A Letter from Hungary
I just thought I'd let a bunch of you know that I got here and things seem great. The hostel seems perfectly decent for $12 a day. So far the food has been quite good. This morning, bright and early, I walked down through the wooded hill I'm staying on to the big central market for breakfast. I got two pints of raspberries for 75 cents each! And some of the best yogurt of my entire life. Maybe a few yogurts in France were as good. Maybe.
Everything is insanely cheap. Cappuccino ranges for less than a dollar to 3 dollars as the fanciest place in town.
Anyway, so I woke up a bit before 6 AM today so I have some time to burn and I'm a bit out of it. I decided to try these Turkish baths quite close to the base of the hill I'm staying on. It was $10 to get in. It alternates days which gender it lets in. They give you a flimsy loin cloth to create the illusion of modesty. The space itself was hauntingly beautiful. It is a very intimate space -- there is a central octagonal pool maybe 25 feet across and then 4 triangular pools in the corners of the room, about 8 feet on each side. Each pool is a different temperature, from 28 Celsius to 42 (whatever that is). Over the octagonal pool is a dome that has small windows in it, in a variety of different color. It creates this very dark, warm atmosphere. There were lots of burly men with mustaches chatting quietly with each other. I think the only other tourist was a Japanese. All in all, between 20 and 40 people there at any given time. Anyway, it was amazing. I stayed there for about two hours, drying off by taking a short nap on a stone bench. I really relaxed.
Then I went in to the next room to get my message. Wow. It was incredible. The super buff guy used a bar of soap to give me a Swedish-esque message. His hands moved incredibly fast creating an effect that is hard to describe -- but incredibly nice. It's two hours later and I feel deeply relaxed. I ended up getting a 50 minute message for an extra $8.
So that was my morning (along with getting cash and my month long transit pass). It is heating up and I'm getting tired so I'm going to go over to a cafe and do a bit of reading. I'm sending this from an internet cafe -- I don't know how long until I have free internet access. Sunday at latest. Anyway, I hope you are all well. And I'll write again in a couple of days no matter what.
David
Everything is insanely cheap. Cappuccino ranges for less than a dollar to 3 dollars as the fanciest place in town.
Anyway, so I woke up a bit before 6 AM today so I have some time to burn and I'm a bit out of it. I decided to try these Turkish baths quite close to the base of the hill I'm staying on. It was $10 to get in. It alternates days which gender it lets in. They give you a flimsy loin cloth to create the illusion of modesty. The space itself was hauntingly beautiful. It is a very intimate space -- there is a central octagonal pool maybe 25 feet across and then 4 triangular pools in the corners of the room, about 8 feet on each side. Each pool is a different temperature, from 28 Celsius to 42 (whatever that is). Over the octagonal pool is a dome that has small windows in it, in a variety of different color. It creates this very dark, warm atmosphere. There were lots of burly men with mustaches chatting quietly with each other. I think the only other tourist was a Japanese. All in all, between 20 and 40 people there at any given time. Anyway, it was amazing. I stayed there for about two hours, drying off by taking a short nap on a stone bench. I really relaxed.
Then I went in to the next room to get my message. Wow. It was incredible. The super buff guy used a bar of soap to give me a Swedish-esque message. His hands moved incredibly fast creating an effect that is hard to describe -- but incredibly nice. It's two hours later and I feel deeply relaxed. I ended up getting a 50 minute message for an extra $8.
So that was my morning (along with getting cash and my month long transit pass). It is heating up and I'm getting tired so I'm going to go over to a cafe and do a bit of reading. I'm sending this from an internet cafe -- I don't know how long until I have free internet access. Sunday at latest. Anyway, I hope you are all well. And I'll write again in a couple of days no matter what.
David
posted by David at 10:04 AM
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