Visit to Velence (Which is Most Definitely Not Venice)

Landlocked countries seem to be forever in search of a sea. Since today's geopolitical framework, to the chagrin of some, does not allow for much territorial rethinking, they have to make do with what's already there. Enter the lakes. Since Romania has been blessed with a coldish, darkish, algae infested body of salt water- a sea nevertheless, the summer fauna around lakes has always seemed quirky to me. 

As I have waxed lyrical around the same subject when visiting Tihany last year, I will refrain from going into the metaphysical depths of the subject. Suffice to say- the poetry of lakes still eludes me. Seas and rivers have stories- lakes have mud. Lake Velence in particular has always intrigued me, as in Hungarian the word is used for Venice as well. 

The only thing to connect La Serenissima and this pond is, God it's hard to come up with something, I assume the pond should smell fetid as well come August. They also have Italian coffee in Velence, of which I will only say it was successful in waking me up but will not elaborate further. 

Nevertheless, there is a desolate beauty surrounding the place- or I have simply read too much Orhan Pamuk and see hüzün everywhere I go. Besides the polished surface the past shows in cracks- upon paying closer attention  I realized it reminds me of Communist spa towns, ones I experienced while travelling with my Grandma and ones I saw in movies-mostly Czech for some reason, the shared tragedy of another landlocked state. 

In keeping with the blast from the past theme, while consuming another coffee later in the day, well, for a second there I thought I'd found the infamous nechezol of days gone by. (Google it at your own risk.) The same sleepy büfé also offered the delight of hot dogs made with Orsi virsli- to Orsi I am forever grateful for enabling my subsistence during those tough college years while also allowing for a percentage of my budget to be spent on beer.

Because I somehow feel Orsi sausages might not be the right note to end this post, I will just say in a pretty British manner that Velence was interesting. I would not insist on going back though- I can buy Orsi sausages in Budapest as well. Yeah, okay, I wanted to end the post with the sausages after all.