Having completed the Balaton Swim this year, I started looking for a new goal. With autumn approaching, wanting to do something sporty, and considering my increasing involvement in wine, I thought to get a group of good friends together to cycle around the north side of Lake Balaton for my birthday and sample some of the wines there.  Several family-men had to cancel, and in the end it came down to Jon Gifford and me. Jon and I rented some great KTM bikes from Discover Budapest for the weekend, and hooked up with Bottlehugger Ben on our way to Buda (the “dark side”) that night. This was both fortunate (nice new drinking holes) and unfortunate (we had to get up at 5am to catch the 6:20 train from Deli pu.). The first stop was the Lanchid Sorozo (Fo u. 4). This place has the old dirty Pest pub feeling, has some good mushroom sandwiches, and best of all, the classic rock soundtrack. But it is Buda, so beer prices are a bit higher than the average Pest 400 huf Dreher. Escorting Bottlehugger towards home, we stopped in, of all places, to the back of MOM Park where there was another surprise. There is a huge Paulaner Brauhaus. Not only does it have the atmosphere, and the wheat beer (very pricey at 890 huf), but it also has amazing hot pretzels. No, not the Hungarian stale things covered with plastic salty pseudo-cheese. Real pretzels like you can get near Boston Common. I mean these things, you could SMELL the salt. And when we asked for sweet mustard to put on them, not even a blink.
Up at 5am, and slightly hungover, we got to Deli pu. in plenty of time, and were even able to jump an earlier train that got us into Alsoors at 9. The first thing we noticed was how high the bikes rode. It makes me wonder if I have a kid’s bike frame? The second, amazing thing, was the strange feeling of flying with that ever-present hump of a backpack missing. The shock absorbers did not hurt either! End of part 1...