Hot, Hot, Hot!

In Budapest, we saw some marvelous sights - while sweating profusely. We were here during one of the worst heat waves they've ever had in May.

A huge indoor market – 3 levels.



A view from the funicular going up to the castle.



Matthias Church.



We spent one day at the Hungarian Open Air Museum at Szentendre and of course we chose the hottest day to go – the high temperature broke records. I was very interested in these exhibits.





Notice the ornate metal ball that holds the thread? I would love one of those for yarn!

I was able to get my daily fix.



Here it's not Diet Coke, but Coca Cola Light. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...as long as I get my caffeine.

The place we stayed at was this close to the Danube River.



One afternoon we went to one of the many thermal baths or swimming pools on Margaret Island (Margit-sziget) called the Palatinus Strand. The outside of the main building is nothing to brag about (think uninspired communist-era architecture of concrete blocks). The locker rooms are the stuff of high school nightmares, except that no one speaks a word of English. But once you figure out the system and win over the attendant who is frustrated with your lack of Hungarian language skills everything works out. The confusion stems from the attendant looking like everyone else in the locker room - no special shirt/uniform/tag. The attendant has a key that opens ALL lockers. You pick a locker, she opens it for you and when you're done changing, she locks it for you. I was a little concerned that someone other than me had access to my wallet, but when in Rome...

You then go into the complex and glide into a cornucopia of swimming pools. There are 7 very large pools in this one complex. We only saw 4 – the kid’s wading pool and 3 adult pools that have different temperatures of water. One of the pools had jets that turned the pool into a water ride, shooting you around in a circle. That was a favorite. We completely missed the pools that have the big water slides. We spent a couple of hours there – cooling off from the heat.

I did spot yarn in Budapest. A couple blocks from where we were staying was a fabric store. They had a very small shelf of yarn, mainly acrylic Wendy brand yarn - nothing of interest. I didn’t bother to whip out the camera.

So no yarn purchases - I had to be content with the knitting projects I had brought with me. One thing worried me however - I had to be ultra-vigilant to keep my wool in the ziplock bag when not knitting. There are no screens on windows in Europe - none. Not one place we stayed had screens and none of the homes we saw had screens on the windows. I confess - I was afeared of the moths. What do knitters in Europe do to prevent their projects or stash from being invaded by unwanted guests?