1999 Biking East Europe
Thursday, September 16 – en route Prague
We arrived at Budapest’s Nyugati station at about 08h30
this morning, and taxied with our still-wrapped bikes and other goods to Keleti
station there to store everything in lockers for collection later today (2500Ft
for the taxi). Bought day-passes for the public transport system, and headed
for the Gellert Hotel on the west bank of the Danube
and its hot-spring Turkish baths. “The Danube
follows the geological fault separating the Buda Hills from the Great Plain and
over 40 million litres of warm mineral water gush forth daily from more than
100 thermal springs.” The persuasion I had exercised on Charl turned out to be
of no avail as it was a women-only day. So he went instead to cash money and
drink beer (secretly relieved), while I enjoyed my bath. Changed into a
provided gown in a private lockable cubicle where I left my clothes, then
showered in a doorless shower opposite a very old lady, then got into one of
the 2 baths – 38 degrees. There to loll and admire the arched ceiling of simple
mosaics and glass in white and yellow. Only natural and gentle light filtering
through, warm but refreshing water. Mainly old women were sharing the bath with
me – wrinkled, sagged, unashamedly naked and uninhibited. Oddly beautiful –
somehow both vulnerable and invincible. Some young women with pretty bodies
came in later clad in bathing suits – which they finally removed underwater
after some discussion and self-consciously. The only young exception being a
Japanese girl who was totally at home in her skin – no doubt a product of both
her culture and a lovely body.
Public-transported to our favourite
breakfast place for a salad and steaks marinated in Dijon mustard and homestyle potatoes lunch.
Yum. Then to Deak & Vace to shop for an embroidered cloth for mom (7500Ft)
and painted wooden eggs (500Ft each).
Later: We’re fading fast. Took the metro to
the stop at Keleti station. Where we sat in the sunken square (actually a
circular area in the city centre that links the underground areas of the metro
and the station etc) and watched the world go by – trying to stay awake.
Beautiful girls, men playing chess, chess-observer there with his
tongue-lolling chow, lovers meeting and greeting passionately and strolling and
sitting. Saw an exceptional number of exceptionally short people!
Then at last into the station – only to
find that the locker section had been locked. Much dismayed, but luckily the
baggage-check section allowed us in through the back where we rescued our
worldly and thoroughly unwieldy goods. The train was 40 minutes late so we had
our dinner of rolls, cheese and salami sitting on the platform midst patient
backpacking youngsters.
The train, when it came, was nice enough. I
left Charl on the platform and leapt aboard with the agile backpackers to claim
an apartment – which we got to keep to ourselves the whole night through. We
tied our bikes onto the overhead shelf and got quite a lot of much-needed sleep
as it was not cold as on the previous night’s journey and we had benches to
stretch out on and limited interruptions by polite and disinterested officials
despite crossing two international borders – Slovakia and the Czech Republic.