Thanksgiving in Budapest

As I mentioned in my last post, Thursday turned out to be quite different than I had planned on my itinerary. That’s the fun part about traveling solo! I can make as many changes as I want and nobody will mind 😆. However, I don’t think anyone would’ve resisted if I said that I wanted to spend the entire morning at the Szenchenyi Thermal Baths instead of walking around the city AGAIN…

After eating avocado toast at a café called “Vinyl & Wood”, I took the bus to Szenchenyi and arrived at about 9am. Since it was still so early in the morning, there was hardly anyone there! This surprised me because Szenchenyi is the largest and most popular thermal bath in Budapest. I guess the saying “the early bird gets the worm” is true… I practically had the whole place to myself!

The outdoor baths were my favorite part. As you can see, the yellow building that surrounded the outdoor area was absolutely beautiful to look at. I had seen so many pictures of this place, so it felt surreal to actually be there! The other fun part about the outdoor baths was the fact that the air is cold (mid 30s) but the water is so warm.

In addition to the outdoor baths, I also used the sauna and the indoor baths. Even after doing all of that, I don’t think I was even close to finding everything at Szenchenyi. That place is like a maze! There are so many random rooms and hallways that lead to more and more baths, saunas, etc. It’s no wonder why locals go there so often. They probably never run out of things to do!

At about noon, I left Szenchenyi for lunch at the Christmas market. There are two main markets in Budapest: one at St. Stephen’s Basilica and the other at Vörösmarty Square. They are within about five minutes walking distance from each other. I chose to have my Thanksgiving lunch at the St. Stephen’s Basilica since I had a tour of the Basilica planned for 1:00pm. When I ordered mashed potatoes, vegetables, and a stuffed sweet potato from one of the stands, the lady working said, “do you really want ALL of that?!”.

I had to laugh when I sat down and looked at my two plates of food because I probably did look crazy… but it was Thanksgiving! It made me feel like I was celebrating, even when nobody else was.

After lunch, I went on a tour of St. Stephen’s Basilica. We walked around the inside of the building and then went up to the top of the tower to enjoy the panoramic view of Budapest. The interior of the building was decorated with real gold, which was absolutely beautiful. There was also a huge mosaic of God the Father in the dome of the basilica which is not a very common feature of basilicas, according to my tour guide.

One of the most interesting parts of the tour was seeing the real fist of St. Stephen. It was naturally mummified after he died, and someone (a monk, if I remember correctly) cut off his arm just in case anything happened to his corpse. The hand is so important to the Hungarians that they had to hide it in a metal safe during communism so that it wouldn’t be destroyed.

After my tour of St. Stephen’s Basilica, I was debating whether to climb Gellért Hill. I was still a bit tired from the day before, but the fact that it was almost sunset helped me make a decision. I walked across the bridge and made my way up the hill. I’m sure glad I went because about halfway up the two guys in front of me turned around and said, “how much longer until the top?!”. I went on to say, “I read online that it should only be twenty minutes”. From then on, we walked the rest of the way up the hill together. I found out that they are pilots for a commercial airline and had been doing training in Budapest for the past couple of months. One was from Portugal and the other from Croatia.

We were having such a great time talking that we decided to walk all over Buda together for the next hour or two. Then, we went to a bar for a beer. One beer turned into five, and all of a sudden it was almost midnight. We had completely forgotten to eat dinner, so we ended up going to McDonald’s. By the end of the night, it felt like I had known those two my whole life! I was sad to find out that they were leaving for home the next day, as I would have loved to spend more time with them. Regardless, I was thankful to have met such wonderful people on my trip!

That’s all for now. Read my next post to find out what I did for my 21st birthday in Budapest!

Until next time,

Clara