Sav: We started today with a very odd breakfast of Phõ and stir-fry. The place we had originally chosen was closed and this was the closest option, and we were starving so soup for breakfast it is! It was surprisingly great.

Meag: These past few days in Budapest have been…a lot. Today we both needed a more relaxed day, and we just happen to be in a great place for this. Savanna, John, Maddie, Anas and I met up with Kevin, whom we met at Oktoberfest, and went to the Széchenyi Bath for the afternoon. It is the oldest bath in Budapest, with 18 pools to choose from both inside and outside. The hot ones were really hot, and there were also a few that were Yukon-lake temperature. We tried about four or five throughout the afternoon. There were also some saunas and steam rooms, in case the pools just weren’t hot enough. Savanna got to the door of the steam room and quickly said “Nope!” and went back to the pool. I went in but it was so hard to breathe in there! Kevin and his friends were hopping from the hot sauna and pool into the cold pool because he said it was “refreshing”…well he was right! I was good after one go of that. I spent a lot of the time just leaning back and soaking.

Sav: Meags is right in saying Budapest has been a lot. It’s a constant go-go-go and as much as we are loving it it has been exhausting. I was so happy to relax for the afternoon, but I have never spent so long in a hot bath before…. It made me so sleepy! If there had been floaties I would have completely conked out. I felt my muscles and body loosening up by the end and it was such a great way to spend an afternoon. I slowly, hand-flaping-y waded into the cold pool, turning around multiple times before finally getting my act together and going in. I might not have but I had just called John a chicken 10 seconds before. Stones in glass houses, you know?

After this we all went to grab pizza for dinner near the hostel. It was a wonderful time of us going around the table asking all sorts of questions about each other’s lives and all having to answer each question. We sat there for almost 2 hours, and I could have sat there for 2 more getting to know them. I think Budapest is wonderful but what really has made it are the people we’ve been with.

We ferreted out a laundromat/internet café and the only reason that is worth mentioning at all is because we both wondered how places like that still exist… Like imagine an lnternet café in Hungary. Well it’s exactly what you’d expect… it’s dark and dingy and there are only a few stalls being used by middle-aged Hungarian men checking their Facebook on old desktop computers. We sort of side-glanced at each other when we walked in…

M: From breakfast, to the baths, then to dinner and relaxing, I think my eyes have not actually been fully open today. And it has been lovely.

S&M