snowy steamy heaven

There are many thermal baths in Budapest and their quality is varied, but the general consensus is that the Szechenzyi Baths in City Park are the best. On a snowy Sunday I went there and getting off the metro stop I walked to where I could see steam rising from the water. There were no people, only ducks. Two Italians had made the same journey as me and we got chatting, I was surprised to discover that my Italian was better than their English and we slipped into Italian as we walked away from the dirty duck infested water in disappointment. Coming across a large yellow building we decided to take a look, and as it turned out these were the actual baths!

The Budapest bathing ritual is fairly simple. You go in, change, leave your things in a locker, get a massage if you like (you will) and a dreamy half hour later you walk through two large doors into a grandly decorated room full of fat people, steam and hot water. Avoiding the hungry gazes of Hungarian men, you delicately lower yourself into the water and exhale. It's warm and relaxing and the heat in the air makes you sleepy...until a blast of freezing cold air startles you awake and you turn your head to see a door that goes outside, to where the 'real' baths are.

Oh dear, you think, I have to walk out there in a bikini, through the snow, to get to the water. Bracing yourself, you take a breath and run for it, down the slippery stairs, through the crowds, past the fat people, wash your feet in the little pools around the edge and then jump, relieved that you are still alive, into the 38 degree water.

Typically there are three pools, a hot one, a warm one, and a cooler one for swimming laps. The hot one is for spacing out and relaxing in the mineral thick water until you start to feel faint. The cool one you swim through to get to the warm one at the other end, where there is a whirlpool which takes you back to age 10 as you whirl around it giggling.

Being brave and holding fast to the theory that hotcoldhot is good for one's circulation, I walked the 50 frozen metres back to the hot pool and stayed there a while longer. People bring plastic chess sets to the pool and there are always at least four games going on. The steam rising into the sub zero air envelopes people in a false sense of privacy and lovers can be seen kissing while men are caught out staring. I chatted to the Italians and some English lads, on who's recommendation I then went to the sauna.

The sauna is part of another circulation stimulating hot‑cold‑hot ritual. It's about 50 degrees, maybe more. The heat teases the chill from your skin and prickles at your face. Your lungs complain as you try to breathe and everyone in there looks somewhat distressed. You sit there until the goosebumps have disappeared and then you walk into the next room where there is a deep plunge pool. Jumping in, your body is subjected to water of only 5 or so degrees and your blood vessels come alive, singing and zinging. Thirty seconds is all I bother to handle ‑ more than that is for people with numerous fat rolls. Then it's back to the sauna to repeat the process until you don't even notice the heat or the cold anymore ‑ they are just sensations equally comfortable or uncomfortable as each other. It's a strange feeling and leaves you a little high, giggly and childlike.

Finally you shower off, change back into your clothes and, hair wet and dripping, you get back on the metro and make your way towards the gluhwein (hot wine) stall at the christmas markets.

We need one of those in Perth.