We have spent the past several months varying degrees of dirty and its been since Costa Rica that all of our clothes have been truly clean. Seriously, its been that long. We have done a few loads here and there, but we have had to be selective about what gets washed since there have been weight limits or a limit on the number of items we can wash. However, our days of being dirty came to an end in Budapest- at least for a little while! We found a laundry facility that cost 800HUF to wash and 800HUF to dry ($1=238HUF) and the best part was, we just dropped it off and came back 2 hours later when everything was clean and dry! So we did laundry twice and washed every single thing we owned. What a glorious feeling!
We also took a trip to the famous bath houses of Budapest! There are numerous bath houses to choose from including the very famous, very large Szechenyi bath in the city park, the extravagant and expensive Gellert bath or the baths dating back to the 16th century like Rudas, Kiraly, or Veli Bej. We did a lot of research to figure out which one to go to. For a long time Rudas was in the lead- to see a bathhouse that is over 500 years old would be so amazing!- but it, like some of the others, was not integrated. There were days for women and there were days for men (it did mix on the weekends but we were looking to go on a Tuesday). We opted to go to Lukacs bath house- it was recommended to us by one of our guides, it was less expensive than the others, it was on the Buda side (which is known for its healing waters!) and had a reputation for being less touristy. We packed up our bathing suits, some shampoo (we read that the thermal pools left you smelling a little sulfury) and set off to the baths.
The bath house itself is in a very unassuming, large yellow building. We would have had no idea we were in the right spot if we hadn’t been able to smell the thermal pools. We walked around the building, finally finding the door and a plaque confirming that we were in the correct location. We got in line, paid our 3000HUF and got a proxy watch which would get us in and out of the facility and open our lockers. We inquired about renting towels (because, of course, we are not traveling with towels and since we were staying in an empty flat they were not provided for us there either. Neither was hot water. Fortunately, we have a tiny camp towel that works most of the time. I digress, back to the baths.) and the girl at the counter told us to go up to the first floor, then all the way to the back. Our lockers were on the second floor. It all sounded very simple and straightforward but the bath house was like a maze (like a Hungarian bathhouse version of Hogwarts)! Very few things are labeled in the first place and nothing is in English. Plus, there are several floors of lockers and cabins, which wind around in no discernible pattern and then lead to new, unknown corridors. We spent the first hour wandering around trying to figure out where to go. We walked through several hallways trying to find the towel rental and finally had to ask (finding someone to ask was almost as difficult as navigating our way through the bath houses). We got the the towel rental, discovered it was 5000HUF to rent a towel (you did get 4000HUF back upon the return of the towel) and that they only took cash. We had to find our way back downstairs and out to the ATM (glorious news: so far in Eastern Europe- Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary- we have not had to pay any ATM fees). We are so ridiculously cheap that we decided to only rent one towel, also we were leaving the country the next day and didn’t want to end up with 8000HUF in our pockets that we had to change. Unfortunately, to get out Nick had to give up his proxy watch- they let him back in but without his proxy watch he didn’t have access to a locker. Fortunately, I still had mine. We got our one towel and went in search of the locker rooms so we could change and go enjoy the baths. We found the lockers, changed into our suits and stored our belongings. The lockers work with the proxy watches- hold your proxy watch up to any locker with a green light and it becomes your locker- once it is locked it only opens with the proxy watch that locked it. Forget which locker you used? Scan your proxy watch on the scanner on the wall and it tells you which locker was yours. It was a very cool system.
So, finally, finally we are ready to go to the pools. We found the entrance to the outdoor swimming pool fairly easily. There are several entrances that look like caves, duck into the cave and there is a small ramp going into the water. The outdoor pool was 33 degrees C. It was wonderful! There were fountains and jets and a big whirlpool (kind of like a mini lazy river!) for swimming around. We did a few laps, soaked up some sun and then decided to go in search of the healing thermal pools. Finding those was far more difficult than we had bargained for. We found some pools but were told they were medical pools and we couldn’t get in. We found one pool that was 20 degrees C which was way too cold. We found a Finnish sauna that was between 90-100 degrees C and sat in that for a few minutes, but it got way too hot really quickly so we resumed our search. Upstairs, downstairs, in and out of corridors we looked. We even found a map (well, it was a map-ish type thing that had a general layout of the facility but no hint as to which corridor to take to get to where you wanted to go) which helped us ascertain which direction we needed to head and eventually found our way to the thermal pools with a combination of sheer will and dumb luck.
34 degree C thermal bath
Oh, but it was sooooo worth it! There were four thermal pools with temperatures of 24C, 34C, 36C and 40C. The 40C pool was in a large, domed room with a beautiful water fountain cascading into it. At the top of the dome were dim lights and a skylight. The other pools were in small rooms with columns and decorative tiling throughout- it felt like we were in a large, spacious, steamy underground castle. While Lukacs is not as old as some of the other bath houses, it still has a long history dating back to 1894 (bathing at this location before it became Lukacs dates back to the 12th century) and people who have been healed by its water have left plaques in the courtyard as thanks since 1898. The thermals are recommended for all sorts of ailments including arthritis and other joint diseases, spinal injury and post-surgery healing. The pools were so relaxing and the water was just incredible. We soaked up all of the healing powers that the water is supposed to have and just to be safe, drank from the fountain in the thermals which is supposed to be good for digestive issues, and gallbladder and kidney stones (it may have been healing water, but it was a little funky- sulfury and tangy and lukewarm, but who are we to turn up our noses at healing water?). We hopped from warm to hot to cool to hot to warm to our hearts content. We spent the day going between the pool and the thermals, with the occasional venture into the steam room. It was so much fun and we ended up spending about 5 hours at the baths. We had plenty of other things planned for the day, but when we left we were completely wiped out. I had no idea it would be that exhausting. So we very slowly walked home and totally crashed, clean and happy!
36 degree C thermal bath
40 degree C thermal bath
Comments on this entry are closed.