Gabor and Dora

After Budapest, we boarded a very rickety train to head off into the Hungarian countryside. The train lurched along, making several prolonged and unannounced stops, but finally we landed in Balatonfured, a small town along Lake Balaton. There, we were scheduled to stay at what the owner, Gabor, claimed was a ˝castle-mansion house.˝ Except that when we arrived, no one was there but the house cat. Finally, Gabor's wife came to rescue us and welcomed us into the beautifully restored little ˝castle-mansion house.˝

We spent a lovely few days in Balatonfured, where once again I tried to buy excessive amounts of cheap knick knacks and Natty tried to distract me with ice cream. On our second night, Gabor, all smiles and an hour behind schedule, brought us to his friend's wine cellar. We weren't expecting much, but what we got was a little slice of paradise. Dora is a charming young wine maker who has taken over the family business. Their cellar overlooks the lake, the vineyards and the hills, and we got a sunset and a moonrise out of it too. The wines were crisp and paired to the delicious food and cost a whopping two dollars a glass. We spent four hours there, wondering how we could be quite so lucky, until Dora packed our tipsy selves into her van and drove us home.