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Our last stop: Sovata and the Bear Lake

by szbogi

(about Sovata, Romania, added on Aug 29, 2007)

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The previous day we arrived to Sovata. This little city is famous because it has some very salted lakes. Two of them are opened for the people who want to swim in it, but of course you have to pay for it.

When we arrived the first thing was to find a place to sleep, because we saw that the place was very crowded. In the center of the city there were no rooms for us so, we drove further. At last one motel's owner said that the son of a woman who has some rooms to rent is here and he will show us the way to his mother... we were tired and said ok. The boy led us to a nice house, so we were very happy. We found out that this is a regular house, and in summer they let two rooms for rent. The rooms were quite nice, the only problem was the owner... She talked a bit too much and she was very curious about everything... First it was quite funny, but after some time we found it nerve-racking...:) So we decided to stay here for the night but to escape from the woman's questions we drove back to the city centre (I think it was that:P) to walk a bit and to see the lakes.

We had to walk about one kilometer to the lake. On the both sides of the road there were hotels, motels, restaurants, fast foods, souvenir shops, so everything for tourists:)

We had to hurry a bit if we wanted to see the lakes before it became dark. Firstly we wanted to find out when the two bigger lakes are opened and how much we have to pay to swim a bit. The bigger lake, called the Bear Lake (Medve to in Hungarian), was opened in the morning for two hours and in the afternoon, too, but at noon it was closed because the lake has to "regenerate". This wasn't good for us, because in the afternoon we wanted to go home. So we went to the other lake (the Hazelnut Lake - Mogyoros to); is was opened from 9 to 18 I think, without breaks (I wonder if this lake doesn't need regeneration...). After checking all this data, we walked further to see the other lakes, too. These lakes were much smaller but they were salted, too, we tried it out:P We put our hands in it and then let it dry. After a couple of minutes our hands were full of little, white, shining things...salt crystals:)

After we walked round the lakes we thought of eating something. After a quite long search we found a place where we could eat pizza and it wasn't expensive, and the most important thing: we didn't have to listen to "manele" (romanian popular music). After eating our pizzas, which were quite delicious, we headed to our "home".

The next day morning we had breakfast and then we went to the lakes. I forgot to tell you, that anywhere you read about Sovata's salt lakes they tell you that the water is warm because of the heliothermic effect... Zoli needed about 5 minutes to get used to the temperature of the lake and get into it to swim:) it was very cold! But after we got used to it we enjoyed it very much. Because of the high salt percentage the water keeps you up on its surface so you don't have to swim too much:P It was really fun... It's a pity that we stayed so little.

Before leaving we had to have a shower because the way home was very long. Near the lake were some showers but only with cold water... if the water in the lake was cold, then the water at the showers was freezing:) I think they made it so to force people to have just a very very short shower...

After this we went back to our car and headed home. It was a long journey but didn't have time to get bored... ok, we didn't relax too much, but this trip wasn't for that:) I enjoyed it very much, and I think the others, too. If i have the opportunity to repeat this tour, I will for sure...

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1. Jul 15, 2007 At home, before the departure (Oradea)
2. Jul 15, 2007 At the famous castle of Deva (Deva) (