ManWomanDogVan: September 2020

We have returned to Zalakaros to take another look around while trying to come to an agreement with the sellers of the house we have made the offer on. But it was not meant to be. The gap between the asking price and our offer was not really significant at the end, but neither of us was prepared to budge. I was very sad that it did not work out, but also a bit relieved as buying this house would definitely have meant taking a risk.

Anyway, we went back to Pécs to brood it over for a few days before saying goodbye to friends and family and setting off again.

We have been considering what to do next and decided to go back to Austria and try our luck with finding a job and a place to stay for a few month. Hamish has long had the idea of spending a winter season there, skiing. This would also give us the opportunity to re-think the house buying in a few months without (hopefully) significantly reducing our savings. So we headed to the border again, but a bit of a roundabout way as we wanted to visit a few more places in Hungary first.

We went to Székesfehervár, to see the Bory castle, which was the home of Jenő Bory and his family. He bought the land in 1912 and built the castle over time by himself with a little help from others. No plans were made on paper, he developed it on location and was the architect, the project supervisor, the foreman and also the mason. It has seven towers, thirty rooms in different sizes including three studios, and there are statues, paintings, antiquities and works of art all over the castle. I visited the castle once before in my teens and really wanted to show it to Hamish.

We then headed to Hajmáskér to take a look at one of the largest barracks of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy's military which is now nothing but an abandoned (but very impressive) ruin, then continued to the ghost town of Szentkirályszabadja, that used to be a Sovjet miliatry base once upon a time. In the late eighties, whent the Sovjets left Hungary, the rumors were, that they took everything with them, inluding the electical wires, sockets, light fittings...

We found a place for the night in Veszprém, my old University town.

The following day we made our way to Bokodi lake, where there is a fishing village built on stilts in the water. Some of the houses are used all year around since the lake just about never freezes over as it also serves as a cooling pond for the nearby power plant. We were actually invited by one of the owners to take a closer look at his house that can be rented out (should you be interested, check out the link: Fishing house for rent).

Ok, so it is not quite Venice, but we liked it all the same!

Our next stop was Pannonhalma. We arrived a bit late in the afternoon, but we were still able to visit the cathedral and the most impressive library we have seen to date.

We stayed at Győr for the night, and went for a walk in town the following morning. A bit rainy and grey day, and a sudden shower, that made as take refuge in a cake shop (what a pity….not really).

We headed to the Eszterházy palace next, but decided not to go in (entrance fees are a bit steep, and we have already seen a number of similar palaces) so we walked the grounds instead. It was a bit disappointing really as the formal garden did not look its best, missing symmetry and precision.

We rounded off the tour of Hungary with Sopron, where we visited another “home built” castle. This one is called the Taródi castle, and was built by Istvan Taródy pretty much single-handedly from 1959 onwards. He lived here until his death, about 10 years ago by which time the castle had fallen into disrepair. According to his children who inherited the castle and opened it to visitors, he would not accept any help or involvement from anybody and it was only after his death that some restoration work could be started. The castle has all kinds of nooks and crannies and is filled with old furniture, forgotten paintings, old family photos, and other random items. A totally worthwhile visit!

The following day, after a walkabout in town, we set off to Sankt Johann in Tirol, Austria.