Göteborgs kulturkalas och Kai

Igår var en lugn dag men frammåt kvällen startade kulturkalaset så jag, Yini och min granne Jenny gick ned till götaplatsen för att titta på Jose Gonzales, en artist som jag tycker är bra. När vi stod där och lyssnade ringed Karl-Johan, min gamla Taiwankompis som jag inte träffat på snart ett år. Han och hans flickvän kom och mötte oss och vi snacked ett tag medans Jose spelade. När koncerten var slut var KJ tvungen att gå medan jag och Yini letade efter Kai som skulle vara där. Ingen Kai stod att finna men efter ett tag ringde KJ som hade hittat honom. Vi Spenderade kvällen med att vandra runt på kalaset och snacka med Kai och KJ som på gamla dar och hade det allmänt trevligt. Till slut vände KJ och hans tjej hemmåt och vi vandrade runt ett tag till och hittade till slut en koncert med Donkeyboy, inte mitt favoritband, men de har ändå några bra låtar och det var trevligt att se. När de avslutade med Ambitions hade vi hunnit bli trötta och gick hem efter en trevlig kväll.

communist baths…

Or rather communist statue and capitalist baths. Our last day in Budapest we went to Memento park, a historical park displaying remnants of Hungary's communist era. The main part was a collection of old communist statues that the Hungarians decided to keep as a memory rather than destroy for short-lived instant relief. Most of theses were rather boring things like busts and memorial plaques but a few of them were stocky, soviet style soldiers and proletariat figures. I like these but there were too few of them to really make it an interesting place. The rest of the park was a small exhibition about communism, a series of instructional films for secret agents and my favourite, a Trabant car that you could sit inside to get a feel of.

When we had seen the park we decided to go to the baths again, this time we tried the Gellett spa in the famous Gellert Hotel. It was smaller and had fewer pools than the other one but decorations were nicer. The thermal baths were split into one female and one male part and at least the male part was beautiful. Turquoise and blue tiles, figures of small children, flower reliefs and even the water temperature in mosaic. I liked the other bath more than the Gellert spa though, since I like sharing the thermal pools with my girlfriend.

After the spa we headed to our favourite restaurant in Budapest, Parika for some nice dinner. Yini had sadly developed some kind of skin allergy that made it painful for her to walk so she went back to the hostel while I continued to the river front for some night time photography. It is amazing how easily a city can score points by sticking some warm lights on to grand old buildings. The Mathias church and other important buildings on castle hill were perhaps even more stunning at night. An added bonus was finding a small music festival and a relatively good ska band. The walk was longer than I though it would be but nice, and when i start posting pictures you will see it was worth it.

Thunder and mummies

We woke up today to a big thunder storm and what sounded like pouring rain. For a while we thought about staying in but when the rain seemed to subside we decided to go out anyway. We headed north along the Danube river by train to Vac (pronounced something like Vachs). There we headed directly to the main square to see the mummies. They were not intended to be mummies but were simply folk buried in the church’s crypt which was later bricked up and forgotten. Sheer happenstance preserved some 200ish people but only a few of them, with their decorated coffins, were in the small museum.

Having seen the mummy exhibition we wandered around with the aim of seeing some more of the town but there was not much more to see, most of the stuff were on the same level as the rather common old houses in central Pest. So we figured that we could move to Esztergom, another small town by the Danube that seemed interesting. We discovered that the tickets were rather expensive for a relatively short distgance – we later found out this was due to that we had to go back to Budapest and change to a second train and then more or less go back. With this rather big wrench in the machinery we simply gave up on moving forward and went back to BP for some light shopping and dinner.

At bo på Andrassy Ut

Andrassy Ut är i mångt och mycket den finaste gatan i Pest. Den börjar vid S:t Stefans Basilica och sträcker sig till Hjältarnas torg i östra änden av centrala Pest. Däremellan passerar den Operan, Terror museet och flera byggnader smyckade med ungerska flaggor bredvid EU ditton. Och i skrivande stund sitter jag i ett rum i hus nummer ett.

Vi tog oss hit med tåg efter en lugn morgon i Tihany och trotts att vi hamnade på fel tåg hade vi tur och hittade rätt när vi kom till en station i utkanten av Budapest. Efter lite letande hittade vi också vårt hostel. Rummet vi bor i är riktigt fint med stukatur i taket och höga fönster, och det allra bästa, vi har våran dubbelsäng upp på ett sovloft med tillräcklig takhöjd för mig att så raklång.

När vi förundrats över rummet ett tag åkte vi ut till Margareta ön i mitten av Donau för en bit mat. Ön var i praktiken en enda stor park med ett par ölträdgårdar och resturanger och lagom till att jag börjat fundera på varför vi inte hittade någon äldre byggnation sprang vi på ett par ruiner. Det visade sig vara ruinerna efter klostret där S:t Margareta av Ungern levde. Med min fascination för ruiner var jag bara tvungen att knäppa ett par foton innan vi kunde fortsätta vandrar runt. Snart nog blev det dock mörkt och vi vände hem till vårt sovloft.

