Balaton

We have spent the last 3 days in Balatonlelle, on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, Hungary. We arrived after a unpleasent journey in the smoker carriage of the train from Budapest. Since we have been here we have spent most of our time relaxing following our busy few weeks on tour.

The highlights include...

...night time walks around the lake side...

...day time walks around the lake side...

...renting the most masculine pedalo-slide available...

...and using its slide lots of times...

...relaxing in the bath temperature waters of the lake with our deflating, inflatables...

...taking every opportunity to soak up the rays, even whilst waiting for the train to the next town...

...eating (what would a blog post be without food?) chicken skewers in a local restaurant...

and missing them when they were gone :(

Unfortunatley there have been some lowlights too (that are even worse than an empty plate).Mary's favoruite RayBan sunnies (as featured in many of the photos in this blog) were reported to be missing in action yesterday. Mary is bravely mourning thier loss and prefers to think of them as resting in peace rather than resting on the bridge of the theif's nose...

 

Tomorrow we will be moving on to pastures new, but until then bye for now.

Two Hungary Students

We arrived in Budapest and checked into our hotel - a very orange easyHotel...

 

 After handing our money to Stelios, we felt very rich with a wallet full of funny money... Unfortunately it isn't worth as much as it looks :(

 We set out yesterday morning for a city tour with a twist, the twist being you stand still for 3 hours, just leaning forward and back occasionally. Mary was quite the speed demon on her segway, Cinderella.

 

 We both enjoyed zipping around and turning heads of baffled locals who were surprised to see us behind them! After using so much energy, we decided to sample the local cuisine.

 For starters we both had goulash, which is served in Hungary as a soup and it was FABULOUS. Yummy!!

 After our mains (paprika chicken and chicken baked in yoghurt) we went for a walk on the banks on the Danube and Mary played with her camera...

Chain bridge by night

The castle by night

After a spot of shopping in the morning, we headed back to the Danube and passed a memorial to the civilians who were shot by Soviet Soldiers in 1945.

 With the sun shining, we made our way to Margaret Island via a fruit stall. Bizarely they put our necterines in a bag of water...attracting more attention than the segways :s

 Margaret Island didn't compare to the Danube Island in Vienna, but we made our own entertainment, chuckle brothers style... (to me, to you...)

 We finished off our final evening in Budapest with a Japanese takeout... scrumilicious!

Tomorrow brings us to Central Europe's "largest expanse of fresh water" , but before then it is time for an episode of Prison Break (which Mary has finally managed to get Sam hooked on).

Koszonom for reading... Sam & Mary x

Soggy Salzburg: The Road to Budapest

Next stop Budapest... or rather Salzburg, where we had a gap between connections.

Sam studying the onboard literature

Mary swotting up on Budapest

The journey to Salzburg gave some stunning views of the Austrian Alps and Alpine villages.

Our last bottle of Almdudler ( :( ) helped time slip by...

 We were greeted by torrential rains in Salzburg, which reminded us of olde times in Prague & Krakow...

Despite the weather, we still managed a delicious "Eis".

Patrick's worst nightmare (Sam demonstrating Patrick's "Wasp Dance")

After leaving Salzburg we successfuly made it to a hot and humid Budapest where we checked in to a very Orange easyHotel... Cheers Stelios!

Wien II

After a hard days cycling we returned back home for an Carinthian speciality prepared by Robert - Carntner Nodeln (pillows of pasta filled with potato and mint).

Next day Patrick and us were up early for a visit to the zoo, located in the ground of the Schonbrunn Palace.

We were lucky enough to observe the turtle mating process...

The Palace

Later in the afternoon we met with Robert and went for a cycle and a swim in the New Danube...

 

We then went for dinner at the Strandcafe, on the Old Danube, where we ate the house speciality - the best ribs in the actual World!

 They were so good, we finished every last bite and they were amazing!

 

We had a great time in Vienna and we will miss this amazing city.

Carinthia

After some trauma with paying by Mastercard in a Vienniesse supermarket; Robert, Patrick and us packed ourselves into a crowded wee Skoda Octavia. A few hours and several Austrian states (including Steyria - Arnie Land) we arrived into Carinthia in the Austrian Alps. We made several stops in Carinthia en route to our new home for the next few days, including...

...toboganning...

  

Sam and Patrick decide who goes first whilst Mary anxiously waits

...playing on children's playgrounds...

...visited Afritzer-see...

 

...and attempted to conquer the mighty 'Saturn'...

 

...watched the sunset over Lake Millstatt.

Our home for the next few nights would be Villa Kunterbunt (like Pippi Longstocking's house!)

 

 

Over the next few days we did a lot:

 

...every day began with a hearty Austrian breakfast (and also yorkshire tea and crunchy nut cornflakes!)

...visited the River Malta in the Maltatal Valley

...Sam drank from the crystal clean river running straight from the Alps

...Sam (and Robert) experienced a natural slide in the freezing cold river

...Mary didn't fancy an ice bath

...we picked wild raspberries

...and walderdbeerin (delicious but tiny wood strawberries)

...visited five waterfalls high in the Maltatal Valley

...including this waterfall where Sam aggrevated a wasp nest with his size 12's, resulting in Patrick sustaining multiple stings to the legs and arms!!!!

...enjoyed delicious traditional Austrian food on Inge's birthday

...marched around the Raggaschlucht gorge

...and saw more beautiful waterfalls

..and views of the Alps

...fed the ugliest, cheekiest duck

...Sam drove on the right-hand side of the road!

...back to Millstatt

...where we enjoyed our last supper, pizza mit Almduddler! yum...

We had a fantastic time in Austria and are going to miss the beautiful scenary, excellent hospitality, Almduddler and most of all Robert and Patrick!