We stayed at this Hungarian guy's place our second night in Hungary and his place was really great - in the city, had great artwork all over the apartment, not many other people. In fact, the night before we left for Lake Balaton, we brought home supplies from the local grocery store (which has become a fun daily thing), including wine, sour gummy worms, big bottles of water, and anything else that looks interesting. We got back to his apartment at like 10pm and I asked if he'd like to have a glass of wine with us. He (we think his name was John, with a Hungarian accent) said he was going out soon, but would join us quickly. That turned into a couple hours, at which point we wrote our last blog. When we rented the room, he said he would make us breakfast in the morning. Our train for Lake Balaton was leaving at noon or 1 the next day, so we thought there would be plenty of time. Apparently, when he finally did leave to go out to the clubs with friends, it was almost 1am, and that means, all bets are off for breakfast. Needless to say, we left John's place without seeing him again. And we were off to the countryside to see this huge Lake that emperors and royalty use to vacation at. The train ride was a couple of hours (our shortest so far) and we started seeing this amazing lake and the small towns on both sides about an hour into our ride. We got off at Zamardi, a small seaside town, and had a great conversation with this Hungarian grandpa named Luis, who said I looked Hungarian. He asked about our trip and told us he was meeting up with a friend from England. He no longer likes Budapest - too crowded and busy. We walked (for---ever, as seems to be the norm these days) and found the cottage I had seen on a website. Against all Aaron's skepticism of these things working out, it was fantastic! The apartments are above the family's home and the woman who answered the door was holding her six-week old baby (so cute) and was super hospitable. After dropping our loads, of sorts, we went to see the town. It might be what the Cape feels like (Val, you would love it). The next day we rented bikes from our host family and rode to the next town over, which is bigger and has many tourist attractions. The funniest part was taking this silly boat ride (which we thought would go around the Lake to show us this cool island and the towns on the other side) which lasted an hour and literally went out for 30 min and came back in a straight line. It did show that the lake is huge, in that, we did not come close to the island or the other side. I rode my bike to the grocery store and bought makings for dinner and made gnocci, garlic toast, and cheese sauce all from packages with 5 languages but not a word of English. I was proud of myself ... and it turned out just like the restaurants' ... sort of. We ate on our balcony and watched an American DVD (The Holiday) - I was so excited. I really love hungary and want to spend 10 days just touring around the country (maybe with my whole family) next time. That is all from me for Hungary - long live the Hungarians!!
PS - I found out my last name, Rigo, is the word for a certain kind of bird!
-Annie
Lake Balaton is a huge lake with towns edge to edge encircling it. It seems like a popular vacation spot for both Hungarians and Germans, although the tourist season is just beginning. The walk from the train station to our "Zimmer frei" in Zamardi was a bit of a hike. The streets were narrow and very quiet.
Our room was amazing--absolutely the best accommodations and hospitality I've yet had. During our walk we passed many houses offering rooms or apartments for rent, but ours was the most picturesque. The small kitchen and balcony overlooking the front yard and street were perfect. When we rang at the gate, the exceedingly pleasant Andrea, led us around to the back of the house and up a spiral staircase to our apartment on the second floor. We met her husband, Zoltan, the next evening. Their two children and friendly Golden Retriever made quite the impression.
Not a lot goes on in Zamardi--especially on a holiday weekend. May Day is pretty big in this part of the world. We're not sure whether the Lake was more crowded or less because of the holiday. We saw a lot of families biking and walking around. Also, a lot of people seem to do yardwork in Speedos ... especially old and middle-aged men.
Siofok, the next town eight kilometers to the east is a little bigger. Annie and I biked to the docks in Siofok and hung out most of the day, eventually taking the ridiculous boat ride that she already mentioned. We had nixed our initial intent to take the ferry over to the abbey on the peninsula across the lake because we would have spent twice as much time in transit as time exploring. In retrospect we both decided that would have been better. In any case, it was cool to get out on the water.
Sailing seems quite popular. A stiff breeze kicked up under thickening clouds in the later afternoon and while Annie raided the grocery store, I sat and watched sailboats tack in and out of port.
There are a variety of shops around the docks in Siofok: a couple vendors selling popcorn, ice cream, and small snacks and maybe a dozen restaurants that all seem to have similar menus. A long jetty of stones covered by pavement protects the harbor--All day families and couples strolled out past the fishermen (and fisherwomen). I wished that we could have a chance to either fish or sail--the activities of enforced leisure. I think we did alright enforcing our own leisure.
After our ride back to Zamardi, Annie, taking advantage of our kitchen and dining ware, made the most excellent dinner--gnocci with cheese and peas.
It turns out that the trains to Zagreb in Croatia leave from Siofok and do not stop in Zamardi, which turned into quite a dilemna when we discovered that there is no public transportation to speak of between the two towns. Luckily, Zoltan offered to drive us to the train station yesterday morning. He brought his father and his ineffably cute two-year-old daughter, Csenge (Chan-gha), along so that they could all hang out in the park by the train station. After dropping us off, he appeared by our side in the ticket line, just in case the agent didn't speak English. After allowing a woman with a small request to go first, he set our ticket process in motion and was off again. And what a process it was. The agent must have taken five minutes to issue our tickets, getting out every tome of reference, making duplicates and triplicates of each form in carbon copy, and stamping each shred of paperwork with a unique insignia. I pitied each and every person behind us in line--and was glad I was not them (we would have missed our train).
And then we were off on a moderately modern train sans cafeteria for the four and a half hour trip to Zagreb (pronounced ZAH-greb, as we've discovered). More on Croatia soon ...
-Aaron
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