Hungary's Sea: Lake Balaton Excursion

The beauty.  The color. The heat.  My weekend in Lake Balaton treated my eyes, my ears, my mind, and my soul.  Every moment started and ended with a new discovery.

I have never seen so many sailboats in one place as in Lake Balaton.

We set out at 6:30 a.m. Saturday August 25.  With me were my new friends Katie, John Michael, Erin, Bekah, Audrey, and Maddy.  The whole week I had been talking about Lake Balaton and convinced these lovely people to go.  During the summer when I researched Hungary, Lake Balaton was one of the places I had discovered and decided I absolutely must go to.  Plus, all of the Hungarians said that this weekend would be the best time to go before the weather changed.  And they were right--Saturday was so beautiful (but hot and sticky) and before we left, the weather got windy and started raining! But regardless of the weather, I fully enjoyed my choice of spending my first weekend in Hungary in Budapest's first choice for vacation, Lake Balaton.

Being the largest freshwater lake in Eastern Europe, Lake Balaton is often called "Hungary's Sea."
Okay, Michiganders, I know you will relentlessly defend your great lake, but Lake Balaton is truly incredible.  The dreamy, opaque turquoise waters are lined with quaint, colorful villages filled with adorable summer homes. It really is a little slice of paradise.

Breathtaking rose garden on the shore of Balatonfüred. In the background, hundreds of white swans swim in the small bay; I felt like I had stepped into a novel.  

After my group had successfully found the train station, bought the right tickets, got on the right train, rode three hours through the Hungarian countryside and disembarked at the right train station, we successfully started our weekend adventure in Lake Balaton.  Now, this may seem like an easy feat, until you consider it was done without the help of English. You know, the thing we use to communicate and figure everything out? Yeah, that English.  ...now it's more impressive right? We were proud of our use of the transportation; we took the train, a ferry, and a couple busses all for about $15! Thank you, Europe.

One angle off the top of the Tihany Peninsula near the Abbey.
Notice all of the sailboats. Okay, bear with me, but they
reminded me of when Pocahontas sees the sails of the English ships in
Disney's rendition and she thinks they are "Strange Clouds."

Rather than write on and on about my experience and explain everything to you, I've decided it will be way more interesting for me to just post pictures of everything with small comments here and there. But just so you have some reference, I'll give you the very bare boned itinerary for the weekend.

The line up for the weekend went as such:
1st day:
     -Arrived in Balatonfüred, voted the most romantic town of Lake Balaton.
     -Took a 30 min. bus to Tihany (peninsula), home of the Abby on a Hill.
     -Boarded a ferry to Siofok (that took 2.5 hours! instead of 10 minutes we had planned for).
     -Arrived in Siofok, Hungary's "Jersey Shore" and checked into the hostel.
2nd day:
     -Took a train from Siofok to Keszthely.
     -Roamed Keszthely and toured the Festetics Palace.
     -Train from Keszthely back to Budapest.

Enjoy.

Balatonfüred:

Tons and tons of cafes lined the shore with views of the lake and marinas filled with countless sailboats.

Toasting to the great kick off to our weekend.  This is Erin by the way :)

Erin's beautiful iced latte. YUM!

Refreshing mint lemonade.

I feel like everywhere I turn in Hungary there is a refreshing fountain filled with young kids splashing around in it.
I'm always jealous of them. Always.

                       Stunning rose garden in Balatonfüred.  Located between the fountain and the shore.  The garden is a treat of beauty to your senses of sight and smell.  We all took so many pictures; it seemed out of this world that such a place would exist. 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that SWANS provided the backdrop for the rose garden.  I wanted there to be a "Noah" with a bouquet of roses offering to take me for a boat ride, but then I blinked and realized that THIS was real life and I actually wasn't in a movie.  Honestly, can't say I was disappointed.

I think theses were the awesome versions of jet skies...but I'm not sure.  

While we were walking the promenade, we saw this monument.  We think
 it pays tribute to all those lives that have been lost at sea.  The artist's depiction
 of the hand sticking out of the rock really touched me.  I found myself
 wishing I could read Hungarian so that the plaque would make sense.  

Tihany:

      

  The white stucco, thatched roofed village homes filled with Hungarian pottery took me back in time to another era.  The beauty of Tihany put me in a trance.  As I felt the wind from the lake caress my face while I took in the view that spanned out below me,  I felt a connection with whoever decided to build a place of worship for all to see on top of the Tihany peninsula. Everything that my eye touched dazzled with natural grandeur and it only made sense that this spot would be the designated space to worship.  I smiled as I imagined the Abbey's bells ringing long ago as all of the villagers made their way up the hill to praise God. Even though Tihany was quiet,  it was my favorite town of the first day; it possessed a sort of magic for me.

Erin, Audrey, and the rest of the group super pumped for our AIR CONDITIONED bus ride to Tihany!  Let me tell you, AC in Hungary is a rare commodity, especially in transportation--we couldn't believe our luck.

Wonderfully crafted pottery.  If we weren't trying to catch the ferry, I would have bought a piece.

White stucco hallways.

Charming display kitchen.  I loved this building.  A women had displayed all of her pottery as if you would find it in a typical home from Hungarian folk culture. 

Doesn't the sun catching the doilies make you have to remind yourself to breath?

The spice of Hungary, Paprika. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from Tihany. To me, it captures part of the peninsula's magic.

Thank goodness for these water fountain stations.  Without
them, we would have passed out long before the day was done.

The Abbey.  We were going to take a tour, but it was really expensive. So we just popped our heads in "on accident" and looked at the pictures in the gift shop.  

The view from the top of Tihany peninsula right behind the Abbey. 

