On the Road again.... Budapest

After a few weeks of good home-cooking back in the UK we were ready to get back on the road again.
Our first week in Eastern Europe was spent in Hungary with Gill and Chris on their mini-honeymoon (the real one is to follow later). So whilst Gary and I roughed it in backpacker dorms, Gill and Chris enjoyed the elegance and luxury of the Grand Corinithian Hotel.

Budapest is a superb city - a bit quieter than we had expected, but the lovely architecture and excellent museums, and most importantly the numerous cafes (with excellent coffee and cakes) kept us busy for a couple of days. Hungarian food is also surprisingly good: we had expected to be underwhelmed with cabbage, dumplings and ropey meat, but quite the opposite was the case, and we ate extremely well (and not a grain of rice in sight - a big relief after 3.5 months in Asia).

After a few days in Budapest, we took the agonizing slow (although apparently it was the express) train to Lake Balaton which is the largest lake in Central Europe. For my 30th birthday present, Gill and Chris were kindly treating Gary and I to stay in the same 4* hotel as they were, so we were so excited to have our own room and bathroom (and hairdryer - oh, luxury!).
We stayed on Tihany peninsular which is a beautiful nature reserve, with a lovely medieval town perched on top of the hill which is where we were staying.
Our first full day there we spent hiking around the peninsula - we were supposed to see the ancient castle ruins and despite traipsing around the top of the hill, getting lost and having to backtrack at least once, but we never found them. No matter, since the hike was quite stunning, and we were glad to stop for a drink and break at the marina at the bottom of the hill for a drink before heading along the water edge to the other marina for a relaxed lunch watching the ferry boats docking every few minutes.
Our second day, we hired a car (and that was a drama in of itself - 45 minutes to complete paperwork to rent a Ford Focus for goodness sake!), to drive around the lake to see some of the towns and castles and the wonderful Festhetics palace.