Bikes, Bor, and Balaton-galactica

You know…it’s hard to leave a good thing when you find it. We sadly left our newly acquired Hungarian family (We will be back, no doubt!), and with their suggestion, traveled south to Lake Balaton to a village called Rëvfulop. This village is located on the northern side of Lake Balaton.

Stepping off the train, we mosied with our packs a few blocks to our bungalow for the next couple of nights. The street of the bungalow was lined with fruit trees (Score!), and we even had a fig tree in the front yard of our place. They also had hops growing along the fence which were looking pretty nice. All this description, and we failed miserably to get a picture. : ( Anyway, it was rustic, but we really enjoyed it.

After dropping off our bags, we walked to the marina area a couple blocks away as the sun was setting. It was like a ghost town. There were hardly any people or open shops, and it seemed we were definitely in the shoulder season. We didn’t mind at all as it was nice to enjoy the peacefulness of the lake.

Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe. What I found crazy was its average depth is roughly 11 ft, and its max depth is only somewhere around 40 ft! It also is known for having a green hue due to the algae species growing there, and it has a high level of sulfates and carbonates.

I mentioned peacefulness, but there was also a persistent “hum” in the air everywhere. It wasn’t until we looked upward probably 30 ft on our walk to the marina we saw a a dark ominous cloud of tens of thousands of insects fluttering around. It was like a scene from a movie. I panicked and convinced Morgan we should scamper home to the bungalow. I read up on it later, and these are called Lacewings which pose no threat to humans. After all, tens of thousands can’t be wrong that this is a good place to exist. Lol.

The next morning, we woke up to rain. The forecast predicted more of the same for most of the day so we took the opportunity to relax and read. Suprisingly, there was a break in the clouds around mid-afternoon, and we decided to rent bikes for getting around the lake.We took off for one of the higher viewpoints on the bike path that extends around the lake. Huffing and puffing, we made up the hillside to one of the watchtowers. You could climb up roughly 60 more feet, and the view was great. This area’s known for having multiple inactive volcanoes on the northern part of the lake, and these contribute to its soils, landscape, and further, its reputation as “wine country”.

After leaving the tower, we followed the trail toward the next village. My beach cruiser wasn’t keeping up on the rough terrain so we decided to cut this short and head back toward our place. We did manage to see a beautiful, unmaintained vineyard that had to span at least 5 acres. It appeared to be growing almost wildly. We also failed to document, but Morgan grabbed a few grapes to take back with us to cook down with some of the figs from the front yard tree.

That night we cooked down the fruit, ate some pasta (a cheap traveling staple), and watched Euronews (the only English-speaking channel we could find). Ha.

The next morning, we woke up to sunshine, and we decided to do a day tour of the Kali Basin by bike. We rode though various small villages and vineyards that riddled the area. We stopped at a couple of the wineries to rest our legs and of course check out some wine. Kőróka winery was our favorite. I don’t consider myself a wine connoisseur by any means, but we greatly enjoyed it. The vibe was also super relaxed, and we just hung out talking to the folks working there about their vineyard. Turns out they don’t irrigate their grapes and just rely on rain alone. Also, they said on 5 hectares of land, they produce 10,000 bottles a year!! We were shocked.We continued our tour, and we stopped on the outskirts of a small village called Kővágóörs. There is a field containing a sandstone formation that has been eroded away over the years to form unique boulders called the Sea of Stones. Some of the formation still holds water deposits. It felt like we were back in Arkansas walking out to some boulders for some recreation. We came to find out apparently this is a popular bouldering spot. Morgan was excited. HahaAfter enjoying some familiarity, we continued around the basin to finish out the trip. The landscapes were very similar to home which was comforting. Rolling hills, big green trees, and some resident cows…all while on the seat of a bicycle. Good for the soul.Oh, and a little more wine. : P
We finished off the day by grabbing some langos, a local food consisting of fried bread with sour cream and shredded cheese on top.This…was…everything. Thank you again Szabady family for introducing us to this magic. We’re hooked.The night was capped off with some Tales from the Crypt episodes, some more Euronews, and some reading. We left the next afternoon on the train toward the other side of lake and then on to our bus for Croatia! We also need to acknowledge that Bruce Willis met us on the water while in Hungary (just kidding, of course).Ok, I’m done here.