On the train to Wien

On the train to Wien (Vienna) after a morning at the hot springs, a place we tried to get to twice before but couldn't figure out the schedule. Nevertheless it was great. Yesterday, New Years' day was slow with an attempt at the spa but it closed early, then into town where most everything was closed. After a supper of goulash and some other things we thought were soup (always a mystery what it is we ordered or what it costs) Martin went off on his own and the rest of us went to Buda, took a tram straight up the mountain and had an incredible view of Pest, looking across the Danube river. We then went to a castle and cathedral we'd been seeing from Pest and discovered it was actually a whole village- quite amazing in architecture and view. We took a bus down and mom and dad went to the hostel while Jeremiah and Spencer went looking for an internet café. Spencer got captured by the train police but responded back to them in Spanish and finally they let him go without putting him into the gulag. The train police are a real problem throughout eastern Europe-they are targeting tourists, especially Americans while their own countrymen are left totally alone. It's a hassle made worst by a Byzantine system of when to buy a ticket, where to use it, when to stamp it and why no one else seems to be participating other than the tourist and the Gestapo-like train police. You can sense that the countries could go right back to a totalitarian system and seem to like (fear?) their secret police. Still the places are so beautiful in both natural terrain and architecture.

About the baths, they were really neat but hard to figure out i.e. it took us three trips to get in when they were open. We went first to a changing room, then down to a series of rooms with various pools. We noted that each pool had a different temperature posted on the wall, ranging from 16 -38 degrees Celsius. We later discovered that there were other pools outside, also of various temperatures. One had a center section with a whirlpool that had an outer circle that became a whirlpool that projected people through it in a circle. Since it was about 35 degrees outside air temperature, it was stimulating with steam coming off the water but cold going from one pool to the next. One pool was a lap pool for exercise at normal temperature (that we avoided). They also had saunas and a steam room (that was way too hot). After we were done, we actually got a refund for staying less than 2 hours (the refund was a normal part of the spas).

After the spas we walked over to a flea market where they had an odd menagerie of items including things from WWII, DVDs of dubbed American movies and hard-core porn, toys, clothes and books. On the way to the spa we saw an odd sight- the police had stopped a guy pulling a camouflaged helicopter down the street behind a mini-van-he had an escort with a flashing light so not sure what the problem was except maybe he was stealing it.