july '18: zalakaros sceneries.

a flower pot tree.

zalakaros has been our main hub for many, many years and the reason behind that always was the convenience of the city. it is a spa town after all and many tourists flock here to experience the hot waters of zalakaros, the good and plentiful delicious food, the excellent wines from the local winegrowers and the hospitality of the hungarian people. we always went there because my parents and their so-called clique met up as well, guaranteeing them late night parties with booze buddies and lots of laughter and joy, and company on the lazy days spent inside the spa. we kids always made friends, because zalakaros was visited by lots of german guests, too and we didn't feel alienated! that was also a reason of revisits, i guess, but i look at that more differentiated now. because you know, it sometimes felt like germany, only 11 hours away in a more humid environment. fortunately my parents didn't always like to spend their time with these friends and actually decided to make day trips to other places so that we could experience the country without the excessive amounts of german tourists flocking to one place. this way we were able to learn more about hungary as a country and experience it more genuinely.

well, that is not to say, that zalakaros never had anything to offer for us. zalakaros is beautifully embedded into vineyards and nature, the kis-balaton is not far away as well. the hot waters of the spa were relaxing for the adults ( albeit not for the kids, we weren't allowed in it, because the water's composition was not suitable for us ), but we kids always spent our time at the colder pools and the wave-making pool, or the water slides. and outside of the spa we enjoyed many wonderful meals at the plethora of restaurants throughout the city or made lots of strolls through the neighborhoods. and the weather was often really friendly ( even though sometimes VERY humid and hot, which i personally didn't like so much - i am a kid of colder climates 😅 ), which added to a certain summer feeling i sometimes call the summer blues, which i still, despite my disliking of heat, think of in a very nostalgic way.

when we visited zalakaros last year, the magic of those early years and after our almost 10 year absence, was a bit gone. because even though some things didn't change, there were changes that could not be overseen. many restaurants we had frequented years prior were closed down and there weren't as many german tourists around anymore. it felt less busy as i remembered it in my memories, a little tired and sleepy. as if the air was a little thinner and less pure ( which in reality of course, wasn't true, i am just metaphorically speaking ;) ). let me be clear, the restaurants we visited, our landlady, and most of the people we encountered in the city were still friendly and hospitable, but the focus was different. it was as if they were a little more reserved. i hope i did not project anything too serious into this observation, like my dislike for the hungarian politics for example ( i am sorry, but i feel that this was a big part of why everything felt a lot more distanced ). because you know, a political style that carries out mainly on nationalist and right-wing ideologies can create reservations over a long time, which is sad, but very true. and of course, we as a more liberal 'western' society, when we observe that the ideologies and actions of such a conservative political style clashes with ours and we notice that it creates a friction to our beliefs, we tend to row back and avoid the problematic country, maybe not always on justified footings, right, but we do it anyway. like we don't want to support a government that isn't doing right in our eyes... which i know, it is a shame, because there's always the possibility you are doing the actual humans living inside that country a huge disservice. there are always people left there, that still believe in european unity and freedom, brother/sisterhood and equality and what if your absence means an off-break to that and it creates some sort of disappointment and therefore creates more friction? and also, in that region of hungary, many people rely on the tourists, they are their breadwinning. when that falls away, isn't that a disservice to them, too? but maybe those missing westerners are replaced with other tourists from other regions of the world, and it isn't so bad after all?

such thoughts need to be looked at from time to time, and need to be checked and dissected a bit. i observed the closed down and ruinous buildings, the slight weariness inside the hungarian people's eyes and it made me sad, but i also saw that there still was a lot of hospitality left and that the country has so much more to offer, with all its history and nature... which then again made me hopeful and softened my slightly critical stance.

well, now let me show you some more tidbits of zalakaros, the smallest official city of hungary. most of them i captured in the evening, because we actually love to make extented walks at that time, especially when it is still warm outside and there's this sorta twilight feeling that feels so very cozy.

this was once the entry to the very popular restaurant farkas wolf. i think it still is a boarding house, but the restaurant is closed and i also think i saw a for sale sign somewhere.

the terrace of the restaurant was filled with lots of plants, though, and that made me happy! someone still cared about that place.

a little forlorn house 

and another one. this one was another house i deemed very liveable, especially because it was so tiny. i love tiny houses! and i always like it when a house is overgrown with ivy or vines, like this one was.

what i love about the architecture in zalakaros is that a lot of houses were built in the 60ies to 80ies and it shows. this one gives off a very 70ies feeling, with the cool geometric facade and the patterned fence. but in its layout it is probably an older structure. it felt a lot more traditional than modern.

the facade really fascinated me, as it was so three-dimensional!

oh gosh, i loved this house! cabin feeling galore! and all the geometric elements! ( i have a thing for that ) i would've loved to take more pictures of it, but ya know, i don't want to be a creep. it wasn't uninhabited.

