Today we went to the swimming park, Varketfurdo. We did our research online first, to see what the hours were and how much it cost. The website indicated that the park hours are 6-22 daily (Hungary is solely on the 24 hour clock), and tickets could be purchased for increments of 2 hours, 4 hours, or the entire day. In addition, we checked the facility out two weeks ago, so we knew what to expect.
We decided to walk to the water park, and took all of the essentials-towels, sunscreen, bugspary, water, sunglasses and money to get in (plus a little extra in case the website was incorrect). The same young girl was working the counter, as we had seen previously. She greeted us in Hungarian, and we asked her if she spoke English. She indicated that she spoke a little, so we told her there were two of us and we would like the 4 hour pass. In response, she said something in Hungarian. Fortunately, the woman behind us offered to help. She acted as our translator. Our newly aquired translator told us that we could not purchase a 4 hour pass and the only pass we could get was a full day pass. Then our translator asked if we were living in Papa and we said yes which worked to our advantage because the tickets are cheaper for residence of Papa! We paid 2800 forint which is $12.64 U.S for the whole day :). So, the website was incorrect, but fortunately for us, the all day park pass was cheaper than the website indicated the 4 hour pass would be (but that also could be becuase we got the residence price :) ). The water park looked spectular, there are 6 pools, 2 thermal pools, 3 water slides, 4 regular pools, and in the pools there are water geysers that are used for massages. The park also offered food stands, gelato, hamburgers, hotdogs, beer, soft drinks, etc.
Most of the men wore board shorts, but there were also quite a few speedos. Women mostly wore bikinis, and only a handful of one-pieces. The water park was very family friendly, grass area was abundant to spread out towels and chairs. Everyone left their belongings unattended while they were in the water. There were many families but also also quite a few young people (seemingly on dates).
We had a wonderful time laying out by the pool and in the extremely shallow pool edges. Arriving back at the house with tans is a great thing!!
