We decided to have the day off on Friday! Why stress?? We were just a little bit hung over from the night before, as we had gone to the wine farm behind our house, and stocked up on 15 litres of merlot, and naturally it has to be taste tested doesn't it???
So the discussion over breakfast was, what to do with our precious day off?
Then we hit on the idea of trying out the buses.These run from the bottom of our street about 200metres away on the main Lake Balaton/Marcali road with some frequency. I wondered down to the bus stop, took a picture of the timetable on my phone and came home to mull over the bus times to Balatonmariafurdo, by the lake.
I asked an Hungarian friend of my to double check on the internet that I had the times right, and we caught the 1326hrs bus, it was a minute late!
The bus driver was freindly, and the journey cost us 250 florints each way, which is about 75 pence to go about 5 miles. Its well used by young and old, everyone getting on the bus greets everyone, there are no blaring ipods/phones, no hoodies, no bad, smelly dodgy people, no Indians, blacks, Pakistani's, bhurkas etc. Everyone is polite, well mannered and respectful.
It was a joy!
Steve and I wondered around the shops, had a great lunch, where we were both able to have some beers and vodka's, (no driver required!) we also managed to keep down a Palinka (Rocket fuel!) and caught the bus home again.
On the way home, the bus stopped at a designated stop in Balatonjulak, a female dashed over to the bus from her driveway with a bucket of peaches, these were loaded onto the bus, a chap got off, loaded another large tray of peaches onto the bus, there was much jabbering and chatting, then the bus driver, left the bus idling, got out the bus and went into this womans garden returning with another bucket of peaches, everyone, smiling laughing and joking all the while! No stress by anyone.....................
My son has always called the bus, "The Loser Cruiser!" referring to the service in the UK, but here its deffinately a winner!!!
Sounds like you are having fun exploring the area ... no better way than bus to get in touch with the locals! Our buses here in Norfolk are also bang on time and clean ... can't get over how clean everything is in this part of the world, hardly any graffiti. Such a change. Glad you had a good day out ... next time, take the fotos like good Japanese tourists.
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