this house reminded me of the moomin house ❤ you know, those squishy characters finnish writer  tove jansson created for our reading and watching pleasure. i love the moomins!

a view down the city into the direction of lake balaton. if you look veeeeery closely you can see badacsony hill in the back where there's some misty sky.

passed by that fence again ;) a single heavenly trumpet flower was shining brightly at us. loved how the dusk light created a kind of glowing capture.

there's a park near the cinema i mentioned a few posts prior that's called europapark and well, there is a corner where they put up a few flagpoles to show respect to hungary, zalakaros and... europe. well. duh.i don't know what you think about it, but i think it's very telling 😅

zalakaros is deemed hungary's most flowered city, though i don't know if that is really true. there are lots of flowers, though. everywhere. they grow on futile grounds, for sure.

some more architecture goodness.

there are a few very polished houses and estates in the city and it feels so rare that i decided to capture them 😅

oh, those fences and gates 😍

this house was not far away from the place we used to stay in the early days of our hungary vacations and it was always occupied. it isn't anymore, it was totally empty. i always liked it, because the terrace was so cool.

colour-blocked. this style is sort of really typical in zalakaros - with the stone facades and the 60ies/70ies vibe.

this was the aforementioned place we used to stay for quite a few times. i remember it being super light-filled and the interiors were soooooo retro ( there was a bright red leather couch!!! ) i wish i had some pictures of it somewhere, there might be, but i think they are at my parent's. the house wasn't pink, though, i know that still, it was white. and the wooden details were brown, that i remember clearly. i have very fond memories of our time here, especially of our landlady. she died a decade ago of cancer, unfortunately, but when she was alive she was the most hospitable, most warm and caring person. she often sat with us when we had our friend gatherings and drank a few glasses of her self-made sweet wine with us ( she also pickled cucumbers and peppers and they were always super delish! ) i remember her driving a little moped, and when i was a kid i thought of that fact as super cool! she also often wore soft cotton summer dresses with all kinds of patterns. we stayed at her places at least 6 to 8 times i think. she had about 4 or so that she rented out - probably some were places of friends as well. and she was always busy as a bee and i think super well connected to the village. oh, man, i really missed her this time. that hospitality she exuded, that was the hungarian spirit you so often hear about. and i think as a person, she was such a rare specimen.

this sculpture shows istván and gizella, two important personalities in hungary. stephen I. was a king, you know and gisela his wife. istván, as he is called in the magyar language, was the first king of hungary and a very influential figure at that. he established the christian belief in hungary and lead his country through a prosperous and peaceful era for 3 decades. his wife gizella was a bavarian princess before she became stephen's wife and queen. she, too was important for the country of hungary, also for spreading christianity. both of them were canonized and beatified after their deaths and still are a crucial part of hungarian culture. hungary is a deeply religious country and especially in the less populated areas of hungary it is very apparent. you can find wayside crosses everywhere and also tiny chapels and they are always meticulously kept.

the sculpture was created in 2000 by jános béres.

zalakaros is of full cats, too and as a true cat lover i can never stop myself from taking photos of them in various circumstances. these were enjoying cuddly time on a chair.

the architecture of the 60ies and 70ies was heavily influenced by rationalism and functionalism, especially since the most prominent way to build houses was with prefabricated building material ( due to a lack of building material in the communist blocs ). many houses still had their very own personality, though, which was achieved due to special adjustments and additions, such as special balcony balustrades or coloured facades.

and all the while kittens were hiding somewhere on the property.

i don't know, but something about the mixture of all kinds of geometrical elements is turning me on.

this buildings was never finished, even when we first visited zalakaros it was empty. it feels super creepy, i don't know why, though. i always wanted to explore it a bit more, but it's fenced in and it sits in a neighborhood that's lively, so i basically refrained from trying to find an entry spot.

i guess the intention to build such a huge house was probably to open up a new hotel. probably was too expensive in the end, though.

it's boarded up quite well, and i don't think, even if i had tried to explore more, that you could enter it in any way.

i really liked those blind windows, though.

one of the aforementioned wayside crosses. this one's from the 1920ies.

not all buildings in zalakaros are from the postwar and socialist period. this one is one of the very charming old houses built in the style of folk architecture. there are basically two different styles of these houses in zalakaros, the simple farm house with 1 or 2 rooms, a kitchen and a corridor with adjacent arcades at the side of the house, or wine press houses, that always have a wine cellar below the living quarters. they always have heavy baroque or classic influences, which shows in the pillars and the ornaments.

the crass opposite of folk architecture - hotel buildings near the spa. it's the hunguest hotel freya.

this apple gate is part of another hotel complex - the karos spa. it's a nod to the alma utca - apple street - in close vicinity.

of course you will find me admiring all kinds of blossoms and plants ;) it's a double-flowered hibiscus.

and always lovely to find: bellflowers.

view down the zala hills towards somogy county. 

