Holiday at Lake Balaton

On August 17, Lacko (Katalin's brother) and his parents met us at their summer home in Balatonfenyves, which they had spent the day preparing for our arrival, waiting even through the long delay caused by trials with the immigration office. They showed us around, bought us drinks and cotton candy, and then left us to a wonderful vacation in which each day was better than the last.

Lake Balaton is an absolute playground for kids and adults alike. The water is warm and, on the south side of the lake (our side), shallow for a very long time. The kids loved it. Even Maisie, who, some of you know, has demonstrated a great terror of shorelines for some reason, was soon flapping and playing quite far from the shore.

Amelia

Every day we ate pastries and ice cream. As Maisie would say, the ice cream was just a snack. Pastries are for dessert.

Back in the house, we read to each other, played cards, drank wine, and prepared for our next adventure. The one place we ate vegetables was at the house too; and in one of the pictures below, you see Stephanie making us a salad. The mischievous look is probably something I earned.

We often found ourselves in a town to the east, Fonyód. While its waterfront was not as spectacular as in Balatonfenyves, it had a welcoming shopping plaza, playground, and several rides, including bumper cars -- a portion of which you can see by way of Paris Hilton, her starry eyes and arched brow.

Behold: Paris Hilton.

From Fonyód, we caught a ferry to Badacsony on the north end, a place the guide books say is far more mature than the partying towns to the south; but there was plenty of noise and driving beats when we arrived. Still, the quieter walks into the hills amidst the grape vineyards definitely changed the pace, and we had a hint of what the books described.

The picture below, taken from the ferry on the way to Badacsony, really captures the color of the lake. Plus boat.

 

August 20th is a national holiday in Hungary, celebrating the canonization of St. Istvan occurring the same day in 1083. Even more importantly, this day celebrates the birth of Hungary, because it was through Istvan, Hungary's first king, that the Magyars were unified through his alliance with the Pope.

We memorialized this day with thousands of other people at Balatonboglár, who toasted their great land with fried breads, gyros, kolbasz, and stomachs twisted and churned either via jugs of wine or through Screamin' Swings and other rides. 

Below are several pictures and one video taken from the wine festival.

We left Balatonboglár by train. In Fonyód, our train stopped and took on extra passenger cars, preparing to reverse and head to Kaposvar. Stephanie had some sense of this and pulled us off the train; but by the time this occurred, our own train had departed, and though we were told another would come by at 7:30, none came in the next two hours.

Amelia and Maisie waiting by the train tracks.

Fortunately, we didn't try to wait. In Fonyód, August 20th festivities included singing and dancing, and the kids were quickly ensconsed and enthralled.

When no train came at 7:30, I emptied my pockets of change, took of my watch, and ran back to Balatonfenyves, where our car was waiting at the train station. It was six or seven miles of beautiful lakeside scenery, the sunset turning the entire world orange.

And here is my favorite punchline of all: Because I was running at this particular time at this particular place, I ran into Franky Scaglione, one of the other six teacher Fulbrighters in Hungary. He was on his way to Balatonboglár with two friends to catch the nighttime events of the festival. And while it was incredible to run into each other, on a side street between towns, it was somehow too surreal to be surprising. But I loved it. I didn't tell you this, Franky, but you're the first native English speaker I've met in Hungary so far; and it wasn't bad to see my soul brother, either. Catch his blog here.

This morning, we went to the shoreline for one last look at the phenomenal pastels of the lake.