Siófok – The town that everyone forgot

If you missed our last post about our final days of exploring in Budapest, you can catch up here.

day 5

We got up early, gathered the rest of our possessions and headed off excitedly for Budapest-Deli Railway Station. It was time for us to make our first overland journey and head to Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe.
We were to journey by train to the town of Siófok and then jump on a bus to our next guesthouse, just a few kilometres east along the shore.
We were very excited to experience Hungarian train travel, as proven by my decision to take this picture.

As it turns out, trains in Hungary are very similar to those in the UK. The only real difference is that the platforms are somewhat lower, requiring you to climb up a sort of stepladder to gain access to the carriage itself.
Once we had clambered ungracefully aboard, we took our seats and were soon on our way.

The journey was not much over an hour and before we knew it, we were pulling into Siófok and making the awkward journey down onto the platform and out for our first glimpse of the town itself.
We were not exactly enamoured by what we saw.

What met us was a decrepit old bus station filled with buses that looked as though they were well past their prime and very little else. We looked at each other and briefly debated taking a taxi before recalling our aim of using public transport wherever possible and walking over to the waiting room to await our soviet era carriage.
We had anticipated some sort of information being available within the waiting room however the only thing apart from empty benches and ourselves was a mad, old woman who talked to herself during the entirety of our brief stay in the building.

Having searched around the outside area, we saw a tiny window with the word “információ” written above it. Hopeful, we approached and showed them the name of the bus stop that we wished to go to. Confused faces greeted our request but after a short discussion among those in the office and much scratching of heads we were given a time and a stop number.
The bus was already at the platform as we approached and we only had a few minutes until it was due to depart.

We watched the clock intently as the time of departure came and went. We stood at the door of the bus, peering through the window at the driver who appeared to be having his lunch and eventually, as he had shown no inclination to actually drive his bus, we knocked on the window and he opened the door. He actually seemed to be surprised that anyone would want to get on.

After some difficult conversation in broken german and quite a bit of pointing at maps, he told us to sit down and we were on our way to our hostel. Or so we thought.
We’d been on the bus for about 5 minutes when he abruptly pulled over to the side of the road and announced that this was the end of the line and we were wait for the next bus in 40 minutes. Slightly bemused, we exited the bus and looked around us. We were in the middle of nowhere before, now we were on the outskirts of nowhere and our confidence in the public transport was dwindling.

We sat for the required period, neither of us expecting to ever see a bus again, let alone the one we were waiting for. A few cars drove past as we sat and each driver stared at us open mouthed, shocked that anyone would be here, waiting for a bus.

Suddenly, we sprang to our feet as, in the distance, the shape of a bus appeared. As it got closer we couldn’t believe our eyes as quickly became apparent that this wasn’t just any bus. This was exactly the same bus that had dropped us of 40minutes earlier. Not just that, it was the same fucking driver as well.

Stunned, we got back on our bus and off we went again. This time we were on for a bit longer before, yet again, the bus pulled to the side of the road and the driver signalled that he would go no further. This time it was for good though and so we set off to drag our bags for the final mile to where we were staying.
Tired, sweaty and somewhat confused, we finally made it.

We were met by the hosts as we approached and, not for the first time today, were met with bemused faces. They had, as it would turn out, absolutely no idea that we were going to be arriving today and their panic stricken eyes informed us that the room was definitely not ready.
We were given beers to placate us while other members of the household rushed around in a frenzy, dragging vacuums and cleaning materials before, about 30 minutes later, we were able to ascend the stairs and get into our room.

We were staying in a house which had been converted so that the upstairs was split into several different bedrooms and although it was horrendously dirty and the beds were as hard as concrete, we were just glad to have arrived anywhere that we could rest for a moment.

Now, to find out what this tiny town on the edge of Lake Balaton had to offer.