On the shores of the Hungarian Sea...

...as Lake Balaton is affectionately called around here. When you have no proper sea, anything goes, really. I feel their landlocked pain all right, coming from one of the few other European countries without a seaside (even Bosnia has its three and a half meters of coast, damn it!) but do check which two countries dominate water polo (I repeat, water polo) for years now.

Enough digressions, let's get down to the lake and see what we find there.

A sunset on the shore, and a tumultuous sky set against a big, calm water. Make no mistake, Balaton is huge--it is almost 80km long.

It's a great place for fishing

lounging

or having a walk in a pretty little town. Ours was Tihany, town on a hill from which you get the best views of the lake.

You can take the path that follows the shore, along the walls of a fortification from times long gone

and admire these thatched roofs resembling elaborate winter hats.

You will inevitably run into pottery--on wooden fences, window sills or on the ground, dozens of brightly colored cups, pots and plates dot the landscape. I loved the colors and couldn't resist taking (way too) many pictures so, beware, gratuitous pottery shots follow

with some flowers thrown in for good measure, shot a la Polly, who likes to look at the world in a skewed way (literally, not metaphorically, although I can't vouchsafe for that, having missed a chance to get to know her live at Blog Camp 1.0)

Of course, you knew that all this walking must lead to something or somewhere, and that's straight to a bowl of hearty goulash, on the terrace of a csarda overlooking the lake,

where you find an unexpected treat--a sea of wild lavender.