Hungary 1 -Heviz / a communist holiday/open air thermal baths/our first introduction to a new country

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So today it was goodbye to our beloved Italy. She had not been kind to us this trip. The weather has been poor for the time of year and so many things have gone wrong. I have got through so many books. Babylon Idol the cross between Indiana Jones meets the Da Vinci Code. The Handmaids Tale – a story about the future. An Orwellian world were women have only one function and that to have babies. If they fail they are sent to the wall to be hung or left to wander a radiactive world outside the wall. Canterbury Tales with a mixture of Blade Runner and 1984 thrown in for good measure. The Essex Serpent set in 1893 in a world where religion battles with the work of Charles Darwin. Glenn has lost a bit of his tooth or filling again and my large filling has started to move so something is amiss there. We got up early and left to try to put some miles of Slovenia behind us. We had a date with a new country. One that neither of us had been to before. It’s been an odd old holiday and somehow we wonder what we will make of Hungary.

The plan was to head for Lake Balaton and find a campsite close to a town with shops, cafes and lakeside walks so that we could just stay awhile and relax. The plan however went wrong. Nothing to do with us I hasten to add. Firstly we were limited finding campsites. On the lake at the southern end are a number of them but about two thirds had already closed for the season . This left us with a much smaller choice. Glenn found the campsite we wanted on the ACSI camping app and picked it on Silly. Everything went fine until we reached the lake and she seemed to be heading out of town instead of down to the lake. When you don’t know where you are going you blindly follow and hope that you come out at the right place. Well we didn’t. We ended up at the campsite they showed on the lake but Camping Castrum turned out to be over an hours walk back to the lake. So we were here and ACSI need a good talking to for putting the wrong information on their app.

The site looked nice though it had to be said. The young lad on reception told us to pick a plot and come back afterwards. Folks were sitting out in the sun by a small canal filled with purple water lilies. A Monet styled bridge traversed the waterway. As we walked back to the town we realised this was a thermal baths town and we imagined ourselves being communist and on holiday "Comrade Jones you have two weeks rest and relaxation. You will go to Heviz and you will spend all the fortnight in the hot water bathing your bones. Your aches and pains will go away and you will return to work in two weeks happy knowing you did not pay a forint for the trip. It was paid for by the state". My imagination runs wild .

It wasnt easy to find the way up to the town - a footpath led one way - to the other nothing but a track around the thermal lake. We chose the track through the woods and hoped for the best. We wondered about the thermal pool and the internet came good as I found an article on the five best thermal pools in Hungary written by the American travel writer Rick Steves. Surprise Surprise Heviz was one of them. Quoting Rick " Heviz is a thermal sring with water filling a volcanic crater near to the town of Keszthely " Keszthely was the town we should be camping at. He stated that Heviz is the second largest thermal pool in Hungary and is continually fed by thermal waters from a depth of 100 feet underground. All that constant flushing means that the pool refreshes itself every two days. The temperature never drops below 70 degrees in winter and can reach 95 in the summer months. No wonder we could see bevies of elderly ladies in their bikinis sunbathing and taking in the air. Little wonder that the pool was filled with the elderly. As Rick says " Loved by thr Russians and the Germans the spa is extremely popular and good for aching joints and easing ailments". He did say to that the water is radioactive and it is best not to spend more than 30 minutes bathing. The elderly spent more than 30 minutes in coming out like wrinkled prunes. The wooden structure that served as changing rooms and payment desks could be described as like a Swiss Cottage or something from the Black Forest. Something that would not look out of place in a Victorian gothic novel.

The town was brash full of tat shops, travel agents offering day trips to Budapest and beyond and clothes shops selling metallic coloured Puffer jackets and coats with fake fur.

At night we ended up in the campsite restaurant. A small but cosy place with the tables sitting cheek by jowl. A thick tablecloth similar to one I remember my gran having adorned the table. A rustic charming place with an extensive menu. We chose pork cooked in a sauce with beans and bacon on top. To complete the meal we were served small fried potatoes and a salad of chopped cabbage, carrots and cucumber marinated in vinegar. The meal was fantastic and cheap too. We cannot get used to Hungarian forints. We pay in the thousands. I wish they would knock a nought off .

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Comments

[Ake Och Emma]

Looking forward to go back to Hungary
It was many years ago since we were in Hungary last time. We are planning to go back. Hopefully already next year. I already look forward to soak myself in the spas in Budapest. /Ake

[JenGog]

budapest
The thermal spring in Heviz looked fantastic - if you can get there its a worth a dip.