Day 29: Touring Budapest (Part 2), Central Market Hall, Heroes Square, Terror House, and Rudas Baths

Our walking tour on Friday morning started off at St. Stephen's Basilica, the second tallest building in Budapest, famous for containing the right hand of St. Stephen. 96 metres in height, representative of the year 896 when the Hungarians first came to Europe, it stands as tall as the Parliament building. Thanks to my very basic Latin skills, I managed to understand the inscription in front of the building, which read "I am the way of truth and life.”

It was a very sunny and hot day out right from the start. Outside the Basilica, we all got an ice cream at a place that specialized in making ice cream roses. I got an amazing lavender white chocolate and chocolate ice cream cone.

As we walked along, we passed by many statues and memorials. One was the monument dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish businessman and diplomat who had issued fake passports to Jews during the Holocaust, saving thousands of lives.

We also passed by the big square with the memorial of Soviet liberation in the centre, and the statue of Ronald Reagan heading right towards it.

On the streets, we passed some lovely Art Nouveau buildings, and buildings made of famous Zsolnay ceramics.

From there, we continued walking down to Vaci Utca, a central street in Budapest lined with stores. It was a wonderful day to be out and the walk was such a pleasant one. At the end of street, we ended up at the Central Market, the biggest indoor marketplace, where I had a great authentic Hungarian lunch of layered potatoes and sausage with beef goulash soup. Although a little expensive for lunch, the food was spectacular and very worth it.

We continued walking around the market for an hour after that, exploring the stalls of paprika, the chains of dried chilli peppers and garlic, and the doilies and scarves in the souvenir shops. I loved the marketplace atmosphere and would've liked to stay longer but we were pressed for time as we needed to meet back for a second tour.

The second tour of the day was down Andrassy, the central street in Budapest, equivalent to the Champs-Élysées of Paris. The first stop was the Opera house, which was very similar in design to those in Paris and Vienna, with statues of famous composers all around.

A little further along was the infamous 60 Andrassy St. itself, the recently opened Terror House, a museum dedicated to the memory of the Nazi and Soviet occupations in 20th century Hungary. This very building was the headquarters for the Hungarian fascist Arrowcross party, and later the police headquarters during the communist regime. For many years, the basement was used as a prison in which hundreds of people were tortured.

In front of it were some information boards, as well as a piece of the Berlin wall, and a statue representing the Iron Curtain.

We didn't go inside right away, but continued along to the very end, passing by many grand embassies towards the later stretch.

At the end of the street, we were met with Heroes Square.

A stunningly impressive sight, Heroes Square was flanked by two galleries that mirrored each other, similar to the statue of Maria Theresia in Vienna, which was flanked by the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Fine Arts. Heroes Square featured the old kings of Historic Hungary on one side, and more modern national heroes on the other. In the centre is Arpad, who first brought the Hungarians to Europe in 896, and archangel Gabriel stands at the very top of the column.

A short distance away, a newer monument stands: the memorial of the 1956 revolution. It consists of individuals poles that all flock together to form a solid arrow, representing the people of Hungary who came together in 1956 to rise up against communism.

After taking in these two great monuments, we headed back down Andrassy to Terror House. The museum was not the easiest to take in -- much of it was in Hungarian -- but it certainly succeeded in creating an atmosphere of terror with sinister music and videos of survivors and their stories. We stayed for two hours, which was enough time to gain a sense of the gravity of these time periods, but not enough to watch or listen to everything. The museum was closing by the time I made it down to the basement so I didn't get to enter the torture chambers. Overall, it was an experience in itself to be inside the old Arrowcross headquarters, in a building where torturing during the Nazi and Communist regimes had actually taken place. Although there is much controversy over how Hungary is portrayed in such a victimized manner -- thereby glossing over the country's own role in these two time periods -- it was nonetheless an effective memorial to the victims of the occupations.

By evening, I was quite exhausted, but luckily, the activity planned was one just suited to that mood. Around 9, a small group of us headed across Erzebet bridge to the Rudas baths. This turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences of my trip thus far.

First off, the walk in itself was stunning. Budapest by daytime is lovely, but Budapest by night is unbelievable. The lit streets were already enchanting, but as soon as we hit the Danube, I was met with one of the most beautiful sights of my life. All the bridges were lit, and a whole array of important buildings flanked the sides of the banks, lighting up the water with their reflections. Parliament, Buda Castle, Gellert Hill, and so many more were shining like a scene from a romance film. No photo could ever have done the sight justice. I could've stared at it forever.

The Rudas baths were right on the bank of the Danube, next to Elizabeth bridge, and we got an all-inclusive night ticket in. As the baths had just been newly renovated, everything looked beautiful, even the locker rooms. Each person got their own private wooden cubicle.

We started off first with the thermal baths, the oldest part, which was established in the 16th century during the Ottoman occupation of Buda. It was in a very nice and clean polished cavern underground, and had a big warm pool in the centre, and four smaller pools in the corners. The smaller ones were all different temperatures, ranging on 28 degrees C to 42 degrees. In the (empty) adjacent room, there was a 12 degree bath I stepped in up to my knees, but could not go any deeper. The atmosphere was so nice and relaxing -- the perfect end to a day. We spent some time in the central pool, then went upstairs to explore the other parts of the baths.

There was a large swimming pool, but we didn't go in. Further up was a room of modern baths, including a couple pools with jets and mini-waterfalls, a 14 degree pool that I dipped my hand in then quickly withdrew, and a very nice hottub. After about half an hour upstairs, we went back down to the old thermal baths, where I explored the sauna and steam rooms. The steam room was actually a little terrifying as I could barely breathe and it was impossible to see. I stood for half a minute by the entrance but could not venture any further in. The sauna was much nicer, even at 48 degrees. There was a bucket of freezing cold water to pour on ourselves afterwards.

Just before midnight, we went upstairs to the roof, and the best hour of my entire trip so far followed. On the roof of the Rudas baths was an outdoor hottub, overlooking the Danube. From there, we got a stunning view of the city. All the main buildings and bridges were visible, as well as Gellert hill above us. We stayed for almost an hour but the view never got old. It really solidified Budapest in my mind as the most beautiful city by night -- far more stunning than Paris or Vienna.

Around 1AM, we headed back to our hostel on foot, crossing the river once again. The city still very much alive and Wombat's hostel is so central that the walk felt quick and vibrant. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed.

Photos by Julie Zhang and Linh Nguyen.