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| The Caucasus - My Journal |
Houses of Terror and Houses of Pleasure
Budapest - 4th July
Having sampled all of Hungary's Alcohol in a single night and subsequently seriously insulting my liver, it was time for my body to get its revenge...it was hangover time.
It's a fairly short journal entry today...as my pounding head and revolting stomach (as is in peasants revolting, not eating poo revolting) didn't ease up until well in the afternoon, I took this day easy. In the end, I actually managed two productive things today, which wasn't bad, considering!
 I took the old metro too the far corner of town to visit the "Terror Museum". This building, the former headquarters of the infamous Hungarian Arrow Cross, the Nazi rulers of Hungary and the Soviet rulers of Hungary, has now been turned into a museum has a reminder of the suffering and repression during these times.
The museum was fairly harrowing, but took considerable imagination to get into it. All of the exhibitions and displays were only in Hungarian, and even though they'd placed English paper pamphlets in each room, the experience was still fairly limited for non Hungarian speakers and requires a lot of reading.
 I also paid a visit to the famous Széchenyi Baths. Hungarians love their public baths and thermal spas, and the Széchenyi Baths is in one of the most exquisite and sumptuous settings in the country. As the Lonely Planet says, "It's like taking a bath in a cathedral"!
The baths are actually made up of countless steam rooms, saunas and pools. The naturally heated pools are great fun to relax in, however, as the water which heats it is naturally at 74C, it needs to be cooled before use.
 The baths make a great place to relax and recover from a heavy night or stressful day, so I passed most of the remainder of the day there. After a few hours, my head and liver began to forgive me...
Little more happened for the rest of the day, and I took a fairly early night (two guys staying in my room asked me if I wanted to join them for a night of drinking, but my body wasn't ready for another big night - and I had to get up at 6am for an early morning bus, so I passed this time).
This actually made me think about one of the differences between a "backpacker" and a tourist. As Budapest is now part of the EU and easily reachable for a short break, it is very definitely on the tourist trail. It is particularly popular with the 20-somethings because it has a famed night life and wonderfully cheap drinks. A normal "tourist" goes on a 2, 3 or 4 night break, eats at nice restaurants during the day, does some shopping, maybe a bit of culture, and has a huge night out every night.
Now, while drinking copious amounts at a good club and dancing the night away is a thing I really enjoy...it just isn't possible for a backpacker to do every night, who is normally travelling for weeks or months! This is from the perspective of cost (lots of beer and club entry, even if cheap, still sucks away at a budget) and health (I'm sure my liver would pack up and leave if every night of my 11 week trip was like last night).
Also, a backpacker, mainly due to his/her extended timeframe and personal inclinations, tends to try to see a bit deeper into the culture and get away from the main cities. In fact the purposes for travel and the daily habits of a backpacker and a tourist can differ considerably. A backpacker is often there to try his/her best to experience the country from as many different viewpoints and to meet local people and try to get "under the skin" of life in the country. A tourist on the other hand, tends to swoop in, check out the most famous sights, eat and drink at some places, popular with foreigners, then "whoosh" they're gone again. This isn't necessarily a good or bad thing...it's just an observation...
Anyhow...I'll continue that diatribe another time...I have an early start tomorrow...I'm moving onto Kecksemet, a quiet town down south...
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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