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Hungary is a land of thermal springs, and Budapest remains the only capital city in the world that is rich in thermal waters with healing qualities. Budapest is also one of the few places where you can experience traditional Turkish baths dating back to 16th and 17th centuries.
While you are on the Buda side make sure to spend a half-day at the famous Gellert spa. The ornate art deco interior is still as pristine as the day it was opened in the 13TH century. With indoor and outdoor pools, unisex and mixed thermal baths in a range of different temperatures, Gellert spa will relax those weary limbs and muscles just enough to enough to allow you to trek up Gellert Hill (just beside the spa) to see the great vista and the statue of St Gellert. According to legend this is where pagans pushed the missionary down the hill in a barrel into the Danube.
On the opposite side of the Danube lies the flatter livelier Pest - the country's political and business stronghold. Here you'll find the bulk of the restaurants, bars and cafés, as well as classy boutiques and grand 19th-century mansions. This is also the place of the tree-lined Andrássy Boulvard, the shops of Váci utca, the Parliament building, the basilica and city park.
Linking both Buda and Pest together are eight bridges, the most iconic perhaps is the Chain Bridge. Make sure to take a walk over this bridge at night to catch a full view of its illumination. This capital's first bridge did not escape the destruction of the Second World War. Rebuilt again in 1949 it makes for many great photo opportunities with fantastic vistas of Buda castle in the background.
Boasting Euorpe's most active coffee house life in the middle of the 19th century, and at the beginning of the 20th century topping 500 coffee houses, Budapest is seeing a revival of its stature with many of its once renowned coffee houses regaining their former magnificence. Synonymous for excellence among locals for more than 150 years make sure to take a pit stop at Gerbeaud's, the most accessible and well known.