Aquaworld
For Ronin’s birthday present we went to Aquaworld! This is an indoor waterpark on the outskirts of Budapest, which took about an hour on the bus to get to. The kids were so excited. This is like a Great Wolf Lodge or Kalahari Resort where the waterpark is attached to a hotel, and I was surprised with how many people were there.
There was a big pool where we spent most of our time. The water is like bathwater, it was so warm! We set our towels out, and Ronin decided he was going to be a masseuse and give Willow a massage. The ceiling is see through so there was lots of light during the daytime. We stayed the whole day, and at night when it was dark the pool was lit up with different colored lights.
The park was set up in an ancient Mayan temple theme (or I think that’s kind of what it was), complete with rope bridges.
There was a separate area called Sauna World, which had a bunch of different saunas. JonPaul and I took turns going into the saunas. The rooms were of varying degrees of temperature and some had aromatherapy and others light therapy, some had music playing and others did not. There was even an ice room that had ice everywhere—I would have spent longer in there if my feet weren’t freezing from the ground! The hottest room was like 95 degrees Celsius, and I felt like my body was burning! I had to take my glasses off because the metal was so hot, and I could feel the pegs of my earrings starting to warm my ears. I really enjoyed that room, but couldn’t stay in there long.
There were several waterslides, and the big ones went outside of the building before curving back around to the inside of the building. Zoey could go on all the slides, and because of height Ronin could go on all but the three biggest ones. Poor Willow could only go on one slide, but it was a great one. This thing was so fast! I got some pictures of them going down the big slide, and then Willow watching the other kids with envy as they got to go on the other slides.
This slide was called the Onion, and you went through a tube before sliding into this big circular area, which dumped you right down into the middle of the hole after going around 1-2 times. It was pretty fun, but so disorienting when you got dumped out into the water.
From the big pool, you could go up and over the steps into the second half of the pool which took you outside. This was awesome, since it was cold outside but really warm in the pool. Especially at night there was steam rising from the outside pool and you stayed nice and toasty in the water.
We ate both lunch and dinner at the restaurant, which was a food court bar where you could request different things. Of course they had dumplings with chicken paprikas, but my favorite was the Nutella crepes. I had those for lunch, and then the kids all had to have them for dinner! I think it was a really great present for Ronin, and a lot cheaper than when we would do a big party at home.
Although not part of Ronin’s birthday, since this post is about Ronin I decided to show a few pictures of his creations of his toys. Each kid was allowed to bring half a gallon sized bag of toys, and Ronin’s were mostly army men and GI Joes. The kids room has two floating shelves lining across the wall, and Ronin has used that as his display for his toys.
In the first picture the men are climbing up the sound machine we brought with us. The knight is standing guard. In the second picture you can see the guy ziplining across the straw and the bridge made up of postcards. The third picture shows the car that ran up on to the rocks and got stuck while the cut up Q-tips (I have no idea what those are for) beside it. There is also a jail made of coffee stirrers, and the minefield where the army men have perished. The fourth picture shows the river made from paper towel rolls and the helicopter hanging from the L-shaped bracket. Ronin knows exactly where all his pieces are, and every few days he rearranges or adds something to his display. This is how you entertain kids with only a handful of actual toys and a bunch of random stuff.
