How to lose your stuff in under 30 seconds
Trip Start
Oct 27, 2009
1
9
13
Trip End
Nov 28, 2009
Heviz,
Hungary
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Being one of the few tourists (and possibly the only English speaking
one) in Heviz, I felt a little bit lost heading to the 4.4 hectare
thermal lake. The town is described in Lonely Planet as being a very
'slow' town due to the number of elderly people there - they sure
weren't wrong! It wouldn't be much of a lie to say I was half as young
as the second youngest person in the town that day!!
Looks reasonable
!Anyway, apart from cafes and heaps of tourist shops, the only real
attraction there is the large thermal lake which has been made into
quite a resort with a huge built up platform, sun rooms, change rooms,
massage parlours, etc. in the middle which you walk to on a bridge, and
plenty of pavilions (most closed for the winter) surrounding the lake.
The first step though was to work out the funky system there where you
get a watch-like device which swipes you through to most things in the
facility. Unfortunately, there were no signs telling you how to use the
lockers in the change rooms. So I put my things into one of the lockers
and closed the door only to find it locked automatically on me. After
pulling it in all different directions and looking around like a total
idiot, some guy tried to explain to me in Hungarian that when you swipe
your watch at one of the panels at the end of the row of lockers, it
unlocks YOUR particular locker and tells you which number it is
The photo hardly captures the awesome sight
. Ifonly there was a sign telling me that before hand...
This place was pretty cool. In the pavilion in the middle of the lake
people were relaxing on sun-chairs like it was the middle of summer.
Funnily enough all the outdoor sundecks were totally empty! You could
immerse yourself in the lake from within the pavilion, or take a step
outside and go in from there (and then swim between the two areas). The
lake is quite deep and they have built various things around the lake
to grab onto if you want a rest, but most people tend to float around
in small rubber/foam tyres. There were also quite a lot of white and
pink water lillies in the lake making it very pretty against the
backdrop of steam and a very wintry background. Although officially
32'C, the water felt more like mid-20's. Still quite pleasant, but very
sulphurous. Supposedly I should be healthier now - though I think the
benefits are supposed to be more for people with motor related issues.
The whole facility seemed like a futuristic place where old people go.
Think a few hundred old men in budgie smugglers, lots of staff walking
around wearing totally white, and the occasional message on the
loudspeaker in multiple languages (telling people with heart problems
or high blood pressure not to enter the lake - that would knock out
around 80% of the users!) It was a little surreal, and a good
opportunity to relax and not do very much.
