I can't quite believe it, another 3 months has passed since I last wrote on here. The time is sure flying by, as it always does.
My first full summer in Budapest has been a blast, and we certainly have chalked up some kilometres as well. Our first trip, in June, was back to good old England, for our first visit home together since we moved. The reason for our return was a rather special one, my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary!
It was a busy week, the big party of course, seeing everyone on my mum's side of the family all together was great, even my brother made the journey from Spain to see them. We spent most of the evening reminiscing about old times with our cousin, and the grandparents (well, grandmother) seemed to really enjoy the occasion! Watching all the women in the family boogie-ing the night away while the guys stand around getting a bit drunk never gets old. I don't have any pictures to share about this evening, it was entirely documented by my mother and her Boots disposable camera. Maybe so it is easier to burn the evidence, who knows?
The following day was spent with the other side of the family, and a bbq in Rotherfield. Another hectic and social day, but was topped off with a night dip in the garden hot tub, and maybe a couple of nightcaps. Perfect!
We also spent a few nights with some great friends of ours, plus their two young kids. We completely love all of them, and spending these days in their company, and getting to know the kids a little better was so much fun. Even if I do know the words to Frozen off by heart now (I don't).
It was good to be home.
Unfortunately, some sad news for Eastbourne, and part of the pier burned down since we came back (nothing to do with me, I swear). I have very fond memories of playing on that pier, both as a kid and an adult, so I hope it doesn't go the way of so many others and be left to collapse into the sea.
Thanks to everyone for looking after us while we were back! You are all welcome here any time!
Our next adventure saw me finally get to every Hungarian's favourite place, the Balaton. The Balaton is the biggest lake in Hungary, and every time the sun comes out, half the country flock there to enjoy the water, and the scenery. A bit like the way us Brits immediately get the disposable barbeques out the minute there is a gap in the rain.
B's family have a small place just away from the lake, and I don't think they would mind me describing the place as a little....basic. I had been warned, so I knew what I was getting myself into, but I have to admit to wincing a little bit when we had to hose down the spiders from the outside loo.
But we had a great day and evening, playing games and cooking some meat and spuds on the old camp fire.
Plus we had an absolutely epic match of bowls. You might call it boules, or you might call it bocce or pétanque, but it's bowls and you bloody well know it. Anyway, we had two short matches before dinner which were evenly fought and won, so after dinner we decided to play an extra long, first to 25, winner takes all death match. Of bowls. And the loser takes the winner to a movie of their choice. I do like me a little wager now and again...
I started off like a pro, quickly dominating the early rounds and rushing into an 8 to nothing lead. Got this in the bag, I thought. Usually when I start getting uber competitive, B just lets me win and then we can have a quiet evening of gentle gloating and subtle showing off. But something lit a fire in her this time, and she wasn't having any of it. She quickly drew level at 8-8, I still don't know where it came from, and from that moment on she was always in the lead. I tried my best to hang on to her coat tails, but to no avail, I think the final score was something like 25-22.
I still haven't taken her to the movies.
In the morning, it was compulsory to try out the deluxe shower facilities. I don't mind saying, it was a little chilly, but it woke me up for sure.
We packed up, and headed out for a little drive in a nearby town, overlooking the Balaton. Unfortunately the photos came out a little strange, possible due to the intense sunshine, so just a couple for you here.
And of course, on our way back to Budapest, we had to stop for a small watermelon.
A great first trip to the lake for me, I am looking forward to the next time already.
Next up on our travels, was a proper holiday. A whole week in Crete! We stayed in a small town called Rethymno, on the northern part of the island. We had a self catering apartment booked, we weren't sure what to expect as these places can be a bit risky, but we think we got pretty lucky. The place was literally a stone's throw from the beach, and just enough out from the centre of town that it wasn't crowded where we were.
All along the main coast road were a string of bars and restaurants, so our first evening we found the Orange Bar, which would become our local, and had a first drink on the way to find a restaurant.
I have to say, I wasn't really taking a shine to Greek beer (Mythos), so for the rest of the week I drowned my liver in cocktails and gin and tonics. Hard life!
The sun setting on our first evening walk...
And the first restaurant choice...
Me and the main waiter, lovely guy insisted I take a picture with him. Luckily there was no enforced dress code.
The following day, mainly spent lounging on the beach and swimming, with a midday siesta and home made Greek salad by the best chef in town.
Second round cocktail in the evening...
And second round dinner, wonderful place right in the old harbour.
Great food, great setting, we were beginning to like this town. The next day, we decided to get on a bus to the next big town. The bus station was something else, I don't know if this is typical Greek life, but there seemed to be 25 buses all packed into a tiny area, with a new one coming in every ten minutes, doing a three point turn in the absolute smallest possible space, and picking up a bunch of fresh passengers. We weren't even sure if we were getting on the right bus, as the announcement was completely incoherent, in Greek of course, and no one who worked there seemed to offer any assistance. Thankfully there were other non-locals in the same situation as us, and seemingly the way to handle it is to wave your bus ticket directly in the bus drivers face until he acknowledges you are going in the right direction.
