RUDAS BATHS of BUDAPEST : 450 YEARS OF HOT MINERALWATER SINCE THE OTTOMAN TURKS : MINERAL WATER DRINKING CURE : WONDERFUL PLACES IN HUNGARY #33

OOOH.... The Ottoman Turks.... who killed two-thirds of the Hungarian population...Can we love something they left behind when they were defeated? (There are Moslems in Hungary and no doubt some of them are descended from the occupiers.) How about if we improve upon it?

Well, there's architecture and there's history. These baths have been used for 450 years and the water still flows. For some time the baths were men only but now you can select a time to emerge yourself with others of your gender or not. (No getting naked!) You can soak in some history as well as relax and emerge feeling better. 

RUDAS FURDO (RUDAS BATHS)

Excerpt:

The centerpiece of the bath today, the Turkish bath, was built during the 16th century in the period of the Turkish occupation. Below the 10 m diameter dome, sustained by 8 pillars, there is an octagonal pool. The swimming pool, operating as a therapeutic swimming facility and with a sauna, was built in 1896. The thermal bath has been visited from 1936 o­n exclusively by men.

In its drinking hall, the water of the springs Hungária, Attila and Juventus can be consumed for the purposes of a drinking cure.

The blog attached is rather fun... 

BATHS BUDAPEST  This site gives more details about gendered bath times and:

Excerpt: What makes Rudas Bath stand out is the modern rooftop panorama pool overlooking the river Danube and its many Budapest river cruise boats, the Parliament, the historical bridges and more. Also, Rudas Bath boasts a 16th-century thermal bath in its core, called the Turkish Bath.

Click on the label Wonderful-Hungary to get to the entire series on this theme.

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HUNGARIAN HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN STEREOTYPE : WE LOVE EVERYTHING TO DO WITH SPA CULTURE AND ARE NOT SHY ABOUT OUR BODIES

 There is no doubt about it. We do! 

In the United States, if you visit some of the less expensive day spas, or places where you can go in natural surroundings to put clay on yourself, scrub with bristle brushes, float around in the shallows on rafts, submit yourself to the strong fingers of a deep tissue therapist, or simply soak in mineral rich thermal waters, YOU WILL FIND HUNGARIANS and HUNGARIAN-AMERICANS.

That's not to say that no one spends on the expensive day spas. The trouble with them is that these days the expensive ones may also put you on a diet that is too extreme for someone who cares not to loose weight, or they may expect you to hit the gym, which is not the Hungarian-American/Hungarian point of going to a spa.

That has been my experience and so you can't argue with it!

As for the part about not being shy about our bodies, I'm not claiming that we are immodest. Rather, we are practical. We have a body. Everyone does. And very few people are in excellent shape.  And you do not have to be in excellent shape to enjoy feeling good or soaking in thermal waters with other people, some who are friends, some who are not.

Smile!

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Want to see what other stereotypes I tackle? Click on the tag below!

VOLCANIC HUNGARY : HARKANY SPA : THE DEVIL IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HEAT!

HARKANY HUNGARY : HISTORY AND LEGEND AND POETRY OF THE SPA 

Excerpt:  The Legend of Harka Popular belief created its own legend explaining the origin of medical water of Harkány and of the neighbouring natural formations. The legend of Harka, existing in different variations, attaches the rising of medicinal water to the surface to the devil who failed on a trial. He did not manage to get Harka a beautiful girl whose tricky mother, also referred to as a witch, outwitted the devil.

From the South, if you watch,

Harsány’s peaked hill

You can see more furrows

Plowed in the rocky boroughs

And rooster, goat, cat

Footprints appear on the ridge’s back.

An old granny used to live there

Had a daughter with a name of Harka

A wonderful maid

The devil fancied her

At nights he watched

Just couldn’t be fed up.

If you want the girl,

Until rooster crowing,

Plow the hill of Harsány!

Said the devil: On my way!

Hooked in a cat, a goat, and a rooster

In his golden plow.

Granny through the attic hole,

Watching-waiting,

The devil doing.

Her bulging eyes are watching

The devil almost finishing

On the ridge.

If he is so fast,

He will finish while we rest.

Granny in a hurry,

Down the road to the hen house,

Crowing like a mad grouse.

Then joined the rooster

Like a booster.

The devil tearing his hair,

The three animals became hills,

As the devil saw his defeat,

In his anger, stamped with his feet,

A hole appeared and absorbed him,

Where he got back to hell,

Sulphured hot water came up well.

BUDAPEST