TURKISH BATH VISIT

                                            Turkish Bath Experience

     Sometimes when one is in a place there are just some things one must do. This was true for  me on  my first visit to Budapest, Hungary, when a Turkish Bath visit was in that category.

     One afternoon a young  English speaking gal from a local travel agency volunteered to accompany 4-5 of us to the Szechenyi Baths. Riding the subway, we exited at City Park in the heart of Budapest.

     We also thought about a massage, but when we were quoted a price triple the going rate we decided to pass. We were grateful for our interpreter as no one spoke  any English and no one was a bit helpful---a left over from the Communist era. All signs were in Hungarian, no surprise but no sub titles anywhere either at that time.

     With our guide’s help we paid the entrance fee and proceeded to the locker area. Once in bathing suits we headed outside to the pools where we found  several pools of different sizes and temperatures. We all agreed on a time and meeting place so the guide could go off and do her own thing, as could we.

     I entered several pools and in a large pool swam following a circular  whirlpool around a center island. Passing one pool, that was about waist deep, we watched people standing around a floating chessboard. Here, people go to the baths for the day like we go to the beach.

     Inside an enclosed bathhouse were 2-3 smaller pools with much hotter water. There was a faint sulfa aroma and a slight yellow tinge to the water in the hottest pool. Unable to read the signs, I just hoped we wouldn’t unknowingly wander into a male only area.  We didn’t!

     When leaving we had to exit through a turnstile where a rather sour-looking man wanted the plastic tokens returned we had received when paying and which I promptly put in a pants pocket. But now a couple of hours later  I couldn’t remember what I had done with it. I was the last to exit, so my friends watched on the other side as I frantically searched each pocket of my cargo pants and finally found the elusive token hidden in a lower pocket corner. I had visions of it having fallen out of my pocket in the locker. Happy to have the token in my hand I passed it to the fellow who never as much as gave me a nod, but provoked clapping hands from my friends once I was on the outside!

     What would have happened if that had been so or if I had totally lost it; would I still be captive and stay there forever?