Given the stormy weekend forecast, Brian, Agi and I headed to Brian's friend's place on Balaton for the weekend rather than further afield. More to do in case of rain, and less time to travel back to Bp if it got real miserable. In fact, we had fantastic weather most of the time. Jozsi and his family were fantastic hosts. I made strawberry pancakes for brunch on Saturday, and in the late afternoon after quite a few beers we hit the beach. The water was surprisingly warm for mid-May and very pleasant. I swam a bit and am happy to report that my back held up to the light exercise and perhaps I can start swimming regularly once more. The food and drink were exorbitantly expensive at the beach kiosks and not a langos in sight. I settled for a chicken burger, but it was dark blue- greenish in colour - almost like eating a bruise. In the evening, the promised storm slowly moved towards us from across the lake. As we watched it roll in from the balcony, we ooed and aaahed almost till dawn at lightning flashes splitting the night every few seconds. The following afternoon Agi made a Polish take on french toast by putting cheese and ham (in my case turkey ham) between two pieces of battered toast and frying it that way. Very good food for the morning after. Jozsi then took us to one of his many family members that live nearby to pick cherries. Agi and I picked from both sides of the ladder and soon had a big basket full for the family. We left as Jozsi's 90 year-old mother and her 85 year-old sister battled for the family ping-pong championship.

Photos here