. I spent most of Friday and Saturday in bed or on the IKEA sofa. Lisa went to the Pharmicia and bought some COLDEX which, as far as I was concerned was the same as ALKA-SELTZER Night Time Cold Formula as it made everything night time. I did experience some 1960’s colors that I do not get with the ALKA-SELTZER. I’m already looking into import restrictions. Lisa also cooked up a batch of Jewish Mother’s chicken soup. One of the two treatments did the trick and I am basically back to my normal.
Budapest, and most Eastern European cities, are famous for their thermal baths. What better way to celebrate the end of a cold with a trip to the thermal baths. We had been talking about going since we arrived but the timing was just not right until today. First of all it is very cool in Budapest. We were having a hard time understanding the concept of going to a thermal bath when it was warm out but a nice cool day, a perfect opportunity. We gathered our gear, towels, flip flops, the national shoe of Hungary, and swim suits and headed to the Szechenyi Furdo. The Szenchenyi Furdo is in the middle of the city park, an easy tram and then a subway ride. This place is quite an experience and I guess I’m a little surprised we hadn’t been to a bath before. We had looked in the Gellert Furdo on our first day here but didn’t know the procedure. Basically you buy a ticket, $13.00 US, a little expensive but you can stay all day if you want. You proceed thru a complicated turn style, figure out a complicated changing room with doors on each side that people keep opening until you figure out the simple mechanism that locks both doors. You change into your Speedo, the official Hungarian swim suit; thankfully we are not Hungarian and received some special pass to wear our boring American swim suits. We had to go thru a special door and everyone stared at us. The complex is very large, there are saunas, hot tubs, swimming pools, thermal tubs and thermal pools. We liked the thermal pool, 36 C, with the cool breeze and occasional rain drops it was quite refreshing. We also tried the steam bath, a sulfur spa and Lisa tried the aroma saunas. The place was packed; people play chess while standing around in the pool. Others just loll around in the warm water. On this cool day the swimming pool was almost empty. I’ll return on a sunnier day for better pics but I took a couple.
This morning we worked on our travel arrangements to Vienna and Prague. Clayton will go with us. We leave Budapest on July 9th, travel by train to Vienna for 3 days and then by train to Prague for 4 days. We will return to Budapest by night train on the 15th. Peter Bodor helped us find a deal on the Vienna leg which included a voucher for local transportation, a big savings. He also figured out it is cheaper to buy round trip tickets but only use one leg than to buy a one way ticket.
I took the tram to the railway station and bought the tickets. We made hotel reservations today for both cities, we are set. I have my compass. I’m sure glad Clayton speaks German and Czech. Maybe it’s Spanish and Italian.
Jesus Christ Superstar or Jezus Krisztus Szupersztar
We went with Rachael Mason on Thursday, the third late night that diminished my natural disease fighting abilities. It was an interesting event. The theater was beautiful, old, rather small but technically modern from a theater perspective. The production was pretty good for a repertory group. The oddest thing was the way the audience reacted. Lots of whoops and hollers for individual performances, and the ovation at the end went on for at least 20 minutes. One factor that is important, it was the final performance of the season for Szupersztar which may have accounted for the overzealous fans. I have seen this rock opera several times, and in 2011 in Budapest, it still holds up, even with sub titles. The Hungarian translation was done in 1972 and the show has been a favorite in Hungary since. Remember it was first performed in New York in 1971. I saw it with Murray Head, Ted Neeley, Ben Vereen and Yvonne Elliman late in 1971. The NAACP was marching outside the theater because the Judas character was Black.
This is getting to long…the other picture is an interesting street scene. In the background the Striptease Bar, (great happy hour) in the middle the KFC and in the foreground the Starbucks. Gentrification, but in which direction?
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