Enjoying Hungary's nature side

Last week Balazs and I spent some time visiting some beautiful places in nature near Budapest. Balazs is my oldest friend from Kindergarten times in Budapest; we also used to be neighbours and partners in crime; Sneaking away from afternoon sleeping times for more exciting adventures. Somehow we managed to stay in touch meeting again every couple years and now that we are both living in the UK, we succeeded to meet more regularly, mostly to enjoy the outdoors, like for cross country skiing in Donovaly (Slovakia), kayaking at Lake Velence or mountain biking at nearby huge forest.

The lake Velence is a smaller lake, closer to Budapest than the Balaton. We took a day to go kayaking with an inflatable boat, going silently through labyrinths of the surounding reed, which is home to many birds, frogs, and all kinds of other species, including a little water snake which crossed our way that day. One can easily get lost going through the difference channels in the reed. Every once on while inbetween there is a larger space opening up with was perfect for swimming.


Some days later we went mountain biking in a wonderful big fairy tale like forest, with thousands of of different butterflies flying with as we were cycling. I read somewhere that butterflies are an indicator for a healthy ecosystem and that they disappear quickly when there is an inbalance. This wouldnt surprise me, ee didn't see any other human beings the entire day.