From Esztergom to Balatonfüred

Queen is back! During a short trip to my motherland, I felt homesick and I rushed back to Budapest as soon as I could. Since we have summer and most of us are in a constant travel mode, it can not be any different in my case. If you are in Budapest but wish to slide into Hungarian culture and be more familiar with the architecture and daily life of people outside the capital, there is no better place to start but Esztergom. This little town is only 46 km from Budapest, and imagine that from 10th until the mid-13th century it was the capital of Hungary! I am actually not surprised, considering that this is one of the oldest towns here.

One of the most important monument to visit is Esztergom Basilica, located on Castle Hill. This is the largest and one of the most impressive churches in Hungary.

There is an inside joke, which goes like, Hungarians are extremely proud of having such massive monument in their country. However, Slovakian are a bit luckier as they got to have a better view of this church because the main part of it is facing Slovakian city Štúrovo, which is just across the Danube.

Esztergom has also a lovely old town with magnificent architecture. It’s really tiny so an hour of walk around should be enough. If you get tired, there is no better place to chill than beach by the Danube.

You can travel to Esztergom by local bus which goes from Árpád híd or by train. But if I were you, I would go there by a boat/ship, considering we have 35 degrees outside, there is nothing better than a cruise adventure (you can check train timetable here and boat timetable:here).

We are moving from Esztergom to our lovely lake Balaton. What would be Hungary without it? It is every Hungarian’s summer destination and rumors tell that almost each of them have a weekend house there! As Queen is really spoiled, it should not be a surprise for anyone that my ideal holidays should include a seaside, (lake – if I have to go for cheaper version) beach, good music and peaceful environment. Balatonfüred offers pretty much all of it – ok it is not a real sea but it is so huge that at some point you can be easily deluded that you are almost there. If you pay 1000 huf (around 3 EUR), you can get an entry on a private beach. At the same time you can be sure that the grass is trimmed, your kids have some safe playground and you can get some delicious food! HECK (fish exclusively found in Lake Balaton) is a must have to try!

I would not say that Balaton is the cleanest lake I have ever seen but if you’d have an option to escape the city heat and just within 2 hours find yourself in the bosoms of nature – I literally wouldn’t care about anything else. Anyway, Balatonfüred is something more than just a town with a huge lake, it is the party capital of the region! Clubs are usually packed as locals blend with a lot of tourists, giving you an overall feeling that you are somewhere in Ibiza – again I strongly suggest you to use your imagination!

You can get any local train to Balaton which runs almost every hour from Budapest. Depends on, to which part you wish to go, it takes around 2 hours. Please bare in mind that we are in EASTERN EUROPE meaning our trains are SLOW and sometimes they are lack air conditioning. It’s quite hard to understand this XXI century phenomenon, especially by people from Western countries. Well guys, we grew up like this and all I can recommend you is to take a few bottles of water and some decent books to read!