Our road trip to Hungary consisted of listening to a variety of radio stations, snacking on food and just catching up on life. This photo was from our 45 minutes in Austria! We also stopped at a restaurant just off the Autobahn where we ate and I sent a postcard home.
We stopped at a cemetery once we were in Hungary so Nora could see her great-grandfather's grave. It was quite nice and not really like the ones I am familiar with back home. There were many tombstones all crowded together.
A part of the cemetery where the graves were flat and the plants had grown over.
There seemed to be never ending fields of sunflowers, so pretty.
We arrived at Nora's grandma's house where we would be spending the week. It was in a small city on Lake Balaton. It was a gorgeous lake, man made pretty sure. The waters were a baby blue and so warm, 27 degrees! It was nice for the 35 degree weather. Lioba was the first to discover the apricot tree in the front yard.
The tree was full of them, that was great news for us!
Lioba and I loooved the apricots and by the end of the week, there were no more that we could pick.
We exchanged our euros for the Hungarian currency, the forint. I exchanged 100 euros and got all this back!
We spent the rest of the day at the beach where it was crowded and we had to pay to get in, but nevertheless, it was very nice.
The following day we had planned on going for a run but like that happened.
Instead, Nora stayed at home and read her book while Lioba and I went for a hike.
It wasn't a hike at first, just a stroll through the neighborhood, but adventuring off the dirt road lead to adventuring off the trail and then stumbling upon this sign.
We chose to follow the green triangle.
This caught my eye and I thought it was a pretty cool site.
We got to the end of the trail and found this, so we climbed up,
after taking a photo of course.
The view and the baby blue lake that matches the sky!
There was also a German family who graciously took a photo of us and even spoke some English for me.
View towards the other way.
This was the view behind us. Pretty and the trees reminded me of home. We returned home, got Nora and brought her to look at what we found before we went back to the beach and spent the rest of the day there. There was a rain storm that night so Nora and I went swimming. Lioba didn't though since she said it was stupid and she didn't want to die due to the lightning.
One day we went into a neighboring town where we explored the market. It was an interesting market, filled with people trying to sell clothes and shoes that were clearly manufactured in China.My favorite were the earring stands and of course, postcards!
There was a castle so we checked it out.
It was too expensive to go in, especially since Lioba and Nora had seen so many castles before, it wasn't worth it for them. Instead we sat outside in the garden and looked at our purchases from the market.
Little did we know that the back part of the castle gardens that you were suppose to pay to get in, didn't have a gate! So we just slipped through and enjoyed the sites for free.
Later that day, Nora brought us to this lookout spot a little further out from the market town. We attempted a Leaning Tower of Pisa type photo, but got this instead.
This was a view from the top!
As we were climbing the stairs Nora started to say, "Why did I do this?". Turns out she is afraid of heights and stayed against the walls while Lioba and I explored along the railings.
"Model" pose
We went to some caves the next day and adventured freely, and good thing we went when we did
because as we were leaving, the crowds were coming.
The caves use to be filled with water, and some still remained, so we were able to go on a row boat and explore the rather narrow ways.
Lioba and I weren't concerned, Nora had it all under control!
The town we were in was called Tapolca had a wonderful pond filled with colourful fish, and old people sitting on benches. Quite an old European vibe, there were old wells and things like that.
We left Tapolca and went to Veszprem that had a huge medieval castle. We walked up the huge hill to get to the top where the castle over looked all surrounding areas and we could even see the lake!
Lioba spotted a lizard and while I wanted to just leave it alone, Lioba was determined to catch it,
and that she did.
The Hungarian flag again.
Smiling for the camera!
And then we "died"
The view from the "window" where they use to shot arrows, etc.
Up on the hill is the castle we were in and this was the ring that held all the games that we see in movies,
men riding horses with spears, duels , that kind of stuff.
It was getting hot and we wanted to got o the beach, but we didn't want to pay so being as rebellious as we are, we tried to find our own beach. To our disappointment though, the lake had this grass growing all around it, except where the paid beaches were.
We went to a harbor to press our luck, we were even thinking we could go for a boat ride, but no luck once again. Instead, we made our own fun.
The crazy Hungarian language that my English mind can't seem to grasp.
A plus about the marshes around the lakes is the pretty wild life we got to see, like this swan!
Along with this frog that Lioba somehow managed to find.
We even found ourselves a fortune teller,
Nora explained that it is a fake one of the one in Italy.
"In wine lies truth"
Graciously translated from Latin for us from Nora.
Nora slowed down for me to get a picture of the massive hay bail boy.
On our last night we went to a wine festival with Oma where Lioba and I strategically purchased a thank-you gift for both Nora's Oma and her parents for when we got back to Frankfurt. This picture isn't a very good one of the festival but it is the only one I have. We spent the night sipping on on wine, enjoying authentic Hungarian cuisine and of course, finishing it all of with dancing. The music was great! There were folk songs, German songs, and regardless of me not knowing any of the lyrics and not being able to communicate with the bulk of my fellow dancers, we were all dancing and shouting the night away.
The following morning we packed our bags, thanked Oma and gave her the present and went on our merry way. However, we made a bit stop to yet another castle. This one was suppose to be like Versailles and the man who built the gate, as shown in the picture, was blinded after his intricate work since the King didn't want anyone having a gate as beautiful as his.
Once again, the tour was a little pricey and we weren't allowed to walk about by ourselves. Instead it was only offered that we go with the next tour group in an hour! So we passed and instead, briefly walked around the front gardens
Thanks self-timer, only you can take crooked photos and still be accepted as presentable.
And that was Hungary.
I am getting tired of the story telling so sorry for the lack of details. So much happened and it was truly an amazing week. The 3 of us had a great time, got our tan on, had 12 hour sleeps every night, and I can't seem to get over the amazing European food.
We drove all the way back to Nora's that night, it was Friday July 14th. The next night we went to a typical German beer fest with a small amusement park followed by going into downtown Frankfurt and danced the night away at a 90's party with the funniest drag queen we had ever seen.
The next morning Lioba and I had to catch a train at 8am to head to Lioba's place. Nora dropped us off and we were on our way. We managed to sit in first class which was just a closed off room from normal sitting area. How we always managed with sneaking in places and getting away with it, I will never know.
I will soon be doing another post about my week with Lioba and Anna followed by a bit more story telling of my summer, than I will be able to blog about my current events!
Thanks,
xo :)
