Hotel Makartanya Sport & Wellness Pecs

... at a hotel in Keszthely. Despite being 3
star - the same as some of the other places I've stayed, this is
decidedly fancier. Not exactly opulant, but nice. It's on the shore of
Lake Balaton which is the summer playground for Hungarians. It's a
massive lake and the town looks a bit like what a old communist Gold
Coast might look like. Though I'm guessing in summer (when the sun
doesn't set at 4:30pm) it looks a lot ...

... pictures of earlier places and these are now lost forever.

We got in to the room before we noticed it was gone and then had to make our way over to the police station to report it but when we finally got there at about 11 we were told to return in the morning when an interpreter would be available.

This meant missing our morning train but we went back and lodged the report and got the all important crime number for the insurance. All in all a bad night in Pecs...

... ourselves. Near the camp site was a massive lake that we went for an early evening wander around which is where we came across an abandoned water park! We managed to find a hole in the fence and had a look round. There was a rather stagnent looking/smelling swimming pool and even a dilapitated water slide. Very ...

... stories from the Bible. I found it quite fascinating, but the boys chose to wait for me outside.

We continued to wander the town. It will be interesting to see how it changes in the coming years. The pedestrian areas are quite enjoyable, but virtually devoid of tourists. The shopkeepers appear bored and seem to be patiently waiting for the influx of tourists coming in 2010. Although we didn't get the true feeling of the ...

... Hungary. There is a wall of locks where the students place a lock to express their loyalty to the town. Unfortunately the rain set in for the afternoon and after persisting with our sightseeing for a while we retreated to the mall and then to a little pizzeria for an early dinner. When we got back to the farm the rain had cleared so we went for a short walk in Kiskassa.

3rd June

Sunny periods am, occasional shower pm 24 degrees

Kiskassa (Near Pecs) Hungary

We started the day with a nice breakfast in the Villa's restaurant which as beautiful window boxes full of flowers. After travelling on the toll way for a while we turned off onto some smaller roads and drove through some lovely countryside and little towns from Croatia into Hungary. The ...

(60 miles)
What a morning! I woke up at 4:15 and although we completely dismissed any chance of making it to church about half way through yesterday, that was the first thought on my mind as I awoke. I looked at the map, knowing we had a long way to go, I told Chrissy that we maybe could make it. It was grueling but we biked 45 miles on little sleep and much up hill before 9:30 AM and made it to ...

... passing person would jump into the circle of linked hands and join the spontaneous dancing, which seemed to never end. Johnny and I decided that we wanted in on the fun and jumped into the circle of people and gypsy danced the night away. Though we were obviously tourists the locals were open to our inclusion of the circle and at the same time seemed enthused that two young tourists would want to join them. The Roma (gypsy) people migrated to Europe ...

... station to do at...we were in Sleepy Hollow. To make a long story short.. we walked towards the scattered street lamps and we occupied ourselves for a few hours...and at the first sign of daylight, we made our way towards the battlefield where the Turks defeated Hungary. In summation, we made it back to Budapest about noon...alive and well...and with a great since of accomplishment...just very, very tired. Thanks for you prayers! But off again tomorrow morning! This is great. :-)

... where the woman at the counter made a point of ignoring us. I finally rapped on the window and she yelled something in Romanian at me. I guess she was on break? After 15 minutes, another lady came and helped us. Turns out there was only one train a day from that station to Hungary, and it didn't leave until 4am. So back to the first train station we went. From there, we took a train to another border town, where we spent the night at a very strange hotel. They ...