The day has finally come; the day I planned on taking the girls to Magrit Island or Margaret Island (for the English.) The most important thing for me and the kids at this place was the Palatinus water park (the largest open-air swimming complex in Budapest.
Let me give you a little history.
Margaret Island (Hungarian: Margit-sziget is a 2.5 km long island. The island is mostly covered by landscape parks, and is a popular recreational area.
The island was called Insula leporum before being named after Saint Margaret (1242–1270) in the 14th century. Margaret was the daughter of Béla IV of Hungary, and she lived in the Dominican convent on the island.
The things to see at this park are:
· the Centennial Memorial of 1973
· a small Japanese Garden with a mildly thermal fish pond;
· a tiny zoo featuring a wide range of exotic waterfowl among other animals;
· the “Music Well”
· the “Music Fountain. The water springs out according to music, so that the fountain seems to dance at the various classical themes reproduced.
· an octagonal Water Tower of 57 m
I had been told many tales about the pool side. The pool attracts a lot of people so we arrived on time. I was also told that things get missing (even rubber slippers) so I should ensure I get a small locker to keep my valuables (this locker was based on first come first serve and a fee so I had to get there early.) I was also told that I shouldn’t be surprised if we go into the pools and the white fellas start coming out one after the other, lol.
By the time the train dropped us off at the Magrit bridge. We followed the crowd that walked into the entrance of the Island. Peace and I had placed Nimmy and Pemmy on their strollers as we planned on strolling thought the Island. As we pushed the strollers down the park we noticed that some people stopped at a bus stop. I walked to a lady and asked her how to get to the pool side, she mentioned that a bus could take us there but we could also walk there as it was only two stops from the entrance of the Island.
So we continued pushing the strollers, oh! What a day. Little did we know, that it was the third stop. Oh! We walked and walked. We left our house 20 minutes to 9am and here we are at 9:30am still walking towards the pool side. Finally, we got there. I paid an entrance fee for Peace and I as no entrance fee was collected for Nimmy and Pemmy.
I had seen the picture on the internet but it was really cool seeing it so close. I had never seen so many pools in one place.
We chose a shady place with only one beach chair but it was directly in front of one of the children’s pool.
I had been told I could buy a floater at the pool side so I started walking around with Pemmy looking for the vendor but fortunately I found the locker section. I paid for the locker and kept my purse in it. I couldn’t keep my phone as I intended to take pictures.
I didn’t find the shop to buy the floaters so we decided to enter the pool without it. As we entered the pool, I imagined they would all leave, (then we will have the pool to ourselves, lol) but they didn’t leave. In fact, Pemmy made a lot of friends. The only barrier was the language. A young girl (maybe less than ten years took Pemmy under her wing and started teaching her how to swim. She gave her a floater and kept guiding her.
Eventually Pemmy wanted to enter the next pool which had some fun toys in the pool such as sliding through the mouth of a frog, sliding down a pirate boat, a sea saw and so many others.
The one time we took a break to have some refreshment, Nimmy started crying; she wanted to remain in the pool. With the promise of going back and giving her chocolate biscuit, she became quiet. As soon as she entered back into the pool she squeaked with joy; she was so excited. Pemmy kept meeting people and anyone who cared to say hello to her became her friend. She had also realized that not everyone was her friend.
When it was finally time to go, Peace brought Nimmy out of the water and Nimmy started yelling. We tried everything to make her stop but to no avail. She yelled so much especially when we removed her swimming suit and put her clothes back on. The young lady knew she wasn’t going back into the pool. The fun was finally over. She kept yelling till we left the pool side.
When we got outside the pool entrance, we wanted to see other places so I looked around for any food vendor so I could get something to distract Nimmy from crying. I saw an ice cream vendor so I crossed the road to get some for everyone. After dear Nimmy finished her ice cream, she continued crying; we tried looking for the other places but we knew we had to call it a day.
As we moved towards the bus stop, Nimmy fell asleep in her stroller. The bus finally arrived and we boarded. When it got to the entrance of the island, it was a long walk to the train stop so we decided to wait till the next stop. Unknown to us the bus was going to turn to another direction. We were at a loss, whether to come down or remain on the train (as this was double the walk we were trying to avoid at the entrance of the Island). We stayed on the bus; little did we know that the bus did a merry go around and took us to the train stop once again. Hmm…that was a narrow escape; thank God we stayed on the bus in faith, hoping it would stop at a convenient place.
