Day 2: Ba Syl On Gaw Lul?

Today Karla and I became fluent in Hungarian. (That was easy!) We know how to say (but not spell!) "yes" (igen), "no" (nem), "thank you" (ke se nem) and the magic words..."Do you speak English?" (ba syl on gaw lul). And we communicate perfectly!

We started our day off by changing hostels cause unfortunately the cute place we were staying didn't have rooms for tonight. So we shouldered our (shockingly heavy!) backpacks and set out to find hostel #2. We only had to try 2 places which was glorious...this place is a bit less clean, and doesn't include breakfast, but at least the owner was nice enough to delay his shower and greet us in his bathrobe...that was lovely.

We all-too-gratefully put down our backpacks (how are we going to last 4 months?) and set back out to the thermal baths! We went to the Szechenzyi baths. We spent the first hour indoors with the locals, marveling at the sauna, hot and cold baths, and showers. Then we stumbled across a door that lead us to a magical wonderland of an outside courtyard. (The Germans walking out behind us heard me remark this to Karla and promptly started laughing at my naivite and enthusiasm...the one time you don't want people around you to speak English!) The architecture was beautiful and there were 3 pools teeming with people enjoying the gorgeous day - one was really hot, one cold (for swimming laps) and one (filled with small children!) was just right.

We spent 2 relaxing hours there, then carried on our way to the National Museum, after stopping for gyros - where I got to speak French with the Turkish-by-way-of-France owner. Poor Karla...although she's paying me back right now by speaking rapid Spanish with the Uruguyan boys staying in our hostel :)

The Museum explained hundreds of years of oppression for the poor Hungarians, who only gained their independence in 1989! We also saw an exhibit on Ancient Roman tombstones which was pretty interesting.

On tired feet, we truged to the St Stephan's Basilica where we ate some gelatto and watched a couple on their wedding day get photographed on the steps. Then we walked to the Parliament building and took a nice rest on the grass, taking in the sights and planning our next step. We crossed the Margaret Bridge and found a cute place for dinner, then walked back to our hostel via the Chain Bridge.

We're now chilling in our hostel, but Karla's raring to go out (despite tired feet and jetlag!) We'll see. Hopefully my body will get used to all this walking or else it will be a very tiring trip!

Love to all,
Alicia