Panorama Heviz

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

... br>Germans here at the moment (but still more than English speakers), but<br>anytime I ask anyone if they speak English, the answer comes back with<br>something in Hungarian, followed by "ich sprechen bissel duetch" (sp?).<br>So between my ~5 words of Hungarian (which no one seems to understand<br>anyway) and my dozen or so words of German, I am trying really hard to<br>make sense to people. In the end, pointing, nodding, shaking my head,<br>and handing over ...

... no signs telling you how to use the<br>lockers in the change rooms. So I put my things into one of the lockers<br>and closed the door only to find it locked automatically on me. After<br>pulling it in all different directions and looking around like a total<br>idiot, some guy tried to explain to me in Hungarian that when you swipe<br>your watch at one of the panels at the end of the row of lockers, it<br>unlocks YOUR particular locker and tells you which number it is. If<br>only there ...

I arrived at Keszthely feeling knackered, we couldn't find a campsite and endured a 2+km walk (with packs!!) away from the train station, until we were guided in the right direction. I spent the afternoon sleeping whilst LP went to the baths in the neighbouring town of Heviz.<br><br>In the evening we walked into town and were a little ...

... 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?<br><br>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 ...

... is just its cute houses, its shops, its cafés, a church and the Balaton Museum.<br>At night we have already seen everything in the town centre, so we go to the hostel, take a shower and then go back to the lakeshore to eat something. We sit outside a restaurant called "Party Sarda", one of the cheapest in the area. It's a quite charming place, the food is good and the staff is kind. My friend has a typical ...

Today was the day we left Austria and entered Hungary. A friend of mine from GSK, Adam Zsinko (a true legend, as you will find out as you read on), lives in Budapest and kindly gave us a locals suggestion of a route down to Budapest, and a list of things to do and see whilst in the capital.<br><br>The first two days consisted of a trip down to the Lake Balaton district in Hungary's southwest. We started out from Vienna, and ...

... 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.

In Sótony we were met by one of the Hungarian's (henceforth to be known as Péter) Esperanto students. This fellow is some sort of religion student and had to leave early to perfom a burial. You know you're in the countryside in central Europe when you start spotting these huge storks that nest on the top of ...

We found a fantastic campsite in Hevis, right next door to the thermal lake, with great cycle paths to Lake Balaton. We felt so comfortable and peaceful here. The lake is between 26 - 33 degrees and has (supposed) healing properties. It really is a proper lake, fed by a spring with ducks and lillies in it. Chris and I loved it, you could stay in for hours and hours. We spend a few days ...