I was recently away for a long weekend to Budapest. It was a lovely city with beautiful architecture, great sights and lovely people. My friend and I walked for miles taking in the sights and enjoying it all. We ate great food, had some unique cocktails and also enjoyed a prosecco cruise on the Danube. A fantastic city break with crispy cool autumn weather.
As we spent our time exploring the city each day we decided for one of the days to go to the Thermal Spa which is a large public bath with thermal pools outdoors, as well as internal pools, saunas and steam rooms. Your ticket allows you to spend the whole day there if you like.
The pools have different temperatures from warm/hot around 24-34 degrees Celsius, to cold plunge pools. We were looking forward to being cosy and warm in the pool as the outside temperature was hovering around 3 degrees Celsius and we were all wrapped up in our hat scarves and gloves. Once we had found the changing rooms, we got our swimsuits and flip flops on and were ready to brave the icy weather.
Once we were outdoors, we found a space around the pool steps to take our flip flops off and go into the water. It was bliss walking down the steps and getting enveloped by the warm water. We sat on the steps, immersed ourselves up to our necks in the water and chatted. After a few moments we moved into the middle of the pool and hovered, I said to my friend ‘What do we do now’?
There were a lot of people in the water and unlike a spa hotel where there are fewer people, it wasn’t very relaxing for us. It felt like a bath at home – once I was in the water, what do I do, other than sit there? I know many people love a bath and enjoy relaxing and getting comfortable, enjoying the heat, the bubbles, reading a book or magazine, but for me, it isn’t the case, I don’t know what to do, I feel uncomfortable and as soon as I am in, I want out.
My friend and I got out and went to look indoors at the other pools, steam rooms and saunas. We thought by exploring, we would come across a quieter spot for us to enjoy. But all of the pools were full of people, the steam room opened and it was jammed packed. All these wet bodies and water, it felt slidey and slimy despite having flip flops on. I’m not a fan of crowded places, but being in a pool surrounded by lots of people and sharing water, just felt like people soup! Ugh.
I have been to many pools and spas but never that busy. I couldn’t relax and sitting there in amongst the crowd was not appealing, I was sharing a bath with too many people.
We lasted less than an hour, and about 20 minutes was spent getting dressed. Once we were out and about, we both agreed public spas/baths were not our thing. The next morning, we spent it in the hotel spa and as there was only the two of, we enjoyed the hot tub and sauna all to ourselves, relaxed and quiet.
The bubbles of the hot tub worked their magic on our aches, pains and stress knots. It was what we had hoped for from the thermal spa the day before. We were relaxed and after our morning, we had a very chilled afternoon and evening.
Whether you like to be amongst a lot of people or are an introvert, preferring to spend time with a few when it comes to relaxing in a spa environment, do what makes you comfortable. I could have sat in the pools all day, but it would not have been a great experience. It would have been the longest day feeling icky.
One of the things we hadn’t considered was how busy the spa would be, it was off peak in terms of season but it was still pretty rammed. We couldn’t imagine the volume of people during the summer months. We were disappointed but others were having a great time, it just wasn’t our thing. However, at least we now know and wouldn’t book it in the future.
Whether it’s your thing or not, it’s good to try things out, as you never know, you may just love it. So don’t let my experience put you off.
Thank you for reading, have a great week and look after you?
Love Emma xx
Wellbeing with Relaxing Lavender 