Grandpa Land

The title of this post comes from my Uncle who used the phrase to describe the holiday house we were staying at. I've been there before with my Grandpa and Grandma (both passed on) 20 years ago, I still remember a few details clearly. I was surprised to see baby photos of myself hanging on the wall in the shed alongside various childhood drawings of various members of the family now all grown up and some with children of their own. Apparently Grandpa hung his favourite pictures on the wall in this place, this place was Grandpa Land.

Cute kid, what went wrong?

The family sitting down to a BBQ dinner

To celebrate the 26th Wedding Anniversary of my Uncle and Auntie we had a BBQ in the backyard of the house. It really highlighted the cultural difference when they were all surprised by my ability to cook a BBQ, but really in Australia a man is not a man if he can't cook a BBQ.

To better explain the situation, I headed back to Hungary for 10 days to see the family again and spend a week with them on Holidays down at what I'd call the Hungarian Riviera, Lake Balaton. They family has a place there, passed down from the Grandparents. Lake Balaton is about 77km long and 14km wide and is enjoyed by most Hungarians in various ways such as fishing, swimming and sailing. It is the place where "everyone" goes in summer.

It really is a big lake

Most days were spent lounging around, swimming, reading, sleeping, eating and basically relaxing. We made a few day trips, one day heading to Keszthely. We went to an Africa park/museum/hunting exhibition, I took no photos there because I have built up a distaste for showing foreign cultures out of context. Interesting but completely irrelevant. Anyway, we moved on to the real deal when we took a tour through one of the well kept castles that remain in Hungary.

The castle in Keszthely

The most amazing thing about this castle was it's library that was straight out of the movies, the story of its saving from the military is quite amazing just as are its contents. Containing books several hundred years old and the total collection is up to 90,000 books. Unfortunately I didn't have enough battery power in my camera to take a picture of it, so just let your imagination go wild and you'll be pretty close.

While taking the ferry to Tihany

The other day trip we took was to Tihany, a peninsula that reaches into the lake making it the narrowest point to cross the lake. An old and beautiful town it is a great tourist attraction.

In, out and around Tihany

On the last night together my cousin Petra drew attention to the stars in the sky because being so far from the big cities they were so clear. Although I knew that the stars are different in the Northern hemisphere, this was the first time I'd really studied the sky and notice the difference. So simple yet quite profound.

On my way back to Mannheim I had some time in Budapest and walking around I walked past a church on my way back to the train station. I was thinking how much I like how in most European cities there are beautiful old churches and the train stations are usually also quite architecturally beautiful. I really like the old train stations and I thought that maybe that train stations could be like the church of travel where journeys are born and come to die ...... or not. Anyway I think they look nice.

Budapest Keleti Train Station

This time I decide to travel to Hungary by Train not only because it was quite cheap but also I thought it would be good to get a glimpse of the country side.

The Alps from the Train

It was a nice idea but the reality of traveling by Train from Mannheim to Budapest and back was, well, unpleasant. 14 hours of sweating profusely, uncomfortable sitting position, ears popping from the pressure through tunnels and an ever declining tolerance for other passengers. I thought I'd be fine but it really got to me and just might be the end of my long journeys on trains.

Towards the end of my trip I was often asked when I would be back again, something I don't know how to answer but it's unusual realising the closeness of people I've only seen a three times in my whole life prior to this year.

Thanks go to all the family for treating me like a king and to Anna who looked after me in Budapest at such short notice. Hopefully the memories are strong enough to last until next we all meet.