Relaxing at the Baths -July 2nd

Today I chose to spend my morning at the Gellert Baths. Budapest is famous for their thermal baths that are suppose to be very therapeutic. So I decided that after my day of a lot of walking and hiking in the heat I would take it easier vs. spending the day in the sun again when it was 90 again. So the Gellert Baths are famous for their architecture of the inside baths. Originally these baths were Turkish baths and they are seriously so beautiful. The baths ranged in temperature from 18C-40C and steam rooms. Then in addition to the multiple indoor baths, they also had an outdoor section filled with more baths, a wave pool, and a sauna. I enjoyed the 36C bath, but literally lasted < 30 seconds in the sauna. Then after a little while outside I found a lawn chair to lay out on and dry off. 

Indoor swimming pool 

Ceiling of Gellert Spa PC: Thaler Tamas 

Spa hallway entrance - seriously not sure how they let me in! PC: Thaler Tamas 

Inside thermal bath

Outdoor wave pool and lounge site

After my morning and afternoon at the baths I had to make my way back to the Pest side to meet up for the alternative walking tour I signed up for due to the rave reviews from staff of my hostel. Unfortunately I either got a very bad guide or this tour is really not very good at all. We went through the Jewish quarters on the tour and learned only a little bit about the progression from pre-war to war ghetto to post and present day state of life in the Jewish quarters for Jews and non-jews. This area became the scene of all alternative life because during the war it was vacated and people moved in for free or extremely cheap rent—> thus a huge wave of young people came including artist and alternative people. Now there are a lot of beautiful murals painted on firewalls with many city permits by mainly two groups of art companies. 

When artwork gets it right ("1 family torn apart by war is too many") 

Art to remember the brave and selfless- A plaque next to it reads:

"Whoever saves a life is considered as if he has saved an entire world" /Talmud/ 

"In memory of those who in 1944 under the leadership of the Swiss Consul Carl Lutz/1895-1975/rescued thousands from National Socialist persecution." 

When art becomes so good that you can't tell what is real and what is just paint. 

I did learn something kind of interesting about the history of the Szimpla ruin pub. Originally it was a furnace factory and five Jewish families lived above the factory (it's locate in the Jewish district so it's not super surprising). After the flats became vacant from their original owners and the factory stopped being of use, the building became one of the many with historical significance and age that was protected by the government from being destroyed. Now the ruined building houses one of Budapest’s most famous of their ruin pubs. The irony in this is that there is still a functional mikveh (religious cleansing bath for Jews) right next to the pub. The inside Szimpla has been decorated by many alternative artists. To be honest I thought it looked a bit like a junk-yard filled with random stuff, but hey modern art I guess… 

Szimpla is the building that may look like a safety hazard to some haha

That night I had made connections with the IAESTE Committee of Budapest and met up with representatives for dinner and drinks. It was nice to go to a traditional Hungarian restaurant (Frici Papa) where the food was very good and very cheap! We also went to a few bars where drinks were all very inexpensive and one of the guys in the group was good friends with the owners of the bar/cafe place we went to watch the Germany-Italy Euro Cup match. Wow, that was definitely an unexpected game in my opinion and it was super long… Oh well, it was a very good match. It gave me plenty of time to talk to and meet IAESTE representatives from Budapest and new interns from a "small town" in China and from none other than Wroclaw, Poland. Its funny that I met someone from Wroclaw because she also works for the IAESTE committee there and the previous weekend I was there for their summer reception!