Budapest 2023 Chapter 4 - Spazoo

I wake up before Lisa and listen to a podcast. She goes in bathroom and I make the tea (last 2 black teabags). I desperately need to plop, wait as long as I can but ultimately have to interrupt her bathroom routine so I can drop da bom. She's not overjoyed, let's just say that.

We're out at 10:40 today, a quick pitstop at McDs for the girls to have some breakfast. They stopped serving that so they go for fries instead. We head up to taxi rank by NY Cafe and get a cab to Széchenyi Thermal Bath. We thought about getting our bus but we would have to do the whole city circuit and time is of the essence since rain is forecast at 2pm. Cab costs 8,000Ft which seems pretty expensive for the journey which is about 10 mins.

I'm taking full credit for todays plan; since the girls do not want to go to thermal baths we take advantage of the fact there is a zoo right next door. We go and check it out, looks good. Get their tickets, watch them go in and then zoom off to the baths. The girls want to give their own account of the zoo which I'll add later.

Zoo & Spa locations

Zoo entrance

We don't have to queue at all for the baths; I was ruminating over getting fast-track passes before we came so glad I didn't. Also read a nice tip that you can buy one pass for a private changing room, and one standard but you can both use the changing room. We do this, get a printed ticket, go to get through the barrier but don't know what to do. An exiting Brit clocks our confusion and tells us we need wristbands. We get from front desk, then use on barrier. On other side an attendant lady swipes the yellow one and indicates room 27 is ours. It takes us a while to figure out that the room is also our locker because you use your wristband on the electronic door lock.

Corridors to private changing

Private changing rooms

It's not overly busy, and people seem pretty chilled enjoying a relaxing time. We got the first pool and it's warm, with a mini lazy river that instantly sweeps us off our feet and hurtling into people which was pretty funny. We stay on for a few circuits, then relax in the water for a while. We walk to the pool on the other side. In between the two pools is a large lane-swim pool. The breeze makes it a little chilly but once we reach the other pool the water in that one is much hotter.... lovely. Lisa sends me off to get the towels and shoes from the other end.

Hot pool

Bathtime

After a soak we notice signs to indoor pools, so we head in. There's two mid size pools and two small ones. We hit the mid sized ones, one of which is nicely hot, temp gauge says 38°C. I put my hand in a small pool - it's cold. An English guy in the other small pool says "that's really cold, this one's really hot" then points to reiterate "really cold, really hot". I give the thumbs up and we leave, the really hot one is too busy and don't want to feel obliged to chat shit with Englishman. We do hear a lot of English voices about the place - we're everywhere. Lisa hears another wife telling her bloke to go get the towels and things. I hear an Indian wife nagging her man to not lose sight of the kids which he's clearly done and she's panicking. Indian man seems unperturbed. There's an array of bodies on show. Some guys with massive guts that you can see untanned skin under a flabby overhang - make me feel a lot better. Some big T&A on some of the ladies. Skinny sods & boney bitches too. Atmosphere is good and we're suitably relaxed.

We get out for snacks. This starts with the thought we'll get a plate of chips between us. Then I see schnitzel. Lisa says she wants chips that are unsullied, so two chips please. It is explained that a schnitzel portion is two meat slabs so who am I to argue? I order a tea, which is Earl Grey or nothing. I walk off and forget tea, server comes running after me thankfully. There's no milk, I grab a sugar from counter and bosh, chuck it in and then think that could have been salt. It was, you dipshit. I drink about ¼ of it before declaring it undrinkable. Double schnitzel goes down a treat tho.

Schnitzel

We have one last dip in the outside hot pool, feel some spots of rain, then off to get changed and head back to zoo entrance. Timing is immaculate, the girls are done.

Reunited

We walk through park to Heroes Square. I do some dancing for Lizzie's vid, Lisa is off taking pics, we regroup and head for bus back to hotel. We alight at NY Café and this time I take a pic.

Just as we get back to hotel, the rain starts. We go up, I check the tea replenishment sitch. BeReal goes off and we nap.

Oh come on 😠

The plan is to then go for chimney cake. Lizzie wants to go a charity shop. We go in Creams and it's not quite a charity shop but it's second hand clothes. No-one buys anything. Next stop: Cake.

The cakes are tasty. The cones are cinnamon coated pastry, and you can choose the fill. I go ice cream, the others go whipped cream, Oreo. It's very filling.

We then mooch about. Liz tells us she has got her year 1 results and she's passed with B's and C's 😃. Els needs a slash so we head to Starbucks. Then we think about getting a tram but logistically this prooves to difficult for today. So we go in a souvenir shop. The guy in the shop is soooo talkative. He wants to tell us all about Budapest and give us tips on where to find stuff, best routes to places etc. At one point he starts reciting the second national anthem. It's hard to extract from the shop but he's a really likeable guy. After that we head for McDs for snacks and go back to hotel - we're all dog tired and need a rest. The girls inform me later that they are not great at writing so will not give their account of the zoo 😪. Some other pics from the day follow.

Shrine to Michael Jackson. Why?

Mmmmm

Could be a Stan Boardman routine

Old Spice

There's still Harley's about