After our first three days in Budapest where we enjoyed the city and its sights, buildings, etc... We were ready to continue our trip around Budapest. Where to go? Take two minutes to see Hungary map and you'll discover a great lake in the middlesouth of Hungary, it is called Balaton lake and since it seemed to be one of the must-visit places there in Hungary, we didn't hesitate to go there.
Me at Balaton lake
Besides, the lake is, more or less, in the middle of the trip to Pécs where the friendly Eszter was waiting for us. So on thursday we woke up early, packed our lugage, had some breakfast and left from the hostel after saying goodbye to everyone there. Honestly at no time did we want to be late in order to get the train but the brutal truth was that we were absolutely about to lose it... only 30 seconds later and we wouldn't have been able to get it on time... so once we were on we prayed for being so lucky... a little bit tired and sweated after the rush, we just made ourselves
confortable, chilled out in our seats and enjoyed glanceing at the landscape. After two hours approximately, we arrived at a town called Siofok. We were said that that town was somekind of hughe town, turistic one, ... but we came across the opposite situation... at least from the point of view of people... the town was unexpectedly undercrowded. Siofok looked like a town in the middle of a western film, lots of closed hotels, no one wandering out in the streets, every single word was either in Hungarian or in german, and the bizarrest thing was that the lake seemed to be private just behind the closed hotels and we couldn't see the way to access the lake from the road we were at.
Eventually we saw the light just at the end of the hotel's row. The lake is huge, however if you are lucky, as we were, and you have a clear and sunny day you'll be able to glance at a really cute landscape. After the lunch by the lake we return to the train station and we got on the train which was would led us to Pécs. After three hours by train, which I used to read the book Leviathan by Paul Auster, we arrived at Pécs where the nice and friendly Eszter was waiting for us. She and her father head us to their home, which was in the outskirts of the city. The house was pretty cool and we were kindly offered a bed to sleep.
Pécs detail 1
Since at the following day she was going to take place in a stiff competition about her studies, her father, Attila, took care of us. I really liked the way to interact with Attila, because as his English was not as good as his german and keeping in mind that my german nowadays is far from fluent... we used some kind of Hybrid language to communicate, a mixture of English and German. The good point was that we could understand each other most of times and eventually
this is what counts. Turning back to Pécs... after the breackfast, he took us till the city center, where we went sightseing.
Pécs detail 2 "The cathedral"
After dozens of pictures we met Eszter at the city center, and she became our personal guide, telling us every tiny secret of the city... ok maybe it was not as detailed but still. Later on we returned to her home and picked the bath clothes in order to go to a spa located at a nearby town. The spa was simply great, various pools filled up with water at different temperatures, nice company, and I found out what for me was a really arresting fact, some people were playing chess while bathing. Hardly had I thought about playing chess when Eszter propose it, and since I don't want to boast about it, I won't tell who won :)
Pécs detail 3 "The lockers"
We left the spa and headed for Pécs again. During the return trip, Eszter was phoned by her friend Gordana who kindly offered us to attend a concert, we eventually decided to go despite the fact that the singer was going to perform the concert in Hungarian, anyway the concert was pretty cool and hopefully for us she also sang some well-known songs from different international artist or bands like "highway to hell", so at least for us the concert livened up in some occasions.
And that was the last remarkable thing we did that day, later on we went back home, took the dinner and rested to be ready for the next day.
Up in the telecommunication tower: Me, Vero, Gordana
So saturday came and I woke up early to prepare some "Tortillas de patata", maybe you are wondering why and the reason is that Eszter had decided to go for a picnic in Pécs outskirts, and I thought, as I way to reward the hospitality they had shown, that a pair of Tortillas might be a good choice for the occasion.
The mentioned Tortilla de patata
But before going to the lake we went to the telecommunication tower of the city from which we could glance at whole city. Honestly the city looks bigger from the tower than if you wandering around the city...
Lake on the outskirts of Pécs
So there we were all of us: Gordana, Eszter, Vero and me at the tower resting... resting??? Absolutely, resting because we took on a bus which led us to the bottom of the hill where the tower was, therefore we had no choice apart from hiking up the hill through trees and bushes.
The tower had nothing interesting apart from the sights but it was interesting, as I said before, to check that the city is not as small as it looks. After some minutes there and having eaten a "Kindern egg" (thanks Gordana for that small but sweet pleasure) we decided to head for the lake.
Eszter at the Picnic
Everything was going smoothly, perhaps too much, and you will know why I am claiming so. In order to reach the lake and as it was not said to be close to the city, Attila provide us with his car which I carefully drove.
It was not more than 30 minutes trip to the lake in wich we were eating not only the Tortillas but also the crepes made by Eszter. We spent a really good time there "E"speaking in "E"spanish, because both of them had taken some spanish lessons, furthermore Gordana has been an Erasmus in Madrid.
Vero, Eszter and Gordana at the picnic
After the lake we stop the car by a trade fair where some palinka, typical food, and handicraft were sold, the problem was that we stayed there more time than expected originally and this was also the end of the smoothy trip... No sooner we realised that it was late to take our return train to Budapest than did us rush... but in fact it was too late
and no effort made was worth, in fact I tried to speed up a little Attila's car but it also didn't work... At no point were we thinking that we could have arrive on time but the truth was that we saw the train standing on the railways while parking the car and we had at least some faith, but out of the blue the train left...
Trade fair by the lake
if we could had got just one minute more... However we weren't determined to stand within the railway station till the next train's departure, so we all agreed going to eat an icecream. After two terrific days and two wonderful nights there in Pécs we departed in the following train headed for Budapest.
I must say that I really spent a good time there, meeting two new friends Eszter and Gordana. These nice girls took good take care of us and I am really greatful for that.
Thanks also to Eszter, Attila and Attila Jr for their hospitality and time, they are one of the best host I've ever come across.
That's all folks!!
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