The national pastime is to escape to a STRAND, which even a small town can afford to have. As opposed to medicinal baths (GYÓGYFÜRDŐ) ’strand’ is a recreational establishment with cold water swimming pools and typical ’strand food’ like lángos and all those Hungarian fast food.

Thanks to the flexibility of the language the word can be easily converted into a verb ’STRANDOL’ which means much more than just BATHE.

'Strandolás’ is a full day activity including bathing, sunbathing, eating, drinking, reading and socialising.

The best ‘strandok’ are of course at Lake Balaton (in diminutive slang BALCSI) where you have the choice between fee-paying strandok and szabadstrand (free but no added services).

In the past few years, however, Budapest (and nearby) got enriched by several other pleasant spots to escape from the heat - see related article below.

Source: Fungarian
Republished with permission