The town itself was beautiful though, so it was worth the momentary break in tranquility to get there.
The next day, however, was my absolute favourite, and one I think I will remember for a long time to come. We decided to hire a car, as we knew of a lake fairly nearby that we fancied exploring. In English, it is known as turtle lake, and although we weren't sure there would be actual turtles there, we wanted to check it out anyway. When we got there (after a little diversion, the road signs were not very clear), we were greeted with this beautifully clear lake surrounded by hills, overlooked by the odd taverna on the hillsides.
There were pedal boats for hire, so we hopped in one, and were told by the attendant to 'head right, the turtles are over there'. So that's what we did..
We still weren't confident we would see anything, but sure enough, there were loads of the little fellas! Not big sea turtles, but little guys some people might even keep as pets. I don't know if they live here naturally, or if they have been 'installed', but they seemed very happy in their surroundings. You can just about make one out in the middle of this picture:
Some people were hitching there boats up at the shore and swimming in the shallow waters, but the ground was like quicksand and it wasn't too pleasant, so we headed out right to the middle of the lake, and took the plunge.
The water was so warm, and so clear, I don't think I will ever forget how it felt.
We spent a fair amount of time at the lake, but now we were getting hungry. We knew where we wanted to go, we are both fans of Tripadvisor and we looked at the number one restaurant in Crete. The reviews were amazing, a slow food restaurant serving only local food from a wood burning stove. Sounded great to us. Only trouble here, was that it was a bit of a drive. We headed off, for around two hours we drove to get there, but we eventually found it in a sleepy town with a population of approximately 100. We wandered in, but it wasn't your typical restaurant. There was a veranda with some tables, but there seemed to be no one around. Oh no! Have we come all this way and it's closed?
Luckily, the answer was no. A stocky Greek man wandered out, wearing whites from the kitchen. So I asked 'Are you open? Can we have something to eat here?'. He looked a little puzzled, but then said yes, and beckoned us to follow him to the kitchen. There we met his wife, who was busy preparing around 10 big pots of food, all the time keeping an eye on their two young kids who were also running around, playing and laughing. This was more like their home than a restaurant!
The wife asked 'What do you want to eat?', and we looked at each other, a bit confused. We hadn't seen a menu yet.
'What is there?' I asked. The wife then preceded to present the pots to us, each with an incredibly brief description.
'This one is lamb' she said. 'And this one is beef'. They looked amazing, and certainly more mouthwatering than the basic definitions she was able to give. She presented the rest to us, and in the end we picked about 6 dishes to share, small portions only of course!
We waited patiently for our selections, in the beautiful surroundings of this crazy place we had ended up. You could smell the smoke from the wood burning stoves.
We had some water, and I also downed 3 bottles of local orange 'pop' as it was absolutely roasting hot all day long! Then the husband started to bring the dishes out, one by one. We weren't sure of the ettiquette, were we supposed to wait for it all, or eat it as he brings it? Well, we are not patient, so we tucked right in. First round was some home made bread, very malty and quite heavy, but very tasty also.
Then we had some slow roasted veggies, potatoes, corn, courgette, and it was un-be-lievable. Heaven!
Some other fine choices too:
Each dish was great, the only one I didn't particularly like was the cheesey dish above, made with sheep cheese, it just wasn't for me.
He even bought us a complimentary dish he wanted us to try, I think he liked that we had ordered so much :) And after that, he bought us water melon for dessert, again free of charge. Well, we thought, we will probably pay a decent price for this meal, so we won't say no to a couple of freebies.
After a little digestion time, and some further taking in of the surroundings, we headed inside to pay the bill. The couple were busy in the kitchen, preparing for more guests, so I felt a little awkward asking. But it was normal life for them, and they handed me the bill with a smile. I looked, and looked again, and looked at B.
'This must be the wrong bill' I said. 'It says 26 euros here'. She nudged me to say something. I questioned the amount, saying there must be a mistake, we had eaten a lot of food, and I drank three bottles of fizz too.
'No no, it's not 26 euros' the wife said with a chuckle, 'it's 28'. We couldn't believe it, if a restaurant was producing food like this in the city, you would be adding a 0 to the end.
We paid, left a healthy tip, out of gratitude and a little guilt for eating so well, and headed off back home. Oh, and we saw this weird little guy staring down at us on the way too!
I think I waffled on long enough about Greece, it was a magical trip that we are still enjoying fond memories of, and hopefully will for a long time to come.
Our final destination involved a big old fashioned road trip. We headed off to see B's little sis in Strasbourg, where she is currently working an internship. We enlisted the help of our friend K, who lived in Strasbourg for a time, so she would be our expert tour guide and entertainment on the long trip. It takes between 10 and 12 hours driving roughly to get there from Hungary.
I won't talk too much about the days there, I will let the pictures do the talking.
One last stop for schnitzel on the way home, and finally our travels are over for the summer. Or at least, we think they are!
Thanks for reading!
