Baths, cylces, and naughty cows!

Today was a day to just wander and see what ever came our way. Our train doesn't leave until 8:30 and we had to check out at 10am, so we wandered aimlessly around Budapest on our bikes. Most everything is closed on Sundays but we found that they close the "Chain Bridge" for a summer pedestrian festival on Sundays. Food, music, real crafts, tourists and locals. We decided to head for the park and read for a while. The park is not just for walking and hanging out in, here in Hungary. It's also for sunbathing and making out. Men in speedos and bikini clad women hanging out in the sun. The park also had an amusement park, castle, zoo, food, ponds, fun fairs, and more. We chose to hang out in the shade and read. Then we hit the bath after a lunch of Gyros.

Hungarian baths. Wow. What a funny thing! They were built by the Turks, who built them because they were worried that while they were invading that people wouldn't bathe. Well, they certainly were used. It seemed like the most crowded place we have been yet. We stood in line to get in. There were locals and tourists like us. We weren't really sure what we were doing, or where we were going so we just kinda went with the flow. A funny little Hungarian man who spoke almost no English, ushered us into a "cabin" to change. We then went and paid for our massage before we entered the pools. We had an hour before our massage, so we went to explore the pools. As soon as we entered there were people in bathing suits everywhere. Again, men in speedos, just strutting around. We kinda just walked around for a bit to figure out what to do. We found one end and just worked our way to the other. The pools ranged from about 38 c to 28 c. There was even this funny pool that had a current. We just spun around in an oval with about 20 other people, letting the current move it. It was so funny! The medicinal pools had more old people in them. I tried not to think about all the people in all the pools, and all their dirt and grime from the heat outside. Yuck! And just tried to relax. We finally reached what appeared to be the end, when we discovered there was an outside section!

This was where the party was! There were three huge pools, a couple of resturants, terraces, chairs, old men playing chess, in the pool, water spouts, women and men sunbathing, another current pool, kids, everything! Yep. Then we got our massage.

I guess we could call it a massage. Maybe a rub down. Again, I tried not to think about it too much. I was in a funny little room, with a half naked man at the table right next to me, and a fat old lady masseuse. The woman didn't speak any English, she told me to take my top off. Then she closed the curtain when she realized I was a little skeptical about the man next to me. Then they rubbed a lotion all over us, and vigorously rubbed for about 15 minutes and then it was done. Yep. That was our Hungarian bath experience, next time I will be more prepared and I think it won't be so shocking. Oh yeah, we got 600 FT back because we left within two hours, crowd control.

We get on the train to Slovenja tonight. We hope it works out ok, with our bikes. Hope all is well!

There are these "art" cows everywhere. We have seen a watermelon, salami, flowers, a lemon drop, and then we came across this one. Hmmm...we aren't really sure what this one means. We think maybe the pigs in Seattle, might be patterned after these Budapest cows.

Kulshan Cycles travel the world!