The beaches of Lake Balaton, a shallow and muddy lake, were for decades a riviera of dreams for citizens of 'demoludy' i.e. citizens of former Eastern European Block countries. It was here they went rather than to hot climes. It was in those days that the lake acquired its name: the Hungarian Sea. Although everybody can travel freely now some Poles and East Germans still flock to the lake. They constitute the core of clients of Balaton spas dotted along the concrete shore of the lake.