It is early morning, and Budapest, 'the queen of the Danube', is beginning to stir. Newspaper kiosks are opening, people are getting their espresso fixes in the cafes and an old lady is selling flowers outside the iron gates of the Great Market Hall. A tram trundles over Independence Bridge, a lattice work of green iron girders that spans the river to link Buda on the west side with Pest on the east. The track turns a corner past the distinctive domes of the Gellert Hotel and Baths.
Budapest is known for its thermal spas, and swimming and bathing are national pastimes. Inside the city's most celebrated bathhouse, Gellert, Cserjes Laszi prepares for his morning ritual. 'People come and socialise and it's the perfect start to the day,' says Laszi as he steps into the men's thermal pool, which is exquisitely decorated with fountains and art nouveau details.
Locals in skin-coloured aprons mix with visitors wearing more conventional swimming attire. Three
elderly bathers float serenely on their backs next to a group engaged in heated discussion. Soaking in these pools, with water at a constant 38 degrees Celsius, offers blissful relief for aching muscles. Many treatments are available, from water suspensions and mud packs to massages and pedicures.
Other bathhouses worth checking out include Kiraly, a Turkish establishment built in 1570 that has a beautiful skylit central dome, and Szechenyi, containing 15 different pools and ranking as one of the largest bathhouses in Europe. It's a common sight to witness men playing chess in the warm waters, encased in a veil of rising steam.
Back over on the Pest side, shoppers are busy inside the wonderfully restored Nagycsarnok (Great Market Hall). Although fruit and vegetables are available, the emphasis is on meat products such as sausages, salami, bacon and goose liver. The Kmetty and Kmetty stall proudly displays a black and white photograph of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who visited during the 1980s. Some stalls are stacked with typical Hungarian drinks such as unicum (a herbal liqueur), palinka (a powerful brandy distilled from pears, apricots or plums) and Tokaji Aszu wines, which King Louis XIV of France called 'the wine of kings and the king of wines'.
Another fine shopping experience is provided by the Ecseri Piac, one of the biggest and best flea markets in central Europe. During the communist era it was a black market where people went to buy contraband goods such as Marlboro cigarettes, Johnnie Walker whisky, Levi's jeans, Playboy magazines and Rolling Stones records. Today, its stalls sell everything from 1940s Leica cameras and old gramophones to antique jewellery and Soviet army watches.