Jennifer--We have had some very busy and exciting couple of days, with a rest day in between! Two days ago, we went back to the small villages we passed on our way to the 4th of July Party. We wanted to spend a little more time checking out what they had to offer. We took a few pictures and wandered around. That night, we went with Dad to Kitahnis, and had pizza. Two friends met us there, and it was delicious. Kitahnis is said to have the best pizza in town (except for what we make homemade of course). After dinner we went for a second time to Hotel Villa Classica to watch the Netherlands vs. Uruguay soccer game. It was a great game, mainly because the Hotel Villa Classica was full of Netherlands fans...big Netherlands fans! They all wore orange and blew big horns, just like last time. We took pictures and a short video clip of the hysteria.

Yesterday, I felt like I was in total burnout mode!! Dusty and I stayed home for the entire day (except for a short trip to Interspar with Dad), and I took 2 naps! I literally felt exhausted, but I felt so much better this morning from haven taken the naps! We are learning that we cannot tour and sightsee every day!!...We have to take breaks and rest!

Today was extremely busy! We got up early and headed towards Lake Balaton. We did not have an exact address for the GPS, so we chose a generic one offered by the system. Fortunately, it got us there! It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed driving through multiple small villages on our way there. Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe, and is referred to as the Hungarian Sea. We chose to go to the far North West side of the lake, to a town called Keszthely. Keszthely is home to the largest Baroque style castle of Middle Europe, the Festetics Castle.
As we pulled into town we saw the very tip of the castle, and drove towards it. We parked right down town Keszthely, in front of the castle. It was our first time having to use the machines that distribute parking passes. The machine was entirely in Hungarian, but we fortunately figured it out and purchased a ticket for one hour parking (which seemed like the maximum possible). We walked around the outside of the castle which was absolutely gorgeous. We took pictures of the grounds and the exterior of the castle. The detail was exquisite. We next decided to pay the cost of 2,000 forint each, to tour the inside of the castle (which totaled about $16). We had to put on some special slippers before we got to stroll around the castle. After putting on the shoes we walked up marble stairs with velvet red carpet . There were portraits of the royal Festetics family perched upon many of the walls. Most impressive were the portraits hanging along the walls of a staircase. Many belongings, which once belonged to members of the family, were on display throughout the different rooms of the castle. Such items included vases, statues, and even artifacts from the Middle East. Many other antiques were also on display.
The library, in the castle, was beautiful and super impressive! We had read about this famous library online before going. The library is host to many original and valuable pieces! Some were on display, but many we assume were under tight lock and key. The originals said to be property of the castle include works by Descartes, Voltaire and Shakespeare.
Another notable room of the castle is the altar. The tour leads down a hallway, where a huge painting of a man in holy garb is hung on the wall (we assumed it was a picture of a former pope or possible bishop). Then, to the right, there is an opening in the wall. When you look down, there is an altar. There was money scattered all over the floor from other tourist who have thrown down their offerings. It was a very remarkable sight.
More about the tour itself…when we were purchasing our tickets, Dusty noted that there was a price for a “picture permit.” I assumed that payment would be to get our picture taken, so we did not purchase it. After stepping into our all too cute slippers to take the tour, we showed the woman who worked there our camera and asked, “yo?” (good). She responded with a head nod and an “egen” (yes). We therefore proceeded to take pictures of everything we thought looked interesting, and then some! This was not a problem until we began taking pictures in the library, next to where one of the employees was standing. She approached us and began speaking Hungarian and looking at the camera. With utter confusion on our faces she spoke English, “Picture ticket?” We realized the picture permit, which cost 1400 forints, was to allow us to take pictures in the castle!! I felt my face get red as I said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” I slid my camera into my purse as she made a shrewd face.
