Relaxing (Lake Balaton in Hungary)

After having visited a certain number of cities and mainly capitals, I felt like seeing some landscapes. My choice went to Lake Balaton, southwest of Budapest, sometimes called the Hungarian Sea. The lake is 77 km long and, quoting my favourite guide book Lonely Planet, 'the largest freshwater lake in Europe outside Scandinavia.' To promote this region around the lake, all the little cities and villages close to it got a name starting with Balaton. So tourists have the big choice between Balatonfuered, Balatonlelle, Balatonfenyves, Balatonszentgyorgi... Not following the mainstream :-) I chose to stay for two days in Fonyod.

Finding private accomodation is not difficult. Just walk through those little streets and look for those panels offering rooms, panels that are mainly written in German, targetting all those Austrians and Germans spending their holidays here. 'Zimmer frei.' I knocked on a door, an old lady opening and, guess what, she knew right away what I wanted. Not difficult to recognize a German backpacker looking for a bed. The lady showed me the room which was actually an appartment for a whole family, I liked the place and decided to stay.

So what can you do close to this kind of lake? Sunbathing, relaxing, swimming. I did that the first evening - and the second day I rented a bike to discover the surroundings as well as the national parc close to the Little Balaton Lake (Kis Balaton). Did some birdwatching in this national parc (see photo)- and just got back to my place when night started to fall. And like always with bike tours, the way back is the hardest - but you better don't stop ... if not you might fall asleep on the cycling road :-) 75 km in one day - I actually felt them in my bones.