Looking down. 

Another favorite picture.

Look Dad, an open lot ;) 

The houses on the hill descending from the Abbey to the shore were incredible.
 I tried to look through the windows, hoping some unsuspecting Hungarian would
 want to invite me in.  I tried a number of poses. None of them worked. Go figure. 

 Siófok: 

From Tihany, we took a ferry ride that must have been a punishment for something.  We thought it would only be 10 minutes across the lake, but we didn't take into account that Lake Balaton prohibits motorized water vehicles (not sure vehicles is the right word, but you know what I mean).  So instead we were stuck on a ferry for 1 hour and 45 minutes!!  We were going so slow, even sailboats were passing us.  Seriously.  The sun was beating down on us, and we could find no relief.  No breeze. No shade. No AC.  So, needless to say, the ferry ride was the worst part of the trip. But it got immensely better once we landed.

When we tried to check into our hostel, we were pleasantly surprised by the news that they had overbooked.  Now, don't worry, this was actually good news.  Because of their oversight, Hotel Solero bought us a more expensive room in a nearby hotel that was even closer to town. I hope it happens every time I book a hostel. We were on the top floor, had AC, and our own bathroom with a CLOSED SHOWER!  This was luxury we had not felt for what seemed like ages.  We were ecstatic!

How awesome is this room!?  We felt like queens compared to what we had been living like the past week.  

Also, the floor was clean. Finally!

One surprise:  The stream in the shower would
randomly stop. Then you would hear it pumping
water up the pipes until the water resumed. 

This is where we were supposed to stay...

This is where we actually stayed!

The name of the Pension we stayed at for future reference. I definitely recommend it!

That night we ate at a restaurant that, no kidding, took two and a half hours to serve us; our American impatience reared its head a time or two.  Siofok is the party town of Lake Balaton.  One of our Hungarian friends referred to it as Hungary's "Jersey Shore." Unfortunately, we were so tired from the day that we didn't get to experience that part of the culture.  We've discovered that Hungarians don't begin their nights out until at least 12:30 a.m. However, we walked around and looked at the empty bars and walked along the beach.  We even ventured into the water at about 11 p.m.  It was about 6 in. deep for at least 100 yards, maybe even more.  After we got out of the water, we sat on the beach, got to know each other better, and watched fireworks displays from towns across the lake.  It was the perfect ending to an even better day.

The next morning we woke up semi-early, took our time during coffee at Brownie Cafe, and then boarded the train to travel to the village of Keszthely.

This guy...He kept making eyes at me all throughout breakfast.  I guess all he wanted was a picture. 

Ummm....Does anyone else think this church resembles an owl!?  For those of you who know me, you know I have slight obession...so obviously I HAD to take a picture. My friend Maddy and I saw this on a postcard and then stumbled upon it, but we weren't sure of the significance because it wasn't open. 

Train station in Siofok getting ready to go to Keszethely.

 Funny side note:

No one from our group could pronounce Keszethely.  Earlier in the week when I was planning what we were going to do during the weekend I started calling it "K-town" just to save time.  By the end of the weekend, the whole group was calling Keszethely "K-town" without pause. So when we tried to order train tickets in Siofok, we ordered for "K-town" then embarrassedly looked rapidly through our travel guide to remember what the village was actually called.  

In Keszethely, the main attraction is the Festetic's Palace.  The palace was built in the mid 1700's and served as the home of seven generations of Festetics before it was turned into a museum in the 1940's (if I remember correctly).  The palace itself sang the stories of an entire history textbook.  You could see the history in the family's heirlooms and collections from around the world. Again, I felt like I had stepped into a novel. Unfortunately, you had to pay money to take pictures so I didn't get that many. But I included a video I found on Youtube that had some pictures so you'll kind of be able to see what it was like. 

Chandelier room inside the Festetic's Palace.

I was on cloud nine.  I'm convinced that Disney fashioned  the library in
 Beauty and the Beast after the library of this palace.  The shelves towered two stories up
filled with books lining every possible space.  I was drooling.  You weren't supposed to
 take pictures, but I just had to sneak one.  The lady asked for my "photo ticket" and I
pretended to be a stupid tourist and then ran away.  Whoops! :)  Also, notice
the awesome slippers we had to tie to our feet. 

Since I couldn't take any pictures in the palace, here is a video with some pictures.  I suggest muting it because it is all in Hungarian and set to a ridiculously awful soundtrack.  But whatever, it gets the job done--you'll get the idea. 

While we were in the palace,  thunder rumbled and rain began to pour down.  My friend Maddy and I literally had to RUN in the rain to the train station in order to make our connection back to Budapest.  Seriously, it was tragic.  Imagine two drowned rats running down a hill (stopping at least every three blocks out of necessity) breathing loud enough to overpower the thunder with backpacks slamming back and forth against their backs and the look of utter misery and distress plastered against their faces who make it to the train station with minutes to spare only to barge in--loud, American style--to the quiet, serene waiting room slamming their student ID's against the glass saying "To Budapest!?" ....and you would have a fairly accurate image of Maddy and I frantically trying to catch our train.

Once we were actually on the train, we laughed hysterically when we realized with the eyes of an observer what we had just done.  I had tears streaming down my face as I reenacted me slamming open the door and Maddy slamming her ID against the window as the clam, whispering Hungarians gawked at us. Oh dear.

Once on the train we enjoyed swapping stories and getting to know each other better during the 4 hour long train ride back to Budapest.

I hope one day I can return to Lake Balaton and share a new Balaton experience with even more people.  It truly is a magical place. Hungary's Sea, where I discovered an amazing part of the world and even more amazing friends, will always have a special place in my heart.