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The
Exotic Baths of Budapest
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One
of the best experiences you can have in Budapest is indulging in taking
a bath. Since Roman times, the more than one hundred thermal springs that
rise from Budapest's bed-rock have been used to ease the aching mind and
body. When you visit the Rudas Baths on the Buda side of the Danube, you
soak up more than just the mineral-rich waters; you get a refresher course
in Magyar his-tory, from the Ottoman occupation, through the Communist
era to the current McInvasion.
Upon
entering this steamy museum of pools and saunas, you are instantly envel-oped
by the eclectic clash of cultures that is unique to Budapest today. Coming
into the main chamber of the Rudas, you see the plaque to the Pasha of
Buda, the Turkish ruler who reconstructed the baths in the 16 th century.
Your next encounter is far less exotic, it is a cool reminder that although
the Soviet Empire collapsed nearly a decade ago, many people still work
and play by its grumpy set of rules.
The
locker-room attendant, dressed in white like an insane asylum nurse, leads
you to your appointed locker, opens it for you, but keeps the key. You
get a tiny metal bracelet like a dog tag with a number on it that never
corresponds to the one on the door. The attendant then chalks up a third
mystery number on a little blackboard inside the cubicle, and will lock
the door for you when you are finished.
Before
you are done with the locker, you have to change out of your clothes and
wrap yourself in the severe apron selected by the attendant. If you're
lucky, you can rent a towel or a cotton bathrobe, although, often these
luxury items are not available.
All
this arcane bureaucracy leads to a series of pleasures well worth the
hassle. In the Gellért, every conceivable body type, gender and
age is represented, from extremely old women to little kids, to pot-bellied
businessman, to twenty something pumped and tanned to perfection. As they
hunch under a stone lion's head pouring very warm water from its maw,
or sink to their ears in the warm baths, the grotesque and wonderful mix
of people resembles a scene from Bosch.
Half
the enjoyment of the baths is being able to move between six degrees of
water to something like a bowl of soup and back again, but the other half
is the architecture that surrounds you. Three-storey marble pillars .
anking the pool, grand arches, ancient statues, octagonal baths, and sun-light
streaming through the domed roof, make these visits an express passage
to the orient. What makes
the story of going to the baths so strange -and expressive of the topsy-turvy
psyche of the new Hungary is the change that overtakes them on a Saturday
night. While day visitors are treated to surly manners and officious regulations
that are strictly enforced by a piercing whistle, a different muse rules
once the parties take over.
Not
political parties, but raves sponsored by Tilós Radio ( literally
"forbidden radio") - the force behind Budapest's underground
youth scene. Even more surreal, Vizi-Movi ( water movie) events, featuring
Soviet propaganda and Buster Keaton films, are screened in the pool area
while DJs vibrate their music mix through the water where the audience
gyrates until dawn.
Going
to these same baths for these Saturnalia spectacles, two holdovers from
the Communist years remain. 1. The attendants are still there, except
now they hand out towels and robes to female ravers with pierced belly
buttons and 2. All types of people -many old and decidedly working class
- mingle in the ultra-hip crowd, which is a great part of the fun.
By
going to the Rudas twice in the same day, you can see for yourself more
than a thousand years of Hungarian history converging in the wild abandon
of its young people, finally throwing it all off, in a naked gesture of
pure ecstasy.
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