French Bakery

A table

One of my favourite places in Budapest is very un-Hungarian. It is a French bakery. For me, when I enter the bakery is it really like going to France. They offer many of the typical French specialties pain au chocolat, croissants, and my personal favourite the croissant aux amandes. Not only is it typically French but their presentation of their products is excellent. They serve their goods on a stone slate tile. Their cups look like typically Canadian/American plastic cups used to conceal alcohol that have been slightly crumpled. I love it. 

I have only been to one of their locations but I am going to visit them all.

Do you want to join me?

Namaste,

Cs.

Magyar Hetek at McDonald's

Marton Nap in Hungary

In some things, the Hungarians are so weird. I cannot get over this. Since it was the Marton Napi Festival, I guess McDonald's decided to pair this together with Hungarian Days and offered a special of goose liver on a hamburger. How innovative!

I don't know anyone that tired it. I would not even dare. If you know someone that has, I would love to hear about the experience.

Namaste,

Cs.

Big Bang in Budapest

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory and I were just meant to be. As I am getting around the city from tram stop to tram stop, I see this:

How lovely, it is to see the face of Sheldon Cooper on the way to work. 

Namaste,

Cs.

Lunch Break

During my lunch breaks I like to sit in a park near the building and enjoy the outdoors. Considering it is the middle of November already, the weather here is lovely. I am very much enjoying it. I want to take time to be outside as much as possible. Now that the leaves are changing and the autumn weather is slowing creeping up, it is beautiful. In the little park there is a statue of the Ukrainian Taras Shevchenko. I don't know anything about him, but according to Wikipedia he was a man of many talents including writing, painting, poetry and more. My boss says that statues of Shevchenko follow him around everywhere he is stationed to work, including in Budapest.

Aren't the colours just lovely?

The meeting of two old friends...

I think that this might be the side of building that Kiraly furdo is in.

Would you like to join me for lunch? ;)

Have a lovely week,

Cs.

Freedom Square

Here are a couple of pictures from the famous Freedom Square in Budapest. Previously, I lived very close to this square and I went a lot more often. It was especially nice when my leg was broken to be able to still enjoy the green space and having it super close to my house.

Toldi's Favourite Building in Budapest

Soviet Monument

What are some of your experiences, if any at Freedom Square?

Namaste,

Cs.

Snapshots

Exploring Budapest (Again)

Snapshots of my walks in Budapest:

Deak Ter with the Ferris Wheel Promoting Sziget Festival

Battyanyi Ter Church

Battyanyi Ter Grand Market Hall

What do you think?

Namaste,

Cs.

2014.11.05 - Thermal Baths

Thermal Baths in Budapest

In my opinion, the culture of thermal baths (as known as spas, or Turkish baths) are one of the unique aspects of Hungarian culture. Just Budapest alone has 26 different thermal baths where you can take some time to relax. 

Since I lived in Budapest before, there were always things that I wanted to do but never got around to it. You live in a place for an extended period of time and think that you will get around to everything, when in reality this is just not the case. Once I found out that I was returning to Budapest, I decided to make a small list of things that I never got around to doing, and actually DO them. One of these things is to visit and experience more of the thermal bath culture in Budapest. Previously I had been to Szechenyi Furdo (with my father when he came to visit), Gellert Furdo (with Scott, a fellow Canadian who is totally into the bath culture), and Lukacs Furdo (with Barbara who had her first thermal bath experience with some new adventures), but I never got around to the oldest and most historic ones. 

This changed on Wednesday of this week, when I got the chance to go to Kiraly Furdo in Buda. It turns out that it is right near my work which is an added benefit. Kiraly Furdo, although I did not take any pictures to show you, is very old and traditional looking. It still has stone signs written in Russian. The walls are super stained and have an odd smell about them. The facilities look like they have not been updated at all since the regime change. The staff working has a typical Eastern European mentality towards customer service. Nonetheless, this was exactly the type of experience I wanted. Kiraly Furdo also has a steam room, one hot tub, a cold Finnish bath, two saunas of various temperatures, and finally in the centre, the big bath. We went in the evening but apparently the ceiling has holes in it and if you go during a sunny day, you can experience direct sunlight while in the bath. How wonderful! 

Here is the link in Hungarian, and in English.

I highly recommend this place for a truly unique thermal bath experience.

Have a lovely weekend,

Cs.