The destination today is Palatinus strandurdo on Margit sziheti (Margaret's Island). The Palatinus is large public pool complex mixed with some features of a water park. there are about 10 different pools on the complex, each as large as a typical America public pool, each with its own purpose and temperature. there was one pool that was a thermal spa, almost like a jacuzzi. Another was large, shallow, and with a gentle slope the was perfect for the kids. Yet another had benches, water sprayers, and a oval "race track" where powerful water jets propelled you around. finally there were pools for smaller kids, complete with play equipment and one that looks like a fountain. We had a blast trying out all the different ones.
The coolest two water attractions were the wave pool and water slide. The wave pool ran for 15 minuses ever hour and produced about 2 ft waves; perfect size for the kids. Everyone loved the wave pool especially Noah & Katy.
The water slide was pretty cool also. It was one tower about 50 ft off the ground with 5 different slides coming off of it. Some slides were straight down speed slides (I call them super-wedgie). Others were curvey, meandering slides at a slower pace. Everyone went down the slides at least once, with Noah having a slight issue with the lifeguards ash he stopped at the bottom of the slide because he wasn't sure how deep the water was.
And when you need a break from all the water fun, it also had a mini-golf course, trampoline, and human gyroscope. of course we couldn't leave without Noah getting in 9 holes of mini-golf.
Oh, one more great feature of this place... Numerous snack stands selling cheap food, beer ($2 for a half liter), and cocktails. The adults had fun too :).
We ended up spending most of the day at the pool complex. We had a great time there and no one got too sunburnt. After about 5 pm it was time to head home, clean up, and pack to leave in the morning.
After some showers, down time, and packing, we were off to find a place to have our last meal out in Budapest. we chose a place right around the corner (insert name) who had a prominently displayed sign reading "pizza and beer". Sounded like it had something everyone could enjoy :). The food was good with most folks opting for pasta or pizzas. I had a chicken cordon blu like dish which was quite tasty. The girls finished off dinner with 2 delicious chocolate tiramisu desserts.
After filling our stomachs with all the good food, it was back to the apartment to pack and sleep before the early train to Vienna. We spent about an hour lazyily packing and getting the kids put down, and were starting to make our preparations for bed. But Budapest had one last surprise for us.
The power went out at our apartment complex (and actually the whole street block, we learned later). It was pitch black in out apartment. Fortunately, I had a flashlight and a few others had brought them, so we managed to get some light, find everyone and assess the situation. Unfortunately, someone had a burgler alarm with some kind of power-fail alarm and a 120 dB siren on it. That thing started going off immediately and didn't stop. The siren and loss of power freaked Noah out somewhat, and we had a hard time getting him to lie down to sleep or to get to sleep ourselves. We could see some other flashlight in the other apartments, each coming to the door, looking out to survey the building, and identifiying the siren where the noise was coming from, and each offering a few curse words in whatever native language they spoke. I believe a few neighbors took a closer look and may have even tried to stop the siren (I'm guessing the owners of the place were not home, or it was a rental). After about 45 minutes of trying to go to sleep with the siren-from-hell going (still audible with windows and doors closed), the power came back on with a blinding snap, as we had left all the lights on after the power went off. Another round of settling very one down and we were all off to sleep, excited for the next days travels.
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