Two weekends at Balaton

Lake Balaton is a famous destination for Hungarians to relax and cool off during hot summer days. My friend Kati offered me to go on a biking trip to Balaton on June16^th and of cause I could not resist. It was a program so called Heyday of Health. What did we do? We went to Balatonfüred by train and there we met the rest of the group. Then we were cycling from Balatonfüred to Tihany and back, which in total made 21 km. On the way we enjoyed the landscape and stopped to swim, because it was about +36. Four of us including me were riding old style Dutch bikes and it spiced up our trip a bit. Our bicycles do not have breaks or gears, which complicated to peddle up to the hills. However, it was a funny part of an adventure.

 In the evening we cooked Hungarian dinner and now I am able to make Hungarian lecso. All you need is just chopped onions, tomatoes, paprika, kolbasz and eggs. You cook everything in a big pot and serve with a slice of bread. Jó étvagyát!

Finally, we visited Figula winery where we were told about the philosophy of Figula wine making. We tasted 4 white, 1 rose and 2 red wines. One kind of the red wine was rewarded as the best Hungarian red wine in 2009 even though Balaton region is mainly famous for white wines. I have never participated in a wine tasting before and it was very unusual for me to see the vineyards just next to people’s houses.

Actually, I visited Balaton two weekends in a row. I came back for Egyesek summer season opening to spend some time with my colleagues. Thank you for Eszter who invited everyone to her summer house in Tihany.  I enjoyed our little adventure with Saskia, because we hitchhiked to get there. There were many cars passing by and we got a lift in 10 min. In addition, we had a lovely conversation with a couple who took us and they even invited us to check out a Ramadan Garden in Budapest. Lake Balaton is often called as a Hungarian sea. Indeed, it looks like a sea more than a lake because of the light blue water.