Hungary

We know even less about Hungary than we did about Romania. Chimney Cake and the Rubics Cube that’s about it lol.

Monday 2nd July

Initially we were going to cross the border near Arad but there were queues of lorries parked in the road and it was impossible for us pass, so we headed further up the motorway and crossed over at Gyulakeszi. Passing through the border was no problem at all although we did think the police officer was in fancy dress. A female officer, trousers far to big for her, long hair with a Joe 90 hat on her head, gun slung around her hips and she saluted us, Okay!

We have to change the clocks and lose an hour, so now we’re only 1 hour ahead of the UK.

Next we needed to get the vignette, yep you got it, the guy behind the counter wanted the full registration “full registration” he kept saying “yes that’s it’s” “na, na, na” so he sends someone outside to look at the registration plate at the front and rear “na, na, na” shaking his head, “sorry but yes, yes, yes”. Vignette purchased we set off.

The southern part of Hungry is flat, flat flat. Not a lump, bump or hump in sight on the landscape. Miles and miles of agriculture land, sunflowers, corn and wheat.

The roads are heavily congested with huge lorries doing frightening speeds weaving between tractors, farm equipment and the cyclist. At times the going was really slow on the narrower roads with the farmers causing huge tailbacks. There’s more traffic on the roads than we’ve seen for a long time. Because it’s so flat everyone is cycling.

Once we left the motorway the roads were absolutely dreadful patchwork quilt comes to mind and again poor Eugene was trying his best to keep in one piece.

We arrived at the campsite, Camping Tisza-Parti in Tiszakécske which is huge compared to the sites we’re used to. It’s attached to a hotel and wellness center with 8 pools, two of which are thermal mineral pools and entry is included in the camp fees.

We spent a couple of hours lazing about in the pools which are separated from the normal swimming pools full of screaming and shouting kids that appeared to be having to much fun. One of the pools has a temperature of 38 degrees the other 36 degrees and they smelt of TeeTree oil with a sun canopy over the pool to keep the sun off we were lovely and relaxed if not a little more wrinkled by the time we got out.

Next morning to ensure we got our moneys worth before we leave we’re up and in the pool by 8am with just a handful of early risers. An hour later we’re really relaxed and ready to set off.

Tuesday 3rd July

We need to get some WiFi the Vodafone simcard we purchased in Romania isn’t working even though it’s supposed to be roaming. We stop in the town of Torokalint and got a simcard with Telenor which will take up to 2 days to activate. It’s really annoying but that’s the way it is unfortunately.

Most Hungarians speak German as a second language and we’ve already found that very few people here speak English, but they have a go to help us anyway.

Next it’s a long drive to the town of Eger but we find it really difficult to find somewhere that’s suitable for us to park without our back end in the road and end up at the top of the town by Eger Castle. Eger Castle is rich in history especially for the Hungarian but for outside visitors like us this castle is anything but impressive and we were really disappointed that we had paid an entry fee to go in. The castle has not been restored sympathetically with vast amounts of concrete filling in the gaps. To the castle’s credit, the ramparts do offer a sweeping view of the Eger city down below and this was its only redeeming feature.

After a very long day of driving on terrible roads we found our campsite for the night Tulipan Camping.

Wednesday 4th July

We’re heading to Bukki National Park today and miss the information center at the bottom of the mountain road by the time we can turn round we’ve traveled at least 5 miles up the hill. As we pull into the carpark to turn around there’s a bus load of people in the hedgerow and in the fields taking photos. I soon realise they’re photographing the butterflies, there’s loads of them orange, brown, purple and black, they’re stunning we’ve never seen so many so I join in and snap away.

We drive miles further up the hill but still couldn’t find any roads that lead into the National Park. Eventually we find a picnic spot just off the road so stop for lunch. No sooner had we parked when the bus load of people we’d seen earlier arrived. They came over for a chat, english people on a weeks ‘butterfly’ holiday, never knew you could go on such a holiday, each to their own! We spend half an hour chatting about butterflies and identifying the different types. They were really interest to hear that Keith had seen a large black butterfly and were desperately trying to get him to recall what it looked like and showing him pictures from their books.

Next we found the town of Lillifaud where there is a Ski Chair Lift. We got the lift to the top of the mountain and took a lovely hours walk through the National Park. We were going to wild camp in the carpark but there was a sign clearly saying if your stay overnight is unauthorised you will be towed away and fined, and we don’t want that so went in search of a campsite.

Snooper was screaming at us to turn around she didn’t want us going through a road with tunnels, even though we could fit.  Following her route added another hour to the journey, so we squeezed our way through.

We spent the next hour and half on quite possibly the worse paved mountain road we have ever driven on. At one point we stopped just to get our breath back from all the bumping around, braking, cupboard doors opening and the noise Eugene was making was horrendous it sounded like the springs on an old bed during a good night.

We were rewarded with the most amazing camperstop which is quite literally in the front garden of the hosts house. As we drove up the long driveway to Bekolce a Western Ponzio Kamping we were greeted by 4 huge barking dogs tearing down the drive towards us, not really the welcome we were expecting, but as it turns out they belong to the host and despite their fierce faces they were really friendly.

We had the place to ourselves, out side cooking area and table so we cooked our dinner and checked in with Glenn. We need some more photo storage so he remotely took over the laptop and gave us a telling off for not updating the things we should of lol.

