Palinka

I can’t leave Hungary without mentioning one last thing: Palinka.

Shortly after arriving in Budapest, we were introduced to the Hungarian fire water. I wrote in an earlier post about “Nalewka” in Poland; mostly home made alcoholic concoction, very liqueur like, mostly based on some sort of a fruit.

Palinka seems to be a Hungarian variation of Nalewka, except it closer resembles vodka in that it’s not as thick as Nalewka, it seems to be stronger with alcohol levels starting around 45%, and it definitely knocked us on our butts faster than any Nalewka I ever had.

As explained to us by a local villager, Palinka was always served before a meal, or before plowing the field or any other work on the farm. The latter has changed a little since most people don’t work on farms anymore, yet Palinka keeps on flowing.

Before our meal we were given a “short one”, that’s Hungarian speak for a shot, but this was no ordinary shot glass. Basically it felt like taking a shot from an Ikea candle holder, it was huge and I’m pretty sure had about 2.5 regular shots within. Filled with 50% alcohol Palinka, it put sweat on our foreheads even before we sat down to eat the incredibly tasty Hungarian goulash.

We were also told of a theory why Poles and Hungarians get along so well. In a nut shell, Polish and Hungarian languages are completely different, with no similarities what so ever, not even remotely close. So even if a Pole and a Hungarian would have a dispute, they can’t communicate. Since the only other thing they have in common is drinking, and after a few shots people have a way of getting along just fine, there’s always been peace between Poland and Hungary. That’s actually historically correct, the peace between two countries bit, not the Palinka theory.

There is a tradition of never rejecting a “short one” of Palinka if you’re being offered one. Rejecting it would assume that you’re too good to drink with who ever is offering. Unless you’re driving of course. Hungary has a zero tolerance law when it comes to alcohol blood level and driving, and Hungarians seem to be very respectful of each other when someone says they’re driving. The same law applies in Poland, zero tolerance towards alcohol blood level, but somehow the weekly police reports of pulled over DUI’s leans towards Poles not following the same code of honor as Hungarians.

I brought a few bottles home. It’s been a couple of weeks now since my last “tasting” session with my uncle, but I’m sure I will soon forget about the headache it gave me the following day and will sit down to a “short one” in the near future.

Unicum was by far the worst thing I have ever drank. While still a Palinka, it basically tastes like medicine, maybe worse. But Unicum tends to have a very healing effect especially for stomach aches. So a small shot of Unicum after a meal is advised. Don’t let the Swiss cross fool you, this thing is still Hungarian.

Lake Balaton, Hungary

With surface area of 367 square miles, Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe. Because Hungary is landlocked, it’s been often referred to us the Hungarian Sea by the locals. But to the three of us visiting the lake… we’d just say that it was “ehh”.

Maybe it’s the fact that I lived 30 minutes away from the beach in L.A., or that I’ve seen beautiful lakes in the high Sierras in California, or that even Poland has a lot of small but quite nice lakes all around. But for some reason neither of us was really impressed by the Balaton Lake. We felt weird about that because everyone we had spoken to prior to the trip really encouraged us to stop by the Balaton. Maybe we did something wrong?

The lake is about 150km south east of Budapest. We didn’t know which shore of the lake we should stay at, so we decided to drive along the south shore, and then took a fairy across to the north. The two have completely different microclimates and even the beaches are supposedly different as well. On the south shore, the water is very shallow, we’re talking knee deep for about a half a mile in, and then only getting slightly deeper after that. On the north, it gets to about 8 feet deep fairly quickly but then again we wouldn’t know because we never even got in the water.

We stayed at a random camp site, one of many lined all around the lake. To rent a camp site was only about $4 dollars cheaper than it was to rent an entire 4 person tent, with mattresses, fridge, electricity, all while not moving a finger to set up. We decided that was the best option for us.

