An idea for the weekend: southern Hungary

Long weekends… we all like them, right? In May, in June… soon we’ll probably include August as well! 🙂 I don’t have to say the obvious thing: that during long weekends it’s best to go on a trip. We all know it, right? 🙂

We always take advantage of long weekends and most of the time we go somewhere, because if we decide to stay in Warsaw, there’s always 1000 things to do and catch up. Also: family duties, work duties, etc. So we run away a little bit… For the long May weekend we went to Georgia – the calendar was our ally this year and we managed to spend a whole week there. I won’t say that it was enough as we know that we have to get back there for another week or even weeks! For the long June weekend (which wasn’t that long) we took a nice and quiet trip to Mazury with our friends, where Maks fell in love with a 5 month old Tosia :)… For the long August weekend we travelled alone! Alone meaning with friends but without Maks. It was the first time we travelled anywhere without Maks for a 4 whole days!

While we were away, Maks enjoyed numerous attractions provided by his grandparents: playgrounds, buses and trams, ZOO, walks, sushi and other specialties! I already wrote a bit what we did in Hungary, but we didn’t sit at the table all day (even though we did sit a lot 😉 !) neither in the wine cellars. We decided to check out what other attractions are there in southern Hungary apart from Villany.

We started with Siklos, just 13 km from Villany. A short trip through green hills and amazing vineyards and… we’re there! Small town of (around 10,000 inhabitants) Siklos is famous for its 12th century castle situated on a hill above the town.

The castle is worth visiting, even though it’s not as amazing as it looks from outside. Inside, you’ll find some furniture, dishes, clothes and armours from the old ages along with rooms containing newer works of art. The view from the walls is probably the best panorama of the surrounding areas. We still remember the torture chamber we visited in the castle. Torture machines were present along with the sketches showing how they were used. Scary!

Then, we went to Pecs. Close – less than 30 km! The city is much bigger than Siklos – with approx. 160,000 inhabitants it’s the fifth biggest city in Hungary. Undoubtedly, Pecs is one of the most beautiful cities around – with a gorgeous Old Town with a mosque on the main square (remains from the Turkish occupation in the years 1543 – 1686), little restaurants, cafés and ice-cream shops – after our tip to southern Hungary we can say that the Hungarians love ice-cream and some places sell really good stuff! Be sure to try the melon flavour!! 🙂

In Pecs, we went for a lazy walk around town. The Old Town is worth visiting as well as the Cathedral (a picture with four towers at the top of the entry) and the Bishop’s Palace next to it. There are various festivals and fairs held around there frequently, where you can buy Hungarian street food…

I wondered for a while if I should write about what we ate in Pecs. I still can’t say if the place we ate in is worth recommending or not… Etkezo, restaurant that is located on Kiraly utca, one of the liveliest streets, was recommended to us by two different persons: a foodspotter friend Szindbad  friend Szindbad and the “wine” guide from Zoltana Polgara vineyard that we stayed at in Villany.

We found Etkezo quite fast and started with a jar of lemonade, that are served here everywhere in various flavours and sizes. A great drink, especially for hot weather and for “the next day syndrome”. Etkezo has a short menu, which should be an advantage, but it looks quite chaotic. There’s pasta, gnocchi, a burger and a duck – a popular meal in Hungary. Prices are quite high.

I have to recommend the pancakes at Etkezo, served with mascarpone, poppy seed and apples. Unusual, tasty and intriguing.

How about the rest? Both versions of the duck (breast and leg) with potatoes mashed with onion where quite good, same goes for the cheeseburger (the bread was cold though). But the pasta?  A nice sounding papardelle with goat’s cheese and shrimps (tiger shrimps) was a complete disaster so look out! You could barely taste the goat’s cheese, there were just THREE shrimps (and the meal was PLN 40!) in it and I’m pretty sure that these weren’t the Tiger ones! Pasta was too soft, glued together and was all covered with a cream-like thing which did not taste like goat’s cheese at all… I got really mad! A bad lunch is something that can spoil my mood seriously. Fortunately the pancakes with poppy seed saved the day 🙂

There’s no picture of the pasta as I was too mad and didn’t even want to look at this disaster. So, Etkezo is ok when it comes to the duck with mashed potatoes with onion and poppy seed pancakes for the dessert.

Our trip to Pecs and Siklos took most of the day… and then we visited some vineyards around, enjoyed the views, tasted the wines and had a looong dinner back in Villany. We probably could have seen a bit more, but who wants to hurry during the long weekend? Especially if you finally manage to go somewhere without your kid 🙂 That’s why we sat at our dinner for 5 long hours, talking with our friends and drinking wine…

Our idea for a long, lazy weekend in Hungary:

1) leave Wednesday after work and drive (if you’re from Warsaw) for 1100 km (that’s the moment where you should hurry!) – especially if there’s a spare driver! At night check in Villany…

2) Thursday – sleep long after the trip, walk around Villany, taste the wine, visit the cellars, try some specialties in places such as Bock, Mandula or Halasi – I already wrote about Bock here, o pozostałych wkrótce!

3) Friday – try the fish soup in Baja, check Mohacs on your way. There’s not much going on there, but a walk by the river and some lemonade are surely worth recommending especially after Thursday! After getting back, eat something delicious in Villany – there’s lots to choose from…

4) Saturday – ambitious, Siklos, Pecs and a drive around the wineries…

5) Sunday – going home, visiting Eger on our way, eating chestnut purée there and taking a walk around The Valley of the Beautiful Lady. If you have more time, check the city with the castle as well. In the end visit a quiet city of Tokaj… and “speed” home – a spare driver is recommended, as you all know how the trip back home after the long weekend looks like. But at the same time we have the feeling that we used every minute of the trip! 🙂 Is it worth it? The smile and the view say it all! 🙂

PS. Somewhere in October, there’s a vintage aka. Red Wine Festival organised in Villany 🙂 Who wants to go? 🙂