Hungary
Hungarian
Rhapsody
By Colleen Friesen
Cycling along Lake Balaton
There are no crack of dawn starts when you’ re traveling with Hungary’ s Vinociped’ s nine-day Wine and Bike tour. The name says it all – cycling comes second.
Traveling north of Europe’ s largest body of freshwater, Lake Balaton, there is no emphasis on speed. However … there are a couple of things you should consider. Let’ s start with the two staples of a decent day in Hungary. Naturally, it should involve pork and Palinka.
Palinka is a way to fortify yourself before breakfast, lovely for lunch, a great start to dinner and does double-duty as a nightcap. Palinka, at 40- 50 % alcohol, is a uniquely Hungarian plum or apricot-based brandy..
To be fair, we weren’ t served Palinka at breakfast on this trip. However, we met Hungarians, young and old, who swore it was the only way to start the day.
Which brings us to the other Hungarian specialty. Pork, or piggy, as in … I felt like one. As we’ d already discovered by spending a few days in Budapest, Hungary is a carnivore’ s dream … or an arterial nightmare. There’ s nothing like a big plate of sausages served up with a side of ham. You can worry about your heart health when you get home, because while you’ re here, your name is Porkahontas.
By the fifth day, we’ d left behind the beautiful meandering bike path near the lake to head into the Balaton Uplands;‘ up’ is the operative word. Because there are twenty of us, it takes awhile to corral everyone and get things happening but it’ s nice to have a slow start and the breath to be able to idle along and chat.
We cruise through villages made up of families with tractors in their driveways, past fields of golden corn and tree-filled gardens stuffed with fat pears and pudgy figs. Women still wear aprons here. One could only wish they could convince their Speedowearing ditch-shoveling husbands to
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