The House of Terror is kind of a memorial/place of remembrance for those captivated by the Nazis and later, the Communists. It is a fairly new museum that showcases the double occupation of both parties. I hadn't paid much attention to the history of communism in Eastern Europe before, but we definitely learned a lot on this trip. Hungary was occupied by the Nazis for several years, and then later were freed by the Soviets. Unfortunately, the Soviets overstayed their welcome and forced Communism on the people. The country was under Communist rule from something like the late 1940's until 1989 (not sure if the dates are exactly right) when the Soviets left the country (and the others they occupied) quite abruptly. Another significant part of the House of Terror is that it is housed in an actual house where people were tortured. This is definitely a must-see for anyone visiting Budapest.
The House of Terror was horrific for other reasons - Anya was awful in the museum. We were hoping she would fall asleep before we got to the museum, but we didn't get that lucky. It was really rough and of course, she fell asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the museum.
Next, we took the metro to the City Park so that we could visit the baths. We had a snack outside of the Sczechenyi Baths. This is definitely another highlight of Budapest. Apparently, the area is known for its thermal baths and there are several baths in the area that you can visit. Some are segregated with separate areas for women and men. I think some are also nude. The one we chose to visit was a coed bath where people were fully clothed. We paid a little extra for a separate changing room and got dressed in our swimming suites. We rented some towels and headed for the pool.
I have to say this was a really awesome experience. There was a big pool where people were just lounging around, but we spent most of the time in an area that was a little more fun. There was a circular section of the pool where people were lounging in, surrounded by another circular area around it that was like a whirlpool. We went around in that several times and Anya giggled the whole time. She loved it. Here are some pictures from the pool:
Inside the buildings, there was a spa where you could get massages. There were also jacuzzis, each set at different temperatures. We took turns trying a few of these out but didn't spend much time there because Anya couldn't get in the hot pools.
After leaving the pool, we explored the park a bit on our way back to the hotel. We went to dinner at a super nice cafe next to the opera house. We had beer, wine, chicken paprika (a Hungarian favorite), noodles wrapped in bacon, cucumber salad, chicken and noodles in mushroom sauce, chocolate ice cream with a brownie, another chocolate cake-type dessert, and a cafe latte machiatto. We also ordered raspberry cream soup, hoping Anya would eat that. It was the pinkest soup I have ever seen.
This was the after picture:
Somehow, the 3 of us walked away clean, but we felt bad about the table because it literally looked like someone died on it. Anya kept trying to clean it up with a napkin, but it was a lost cause.
(Note the chocolate gateau in the bottom right!)
After dinner, we met up with a night tour. It was not as described and we were really disappointed, though our guide was very friendly and we liked her a lot. She spoke something like 3 or 4 languages. I was talking to her about how I wish we learned at least one other language in the US and I wished that we started learning one earlier than high school. I told her I thought it was somewhat egocentric of Americans to think it was beneath us to learn another language and that I was jealous of people in Europe who spoke as many languages as she did. She didn't feel this way at all. She said she was jealous of us because we spoke "the most important language perfectly." This was very unexpected but an interesting perspective.
The best part of the tour was the 1-hour boat tour it ended with. We got a glass of wine and enjoyed the view. It was absolutely beautiful. This is a picture of the Hungarian Parliament building from the boat:
We finished up with everything around 11 pm and headed back to the hotel to pack and call home, because we were set to move to Vienna the following day.
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