For Budapest it was back to couchsurfing. Budapest is a nice quiet city- it feels a bit like Seattle really. Combining that with my previous US/Europe city comparisons (London=New York, Paris=Boston, Rome=LA) kinda works.

In Budapest we made up for not doing Turkish Baths in Istanbul by spending about a quarter of our waking time in the big two. The first day we went to the Gellert baths and got massages.

Then we wandered through the heart of the city, stopping for some cathedraling, both inside and on top.

Continuing on, the opera (I think) gave way to heroes square and then some gorgeous views of the Danube led us back home. Our host took us out for some great authentic cuisine and drinking, and we called it a night.

The next day we started with baths again (no photos), this time the Szchenyi baths with our host. While Gellert was more opulent, it was also more touristy and expensive. Szchenyi was a lot more fun, perhaps because our host is a regular there. Unlike the indoor Gellert spa, these were outdoors, which was great with the cold air. A painter was all bundled up painting the scene, while everyone else ran from spa to sauna to steam room in our bathing suits. There's a really fun outdoor pool with a strong circling current- swimming with it is kind of like walking on a people mover. It would be even more fun and picturesque when it was snowing.

Next we want on a personal errand- to see the Hotel Intercontinental, where my parents were married on Hungarian Constitution Day (aka St. Stephen's). We grabbed an overpriced coffee and checked out my best guess as to where the ceremony would've happened.

Then it was across the chain bridge (with one last glance back at the Intercontinental), and up a furnicular to explore the castle.

Next we hustled back to meet my third cousin! (The last part of this trip I'm going to call CousinSurfing). She brought her fiancee, mother, and stepfather, and we all went out to a wonderful dinner. We reminisced about my parents wedding, discussed family trees, and generally had a great time. Afterwards we drove up to the Citadella for more night views of beautiful Budapest, then made our excuses.

A quick goodbye to our host, a few hours sleep, and then we grabbed a 5am bus to an early morning train to Prague.

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