We went on holiday in Europe. We enjoyed beautiful scenery, pretty cities, walks in the countryside, excellent wine, unusual (but amazing) pastries, fantastic food, a pleasant capital city to walk around in, atrocious weather, but what stood out for us was the excellent freshly made lemonades we tried at every café and restaurant.

Where did we go you wonder? We went to Hungary. A small country with only 9.5 million people living in it, surrounded by 7 neighbours and previously behind the Iron Curtain.

We did the usual things whilst in Hungary. We visited the bend in the Danube, wondered around the castle in Visegrad in the rain, we tried local wines and cheeses at the circle of the beautiful women, swam in Europe’s largest thermal lake when it was blowing a gale, tried the local schnapps whilst ‘chatting’ with some friendly locals who didn’t speak English, and went bird hunting (with a camera of course) in Orseg NP as well as Hortobagyi Nemzeti National Park.

view of the Bend in the Danube from the Visegrad Castle, visibility was rather poor

swimming in thermal lake Heviz. It’s hard to see, but it is really cold outside and very windy

bird watching in Orseg NP in the rain, we struggled to find anybody who could help us with information

a rather damp ring-necked pheasant without a white ring around his neck in Orseg NP

a stunning sunset with some snacks after a bit of bird watching

a stunning sunset in Hortobagyi Nemzeti Park – a bird watching paradise

we find a beautiful spot and decide to sleep in the rental car for the night

We were also incredibly lucky we have amazing friends just living around the corner (in Slovenia). They hopped in the car and, for European standards, drove the long drive from Skofje Loka to Lake Balaton to spend a few nights with us. It had been 10 years since we had seen Petra (when we visited them in Slovenia with the white Lara on the big trip), and 5 since our last catch up with Lojze at the airport in Frankfurt for a quick breakfast.

Up until then it had been raining a lot, but when Lojze and Petra arrived it was dry. We went for a walk, checked out the local lavender farm and then took a google shortcut (google sent us up a little 4wd farm track with our 2wd) to one of the local wineries. We wanted to do a wine tasting and we were not disappointed. Johnny entertained us whilst pouring generous tastings of a variety of their wines. Jude tried their white wines (they are famous for their whites) and even liked the sparkling white they had. But the Shira was our favourite.

hiking near Lake Balaton with Lojze and Petra – we haven’t seen them in a loooong time

Petra and Jude – Tihany in the background

Jude and Lojze trying some wine at Petrenyi – Jude even likes one of the sparkling whites

The weather kept improving. In Budpaest we wandered the streets and admired the historical buildings and the lively atmosphere, we soaked in stunning thermal baths, visited a few of the ‘ruin’ bars, spent an hour in an underground bunker / museum / WW2 hospital, and walked around Margaret Island (the place to be for active locals, with a purpose-built running track and a safe road for cyclists). We also watched many people enjoy an alcoholic beverage whilst wandering the streets. We saw this in other places too. As long as you behave they don’t seem to mind if you carry your glass of wine (with bottle in the other hand) down the street and enjoy sipping whilst admiring the architecture.

in Budapest, the Danube in the background, we are on Castle Hill

Jon in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building

Jon in Budapest 🙂

some of the thermal baths look stunning on the inside, this is inside the Gellert Thermal Baths

All the food and wine we had in Hungary had been really yummy. We loved the garlic soup served in a small loaf of bread, we loved the fact they served a variety of hot chocolates everywhere (including dark chocolate). And with the wintery weather we sure were having our fair share of hot chocolates! We tried the local dishes like goulash and paprikash, but also some random dinners in small local restaurants. We had amazing fish dishes and they even turned shakshuka into a dinner dish (it reminded us of our first time eating this in Lake Nakuru NP in Kenya, prepared by Hafiz – still the tastiest ever).

delicious, garlic soup served in a bun

the 2 cheeses we bought on the first night after arriving, the top one was a smoked cheese and our favourite of the trip

But what really surprised us was that all restaurants and cafes served a variety of lemonades. Beautiful fresh, homemade goodness in a glass. In every café you can always buy the ‘basic’ one (made with lemons of course). But they are also tarted up and posh-ified, and in most places there are at least least 3 or more other flavours available.

There were the standard variations like lemon and ginger, but we also saw more interesting ones like ginger-turmeric, or rose-hibiscus. But there was also grapefruit-apple, vanilla-cucumber, raspberry-lavender, mango-lemon, lemongrass-vanilla (with tonic), passionfruit-macademia, strawberry-basil, orange-peanut, and peony-pomegranate to give you an idea. It has definitely inspired us to be more creative for summer drinks. We’ll leave you with the basic lemonade recipe, and three others (we loved them), enjoy!

one of many varieties of lemonade on offer

PS Remember, if you must add a straw, make sure it is an environmentally friendly one.

Basic lemonade

• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 cup water (to make the syrup)
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (4-6 lemons)
• 2 to 3 cups of water to dilute

1. Make the cordial (put the sugar and water together and heat up, stir until sugar is dissolved)
2. Pour the cordial and the fresh lemon juice into a big jug
3. Add 2 or 3 cups of water (to taste) and mix (If it is too sweet, add some more lemon juice to it)
4. Refrigerate for 40 minutes
5. Serve with ice and sliced lemons

Or try the overnight option of making the syrup

1. Peel all the required lemons
2. Place in a bowl with the sugar and leave overnight
3. Boil water and add the peels with the sugar into the water, stir and let it sit for a few minutes
4. Strain and discard the lemon peels
5. This adds some of the natural oils from the lemon skin to your lemonade

the standard lemonade, this was our first experience with the Hungarian lemonades