by OLGS, guest blogger
One tram stop away from the University of Debrecen is a group of run-down thermal "furdok" (bath spas). The one most popular with the students is the "Strand" which has a forbidding concrete exterior. The photo, taken from the spa's website in winter, incredibly, makes it seem warm and inviting, compared to its actual shabby fortress-like appearance. With my new camera, purchased at MediaMarkt, I will take a picture of the Strand on a future update to this post.
The Strand shows the same suspicion of people that seems endemic in post-Communist Central Europe, that is, people will try to take advantage of you if you are not careful. Exhibit "A" is the ticket sales. The Strand has a very good deal with reduced admission of 500 forints ($2.50) after 5:00 p.m. until closing at 8:00 p.m. The ticket booth is in bullet-proof glass with one of the ubiquitous non-functional microphones to communicate (or shout through the glass)with the bored ticket-seller inside. Upon payment of 500 forints, the ticket recipient walks five meters to the entrance and has the ticket checked by the next official. The Strand can't be too careful about people who might want to bypass the ticket booth! The same mentality is even evident at the University: a diner at the college cafeteria has to present a ticket to a student monitor. Otherwise, who knows? Any bum off the street might come in and dine on cafeteria food.
Back to the Strand-- once inside, I found three pools outside: the thermal pool, very warm at 99 degrees F; a kiddie pool with a rickety-looking waterslide; and the "Aquaticum" which was a wonderful, clean, low-chlorine pool, half-roped for laps and half open. I entered the Aquaticum and began my laps, thinking I would swim ten laps, the same as the former Joe High School swam competitively for Minneapolis South High. On my eighth of ten laps, an official shouted something at me in Magyar. To my delight, and his, I actually understood it: move to the right-hand lane, the open part on the other side of the pool. Got it, did it. Then after I finished my laps, I realized that the Debrecen "Orkakok" (Orcas) were training set aside for lap-swimming.
I resolve to go purchase some goggles this afternoon and visit the Strand again.
2 comments:
It is indeed a feeling of accomplishment when someone tells you something in another language, and you don't think, you just do. And you do it correctly.
Bravo! ~ Craig Udy
Thanks, Craig! Your advice is just what one of my classmates told me: don't think, just respond in Magyar. Well, I've got my new goggles, it's almost "Akcio" (discount) time so I'm off to the Strand for a later afternoon swim.
--OLGS, Debrecen, Hungary
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