i will explain the title in a minute. but this may be the last time i get solid internet access for a while, so thought i'd write a post before meeting mom and grandma in germany in 2 days..anyway, theresa and i took a train to a little town called keszthely that is on the shore of lake balaton, the largest lake in hungary and one of the biggest in europe. it was quite nice, and would have been somewhat nicer had we arrived 2-3 weeks ago. reason being, when they say "off season" they really mean off. as in, basically everything is closed, and you're lucky to find a resturant open to eat. no biggie, it was still beautiful. we spent day 1 wandering the town, and as it was sunday, nothing was open. we then went to the beach and sat on various benches for various amounts of time. picnic lunches and gelati. and that was our sunday.
monday we headed to a town called heviz. we were trying to go to pecs, but after october, the train and bus schedules all change and we would be able to get there, but not back. unless we wanted to spend 15 minutes in the town and 6 hours on the bus. so heviz it was, which was fine with me. it is a resort spa town, housing europe's largest thermal lake. so off we went to bathe in the warm lake waters. only, when we got there, i realized i forgot my bathing suit. i nearly had a cow because i'd been dragging it with me the whole time, and the one chance we get to use it, i forget it. no clue how, because it was the first thing i unpacked that morning, but somehow i left it. so i had to... rent one.
i shudder thinking about it.
how gross it that, renting a bathing suit. i just prayed it didn't have stains and things on it. i think i officially have cooties now. and because i'm so not
proportioned, it was hard to find one that actually fit. one finally fit length wise but was too big in the top. i figured, oh well, i'm just floating around in a lake in a tube, so if it shifted a bit, fine and no one would notice. that turned out to be true. though if they did notice i doubt many would care, as most people changed into their suits or back into their regular clothes right in the middle of the lounge chair area, for all the world to see. i guess one thing i will never get used to in europe is their openness with nudity and lack of modesty. but, it's what makes life interesting. (theresa and i did use the changing locker rooms, mind you. we try to blend in, but not that much..)anyway, minus the renting of the suit, the day was nice. got back to keszthely and all was closed by 630. so early to bed we went after hunting down a market to grab some dinner. next day,
the plan was to make a day trip to tihany, a little peninsula on the lake. but again the bus and trains failed us, and there was no way home, so change of plans - off to balatonfurd we went. another little resort town, but unlike keszthely, everything was fully closed. including the toilets, which proved to make life difficult. finally we found one open, but it was 100 huf to get in. only 50 cents, but still - that lady had a monopoly going on. so we basically walked around the lake, sat on benches, walked around the town, sat on more benches, walked back to the lake and sat on benches again. quite productive, i must say. but pretty views, despite the incredibly strong wind. we were almost blown away a few times, but managed to find a bench to hang onto. again back to keszthely, where everything was again closed. and another early night for us.here comes the title explanation. while theresa definitely needed the 3 days rest because she had developed/was getting over a sore throat, sinus infection and cough. i was fine. until this morning when i woke up with such a bad sore throat i couldn't sleep for a few hours. hence the best of times for her, and the worst for me. it's like when i was at school and would have the craziest semesters, but never get sick. until christmas break when my body had a chance to relax and unwind a
nd everything catches up. so the 3 days of rest allowed me to catch the cold or whatever it is. hopefully it won't be a severe as theresa's... cross your fingers for me.got back into budapest after quite an interesting train ride (drunken hungrian trying to talk with us, despite our attempts to tell him we only spoke english). and my sore throat didn't stop me from getting the true budapest experience and going to a bath. and what an experience it was. first we couldn't find the entrance. then we almost couldn't find the dressing rooms (no open area changing here). we wandered to where we thought the bath would be, only to find 2 outdoor swimming pools with people doing laps. i was not about to do laps. so followed a random girl down some steps and found the "sauna", which was good enough for us. basically a warm outdoor pool with different bubbling sections. when we first got in everyone stared at us. literally. and i definitely felt like i didn't belong there, or we intruded onto some secret club. but as it turns out, they were staring because we were not wearing the proper uniform - the bathing cap. and eventually a pool guard came out and mimed that to us. up we followed him to the rental office, and after quite a bit of language barrier and leaving my watch as a deposit, we got our caps. and no one stared. well, at least not as much as initially.
the baths were hilarious and we acted like a bunch of teenage tourist in it, but i didn't care. it made me forget my sore throat for an hour or so. and now i can say we had our budapest bath. at least i didn't have to rent a suit this time. i checked about 20 times to make sure i had it with me.
so theresa leaves tomorrow morning, and i leave on a night train for germany tomorrow evening. hopefully that works out okay and i'm able to find my way to our hotel to meet the family. and hope my sore throat goes away :(
No comments:
Post a Comment