Karos Spa Zalakaros

2 words - central heating. The way they heat some places here is just
ridiculous. Sure it may be close to 0'C outside, but heating all these
communist era buildings with little or no insulation to around 30'C
(ok, maybe not 30, but definitely the mid to high 20 ...

... seems to do the trick.

Short of anything more going wrong with my trip back to Budapest -
after a short train ride from Keszthely, I discovered the connecting
train to Budapest is either running really late, not running
altogether, or has crashed somewhere, and so I am therefore forced to
wait in this 1-horsse town with no horse an extra hour for the next
train - I'll be in Budapest tonight and Ben Gurion Airport by lunch
time tomorrow.

... a sign telling me that before hand...



This place was pretty cool. In the pavilion in the middle of the lake
people were relaxing on sun-chairs like it was the middle of summer.
Funnily enough all the outdoor sundecks were totally empty! You could
immerse yourself in the lake from within the pavilion, or take a step
outside and go in from there (and then swim between the two areas). The
lake is quite deep and they have built various things around the lake ...

... were pleased that we had booked into a cabin (and not camping), we walked home in the rain - dodging cars driving through puddles...

The following morning, LP tried to sort out breakfast, she ended taking our own teabags into the kiosk and getting hot water from the women behind the counter - all in the name of an earl grey fix...

... about the future plans of redirecting the river Drava in the natural reservate Veliki pazut. The natural flow of the river will be blocked and redirected to supposedly prevent an endangered railway (that comes near to the river). The local activists tell us that the railway is not really in danger, most likely there is another reason behind these plans...

... last minute purchases, but all was well when I went to collect it. Vraagje aan de ex-eigenaar als je dit leest: Wil je ajb een berichtje achterlaten op mijn weblog? Misschien dat we iets over het hoofd zien?

The last 2 days we have been very active with van, turning the kitchen area into a real camper kitchen, with hooks and tools in place and most importantly easy to reach! Mira pained the outside of the van, so now Frits is white/green, a ...

... a thick soup made with beef, potatoes and vegetables seasoned with paprika) and I have two palacsinta (rolle pancakes filled with cottage cheese). My meal just costs 350 forints (= 1,70€ aprox) and it's delicious.
After having supper we go to a bar to have a drink and soon after midnight we go to bed. Tomorrow we're going to Croatia and we have to stay at the train station at 8 in the morning!

... had a pool, so we all went for a swim, and then had a dinner and into bed... a fairly uneventful day, but one that was needed as the kids were starting to get a little tired.

The next day we had some big plans to follow Adam's advice and get out onto the shores of Lake Balaton, however Mother Nature decided it was time to do some gardening, and threw out a massive storm into Hungary, which put paid to even leaving ...

... We checked the prices and it was right up our alley. We were entertained by horses, whip cracking, traditional dancing, music at the tables. What's funny is that we spend all day biking through hungary seeing one thatched roof and one Stork (we took a picture of them) and asking ourselves where is all the tradition we read about. Then we find this tourist trap restaurant that appeases all our desires.

... exploring until the rain came again! We drove to Tihany, a nature reserve, on Lake Balaton, which felt like the sea because it is such a large lake. We sat in our van watching the waves crashing! It brought back memories of day trips to "Walton on the Naze". The bad weather was here to stay, so there was nothing else to do but head for Budapest. At least there are museums to keep dry in.