2010. augusztus 23., hétfő

Important correction...I have been spelling Pápa incorrectly...the accent is on the 1st a, not the 2nd! :)

Papá, Várkertfürdő (Castle Garden Bath)

Today we took Rachel to the small waterpark in Papá, the Várkertfürdő (Castle Garden Bath). We have been there before and had a great time, so we wanted to share it with her. After leaving the house at 11:15am, we strolled through residential streets to the park. The walk was about 15 minutes long, and was a nice way to heat up before arriving at the pools.

We approached the front desk and I told the receptionist, “2,” in Hungarian, and pointed to the pool. To my surprise, and embarrassment, she looked at me and asked, “Do you speak English?” LOL!! I felt my cheeks flush a little. When Dusty and I visited the park last time, the young girl behind the counter did not speak any English. The fact that this woman spoke English obviously made the transaction much easier. We purchased our 3 tickets for only 3000 forints ($13.45)!!

The park was crowded, but not overly, and we picked out a nice place on the grass to lay our towels. We immediately headed for the pools, after first lathering up with sunscreen. With the combination of a slight breeze, and cool water, it wasn’t long before we headed into the warm pool. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the Várkertfürdő offers multiple pools, both indoor and outdoor. In addition, there are water slides, small waterfalls, grass areas, food and drinks.

After relaxing in the warm pool, Rachel headed to the slides. We watched her go down while the lifeguards watched….stared! LOL! Dusty went shortly after, and then they forced me up there too! I reached the top, got ready to slide and then chickened out. I watched as 2 small children slid down…haha…and finally then I decided to go. I screamed the entire way down…

The three of us relaxed in the water before buying some hamburgers for lunch. The burgers were very tasty-sesame seed buns, thin meat patty, tomato, red onion, cucumber (not pickled) lol, ketchup and mustard. Rachel’s hamburger came with lettuce also, we are not sure why ours didn’t LOL!

After about 3 hours at the park we decided to walk back home. We leisurely strolled and Rachel took pictures of flowers, and tractors going down the street. After we got home, we showered and dressed, before heading downtown with Grandpa. The four of us went into a number of shops, took pictures, and of course…had ice cream!! Some new flavors were tried—vanilla, strawberry, rum (I think that is what mine was!) and Grandpa had apple. I think, like always, I chose the best one!!

Tomorrow we are off to Budapest!! We plan on leaving early, catching the 10:30 walking tour, and then doing our own thing! Budapest…here we come!!

Only 3 more days until The Best of Europe tour with COSMOS!!!