The Balaton Weekend

Ever since I was first in Hungary, I have heard about "THE BALATON." Everyone always talks about how great it is and how they are going to go there on vacation. As missionaries we weren't allowed to go there (the whole not allowed to go swimming rule) and I have always been curious what it is really like. The Balaton, for those of you who don't know, is central Europe's largest lake. Some of my friends from Gyor were going and they invited me down for a couple of days. I asked off work and they gave me a Friday off. All of my co-workers warned me of how cold the water was because of the cool summer, but I told them I was going in regardless. So I left on Thursday afternoon from Budapest. I first went to Szekesfehervar to transfer to another train. I was in this town during my mission, but for only six weeks. It's a really pretty town though.

After a half an hour I was on my way to the Balaton. I honestly wasn't expecting that much, but I was amazed when I got my first glimpse from the train. It was really impressive.

My friends met me at the station at Balatonaracs. It was really good to see them again. We then walked to their hotel. They were telling me how crappy the weather had been all week and how Tibor had gotten sick. I felt kind of bad, but you can't really control the weather. Then we walked around town by the water. It was a really nice evening. We got gyros for dinner and had a really pleasant experience.

The next morning we woke up and the sun was shining. We decided that we needed to go to the beach. We were all really excited! The beach was different than I expected. There was grass instead of sand, but it really wasn't that big of a deal.

The water was pretty cold as you can see from my reaction. It felt good after you got used to it.

We had a great day on the beach. We went back to the hotel room and got cleaned up and then headed out for a walk around town. It really was beautiful. I must say for being a lake and not an ocean, it was pretty nice.

Then we went out to dinner at this amazing restaurant. I had chicken stuffed with Camembert and bacon over rice with a cranberry sauce. It was great!

After some more walking, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. In the morning we woke up pretty early and headed out! We had to walk forever in the hot sun which was not good for my body because I got burnt the day before. Always wear sunscreen even if you think you won't need it. We made it. The bus ride was nice back to Gyor. Then we headed back to my friends apartment and we eventually made our way to the big TESCO (the Walmart of Europe). We got some stuff for dinner.

The rest of the afternoon was spent making Porkolt. It's probably my favorite Hungarain Dish. I had it one of my first days in Hungary when I was a missionary and I have been hooked ever since. I even got to teach Annamari how to make nokedli which is pretty cool. An American teaching a Hungarian how to make hungarian food. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Then after that, we pretty much just talked and went to bed. It was so nice just to be able to hang out with them. In the middle of one of our conversations, it hit me how much I was going to miss them. They are great people!

The next morning, we woke up and went to church. It was good to see everyone there again. My friend Zsoka was there and it was good to see her again. Robi was there too. So many great people. It was tough to say goodbye. Then we came back and had some porkolt for lunch. It was still really good. Then we just spent the rest of the day listening to music and talking. In the evening we went over to Szabina's house so I could say goodbye to her. They had suti there which was really good. It was sad to say goodbye again. I really love these people and I could tell how much they care about me too. I was blown away by their generosity. For people who don't really make a lot of money, they made me feel like a king. In a lot of ways, saying goodbye was like deja vu all over again considering I had done it in the very same room three years earlier. I will really miss these people until we meet again!