A Gray Day in Budapest
Thunder, lightning, very, very frightening…
Gray days travelling around Europe in November are to be expected. If you think you’re going to have thirty days of sunshine, you’d better rethink your travel plans. I know that day after day of grayness can affect your mood and lead to depression.
It’s called SAD, quite apt, but seasonal affective disorder is a real thing. My daughter suffered it during her first winter in France. Strange really, because she had spent most of the ten previous winters in Japan and wasn’t affected there. Maybe because she went snowboarding with a group of friends most weekends at Hakuba?
She skyped me — as down-in-the-dumps as I had ever seen her. I could use my frequent flyer points to fly her back to sunny Queensland — or — I could use them to fly myself to France. Mmm… decisions.
I flew to France! It was my first visit to France and happened with little planning. I called Qantas. Life was so much easier in 2010.
“When can I fly to Europe on my frequent flyer points?”
“Does the 11th suit you?”
“Sure. And when can I fly back to Brisbane?”
“That’s a little more difficult. All I have is the 31st, New Years Eve?”
Almost three weeks. Perfect.
I experienced firsthand the gray days, the gray mornings, and the gray afternoons, everything was gray. But it wasn’t always gray. Occasionally, the sun would peep through the clouds, and I’d sit and inhale the sunshine until it disappeared a few minutes later. Then there was the fun of being caught in a late afternoon thunderstorm and waiting it out in a bar in Trentemoult.
And the childish delight of coming out of the shopping centre to find it snowing! I had never seen snow falling. A snowflake landed on my tooth. That was the end of my standing in the blizzard catching snowflakes!
Since then, I have travelled to Europe in November as often as I can. I applied for leave in 2011 and spent 4 and a half months with my sister, niece and daughters on a whistle-stop train trip around Europe. It was a first for my sister, my niece and me! My niece stayed for the next three years working in Cardiff while my sister and I sadly headed home.
I have never travelled to Europe in summer, nor do I want to. On this trip, I arrived mid-August — never again. I don’t think I’ve ever been so hot. I’ve visited England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Poland since then and now I’m in Budapest, Hungary and the weather still hasn’t turned cold. I wish I’d known — I could have left the whole suitcase of winter clothes at home.
Yesterday was another grey day, but I’d booked a day at the Rudas Thermal Spa on the Buda side of the Danube River. I think you’ll agree the views are amazing from the rooftop bar and pool.
About 20 people were in the rooftop pool when a thunderstorm swirled over the Buda cliffs and down upon us. There were still a few seconds between lightning flash and thunderclap, so everyone continued bathing, prosecco in hand. I wondered about our vulnerable position — I love thunderstorms — I just don’t like being caught out in one. Surely this wasn’t the first time a thunderstorm had rolled in while bathing on the rooftop? And if there were any danger, the management would remove everyone from the pool.
No sooner was the thought out in the open, a lifeguard appeared from downstairs and ordered everyone out! The worst of the storm had passed but everyone climbed out. No, I wasn’t last but I wasn’t going to waste that prosecco.
Looking through the photos now that were shared with me, I see a little aerial atop the spa bath. I wonder if this is a lightning conductor? Thank goodness, it wasn’t needed.
We all huddled together in the tiny undercover bar area. I don’t know why — we were all saturated — my precious prosecco had fallen victim to some huge raindrops — it’s only water, right?
I intended to write about the experience being “caught in a thunderstorm on a roof top in Budapest” but then thought, the day could not have been any grayer, (RIP Matthew Perry) so changed the title to fit our November writing challenge.
Doesn’t it look like it was taken back in the fifties when all photos were black and white? Even studio photos were taken without colour and some colour was added manually by the photographer as this photo was.
And to put my excitement into an exciting day — if being caught in a thunderstorm on a roof top is not exciting enough — the sun came out after the storm.
There certainly was no lack of colour when Bell Dae visited the ruin bars.
And for some night life of a different kind, Carol Labuzzetta, MS Natural Resources, MS Nursing explores the river and its bridges.
When you’re young, you can do a lot in one day as Anne Bonfert proves.