there's a house hidden behind that wonderful white gate!

seemed abandoned, too, or at least for sale. tiny houses like this make me go 😍

these are so plentiful in zalakaros and they were making such an impression on us that my father planted one of these in our garden back in thuringia. it's a silk tree, a mimosa tree that sleeps at night ( as its leaves close themselves whenever it gets dark or it is exceptionally dry ). i always call it feather tree, because the leaves and the blossoms remind me of feathers. they originally grow in asia, are deemed as invasive and partly poisonous ( its seeds ). but damn... even if they don't belong to europe, i still don't mind them being here.

another view into somogy county, respectively into the direction of the neighbor village, zalakomár. you can see the church tower of the szentháromság templom on the left ( trinity church ). zalakomár actually is made up of three villages merged into one, therefore the village seems pretty elongated. we only ever drove through the village as it didn't offer anything interesting to us ( except the buffalo reserve - which we didn't visit this time ). locals also always told us that zalakomár should be avoided as it wasn't very safe for tourists due to the local gypsy clans living here. i can remember one incident many years ago, where we stopped to give some tshirts out to them and were immediately surrounded by kids who didn't want the shirts, but actually money. it was a very strange experience, it was almost like an attack. since that incident happened, we never stopped at romani settlements again. i don't want to vilify the romani people, not at all, and i understand that they are also outsiders in the hungarian's eyes, too and therefore are under some serious repressions that create their poverty and face racism and discrimination everyday. but that sudden accumulation of kids that wore dirty and ripped clothes and were pleading for money, almost getting inside the car, that was a little traumatic to us and hard to swallow. i don't know what their situation is like these days, but i know that in zalakaros you only saw them on festivities and even on those occasions the police was always keeping a very close eye on them. other than that i heard that they were only let into zalakaros if they had good reputations. i still think that romani people are massively discriminated today in hungary and also constantly shamed and attacked. their integration fails massively in my eyes, especially when what they are calling integration, means secluding them in villages that are a off the grid and segregating them in public community. i always had the feeling that they were kept unschooled and uneducated so the hungarian people could basically hire them for jobs that were low pay and also to 'prove' that romani people were crooks. it's a sad thing, really. as tourists you rarely encounter romani people, unless you venture out and really try to explore the country outside of your safe tourist haven. which might then lead you to an inconvenient encounter that leaves you speechless and baffled and maybe even a little scared. i don't know what you can do as tourists when you face such a divide... i mean, you are only guests after all. you can only try to intervene, should you be a witness of discrimination first hand, but other than that i think it will be very rare that something like this happens in front of your eyes as tourist places are basically kept 'clean'.

let's move on from such a heavy topic and look at some more hidden and abandoned vineyard homes.

the evening light in zalakaros is burned into my memories as one of the 'must be mentioned at all costs' things. evenings are so tranquil here and full of crickets singing songs and lovely sunlight highlighting all kinds of corners. the only thing that's not very pleasant, especially in those blue evening hours before the sun goes down, are the midges. there are a lot of midges in that part of hungary. must have something to do with the marsh & swamp landscapes all around. they basically always turned up at around 8 to 10 pm and they were really pestering you, unless you took precautions.

loved this home and its little light-flooded veranda.

a hidden free-standing stone oven. that's something you discover very often around here.

caught a cat again! she was really shy and fled very quickly.

now you get to see some of those aforementioned wine press houses again, with the incorporated wine cellars. there were some golden specimens hidden in those zalakaros vineyards, and all of them were enticing! i can't ever stop imagining myself living in such cute homes. never. i want to live in them! they are small, they are cute, they are idyllic. such dreamy buildings.

this is what i call an aesthetic: historic decay.

oh lord, that house was really the most striking of them all, even though they all have this certain charm that always gets me.

back in zalakaros you can also stumble upon panel flats. very interesting looking panel flats. now that i think of it, zalakaros to me is a very colourful town, sporting all kinds of colours ( that also always remind me of the fruit growing around here, such as peaches, grapes - white and blue - and melons ).


those dead trees eaten up by parasite plants - another aesthetic i love. i shot these in the vineyards around zalakaros.

blue hour sky.

the main building of the zalakaros thermal spa. i think it was renovated in 2013, but to be honest, i don't really know. fact is, i could not remember it looking so luxurious. i think our last time in zalakaros before our break was in 2010 or 2011.

it definitely looked nice, though. inside those halls you get to experience all kinds of water treatments and take a sauna or massages. we rarely went there, as we always were guests of the open air pool facilities outside. my family and i are definitely no spa types. we love to linger around on green meadows and jump into the sport pool or wave pool, or lounge inside the hot water pools. that's spa enough, lol.

and speaking of spa, there is one more entry coming your way, with snapshots of the outdoor pool area. also, a few pictures from a short stint to keszthely. that will conclude our hungary explorations! so stay tuned ( or whatever ) :)