Blogs from Lake Balaton, Central Transdanubia, Hungary, Europe

There are few things in this world more irritating to me than being hella late. I was hella late, and then some. After the nearly four hours of waiting in Frankfurt, I'd gotten on the flight to Ferihegy and promptly passed-out. No, really, I was out before we even took to the sky. I vaguely recall the flight attendant smiling at me as she got up to do her, "this is how you unbuckle your seatbelt, and if this is news to you you really need to get out more" routine, but only vaguely. I did wake up just long enough to confuse the hell out of the purser, who kept trying to push a cheese sandwich on me. I'd take the steps (as usual) of booking a kosher meal on my flights, both because it's ... read more

This posting is a day late due to technical difficulties which were solved by a friendly computer store which restored my Windows. Today we drove from Budapest to Heviz which is a resort town on Lake Balaton. There is a 4 hectare hot spring/lake and Europeans travel here for therapeutic reasons. Very picturesque town but still lots of tourists even though the temperature continues to be cool. Hotel is very nice with a view of the valley and easy walking distance to local sights. Had dinner at a restaurant complete with Hungarian musicians and dancers. Tomorrow we travel to Ljubljana in Slovenia. Drivers here are VERY aggressive. Not that unusual to be passed by vehicles travelling at 200kph estimated.... read more

We awoke this morning and I had definitely woken up on the wrong side of the bunk. After the mess up with the room I was definitely missing the en-suite we were supposed to have after an hour wait for the bathroom I was not impressed. After some sulking I noticed the shining sun and after so much rain all traces of bad mood evaporated. I slung on my bikini and stepped out into glorious sunshine and we made our way to the lake. The lake was huge. Annoyingly we had to pay to go onto the artificial beach, but it wasn't too bad up we paid up and weaved through the mass of German, Austrian and Hungarian tourist to find a good spot to set up camp for the day. When the heat reached its ... read more

Viela lisaankin yhden jutun, jonka olen unohtanut blogista... Taa on kesakuulta. 24.6. Byrokratiaa… Tämä on uskomattoman byrokraattinen maa… ihan kuin kaikki kunnon Eurooppalaiset maat (Ranka, Italia, Espanja…) En ole onneksi kovin paljoa joutunut näihin rattaisiin, mutta sekin vähä on kyllä tehnyt vaikutuksen! Viimeksi tänään mennessäni Margitin saarelle. Lämpöä oli noin 45° aurinko paistoi täydeltä terältä ja varmaan oli aika kosteaakin, joten hiki virtasi pitkin selkää… Huomasin liian myöhään, että bussilla olisin päässyt ihan Palatinuksen ovelle. Olin siis jo valmiiksi niin kuumissani, että vain saunasta suoraan edellisen kerran! No, sitten lippujonoon…. ja se kestää, sillä joku pojan planttu ilmeisesti osti kuukausilippua (olin ymmärtävänäni muiden puheesta). Kassa maatuska kirjoitteli käsin ties kuinka monta kopiota, välillä lei... read more

Am sitting in a lounge, listening to some dj playing nice afternoon sun music. It's a bit too loud for conversation, but who needs conversation when you can just chill out, watching glorious lake Balaton - it's shore line just a few meters away. Apparently the festival is sold out, 120 000 tickets, and the party is on till late into the night. Vanessa, waking up at 4.30 last night, said that the music was still going strong at that time. We'd succumbed to our tiredness and crawled into bed (well, into tent and hammock respectively..) a few hours before that, after watching an amazing concert with Massive Attack, unbelievable. (I can't seem to find an exclamation mark on this keyboard, so you'll have to imagine them at the proper places...) We watched Swedish Koop from ... read more

10.6 Tiistaina Taivas oli sininen ja mittarissa elohopea kohosi jo aamusta 30°. Lähdimme ajelemaan läheiseen kaupunkiin, Szerencsiin. Olimme kuulleet, että siellä olisi jonkinlainen kylpylä! Ajatuksissamme oli, että otamme päivän aurinkoa, uimme altaassa ja syömme eväitämme. Kävimmekin ruokaostoksilla tätä ajatellen: Kolbasia, savujuustoa, dieetti Cocosta ja hedelmiä. Sitten, ei kun kohti kylpylää ;) Hämmästyksemme oli suuri, kun huomasimme, että tämä kylpylä olikin todella luxus-mesta! Siinä ei ollut kyllä ulkoaltaita lainkaan, mutta sisällä oli todella kaunis ja viihtyisä iso, valoisa allasosasto, ylätasolla mahtava yaguzi sekä kylmävesiallas ( 18°). Saunoja oli monenlaisia: turkkilainen höyrysauna, 2 eri lämpöistä infrapunasaunaa, suomalainen sauna sekä suolahuone. Kaiken kukkuraksi olimme siellä monta tuntia ihan kaksin. Kylpylä oli valm... read more

Lake Balaton is known to the mighty Magyars as the Hungarian Sea. All I saw was people desperate for a coastline and only a 12 hour drive from the nearest real ocean. I was told there were beaches. There were, but they were all grass...not a grain of sand to be found. I was told there are parties. In reality, it was half the high school population of Hungary age 13-16 getting wasted. I have to give them credit though. At 4 in the morning, the streets were still packed. As were the arcades.... read more