After a late morning and a small breakfast, I took off for
the swimming pool.
The walk to Shangri-La was nice, if a bit cold (it was about
0 °C today), and (following my
husband’s advice) I bought a 1-month membership at the Sports Club – my most
expensive sports membership ever, for sure. Now I need to go swim at least 9
times (okay, if I am counting today, and why wouldn’t I, then 8 times) in the
next 30 days to make it worth it. Or I can go use their gym too, not necessarily
just the pool, of course, but I am a swimmer, so it will mostly be swimming, I
guess. The pool is still very nice – and much better in daylight, since the
spotlights in the side of the pool don’t contrast so much as they did when it was dark outside and so
they don’t bother me this way. There was a good 20-minute window when I was the
only person in the pool – note to self: always try to go there at lunchtime.
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The view from the poolside - the local amusement park!
(have to go there once my husband can go for walks again) |
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Tranquility
This is my happy place |
After my swim, I had a quick look around Shangri-La Mall (it’s
very fancy and Western) and then (with some trouble) found Good Price Market on
the parking level. It’s infamously referred to as the Not-So-Good Price store
and I could see why – most products that I recognized from other store’s selections
were, indeed, more expensive. However, that is not the value I see in this
place. I’ve roamed about for a full hour and it took me a lot of restraint not
to buy way too many things all at once. Why? Because it has so many brands, so
much variety, and products that I actually know and like and know how to use in
my kitchen. The fact that most products have English or German text on the
packaging (ingredients, allergens, name, and the like) also helps tremendously.
These items are definitely imported and sold here for expats or tourists, at
least that must be one of the main reasons for them having these products, imo.
In any case, I am very grateful for them – first place I found Dijon mustard, rolled
oats, tortilla, baking powder, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and so much more.
Yes, they are on the more expensive side here, but – to be honest – they aren’t
a lot more expensive than they would be back in Hungary (meaning they are
probably even cheaper than they would be in Western-Europe or the US). Compared to
how swimming costs almost 7 times as much (okay, the membership gives you
unlimited access so technically you could swim twice a day and make it a lot cheaper,
per swim) or how fruits and veggies in general cost at least twice as much,
paying a little extra for my oats and baking powder isn’t that big of a deal. The
only thing that I still find way too costly are plant-based ‘diary’ products (plant
milk, most of all, as I am yet to find a plant yogurt or cream or sour cream).
I was also looking for vegan mayo but they didn’t have any, and a nice shop
assistant (who spoke really good English!) suggested I try the vegan shop in
the city. I had been wanting to check that out anyways but now I am even more
inclined. Maybe next week.
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| Sweet potatoes sold (and packaged) individually - laughed out loud at this |
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| I'm not sure which spelling of 'lecsó' gave me a bigger whiplash |
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| Kotányi vanilla sugar! |
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| They also had almonds in no less than 9 different types of coatings |
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| And of course they sell tourist-y things like chocolate in a ger-shaped box |
With my shopping dragging at my shoulder again (why do I insist
on buying heavy stuff all the time when I know I need to carry it home from 1.5
km away?), I walked home, enjoying the sunshine even in spite of the kinda
frosty weather.
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| A statue of Marco Polo - I really should watch that old animated movie I used to like as a kid |
For dinner, we had Mongolian marinated tofu that I’d gotten
from Emart yesterday and it was pretty dry and tough (almost like pork) but the
marinade tasted good. I’ll be sure to buy more of this later – and maybe we can
even get it to soften up a bit, somehow.
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