Lake Balaton, Hungary
Lake Balaton. Lake Balaton. That was going through my head all night, and when 8O'clock in the morning came, it was time to head off to Lake Balaton. I woke up, the sun was shining over Budapest, this was going to be a nice day, but it didnt start off brilliant. As I explained about how nice our hostel was in the previous blog (budapest, 30th April 2007) there was another unexpected tale to this Croatian badly run hostel. I was taking a shower. There was water leaking from the pipes. Ok, not a problem. Half way through my shower, I notcied that the water was not going down the drain, and was spilling out of the shower tray and onto the floor. I put my hand down the plug hole to see what was blocking it..and it was full of body hair. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
The old man from yesterday came in, to sort out the people whom were checking out. It came to me. I handed over the keys. He took them and stood there. Yesterday I gave him my passport as safe keeping (well, he asked for it as some hostels do for secruity reasons). Well, I stood there as well, staring at him as English was pointless with him around. I said "excuse-me?" He stared at me. I said "Excuse me" again, but this time in Russian. He understood. "Dah" he said.
"Passport Please!" He stood there like an idiot, gave me a dirty look, slam this green depoist box on the table, took out my passport and pointed to the door.
We left the hostel, and walked towards the parliment with our backpacks on. Another adventure awaits. We got to the metro at the Parliment and took the metro for only three stops to Budapest Deli station, where we got Oliver's tickets for Balaton and his Budapest to Bratislava tickets for tomorrow's journey. All cheap. Good.
We went over to platform four and caught the 09.40 train to Balatonfured, one of the main towns on the north side of the lake. It was about two and half hours journey from Budapest. Another sunny day, a quiet train, it was perfect to chill out on the train, to sew on some badges onto my backpact, and eat the pastries we brought from the station which would be our breakfast.
The train rolled passed the lake, and we got off at Balatonfured. I look at my hostel booking and found a local map on a wall to the entrance of the station. I look at my details. We were staying in a place called Hullam hostel. Okay. Next line - Revfulop. Hmmm.. I looked at the map. Revfulop is a small town on the north side of the lake, around 12 miles west from Balatonfured. Dam! I went to the ticket office, and the next train to Revfulop was two hours away.
I saw a taxi. Not good English, better German mind you.
Hullam hostel. Hullam in some countries means Morgue. I was a bit worried, but in Hungarian it means Wave. Wave hostel. I like the sound of this. We walked into the reception area. The owner was a man in his 40's black hair, medium built, and spoke broken English. But a lot better English than the people in Budapest, which later we found that he actually taught English to Hungarian people in Budapest.
So Oliver and me walked towards the lake, through a small selection of bars, shops and fast food take away before we reached the Revfulop pier. It was now starting to get a bit breezy. I had to put my jumper back on. We heard some music from nearby.
Food was next at the pier before going to the next attraction. There was a viweing tower at a top of a hill which overlooks Revfulop. It is called Fulop-Hegyi Kilato, not sure what it means, and not sure how to say it. The hostel manager gave us directions. So we followed them out of Revfulop, then the hill suddenly turned very steep, and very hard to conquer, but it was a challenge which we accepted. The views half way up outside a restaurant were amazing, and we carried on walking through some dense set of trees, and there it was a watch tower.
Fair enough. Not going to argue. I paid my 50cents fee to climb the tower. The tower was made all out of wood, and looked very modern. I reached the top. All I needed was more steps of a viewing tower to climb after that trek up a steep hill, but it was all worth it. Lake Balaton, Revfulop, the boats on the lakes, all the hills surrounding the lake, all the green, the sun beaming down on us, the quietness. It was pleasent and a nice experience. Oliver said it reminded him of the highlands of Scotland, seen it all before, and didn't really impress him much.
After a while, we came off the viewing tower and decided what the next plan of action would be. Oli went to the forest very quickly for some reason, and walked back to where the restaurant was (which was closed, as MAY 1 is another bank holiday in Euroland) and sat down, and just looked at lake. Let the world passed by. Seeing all the flies swarming around me. Did I smell or something?
Oliver arrived around ten minutes and headed down the hill back to the hostel, where it was now late afternoon, and as we both felt tired, decided to get a few hours rest before the nights events.
Late evening arrived. I had a shower (which was a lot better than the one in Budapest) and went downstairs while Oliver was just getting up.
An old guy came down the street, and walked straight into the hostel with a bag with him. Must be checking in. Within a couple of minutes, he ordered a drink, and sat down at my table. His name was John, from East London. He was an ex-taxi driver and made conversations very intresting. I enjoyed the chat. He had just come from Bratislava by train via Budapest, so when I told him me and Oliver was doing the same journey tomorrow, he was giving all the advise possible.
All the rest of the hostel came down. They were mostly Australians, a guy from New Zealand, people from Herefordshire and us. It was great. The owners were cooking some sausage, potatoes, mushrooms. I ask what it was called. It was some Hungarian Gool-lash. Don't know how to spell it. It was getting late and a bit cold, and after a few drinks, we decided to sit around the fire. It needed more wood, and so I decided to chuck whatever I could find onto it. The owners didnt really like that, but we made peace. :)
After midnight, we decided it was time to kip for we had an early start for our journey to Bratislava. Night.
The hostel is not really that secure, I think anyone can walk in, unless there is a member of staff at the front door but I never really notice them. There is a shop next door to buy cheap food and drinks and a couple of fast food places across the road not too far from the lake. The train station is around 5-10 minute walk.
