Magyar

 We've just come back from our 2 weeks holiday in Hungary. Here is a first rapid tell of our stay; there is so much to say, it was fascinating . We visited the best known places and tourist places that everybody knows about so that isn't the most interesting to recall.We found the Hungarians much more "honest and straight" than we had been told. We haven't had any of the problems we had been warned against. They are discreet but help if they can. They don't try to take advantage of the foreign tourists, in fact, it's very often the opposite. They speak quietly and they are clean ; That was a nice change from PerpignanWe started in BUDAPEST. We had a super time in this amazing town. We walked kilometrers, we used the buses, trams, metro, bicycle, boat and finally taxi to go back to the airport.Oktogon in Pest was our base: We stayed at "Easy hotel" . it's a basic, no frills hotel and very cheap. But it was just what we needed. it was very well placed near Andrassy and tram, metro, bus stops. The staff was very friendly and helpful. They spoke English.What we liked a lot in the vicinity is the Indian restaurant " BOMBAI EXPRESS" on Andrassi : first it reminded us of our stay in India but the food was really tasty, fresh, truly Indian taste as well as cheap compared to the fancy restaurants on the other side of the street.. The boss was friendly and chatty, happy to talk about India with us. It's the only Indian restaurant we came across in Hungary.  There was also a supermarket called ... Rothshild! First we thought it was a luxury jewels and perfume shop but not at all, it was a basic food shop.,  open 24/7. We used it a lot to buy food and drinks for our picnics.We loved the spa in Chesteny.We then took the train to BALATON Lake and stopped at Keszthely. So we had a good  view of the whole lake, it was pretty.We had a nice room in a nice house with garden but the service and breakfast were very basic and even mean. The owners didn't speak English and very little German. They weren't interested in communicating anyway.We enjoyed ourselves particularly in HEVIS, at the famous spa, We were lucky it was national day so there was a big festival in town, which was very colourful and pleasant. We had fireworks on the lake.I had a nasty toothache so we visited a "dental clinic" as there are averywhere in Hungary.. A real flourishing business. The dentist was very straight and efficient, without being pushy. She could speak English so it helped!We then moved on to EGER, still using the train: a long journey across country. A day of rest for our legs and feet but not for our eyes!Eger has a fairy feeling, particularly at night. We liked our stay in DOBO GUESTHOUSE. The manageress couldn't speak English nor German but she was eager to be nice and try to communicate. Breakfast there was very big, different every day , "good and plenty". The hotel is very near the castle, the minaret and the main square.Of course, we did wine tasting,and we had some famous local wine on the main square with music. very relaxing  after a hot walking day.We had a nice afternoon at the local spa.We finished our journey at BUDAPEST again. We chose a hotel in BUDA, this time, within walking distance of the Castle Palace. it has a French name, HOTEL PAPILLON. The receptionist was amazing, she could speak French, English, German very well + some Russian, on top of Hungarian of course. We could see she loved meeting people and speaking; She was eager to practise her languages and was very dynamic and helpful with everybody. She stayed smiley and polite with fussy clients. Breakfast there was also very big and complete. We had a room on the 4th floor with a very large balcony and a lovely view over the Parliament, Duna and bridges. We could eat in the garden and use the pool. We really have discovered a country with a very rich culture and history. Some buildings, scenarries and exhibitions are amazing; We have a lot of souvenirs and photos ; we now need to sort them out... Another story!