Although an increasingly modern city at the heart of Europe, #Hungary's capital is also a place where the past, gilded and gloomy, rears large in monuments and local rituals. The thermal pools and steam rooms are unmissable.⁠ ⁠ Few cities found themselves caught up in the turbulence of Europe's 20th century quite as specifically as Budapest. It began the 1900s as one of the dual capitals of Austro-Hungary – a gleaming metropolis at the centre of a continental empire. But the First World War changed the guard and ripped away its significance. And the Second plunged it into four decades of austerity – “lost” on the far side of the Iron Curtain in the new Communist era.⁠ ⁠ Both of these time-frames are written on its face. Buda, on the west side of the Danube, dreams of the old days in the likes of its vast Baroque castle (in spite of the caveat that this architectural jewel is an ornate piece of reconstruction – the fight for the city in 1945 having reduced it to rubble). Adjacent, the Gellért Baths (gellertbath.hu) are an exercise in time travel – cocooned within the Art Nouveau grandeur of the Hotel Gellért (built between 1912 and 1918). Here, locals both young, middle-aged and elderly congregate to splash and sweat through thermal pools and steam rooms so grand that they might be cathedrals, keeping alive some of the community spirit of the Communist years.⁠ ⁠ See the link in bio to find out why Budapest is one of our 1,000 #DreamTrips.⁠ ⁠ #travel #inspiration #wanderlust #adventure