That evening we saw Germany lose to Spain in the World Cup semi finals in the local bar, where German tourists yelled excessively at the small TV every time a German player would mess up. Karolina and I tried to take some night photos with a tripod on the dock, but that turned out to be a mistake. While the camera was setup perfectly still, and the tripod itself wasn’t moving, we were both jumping around while swathing the thousands of mosquitos that attacked us the second we stepped onto the dock. I have never seen that many mosquitos all at once, literally a black cloud all around us. Inadvertently, through our jumping around, the whole dock started to move thus making any still photography impossible. Here’s the only photo that we managed to take that evening.

We were supposed to spend 2 nights at the Balaton, but after just one we decided to keep on driving. There was nothing at the Balaton to keep us there any longer, and unlike the people with camper trailers that clearly have been there for weeks already, we still had a lot of places to see ahead of us.

Danube Bend, Hungary

Our second day in Hungary was spent sightseeing the beautiful Hungarian countryside. One of the stops along the Dunabe Bend was the Esztergom Basilica. Interestingly enough, at 100 meters (328 feet) it just happens to be the tallest building in Hungary. It is also the 18th biggest church in the world. All this according to Wikipedia, just as a side note.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esztergom_Basilica

The Basilica is beautiful inside and out. We hiked all the way to the top of the dome and the view, while terrifying to me, was quite beautiful. I wasn’t afraid of the height as much as the infrastructure that was holding us up there. Wooden floors squeaked and bent heavily when stepped on, and the railing barely held itself together, much less provide any support in case of an emergency. We took a quick walk around the dome and hurried back inside. Jeff was quick to point out that in no way in hell would this ever pass as being tourist friendly in the U.S. The walk back down can get you really dizzy with winding stairs all the way down. Jeff counted all of the steps, but at 300+ we later found out he was off by 3 steps.

From there we went across the Danube river to see the Visegrad castle. To us Poles, the Visegrad castle played a big role in 1335 when King Charles of Hungary hosted a two-month congress that ended with a peace deal between Poland, Hungary, and the Bohemian King (Check Republic). There is a room inside that depicts what the treaty feast could have looked like. The castle itself is very defensively situated, with a great view of the entire valley all around.

We ended our day with dinner at a renaissance restaurant. The entire decor was kept very rustic, with clothes you could put on for some great photos, and beer served in clay mugs. The food was great, the trip was a lot of fun, and the pictures speak for themselves. Big thanks to Krzysztof, our friend and tour guide, who spent that day showing us the beauty of Hungary.

Budapest, Hungary

From Prague, we drove to Budapest. A city unified in 1873 from two (technically three) separate towns on either side of the river; Buda and Pest. The third is the variation between Buda and Old Buda. But for all intents and purposes, two cities on either river bank came together to form the modern day Budapest. It’s a huge city with history almost as complicated as its language. For the first time all three of us were in the same boat of not knowing what was spoken to us. In Poland we spoke Polish; Jeff no speak. In Prague the Check language is close enough to Polish for us to communicate; Jeff still no speak. Hungarian however, is a completely different language family; none of us speak.

We spent a day walking through the city; 12 hours of continuous walking in 90 degree heat and extreme humidity was quite a task. A thunderstorm at the end of the day cooled things off considerably, but then mosquitoes made life even more miserable. Food in Hungary was great. One rule we imposed on ourselves is that we always eat the local cuisine. It’s worked out great even though there are times when a McDonald’s is easier to find then a local restaurant with traditional food.

Below are only a few photos from our stay in Budapest. Please follow the link to see my Picasaweb album: Budapest

Nalewka

Nalewka (Polish term) or nalivka (Russian term) is a traditional Polish and East Slavic category of alcoholic tincture. The alcoholic beverage is usually 40 to 45% alcohol by volume and is made by maceration of various ingredients in alcohol, usually vodka or spirit. Among the ingredients often used are fruits, herbs, spice, sugar or molasses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalewka

This is what I had to drink tonight. We had a little European tour. It started off in Hungary, went through Italy and ended up in Germany. From herb Unicom, to peach, to amaretto type nut Nalewka, we had a lot of fun tonight. All this was with my uncle who just loves to collect alcoholic beverages from every place that he goes to, and let me tell you he travels A LOT!

*Pictures taken with my phone.