Advertisement
Published: June 19th 2012
After spending a fair chunk of time wishing the weather would be more summery, my wishes have finally come true! It has been nearly 35 every day for the last four or so days, which although makes sightseeing a little more challenging and the local food a little heavy, does make it feel like a summer holiday.
After rendezvous-ing with my new group (who have a much different demographic, I am the second youngest!), there was one more day in Budapest. Given the weather, I carefully considered my options and decided on a trip to the edge of the city to some Roman ruins. This involved a simple change to a suburban train from a metro station. Well not so simple after all, as they were doing track work. So it was on to a packed bus with the masses who were sensibly going swimming, then changing back to another train, i arrived at the ruins already sweaty, only to realise that (logically of course) ruins involve a vast amount of things out in the blazing sun with no shade. After a valiant attempt to expand my archeological knowledge, I admitted defeat and headed back to the city for option
2, the fine arts museum.
This turned out to be an excellent airconditioned choice, with not only temporary exhibitions about mummies and the beginning of art photography, but also an anti-facism rally on the square outside. The multitudes of police indicated that things might get interesting, so I settled in on the steps of the museum with many other curious tourists and a cold drink to watch the drama unfold, which came in the form of some facists! Not that much drama eventuated, just some taunting and some fines for the facists, then everyone went home. Me via one of Bruce Willis' film sets, as he is filming Die Hard 389749374, with Budapest standing in for Moscow.
After a last dinner of Hungarian food, we stopped by a nearby square which had been transformed into an evening beer garden for that night's Euro games. It was an excellent way to enjoy the now warm weather on my final night in Budapest.
The next morning it was on the train for a 6 hour or so journey directly south to the Croatian town of Osijek, which is the capital of the Slavonian region. Well, when I say train
I mean sauna, at least while we waited at the border for processing when they turned the aircon off. After a cold shower, it was off for the tour of this small town, which is still pockmarked by the recent troubles. They are in no hurry to rid the town of these marks as they want to keep them to remind people of how terrible the war was.
After dinner in the historic centre we headed off the the historic town square to get in the spirit of Croatia's last pool match, determining their fate in the rest of the Euro cup. Our resourceful guide even managed to obtain some official regalia for us, so I was able to add a very annoying plastic clapper to my already coincidently red and white shirt. Joining the masses in the square, I soon lost interest in the game which ended with Spain scoring a goal in the last few minutes in typical soccer style. But the beer was cheap and tasty, and the atmosphere and people watching were a lot of fun.
This morning our lovely guesthouse arranged a bit of a day out in the area surrounding Osijek. First
up Djakovo, to visit the Lipizzaner Stud. The horses were very beautiful and HUGE compared to the Mongolian ponies I had last met. Then to see the town cathedral, then the wetlands and national park.
The trip ended at an 'eco farm', which was established by a local man wanting to get back to a more organic way of living. After a fantastic lunch, which started with Blueberry rakija (like schnapps) and ended with caraffes of Blueberry and white wine. Then we were able to slowly tour the farm in the heat, enjoying their puppies and pig escapees.
Tonight we are lucky enough to be going to our guide's parents house also in Osijek, to enjoy some Croatian wine and homemade rakija (hmmm). Tomorrow we head to Novi Sad, Serbia, then the day after Belgrade, where it will be plus 35 all the way!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0484s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Karin
non-member comment
Love the photo of the horse and the horse bus. Naughty puppy looks a bit mongy.