So, not only does it cost to take a very short tour of a very small section of the castle, you must also pay to take pictures on the tour that you have already paid for! Dusty enjoyed the tour and thought that there were a lot of interesting artifacts and history to observe. I on the other hand, thought it felt like taking a tour at Disneyland. We both agree however, that the tour was overpriced. I do not recommend paying the money to take the tour of the Festetics Castle, Dusty does though. In my opinion, the outside of the castle is worth the trip there! It is amazing and so beautiful. There is also a cafe and restaurant there, where you can stop to eat, or perhaps even sip on a cappuccino while you enjoy the sights. If I went again, I would tour the outside, just as we did, and also enjoy a cup of kave (coffee).
Another important note, the maximum time allowed for parking is one hour—so the entire time there felt rushed! (update—We have learned that perhaps we misunderstood the parking meter and more time could have been purchased ) We definitely recommend taking the train. With taking the train, there is no stress with parking, or with rushing through the tour. This would also allow time to sit and enjoy a nice lunch at the castle.
After leaving the Festetics Castle, we headed towards the lake. The address that we chose from the GPS, lead us directly to a parking lot at the lake…LUCKY!! There was however, no parking! We drove down a ways and found another parking lot. Dusty saw some people walking down the lake through what looked like a field. We parked and looked around for a machine which distributed parking passes. There was no machine, and none of the cars already parked there had passes on their dashboards. We began the walk towards where we saw the other people, but it looked like private property. We decided against proceeding and headed back towards the parking lot. I began noticing that a lot of the cars had been cited tickets, and this made me very nervous! Dusty and I both realized that we really did not know if we could park there or not because we could not read any of the signs! We were also beginning to get a bit grumpy because we were hungry, and Dusty had to use the restroom. The best idea, we agreed, was to drive downtown and eat.
We had read online, that Keszthely is a great town to visit because it is out of the way of tourists. Unfortunately, this is not true! The town was very busy, and seemingly very full of tourists. We grabbed a parking spot downtown, and again had to purchase a parking ticket. Again, with only one hour (or so we thought at the time), we felt rushed, this time to find a place to have lunch. Every café we passed served only pastries and coffee. We finally spotted a restaurant and grabbed a small table outside. Dusty headed straight to the restroom and I ordered our drinks. Important to note that most toilets cost money to use! Dusty took 200 forints with him, but fortunately their toilet was free for customers. Our waitress spoke some broken English and I was able to order tea. When I did so, she assumed I meant hot tea. Thankfully she asked, and I responded, “No, cold.” She went on to offer peach or citron, I went with peach. I chose ice tea, instead of water, because it was cheaper!! I looked at the menu and it was entirely in Hungarian and German. This would not have been a problem because I was able to understand most of it. Realizing I spoke English however, the waitress brought over a menu in English.
Dusty returned and we decided that he would order the goulash and I would get a baguette with ham. We noticed the prices were much higher than in Papa. But we were hungry, so it did not really matter. The food was delicious, we have to admit. It was our first time eating goulash…it was fabulous! My sandwich, I was expecting to be small with only ham. To our surprise, it was half the length of a whole baguette. On it was some delicious spread, thinly sliced delicious ham (I hate ham in the states, but love it here), lettuce, cucumber and tomato. We finished eating and asked for the check. Again, just like every other time, the server stood there as I paid the bill. After doing so, I looked at the bill again. I believe we were over charged for the ice tea! I asked her about the ice tea charge and she said it was correct. We should have reopened the menu and checked but it was all a bit overwhelming. She didn’t speak English well, we had limited time on the meter, etc…..!!!!! Lesson learned…look over our check thoroughly before paying it and know how much each item we are ordering costs, so we can easily ensure that the bill is correct.