Balatonfüred and Tokaji

Our plan for the day involved going down to the small lake inside the lake and renting a boat, just to row around for a while but, despite the sunny weather and light breeze they proclaimed they could not rent a boat to us because of a “level 2 storm warning”. So, disappointed at the turn of events we figured we would head for Heviz and some thermal baths. This turned out to be a dead end as well since we couldn't get back at any good time. So, we had some ice cream for lunch then decided to get on a bus in to Balatonfüred, a town that is practically a big city compared to Tihany.

There we walked along the beach promenade for some time, just looking a cafés and beach life in general. Along the way we bumped into a place that had some more activeties except for the usual beach and café and we stopped by there to let me play around in a sort of obstacle course in the tree tops. Yini, being dressed in a dress decided not to join me. It was fun to climb around and also a bit nervous since it was far down but I had proper safety gear on so it was ok. The best part was the zip lines which were really exhilarating.

After that we found a beach and While Yini was getting ready to go in the water I went out and swam outwards. I soon discovered a series of platforms with benches on and something that looked like a lopsided statue. I swam out to one on the bizarre platforms that had no connection to land what so ever. It just stood there like someone had left it in the wrong place. I climbed up and found that it was rather unstable and covered in bird poo. The lopsided statue was shaped like a lion with a shield and also looked malplaced, like it had been dumped out there. Except for that small collection of odd things the rest of the afternoon was just a some fun in the water.

Later when we had dried off we spent some more time walking around in the town, found a well with some rather bad tasting “healthy” water and a round church. Nice but not spectacular. When we returned to Tihany  we found a restuarant and I decided to try some of the famous Hungarian wine, the Tokaji. It was very sweet and I rather liked it but nothing I would drink to food, more of a desert wine or something to drink on its own. Thats it for our last day at Lake Balaton, tomorrow we will head back to Budapest

Bike, snake, bike.

Day two at lake Balaton. We rented some bikes and rolled down towards the peninsulas tip in the hot sun. There wasn't much to see at the tip except some  very dedicated anglers with several poles each and even a small camping bed. We followed the road on the eastern side along the waters edge, enjoying the view and the ride. We stopped for the national Hungarian snack Langos for lunch then went on. Just a few minutes later we spotted a beach were it was free to enter (all others have a small fee). The sun had hidden behind a cloud by now but we got in the water anyway. It was slightly chilly but not bad and i walked out a bit, trying to see how deep it was. I could still stand and have my head over the surface as far as 100 m out.

Suddenly a lifeguard told everyone to get out as a storm was coming. The storm was nothing but some wind and slightly higher waves, not  exactly dangerous according to me but we had to get out. So, we sat at the beach watching the waves when suddenly a small snake washed up on land. I'm not sure about the species but it was pretty cool to see it there, trying to get back in the water. A few minutes later the rain started so we decided to head back to the hotel.

We relaxed at the hotel for a while until the sun came out again. Once again we hopped on our bikes but this time we left the village at the outer end and coasted down the flowing hills on a tree lined bike path. The landscape was just fantastic. We followed the road around a bend and ended up on the west side of the peninsula. Here we found a second beach, this one was nicer than the first one and we spent some time there. When we decided to leave we followed the path passed the beach but after a steep climb i ended, even though it looked like it would continue on the map. So we had to go all the way back witch was rather hard work considering the hill but we made it. After we parked the bikes we went for dinner and just as we got to the restaurant  i started raining heavily and lightning started striking around us. We quickly moved inside and had a nice trout for dinner. That my friends is it for today.

Thermal baths and a lake inside a lake

Our last day in Budapest was lazy. Having stayed up the night before we slept till late in the morning, had some lunch and made a short run to the train station to get some tickets. After that we went some famous thermal baths in Pest. The building was a big, grand thing with decorated pillars, high ceilings and a large collection pools and saunas. My favourites were the hot tubs and and section of the big out door pool where they had formed a sort of circullar stream, like a water roller coaster. It was good afternoon relaxing in the baths and we finished the day with dinner in a great place called Paprika.

Today we go up early, packed up our stuff and hopped on a train to lake Balaton. In keeping with the general spirit of things, the train decided to be painfully slow and we arrived in Balatonfured one hour later than scheduled but no matter. We found a bus out to Tihany peninsula, mass of land that nearly cuts central Europe's biggest mass of fresh water in half. Our hotel, although slightly more expensive than a hostel is right in the middle of the village and very nice. We walked around all afternoon, seeing pretty much all the historical sights in the area and also found a pond in the middle of the peninsula – hence the term lake inside a lake. In the light from the sun creeping towards the horizon, the mirror surface of the small stretch of water and the picturesque town in the background was a beautiful sight. All in all a very nice afternoon promenade through the Baltonian landscape.