Day 3: Budapest

First, a brief review of night trains: they are cramped, stuffy, and uncomfortable.  And they seem expensive, when you consider we payed 30euro to get from Prague to Budapest (and later even more to get from Vienna to Venice) and we only payed 15euro for our hotel in Prague.  BUT Prague's hotel is kind of an unfair comparison anyways cause it was our cheapest hotel of the trip :o)  And you're comparing two completely different birds.

We got the six person "rooms" where you have two three person bunks with barely enough room to sit up... and we slept with our bags at our feet.  It wasn't the best sleep ever ;o) but what we really liked about it was that it saved time.  Because even though night trains take longer at times (maybe they travel slower or stop more? I don't know) you get to your destination sooner than you would if you, say, got an extra hotel night in Prague and then took a train to Budapest the next morning.  So the night trains we took worked out pretty well.  Thankfully, we aren't too picky about where we snooze.

To say we didn't give Budapest enough time would be an understatement.  Especially considering we spent our first two hours there at a McDonald's.  But we knew this would happen, cause we were planning our trip as we went.  For example, during that two hour span (besides waking up and refueling) I used my iPod to figure out what we were doing in Budapest that day and J used the iPad to book our hotel for that night in Vienna.

So thank you McDonald's, for your free wifi.  Even though your food is crap and I hate that you have your nose in every single corner of the world's business.  (PS I only think their food is crap for you I don't think it tastes like crap.  In fact, I want a burger right now just thinking about it!)

So we decided we wanted to spend some time at Király Turkish baths and though it was far, we were going to walk there so we'd get to see as much of the city as possible.

I got distracted in this tights store, where I decided that I would be cool like the rest of the Europeans (and Jen, incidentally, who is the only real person I know who wears tights with shorts at times) and buy some tights for Spring/Summer.  And I guess any time of the year, huh? ;o)

We made sure to map out our walk so we'd hit the Chain Bridge on the way.  It was opened in 1849 and was the first bridge to connect the two sides of the city (Buda and Pest!).  I have more pictures of all of our walking around on the facebook album.

Then we hit the baths.  Which this is not a picture of.  (But isn't it a cool building?)

Parts of the thermal baths are actually still original construction from the Ottoman rule!  We didn't have our camera with us, but you can google it if you want to see the inside... the domed ceilings (with soft light coming from the small window holes all over it), the four different temperature pools, and the eucalyptus steam room were exactly what we needed after two days of walking with our packs and then sleeping on a train.  It was awesome!  So refreshing!

And so unfortunate that we had to put our packs back on after and go back out in the rain! :o)  But still, a great memory.  Especially because it was kind of an off-the-beaten-path site to see.  So I'm sorry, Budapest, that we didn't even give you 12 hours of our time.  But thanks for the lovely afternoon at the spa!