Hot springs

For some reason (and we're not going to try and guess why) our internet is working in our room right now, miraculously. Hopefully it holds out while I write my update and edit last night's... It took me 40 minutes to write it all yesterday with no editing time! lol

We slept in this morning, which was great as we have been tired out from our one-night travels. The sun in our room is super bright so I'm glad I brought a sleep mask. I think we have one of the largest rooms in this hostel/apartment...it's nice to have so much room. I've been able to lay out all of my wet (washed) clothes!

We headed to the supermarket before having breakfast as we needed some cutlery... Eating yogurt and spreading peanut butter with makeshift utensils only lasts so long. We also wanted to find some cups but no matter where we went today we couldn't find any. Jeff cut up two empty water tetra packs as makeshift cups - we drank wine out of them...we're classy. lol

We picked up a couple of soft pretzel sticks at the grocery store too as they had just been made fresh... So salty and delicious. We saw others doing the same and since my motto this trip has worked for us so far, we followed it ("If in doubt, do what the locals do." This has worked in so many situations! Crossing the street, what type of beer to buy, where to get out of a bus/train station...) .

I wandered through the shopping district and picked up a sweater from H&M (funny because I've never bought something from there at home) and then we had our lunch back in our room before packing up our swimsuit for the hot spring.

It wan't a far walk at all, which is always a bonus. There are two places to choose from; we chose the one that is not nude... I just can't bring myself to be naked in front of other people... It's just not in me, lol. So we picked the bathing suit one. We bought two hours and got a third hour free because we had some discount card our hostel owner gave us when we arrived (we paid tax for being here because of some poor infrastructure or something regarding tourists in this town...? The owners of these places get taxed something like $5.00 for every guest they have per day here! Ridiculous! But the lady gave us a deal and Jeff is just a "day" guest... lol).

Anyway, we got changed and showered before entering the pool area, where we spent our afternoon. There were a number of different pools that had different temperatures ranging from your hot-tub temps to rather chilly! They even had pools outside, which was great. Because this place was a spa, everything was made to be therapeutic; the jets, the bubbles, the temperatures, the current in the water (so much fun!), the aroma sauna (hot and HUMID sauna using scent... We didn't stay long as it was tough to breathe) and even heaters to lie under after the pool to dry off (we kind of felt like french fries being kept warm while our burger was being made... lol). Even though it took us an hour or so to really relax, it was a pretty neat experience and our aching bodies got to recuperate! lol

We dressed and changed for a nice dinner afterward. We went to a bistro and ate well. I'm not even sure what meat I had... Neck of something...pork I think... lol and Jeff had pork hauk. We had some salad, sour kraut and potatoes (I even liked the kraut! It's so much better here than at home) and the potatoes were delicious.

Jeff is passed out beside me, a day of relaxing must have really tuckered him out :). Tomorrow we are going on a 3km walk on a stretch of land that is 350 years old that has many, many different species of flora. It should be pretty and since we haven't done much walking on this trip so far it'll be good to get in a few kms... (Ha! Throw in a few hundred stairs and that's a BASIC day! lol)

Time for bed for me. Hope you have a great weekend!
Maybe we'll luck out tomorrow and we'll have internet again!

Much love, Amanda (and Jeff!)