Budapest is a city worth staying in for more than one week, and I now wish I had sacrificed some Bratislava time for Budapest, but maybe I’ll need to come back one day, hopefully with someone else!
What an interesting and different place! I think this is also an indication to me that I need to start branching out. It’s time for Asia and other destinations way outside of my experience, knowledge, and comfort after my almost three years of living in and traveling around Europe, along with my many decades of the US (with several months in Canada).
Hungary basically lies on a thin crust over hot springs, and the Hungarians take full advantage of this, with thermal baths offered all over. I paid a visit to Budapest’s most famous (Széchenyi Fürdő), where outside there is a cooler lap pool at about 30°C (86°F), a warmer pool with jets and a “swirl” area at 36°C (97°F), and then the hot pool at 38°C (100°F). Even the hot pool wasn’t as hot as a typical hot tub in the US. But these are clean spring-fed mineral-rich waters that get pumped in and then flow out, and the locals believe them to be therapeutic. It was crowded when I visited. The weather was really pleasant though, with lots of sun. It was warm enough to just get out of the pool and lie on a chair in the sunlight. All the baths in Budapest are apparently government-run, part of the healthcare system! They let tourists visit too, as they’re bringing in a lot of money.
1896 was the 1,000th anniversary of the Magyars settling into what is now Hungary, and so to celebrate, Budapest city leaders commissioned numerous construction projects, with many of these remaining today as some of the most important tourist attractions, such as Heroes’ Square, the Parliament building (96 meters tall and 96 front steps), St. István’s Basilica (also 96 meters tall), the first subway line in continental Europe, the Great Market Hall, Andrássy út (boulevard) and most of the grand buildings lining it, the Opera House, Fisherman’s Bastion, and more! Wow, that was a lot of construction, especially since it seems like there’s a ton of construction still today too.
There seem to be more left-brained Hungarians than there are artists. In linguistics, there’s something called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that posits that a language shapes or limits the ways in which the language’s speaker forms conceptions of the world. It has more recently fallen a bit out of favor in many ways, but I think there’s some truth to at least part of it. Hungarian as a language is notoriously complex (as are the Slavic languages), and my impression is that the peoples from this region are great at logic, math, and complex subjects. This is the origin of the Rubik’s cube, after all. I think there’s really something to this hypothesis.
You know how in other countries and languages, they talk about given name and family name? But in the US we typically refer to first name and last name. Well, in Hungary the first name is the last name, and vice versa. So I’d be Hicks Scott in Hungary. Also, when I visited the doctor in Budapest, they required me to give my mother’s maiden name, which apparently they use as a (weak) verification challenge for obtaining personal medical info. Ha ha.
Today’s limerick:
In Hungary locals like thermal baths
They're also often really good at maths
There's a cube from their Rubik
A pen's a Biro, not Bic
Each nationality has its own paths.
Today’s dad joke: What’s a Budapest-based father who makes groan-worthy dad jokes?
A pun-garian!
Today’s travel quote:
There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.
Charles Dudley Warner
Major Meander 
That city looks incredible and beautiful! It’s always the best when there’s some nature present too, like those baths and sprawling city parks.
But how would your mother’s correct maiden name be in their system? Odd. Very interesting, though! I think there are some African languages that also put the family name first in order.
I had to give my mother’s maiden name to them for the first time for future verification. They didn’t have it before that. But if they had, that would have been odd indeed.
The baths look really cool. My favorite photo is the Parliament building from the river at night. I have vivid memories of that.