discovering Lake Balaton, Hungary

Recently we took a vacation (what's that? yes, yes, a vacation from the vacation.) and traveled over to Lake Balaton; The "Hungarian Sea." We spent a week travelling around, tasting wine, eating, and generally putzing about.



We stayed at a friend's vacation apartment in Balatonföldvár; a relic from the socialist era, complete with private beach. Although the Hungarian view of beach and mine differ drastically; theirs meaning grass with a man made retaining wall and mine, well, more sand than rock and grass. Nevertheless, the apartment was a trade for design work my husband has done over the course of 3 years and we were excited to hang out one last time before Sassy returns from Grandma's house.



This is the view from the castle ruins at Szigligetvár. An amazing and somewhat daunting hike up from the town beneath.

Unfortunately, but not disastrously, the weather soured upon our arrival and was either overcast and threatening to rain or actually raining, which curbed actual plans of sunbathing and swimming but propogated the tourist within. We toured around following the Germans, tasted some excellent wine (the best being Muskotály, a sweet white.) There I am, in between sips, waiting out the downpour in Badacsony.



The 'peasant' houses were definitely my favorite part. Some as old as 1600's thrown in with Churches and Parliament-type buildings from long before that and the whole trip was a tipsy success! How adorable is this picture!