Living your Buda-best life

Giant thermal baths, serene river cruises and the lively Ruin Bars... DEREK FOLEY finds that Budapest has lots to offer on a city break

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Budapest makes for an outstanding break - whether visiting for the waters or the local brew, the national dish, goulash, which is to die for here, or the cultural mayhem of the city centre's Ruin Bars.

Irish people will love Hungarian food, Hungarian people like Irish people - in particular one of our soccer legends - while the pubs in the wreckages of old buildings are sensational.

All in a city dominated by its river, the Danube, where cruises play well although when postcarding/emailing home remember the Strauss-composed choral work/waltz is primarily associated with Vienna!

Trips vary from €100 wine/dine excursions to €10 basic up/back journeys - where you can always smuggle a bottle of 'water' with a nip just to keep you warm, mind you - and come with the usual recommendation to try to board close to dusk so as to get daylight out and the night lights back.

Water is, though, a serious theme and the neo-baroque Szechenyi Thermal Bath near the city centre is not only the largest medicinal bath in Europe, it is supplied by 74C and 77C springs.

There's almost Roman-style splendour and its large spacious layout (say, eight football pitches) contains three outdoor and 15 indoor pools. We don't have this sort of thing in Ireland but Hungarians might go there for all sorts of reasons - for a drink, to read, or to play cards or chess.

Likewise, the art nouveau Gellert Thermal Bath is impressive and, while the building is a 20th century construct, its function relates to a tradition that dates to the 12th century where it was favoured by the St John Knights and the Turks.

Harking back to that first mention of water and a nip for the cold, just being in Budapest is a great excuse to try a world-renowned liqueur, one that almost invented designer-label shot drinking.