Thursday 5 July

We had a very quiet night and set off towards Vac. We were interested to see the mummified corpses which were discovered in a crypt underneath a church. 161 bodies laid in beautifully decorated coffins were discovered. It’s a fascinating museum and 3 of the mummified bodies are laid out to rest in clear coffins so that they can be viewed. Because they were in the basement at a constant temperature they are so well preserved it’s hard to believe they are a couple of hundred years old and the coffins are beautifully decorated these people died around 1750. We didn’t take any photos here because we didn’t want to pay the tourists tax.

Our internet still isn’t working so we popped into the Telnor store, 15 minutes later without speaking each other’s language we were connect hurray.

By the time we left the telephone shop it was pouring with rain so we hurried back to the van and set off to find somewhere to sleep for the night.

We found a great spot in Duna Ipoly National Park in Visegrad. We only managed a quick walk before it started raining again so we headed back to the van to sit inside and have our dinner. It was boiling hot 30 degrees inside and the rain was so heavy we couldn’t open the window, suffice to say it was a long uncomfortable night.

Friday 6 Saturday 7 July

We’re up early and take a 15 minute walk up the hill to the bobsleigh park. It was already busy by the time we’d got there, it’s full of kids! We only had one turn each because the kids kept getting in the way and slowing us down lol, but it was good fun.

We arrived in Budapest around lunchtime and found the campsite really easily. It’s right on the edge of the city being only 4km away from the center. It’s a little compact but it’s great for what we need.

We get the pushangs out and battle our way into the center, trying to avoid the pedestrians, cyclists, cars, trams and the train which all appear to be using the cycle lane for one one purpose or another except cycling.

The city is really busy and very noisy. We’re not really sure what there is to see or do and soon find ourselves thinking we should just turn round and go back to the campsite. We find a bar and have a drink and it’s not until I’ve paid and we’ve left that I work out the money that I realise that we were overcharged by nearly £10!! Working with a currency that has too many zeros is so confusing we’re really struggling trying to work out the costs quickly in our minds.

We cycled along the river and found the Shoes by the Danube – a memorial in honour of those shot into the river by Nazis, a very thought provoking memorial.

We head to the For Sale Bar for a bite to eat before heading back. We get there just in time to grab the last table. Despite the confusing name, the bar attracts visitors from all over the world with its shaggy interior and Hungarian food. Covering every inch of just about every surface are small pieces of paper stapled and pinned by years worth of customers making their mark. Drawings, notes, business cards, paintings, and pictures are just a few of the mementos that are attached to the walls, pillars and ceilings making the space look like it would go up in smoke in a flash. To add to the fire risk the floors are covered in straw. Much to Keith’s delight huge baskets of un-shelled peanuts are placed on each table, Keith wanted to tip our basket into our rucksack, and you are encouraged to chuck the shells straight onto the floor. We ordered food and the portions are ridiculously large. I had 5 cheeses fried in breadcrumbs with rice and salad. I must have had a kilo of cheese and enough rice to feed the starving in India. To be honest it’s a ridiculous waste of food.

We got back to the campsite just as the rain started for the night.

It absolutely poured down most of the night and it was very hot and muggy even with the air conditioning on.

We’re terrible at getting up in the morning so I set the alarm for 7.30am so we could make sure we were up, showered and ready to meet the walking tour in the city center for 10.30am. The weather doesn’t look that promising, overcast and very muggy, so we pack our waterproof jackets just in case.

Our guide was Barbie a Hungarian National. Our group was about 20 all mixed nationalities but the tour was conducted in English and was to last about 2.5 hours.

The city has two sides, Buda and Pest. We started on the Pest side or as it should be said Pesht….. this side offers the fabulous St Stephens Basilica, the parliament buildings and so many squares and fantastic buildings.

We walked over the Chain Bridge to the Buda side. We took a slow walk up to the top of the hill, we didn’t want to wait in the very long queue to take the Funicular although this would have been fun.

Buda Castle is at the top of the hill and itʼs a stunning view from here over the river Danube and over to the Houses of Parliament. The walk finished at the Fishermans Bastion with its beautiful church with mosaic roof. But the place is absolutely bursting with people and the usual tourist touts trying to get you to spend more money than you need to on food, ice cream and entry tickets.

We have to say the walk truly restored our interest in Budapest, phew thank goodness for that.

Budapest may sell itself on history and thermal baths, but the ‘ruin bars’ are by far the most unique thing about this city and we didn’t know they existed until we went on the walking tour.

These bars are built in the old Jewish quarter in the ruins of abandoned buildings, from the outside you won’t have a clue there was a bar there.

Each of the ruin bars has its own personality, but they all follow the same basic principles, find an old abandoned building, set up a bar, fill it with flea market furniture, add in some weird antiques and a funky bar has evolved.

For lunch we wanted to go to the Karavan – a street food court yard filled with every type of food you could wish for. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it by the time our bellies told us it was way past lunch time and with the 4pm football deadline looming we lunched at a funky burger bar then realised the Karavan was just around the corner. We went to something similar in Fremantle and loved it.

With the football being aired in the many pubs around the city we eventually found a ruin pub in a building full of funky bars that wasn’t bulging at the seems with the typical ‘Engerland’ supporters!! As the match got underway it appeared we had picked the only pub in the city supporting Sweden lol.

After the match we headed off to collect our bikes, where the hell did we leave them 10 hours earlier. After 40 minutes walking around we eventually found them just where we had left them and they were still in one piece.

We had a really good day and Budapest is not such a bad city to spend a few days.

Are we loving Hungary, we’re still not to sure.  Its very modern, roads are busy and for us there doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary to see or to photograph.  The weather again is up and down, muggy, hot, raining, thunder.

a la perchoine

Shirena & Keith