Cabin Life Hungarian Style - Lake Velence, Hungary

Rather than head straight home from my feast of a trip in Austria, I managed to parlay it into a multistop visit.

Next destination: Hungary

I was particularly excited about this excursion because it was a reunion of my best buds that I had been fortunate enough to meet upon arriving in Norway. Ryan the Canadian, Balázs the Hungarian, and Oli the German, who was the guy who got me into this and started Adventure Every Day with me. Some of the best dudes I know.

Balázs and Oli had left Ryan and I behind in Oslo and landed in Berlin, a homecoming for Oli and a new base of operation for Balázs' Taqanu blockchain project trying to help refugees get financially established in their new home countries.

Balázs, being the good guy that he is, invited us to his hometown of Budapest, and more specifically to his family cabin located 50km or so outside the city. I was super stoked for this.

First we had to get there. That part turned out to be trickier than anticipated. I was to meet up with Ryan at the airport, but arrived earlier than him and planned to use the time to retrieve the rental car.

We were using a new service called BeeRides, a great concept where people traveling away from Budapest could rent their cars out to visitors coming into Budapest while they were away. Brilliant! I'm glad we used this service, because it was cool to try out, but also because it ended up being short lived - I'm pretty sure they already stopped operating (correct me if I am wrong though!).

The only tricky thing with this is that it was located offsite. Being cheap and not wanting to pay the extra €5 to be driven to the car from the airport, I figured I would just walk the 7 minutes there. No problem, right?

Well, it turns out that they meant 7 minutes driving. Argh! The walk was more like 45 minutes.

So I set off on foot. Yes, I am that stubborn! I didn't manage to get too far before my phone battery died, however. Now my hands were tied. I wasn't going to find this place and navigate the check-in without my phone. I bit the bullet and found the van that could take me there.

The 7 minute drive back to the airport turned out to not be so easy either. The entrance is super confusing, and I ended up getting turned around and back on the main highway in the wrong direction. A 14-minute round trip had turned into well over an hour and a half. It took so long that Ryan ended up waiting for me at the airport instead of the other way around.

But I digress. Enough about the stupid airport. I only mention it because I think it will be funny to remember 50 years from now.

The route to the cabin was smooth sailing, and we finally made it to what we were waiting for: warm food, cold brews, good dudes and this, the highlight of cabin trips everywhere:

Now it was time to feast! We started with an appetizer, the one thing that is a MUST anytime this group gets together: Norwegian sashimi-grade salmon (hand-delivered from Norway by Ryan), paired with a punched up chili-cilantro soy sauce. Friggin incredible.

Things were about to get even better. Balázs is a pretty damn good chef, and he's made some great Hungarian dishes for me on a number of occasions. Of these I have a clear favorite: Pörkölt.

Pörkölt is a boneless pork or beef stew with some vegetables. If you know anything about Hungarian cooking, then you can guess the main seasoning, which of course is paprika. The way Balázs prepares it turns it into some of the most tender, flavorful meat I've ever had. It is served on a homemade tészta pasta that resembles the Austrian spaetzle that I was eating in my last post.

I don't have a photo of this to post unfortunately (I guess I was too wrapped up in the amazingness), but do yourself a favor and if you ever see this on the menu or are offered, please try it! I doubt you will regret.

The following day it was time to go exploring and see the sites. Yet another interesting bit about Balázs is that he is a former member of the Hungarian national sailing team. The astute reader may note that Hungary is a landlocked country. True. But there are lakes. Balaton being the largest, but another one, Lake Velence, was nearer the cabin and is where Balázs grew up sailing. So we headed there to check out the old stomping grounds.

Just to the north of the lake is a rather interesting and newly-constructed viewing tower called Bence-hegyi Kilátó. A Modern day castle tower? You be the judge.

Next up, it was time to go hiking in the nearby nature reserve.

What better way to conclude a hike than with a sweet pastry?

And how about some fish soup with carp sourced from the lake? Okay, I have to admit this isn't exactly my thing, but it was worth a try.

Know what is my thing though? This!

Simply incredible, don't know what else I can say. Love these guys!

Day 26

Country count: 5

Best buds: 4

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