At the suggestion of Beatra, we went to Menza for lunch. Neither Amy nor I were quite up for trying typical Hungarian food with its goulash and Paprikash, so Menza offered us a chance to taste more familiar foods with a contemporary Hungarian slant. Menza was crowded with locals meeting for long lunches, but we were fortunate to get a table right next to the open window leading to the patio. We enjoyed entrees followed by delicious desserts and plenty of people watching. The trendy crowd of diners, who mostly appeared to be in their late 20's to early 40's made lunch an event that seemed never ending. Most of the people we saw at Menza were there for over an hour and didn't appear to be in any hurry to get back to work. With the majority of stores and attractions only open from 10am - 6pm, I think we both wondered- when do the people here work? The streets seemed packed all day long with people window shopping, having coffee at outdoor cafes, strolling through the parks, or just enjoying the nice weather.
After lunch we headed back to the Grand Market Hall for more shopping and I was able to try my hand at bartering. We scoured the market looking for deals and had one more chocolate crepe before leaving with our arms full and our wallets a little lighter. As we waited to cross the street outside the market we heard chanting that sounded like some sort of protest. As the chanting grew nearer we could see that the protestors all wore matching green shirts and appeared to be teens of high school age. We both stood quietly while wondering just what these kids were protesting. Soon we noticed that as the majority of the teens were yelling and chanting, three of the boys were peeing on the front of the building next to the Grand Market Hall, apparently in a contest to see who could finish last??? I'm not sure what the building housed inside and I still don't know what they were protesting, but we couldn't help but laugh! Several guards came out of the building and chased the students off and we stood in wonder as the kids crossed the street in front of us and walked toward the Danube promenade, still chanting loudly and waving their hands in the air- many of them holding cans of beer.
We questioned whether the kids were just starting the weekend early or were they trying to make some sort of political statement, just as the protestors did during the fall of communism in 1989, as we walked though the Vaci shopping district. We happened upon an artsy jewelry store that was like an artists co-op and were drawn inside by the cool designs in the window. We both managed to unload some more of our forints ($$) here, both aware that of the impending deadline to spend the money we had withdrawn before our Saturday morning flights back to the states.
After making it back to the hotel fully loaded down with shopping bags, we went to the 9th floor Executive Lounge (our home away from home!) and loaded up on free appetizers while enjoying our last opportunity to watch the sun set behind the Royal Palace hill across the Danube on the Buda side of Budapest. We decided that since we had to leave for the airport by 5am in order to catch our 7am flights, it would probably make since for us to just stay up all night and take advantage of our last night in Budapest by going to the Széchenyi Baths.
We "suited up" and took the metro (subway) to Városliget Park and bought our ticket to enter the baths. There was some confusion as I went through the turnstyle and was stuck in between a rather burly woman yelling in Hungarian and a rather burly man yelling in Hungarian. I was on one side of the turnstyle and Amy was on the other when I determined that I had gone into the men's changing area instead of the women's. As I attempted to crawl back under the turnstyle, the man started speaking in broken English and motioned for Amy to come through and join me. So, apparently we weren't in the men's area. Still not sure on that one. But, he put Amy and I into our little changing rooms which we had rented for 400 forints ($2) each. After we changed clothes, we stepped outside to enjoy our evening in the thermal baths.
It had been a warm, sunny day and had faded into a clear, perfect evening. There were a lot of young people in the baths talking, laughing, and holding onto one another. A few couples had some moments of PDA, but for the most part everyone seemed to be there to relax and enjoy the warm waters on this beautiful night. As we soaked in the thermals, we spotted a group of young men in their early 20's who were visiting Budapest for the weekend while taking a road trip from Prague. The men, who were from France, Italy, and Germany are roommates studying in Prague for the semester. Their common language was English, so we had no trouble understanding one another. We talked, laughed and shared Facebook profiles while watching the guys try to build a human pyramid without drowning each other until the music came over the loudspeaker announcing "la la la, you have to go" and signaling the end of our night at the baths.
We got dressed and took the metro back to our hotel for the last time. We walked the Danube promenade towards our hotel and stared at the history surrounding us. As we stopped for ice cream, I tried to capture a mental image of the beauty surrounding me and prayed for the memory to never fade away. Once we reached our hotel room, we were faced with the task of trying to pack up 10 days of adventure into 2 carry on bags. We were up until 2am packing, talking, and trying to piece together all of the things we had seen during our travels. It seemed that just moments after I fell asleep our 4:30am wake up call jolted me into the reality of the return trip home.
It was an eventful, adventurous and enlightening tour of 3 cities which are mentioned in every world history class I've ever taken. I returned home with currency from 3 countries, thousands of calories in chocolate bars, some cool original fused glass jewelry, a super awesome tea drinking contraption, post cards, tour books, a pashmina, several hundred digital photographs and a lifetime of memories. It was 10 days that I hope to never forget.
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