Thermal spa in Hungary

My really good friend (and boss :)) is celebrating her birthday today. And we had a pre-birthday party yesterday in Hungary. We decided to go, there were 4 of us, to thermal spa in Györ. We went there with FTL which was a mistake. The departure time was 5:30 am. Craziness... Well, I left the house at 5:25 and it was good as the bus was, of course, late. When we finally got on the bus (we were freezing outside for almost 30 minutes), we were happy as we got the best seats - the four seats which are almost in the back of the bus, but those that are really in the back were free... So each of us had 2,25 seats :).
We slept all the way to Brno and farther. The first stop was just before the borders with Slovakia and was far too long (although said to be just a hygiene stop). Then we went directly to Györ.
Well, the first problem actually appeared even before Saturday. We were told that, for whatever reason, we were neither going to stop at a market (which was said on a leaflet), or to the city (also promised). We got to the spa, waited forever to get some chips (not for eating :)) to be able to get inside and then went for a walk. We were told the bus drivers would be at the parking lot from 11 until 12 to open the bus for us so that we could get our things and go to the spa.

Here comes the right time, I believe, to tell you something about our guide and her organizational (and other) skills. She was useless. Completely. First, she looked nice. Until she took the microphone and started telling us all the "important" information. That Slovakia is in the EU and stuff like that. She repeated everything at least ten times and after doing that, she said: "But I'll repeat this later so that you know..." Ehm... We, especially Oeniska :), were quite rude sometimes, probably because we believed it would stop her. Nothing stopped her. So she was talking, talking, talking and all the words she said gave us no information we needed.
So you wouldn't be surprised that when we came to the bus, at 11:00, there was nobody there. No bus drivers to open the bus. It was very cold outside. And we wanted to go into the hot water. Well, at about 11:40, a bus driver who wasn't ours opened the bus for us. I don't think it's normal... We could have stolen anything from there...

But we finally got inside the spa and were happy for that. For a while... Because we got only one locker for two people which is very very strange if you can imagine how much space things like towels and bathrobes take... Annoying, seriously.

The spa itself was nice. It was crowded, though. So there was, for example, a room called relaxing. The atmosphere there was similar, I believe, to a soccer match - it was so loud that they could close people in there and torture them by keeping them inside!

We enjoyed the whirpool, the little waterfalls and especially the part of one of the pools with counter-current. That was really lots of fun. We were the fastest there, being a "train", really having fun like little kids. I loved that! And as this was very tiring, physically, we decided to get some money (HUF :)) and go to the bar. We wanted to have shakes. We had wanted them until we saw how the not-nice waitress takes the ice in her bare hands and starts making the shakes out of it... Gross... So we ordered coffee... And got some - two of the glasses were half-empty. So we tried to catch the "lady's" attention and complain, politely. When we thought she was finally listening to us, we told her that we'd like to have all the glasses full. It seemed she didn't listen to us at all, at the end, she didn't say anything, she just left... So we didn't know what was going on. And then she came, after about 5 minutes, with hot milk which she poured inside our glasses. Without a single word. Czech waitresses, shop assistents and all the people "serving" us we sometimes complain about are wonderful compared to that! (As my mom said later - "So nothing has changed since we went there during the socialist era..." Really, we shouldn't complain here :))

When the time came to leave, we had the chance to find out how bad the showers were...

We got on the bus again and headed to Paprika Czarda for dinner. Our dear guide was talking again... She said things like: "We should be there before 6. Well, I'll tell you when we get there if we managed." What the hell is wrong with you?! we were thinking...

The dinner was good, except... Our bus was full of primary-school teachers and sometimes it was just annoying (ok, my mom is a teacher... when I told her this story, she said "And that's why I never go on a trip organized for teachers" :)). There was this one lady, a teacher, who started smoking in the restaurant exactly at the same time when we started eating. So we asked her, politely, to stop. She said: "What? Are you talking to me?" Do you think she stopped? Of course not. I wonder if a teacher like that really have the courage to tell pupils they shouldn't smoke.
The food was very good, though. And we still had our bottle of champagne. We were supposed to leave at 7 pm. But we were the last ones who got food, the last ones who finished, the last ones who paid... And we were angry at that stupid teacher so we decided to open the bottle before getting on the bus which meant, and we knew it, that everyone was going to wait for us. It was kinda fun to come back, late, with cups full of champagne. :)

So that was it, we drank our champagne and then watched Vratne lahve on the bus. During the movie, our amazing guide didn't forget to tell us that "on the right side, there's Bratislava castle...". Of course without pausing the movie...

We got home at around 11 pm. Tired. To sum up, it was fun because we made it fun. And it also taught us that we should never again go on an organized trip like that. Next time, we're taking a car. But we'll make sure one of us will be always talking, giving us "interesting facts" about anything we see on the way... :)
Ok, I really liked that ladies trip and I think we should do that more often. But - and you should follow this advice - never again with FTL!!! :)

PS: Girls - L & M & D/O - if you read it, thanks for the day which was great thanks to all the fun we had! And happy birthday, my dearest boss! :) You're the best!