We rushed back to the car…wishing we had taken to the train…and headed back towards the lake. The parking lot was again full, so we drove to a residential area and parked there…for free!! We enjoyed walking through a beautiful park in order to get down to the lake. The lake is beautiful and the water is very green. Dusty and began walking down a long dock when we were approached from both sides. To our left was a man, and to our right was a woman. They both worked as tour guides for competing tour boats. They were both talking away, in Hungarian, with brochures in hand. Dusty asked, “English?” The woman immediately began her spiel, all over again (I think), in English. The man responded, “Well of course sir….” We laugh looking back on this. Dusty stopped and spoke with the guy about the tour while I wandered away and took some pictures of the graceful swans swimming in the lake. Dusty came back laughing, when he told the guy we would think about it, the guy responded in an almost threatening voice, “Beware, the tour leaves in 10 minutes.” We walked down to the end of the pier and took pictures of the lake and boats. Also, we sat down for a little while and people-watched, laughing the entire time about the threat!! LOL!!
We next walked down to the vendors by the lake and got an “energy” gelato! It was dark chocolate and so good! Originally we had planned on going into the water, but we realized once we were there, that you must pay to do that! We decided against paying to go into the water and just enjoyed admiring it. Back through the park, we found our way to the car. Setting the GPS to home—we headed that way.
Dusty-- On the road again, we saw a sign for a castle nearby. So, we veered off the beaten path to find this castle. We drove on a few roads then came to a dirt road that took us up to the castle. We were a little perplexed because it did not look like the Festetics Castle. This particular castle was renovated to be a winery, winetasting, and theatre. The outside of the castle was covered in vines and other vegetation, the inside had a medium size stage with arena seating. Other parts of the seating area were dedicated to antique tools that were once used in this particular castle. After looking around a bit, and of course taking pictures, we were on our way home again. Until we came across Heviz, the town which hosts Europe’s largest thermal lake, we decided to stop to look around and pulled into the resort. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the thermal lake because we could not find it. Which should have been easy since it was the largest thermal lake in Europe.
For the third time we were on our way home! We came to a town called Sumeg, and saw a stunning medieval castle on a hill. We were determined to find a road that lead us to it, and we eventually came to a hotel/resort that was just below the castle. We parked across from the hotel. We got out and started looking at other cars’ dashboards for parking permits, which is a good idea to see if you need to pay to park. There were no visible parking passes, so we were good to go. We saw two paths to the castle, so we had two choices: one, take the paved road or two, take the path on the side of the hill and cut out a good distance. We decided on choice number two, which we found to be very steep and challenging but fun. We finally made it to the gate of the castle. We paid 4,000 forint to get in, and it was definitely worth it.
Jennifer—Yes, 4000 forint was definitely worth it this time! I could not believe that this tour cost the same as the Festetics Castle tour. The Sumeg Castle, as this medieval 13th century castle/fortress is referred to, was absolutely amazing!! It was built in the early 13th century and served as a great defense during the Mongolian invasion.
The Sumeg Castle is perched up high on a hill, overlooking the town of Sumeg. It is a massive and impressive sight. We discovered the castle on accident, from the road home. The castle was so alluring we veered off to find it. As we approached the castle, it seemed to grow in size.
Entering into the front gate of the Sumeg Castle felt as if we were time warping into the 1200’s! The female employee who greeted everyone was dressed in apparel from the 13th century. At a small window to the right, immediately after stepping through the gate, a man was taking payment. I attempted to speak Hungarian, and he kindly asked me where I was from (in English). I told him America, he then asked which state. The female who heard the exchange, greeted us in English as we entered the castle.
Our self-lead tour immediately began. We found that there were no sections of the castle that were off limits! It was absolutely incredible. Dusty and I looked in every nook and cranny possible. All of the employees were dressed similarly and no one bothered us. There was ancient music playing, which added to the authentic feel. In addition, the view was incredible! We were so high up…and could see for miles. I can imagine that this fortress did a good job in protecting its people.
In addition to being able to walk around, without any limits, there was also authentic food for sale and young men taking “knight” lessons. There was also a gift shop and a haunted house. We walked through the gift shop but chose not to do the haunted house (there was a small wait).
All in all I would highly recommend the Sumeg Castle to anyone and everyone! It is well worth the admission and there is plenty to do.