Hungarian Road Trip

After a couple of days spent exploring Budapest, it was time to see what else Hungary had to offer. We’d booked a rather cheap car for the purpose – a Skoda that had seen better days, but did the job for us perfectly.

After leaving Budapest, we headed south, direction Lake Balaton. Lake Balaton is the biggest lake in Hungary, and one of the biggest ones in Europe – and a favourite summer holiday destination for Hungarians (and a fair few Austrian and German as well). Before arriving at the lake, we made a stop at Veszprem, one of the more historic and picturesque towns in Hungary. The old town is rather picturesquely located on a hilltop, with its cobblestone streets and historic buildings, dating back to the 18th and 19th century. Our walk took us through the old part of town, into the more modern part of town. We found a nice enough eatery, where we had lunch (more goulash soup, yippee!).

Our next stop was Tihany, on Lake Balaton. Tihany is a peninsula jutting out into the lake, classified as a historic district. Tihany is also the name of the village that sits on the peninsula, which is famous for its Benedictine abbey, founded all the way back in 1055. The current baroque church dates back to the 18th century. I and Philippe decided to pay the entry fee and check out the church and the museum, which is kind of interesting from a historical point of view. The views from the church over the lake are pretty cool too. Having checked out the church, and visited the nearby tourist shops (and let’s not forget the marzipan museum either – I liked the miniature marzipan version of the abbey), we made our way down to the lake.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find a good beach for swimming (the lido, which would’ve done the job, was closed for some unknown reason). But the stroll around the lake was still pretty nice. For dinner, we decided to go for some real traditional Hungarian food, in Ferenc Pince Csárda. It was a very good choice indeed – everything was pretty much perfect (the wine, cuisine, the views over the lake, and the company of course!). Should you ever find yourself at Lake Balaton, dear reader, I seriously recommend this place!

We started the next day with a very refreshing swim in the lake – I mean we couldn’t very well visit Lake Balaton without having a swim in the lake, could we? We then made our ways northwards, direction Pannonhalma. We had planned to visit the famous monastery, but decided to abort our visit due to our somewhat busy schedule (we did have a nice walk around the monastery though).


We arrived at our final destination for the day, Esztergom, late afternoon. After checking in at our hotel, we started visiting the place, whilst we still had some daylight to enjoy. Esztergom is one of the famous “Danube bend towns”, located just north of Budapest, on the right-hand side of the Danube (which forms the border with Slovakia here). The main sight at Esztergom is the famous cathedral, the biggest in Hungary, and the seat of the catholic church of Hungary.

So naturally, we started out visit by checking out this impressive building, rather dramatically situated on a hill, overlooking the Danube and the town. The church is a truly impressive sight, especially when seen from the Danube. We started by gaping at the impressive interior, and then walked up to the top of the church. The views from up there over the town & the Danube were truly astounding. We finished our visit by checking out the big bell, and actually heard it strike as well.

After a brief walk in the old parts of Esztergom, we decided to cross the Danube into Slovakia – why not have our apero in another country? The walk across the bridge was well worth the effort, as we had some pretty amazing views of the cathedral and the old town. The town on the Slovakian side of the border, Sturovo, isn’t very interesting from a tourist’s point of view, but well, at least we can say we’ve been to Slovakia now (and no complaints about the beer we had there, either!)

For dinner, we decided to go for yet another traditional Hungarian restaurant, the Csulok Csarda. Like the night before, we ate well, and in very cozy surroundings. But still, I have to say, I preferred the restaurant at Tihany.

The next day, it was time to head back to Budapest – as Philippe and Aniko had a train to catch to the west of Hungary. We did have time to make a brief stop at Szentendre, another one of the Danube bend towns. Szentendre for its artist connections – and for good reason. It’s a truly picturesque town, with its cobble-stoned streets, numerous churches (including a few Serbian Orthodox ones – the seat of the Hungarian orthodox church is located here). It’s a pity we didn’t have a lot of time to spend here, but well, unfortunately we were in a bit of a hurry.

We arrived in Budapest, and had time to drop off our rental car and have a coffee, before Philippe and Aniko had to catch their train. After saying our good-byes, I and Mathilde continued our exploration of Budapest on our own. We decided to spend the afternoon exploring Memento Park – a rather interesting little place dedicated to the communist past of Budapest. Basically it’s a park outside Budapest, where they have put some of the “grandiose” statues from the communist era. There was also a rather entertaining ÁVH (the Hungarian secret police during the communist years) training film for secret agents.

Thursday was sadly our last day in Hungary. We decided to go for a bit of more communist nostalgia, and visit the house of Terror – a kind of museum dedicated to the victims of the communist regime – rather fittingly located in the former ÁVH headquarters. It was a pretty good museum, a bit more serious than Memento Park, and interestingly also draws parallels between the activities of the fascists before and during World War II and the communist regime that followed. Not a very uplifting way to end our visit to Hungary, perhaps, but I think a needed reminder of a rather dark period of Easter European history… (although I think sometimes the message was rubbed in rather un-subtly…).

All in all, it was a fantastic nostalgia trip for me, and I believe Mathilde also enjoyed our short escapade very much. A huge thanks to Aniko for showing us around her country (and to Philippe for posing for all my silly photos)!