Fields of Sunflowers and Corn on the Way to the Lake

Monday, July 28, 2014--Pecs to Kistheli (Lake Balaton)

Our bus didn't leave Pecs until 11:00, so we had the chance to relax this morning and not feel rushed.  However, because we could not buy tickets in advance, we knew to be at he station early.  By 10:35 people were lining up.  The Lake Balaton area is the most popular summer resort area in Hungary, so we knew there would be crowds.  Thank goodness Hungarians line up and don't push and shove.  We got in line behind maybe 15 people.  Still, by the time we got onto the bus, there were only two rows of seats still available where we wanted to sit--toward the back with a window so we could watch the luggage compartments as people withdrew luggage.

(A few years ago when I was visiting Estonia and Latvia, my bag was removed by someone from the bus.  Left behind was an old blue suitcase with nothing inside.  Someone had watched me as I waited for the bus and figured my bag would be worth stealing.  My guess is that the person never even got on our bus; he probably just walked up at the beginning of the trip--maybe while I was still going up the steps and could not see--put his suitcase in, took mine, and walked away quickly.  Yesterday in Pecs, we saw some Romas going through a bag of clothing discovering what was inside.  I wondered where they got that bag.  From the things they were pulling out and trying on, my guess is that it was not trash.  They had grabbed someone's bag of possessions.  It's always best to keep your eyes on your possessions at all times, if possible, when travelling.)

The ride from Pecs to Lake Balaton was a nice one.  We took back, two-lane roads that went through rolling hills planted mostly in either corn or sunflowers.  We passed small towns and villages.  Eventually, we came to the first town on the shore of Lake Balaton.  People were riding bicycles, walking, heading to the beaches, strolling through the shopping areas, etc.  After we got to the lake, people would get off at every community.  Rather than having one large resort area, the lake (the largest in Europe outside of Scandinavia) has one small resort after another.

Our landlady Ilona was at the bus station to meet us.  She introduced herself and drove us to her home where we have rented an apartment upstairs.  She explained that her mother was Hungarian but married a Swiss man.  She grew up in Switzerland, but speaks Hungarian due to talking to her mother.  My guess is that she moved here after retiring to help stretch her pension, since prices are so much lower here than in Switzerland.

The Swiss-Style Apartment we have rented is the best so far.  It is huge with two large bedrooms, a large kitchen, 1 1/2 baths, a balcony, etc.  It is much nicer looking than the photos on the webpage.  It is about 1.75 miles (3 km) from the center of town, but that is not a problem for us, since we walk so much anyway.  The biggest problem we have found is that the wi-fi signal is a bit weak.  It works, but it is frustrating if trying to lead pages with photos or ads.

We had an interesting incident after the landlady dropped us off and left to do some other things.  As we started to leave, we could not open the outside gate.  (The building is like a home on a plot of land with tall fencing all around it.  We live upstairs and she lives downstairs.)  The key she had given us did not work.  Fortunately, I figured a way for us to climb over the fence.  It was awkward and difficult, but we managed to do it.  I kept thinking, "How many other 69-year-old men would be able to do that!"  Before climbing over, we left a note on the front door telling her the problem and saying that we hoped she would be here to let us in when we returned.

We headed off to town.  First, we explored the Festetics-Kastely (also known as Helikon Castle), a huge castle that was built here first in the 1700s and then enlarged by two great wing additions in the late 1800s.  We had hoped to take a candlelight tour of the castle, but those are only offered on Saturdays.  Today, we walked the grounds and took exterior photos.  We will decide later whether we want a regular tour inside.  Castles can be like churches.  After you've gone to quite a few, they start to become a bit of a bore, especially when seeing many of them in a short period of time.  We will explore the photos on the Internet tonight and decide whether the interior seems appealing to us or not.

We walked down the pedestrian street after leaving the castle grounds.  It is a typical walking street except for the number of tourist traps along the way--shops that have no use except as souvenirs and "museums" hosting every possible theme to entice people inside.  Wes got excited about the one named the Erotic Wax Museum!

Eventually, we made it to the lakeside.  There, we saw the small beach which has an admission fee to relax on the grassy areas, play on the small sandy beach, or swim in the water which has a very long, shallow incline.  We didn't come here for the beach, we just wanted to explore the town and see what the lake is like.

Next to the beach is a long pier.  At the end of it, there were tour boats that take visitors around parts of the lake for 1-2 hours and the ferry landing for the boats that go across the lake to the other resorts.

We had been walking about three hours by then, so we headed back through town.  On the way, we walked through Helikon Park, a large, wooded area that is between the center of the town and the beach.  We stopped at a restaurant we had read is good and decided to have lunch there tomorrow.  And we stopped at Spar and bought some things to make pasta in tomato sauce tonight and have it with a bottle of wine.

One of our observations is that Kesthely has not had as much restoration work done on its old buildings as Budapest and Pecs.  It's a bit sad.  There are wonderful old buildings that have just been patched with plain, flat plaster to get by until the money is available to restore them with the details that still show in spots.  The ones that HAVE been restored are very nice, but they tend to be public buildings, and the cost was paid by the EU.