I swam with Spartacus

Am I alive? 

 I must be, because I'm typing, but I can't believe I've survived and thrived.

 We're were all set to take the subway to the beautiful thermal baths--all set until we see the subway is closed. The cabs are frozen in their places.  Cars were paralyzed, buses weren't moving. All because that Turkish dictator was in town. 

 But you know what WAS moving?  The friggin ferris wheel in the center of town.  So if some clever person wanted to off the dictator, couldn't he or she do it all those stories up?

So basically, if you wanted to do anything, it had to be done by foot. I assessed the situation:  I am on meds, I was already dizzy, I was already drenched in sweat from the walk to the useless subway.  My sweaty cowlick bangs literally looked like a cow licked them. They looked like a mass of tangled Christmas tree wires in the attic.

But it was either step it up or do nothing at all.  We already walked what seemed like eighty miles to me, but I was not going to disappoint Jim.  He does not ask for anything, except maybe for Luke to stop ripping up the comforter in the middle of the night. (and I didn't want to get the equivalent of the squirt bottle if I didn't comply..)

So we walked.  And we walked.  Over bridges. Over hills.  Over dales.  I felt like Christopher Plummer, walking uphill through the Alps with a toddler on my shoulder. I was damning the dictator and my own lazy soul(and blessing the inventor of Sketcher shoes) but we  still walked. And walked.  And stopped when we saw a bench, but the bench was enclosed and smelled like a urinal, so we walked. Jim is used to this..he didn't even  break a sweat. I looked like I had just crawled out of the Danube.

But we made it!!  We made it to those glorious thermal baths in this luxurious hotel. I have no idea what we paid to get in.  Jim thinks it was six dollars a person, I'm thinking more like sixty.

 I would have paid $600 for a bottle of water at that point..

So we make our way down to the pools.  At least I think it was down.  We'd walk down a million steps, only to be subjected to a million more going up.  We were deep in the labyrinth.  Jim made fun of me because I didn't get his M C Escher reference("are these stairs going up or going down?") but earlier, he had no idea who Frida Kohler was and they're honoring her today. (I only know  her because of crossword puzzles) I could not tell you even now if these thermal baths were in the luxury hotel's basement or on it's roof.

Jim took care of everything from that point on..getting the locker, storing my sweaty shirt...

I jump right into the cold pool, just to cool off, and was immediately kicked out for not wearing a bathing cap.  I haven't had to wear one of those since CAMP, where I never got further than "advanced beginner" in a red cap.  My god folks, I can't swim and I never could--but I'm not the least bit afraid of water..shouldn't that count for something?

So Jim had to go through the mazes once again to get the money to pay for bathing caps for both of us..BLUE ones!! My camp friends know how great that made me feel-- blue--for advanced swimmers!!

The pools are ornately decorated and strange.  I don't know about you, but I dream about swimming pools a lot. And these thermal waters made about as much sense as my weird  dreams.  The cold water was too much for Jim,,I couldn't absorb it quickly enough.

We then go to the thermal spring, which at first seemed like a lukewarm hot tub until I realized we were in the wrong place. And oh man, Jim and his patience!!  Not only did he wait on me and cater to every whim, but he didn't even think about divorce(most men WOULD have) when I tried to tell him what I believed the difference was between celsius and Fahrenheit. I kept insisting that 40 degrees meant it was COLDER than 36 degrees.  I'm still not sure I know what I am talking about even now, but Jim was truly concerned that I might have had a touch of delirium.

We befriend(well..I befriended) a vacationer from London who told me there WERE a lot more pools in the back.  (I TOLD Jim that earlier--he didn't believe me!)  

So we walk through a maze of marble lions spewing out streams of water, and naked men(STATUES of naked men) and decorative columns.  I felt like we were in the remake of "Spartacus" but more important, I felt cooled off..and stress free..and relaxed..and very happy with our afternoon excursion.

So screw you, Turkish dictator! You did NOT spoil our fun!

The best part of all?  There were tons of cabs waiting for us to take us back to the hotel...

On tap for tonight:  An authentic Hungarian dinner and dancing gypsies for entertainment...and group prayers for rising waters.

Next stop:  Vienna!!!!