| Budapest - 10 Things to See and Do |
Gellért Baths
Relics of the Ottoman conquest of Hungary in the16th and 17th centuries, the city’s Turkish Baths are perhaps its most popular attractions.
The water that feeds them is supplied by more than 100 thermal springs. Some were drilled, but others
bubble up naturally from the fault line running near the Danube that separates the plains of Pest and the hills of Buda.
For the most characteristic
Turkish Bath experience, try the Gellért Baths (part of the hotel of the same name), built 100 years ago at the base of
Castle Hill and adorned with stained glass and tile flourishes throughout. There are men's and women's sections, each with baths of different temperatures. In the centre is a mixed-gender area of several pools where men and women are required to wear bathing caps. Once you have locked up your valuables, you will almost certainly find that you require additional small sums for other services. Locals seem to cart around plastic bags and watch them even while they are submerged or being steamed or pummeled. Nudity (single sex) is common but not required, and you will need a swimsuit for the large pool, open to both men and women. Take your own towel to avoid a large deposit to rent one. A strict traffic pattern is enforced: you will reap much scorn from the other bathers and the attendants if you don’t swim around the outer edge of the pool in a counterclockwise direction. You can also add a 15-minute massage to your routine.
Alternatively, the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, in City Park, are cheaper, mostly open air, and set in palatial ochre buildings inside which lurks a labyrinth of pools, saunas and steam baths ...you may even have a wet game of chess. Take swimsuit and towel, and don't be fazed by the baffling system of locker attendants and timed tickets.
State Opera House
Regarded as one of the most important historical buildings in Hungary,
the State Opera House was completed in 1884, when Budapest was at the centre of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its ascendancy. The neo-Renaissance façade of the building is decorated with statues of 16 of the world's greatest composers, including Monteverdi, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Bizet and Tchaikovsky. There are also representations of the muses of opera, together with sculptures of Franz Liszt and
Ferenc Erkel (the composer of the Hungarian national anthem and first director of the Opera House.) The interior of the building is equally lavish. The main auditorium, which seats over 1200 people, features a breathtaking, frescoed ceiling depicting “Olympus, home of the Gods.”
Less monumental, but equally intriguing is the smoking corridor – wood panelled, with shell-shaped, inlaid brass ashtrays and mirrors at either end. Though no longer used, legend has it that this space would become so choked with cigarette fumes between acts that it could provide cover for lovers' assignations.
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