We got up at 08:00 and had a slow final coffee at our guesthouse in Visegrád. Our Budapest Airbnb only showed a 16:00 check-in, so we were not quite sure what we were going to do with ourselves and our backpacks for most of the day.
We checked out at around 09:40, after which Hugo joined his 09:45 work meeting from the pergola in the garden.
As soon as the meeting finished, we gathered our bags and made it just in time for the 10:34 bus to Szentendre.
We bought ordinary tickets for the direct bus. Once in Szentendre, we bought tickets for the H5 suburban train into Budapest, which turned out to be 24-hour county passes. These would apparently also have covered the bus journey we had just paid for separately.
Then, once we reached Budapest, we bought 72-hour Budapest public transport passes, which covered at least part of the H5 journey as well. By the end of it we had managed to buy three overlapping sets of public transport tickets for one fairly simple trip. A little more research would probably have saved us some money.
Before catching the train, we stopped in Szentendre for our first proper Hungarian lángos: a large piece of fried dough covered with garlic, sour cream and grated cheese. It was hot, oily, crisp around the edges and entirely worth the mess.
Our apartment was in an old grey building on the Buda side of the river, only a short walk from the Chain Bridge. The self-check-in instructions had sounded like a small escape room: enter one number at the street door, press the key symbol, enter another number, find an unnamed postbox on the bottom row, open the right-hand lockbox, take the keys, go to the fourth floor, unlock a grey glass door, pass through a corridor and finally find Apartment 2.
In practice it was all quick and easy. The part that delayed us most was the elevator. We kept pressing the call button and waiting for something to happen, without realising that it was already on the ground floor. We merely had to open its door manually.
We were also able to get into the apartment well before 16:00, which solved our luggage problem rather neatly.
Hugo settled down to work while Caro had a much-needed afternoon nap.
At 17:20 Hugo discovered that some of Budapest’s thermal baths offer discounted entry for the final two hours on weekdays. As this was a Thursday, it was our last chance to use the special. The only problem was that Lukács Baths closed at 19:00, with everyone expected out of the water by about 18:40.
We decided to try anyway and hurried to the nearest tram stop. We reached the baths at 17:50.
On the way Hugo had read several warnings that the building was a maze. This was accurate, although we somehow managed to find the lockers, changing cabins and thermal section without losing too much of our precious hour.
An hour turned out to be more than enough. We worked our way through pools at 32°C, 36°C and 40°C, tried the steam sauna at close to 50°C and spent some time in the large heated pool with its whirlpool.
We eventually returned to the 40°C bath and stayed there until we were thoroughly wrinkled. Just as we decided, entirely of our own accord, that it was time to leave, a member of staff arrived to tell everyone exactly that.
What followed was rather less soothing. Hundreds of people poured out at once and tried to reach their lockers and get dressed. We found a changing cabin and then discovered a machine that spun most of the water out of our swimming costumes in eight seconds, which was surprisingly satisfying.
From the baths we walked to a nearby SPAR, complete with exactly the same logo we know from South Africa, and bought vegetables for dinner. Back at the apartment, Caro made a mash of potato, carrot and spinach, which we washed down with alcohol-free lemon-and-lime Soproni.
It had not been a major sightseeing day, but we had moved cities, eaten our first lángos, solved an unnecessarily mysterious elevator and squeezed in a thermal bath before closing time. That was quite enough for one Thursday.
Steps: 8,399
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