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Published: August 13th 2006
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So a broken down bus, hitching a taxi on the motorway, an altercation at the check-in with a croatian 'pusher inner' and a sprint across the tarmac onto a moving plane (well almost), saw our departure from Croatia to Hungary.
Without stopping in Budapest we headed straight up north to the north western region of Hungary near to Aggtelik National Park. This was achieved by first a commuter train and then a single gauge train (train lovers will know the type, think very old school clattery number) up to Tornazentandras- the tiny village we were staying in. The trip up had been eventful as we were ‘discovered’ by an enormous family (or was it two) of Roma (gypsy) children on the train. Having figured out that we did not speak Hungarian they preceded to think of the rudest and most inflammatory things to say to us (we suspect) as we could not understand, this was followed-up by gales of hysterical laughter. However, the phrase book came in handy and we managed to get names at least, I think they were Sebastiono, a Maria, and various other versions of Catholic saints’names.
We had booked a week in Tornazentandras of cycling.
the trusty tandem
Four days of staring at Paul's back convinced Jess that tandeming was not for her! The cottage we stayed in was run by an English guy Simon who had upped stakes and moved the middle of no-where in Hungary. On the first day Simon produced of all things a tandem for us. This was greeted with great glee (and a little trepidation) as we decided we would give it a go. This did mean I would be on the back however, this I was not too sure about. We set off for our first ‘try-out’ ride and found that communication would be the key! On our first ride around the village we saw a number enormous storks’ nest (with storks and stork babies) above all the telephone poles. The telephone poles had thoughtfully been designed with a platform on top for the storks. That day we also tried some of the fare cooked in the local cafeteria (turned out to be a kind of stew with tripe) not too bad, though would not necessarily repeat the tripe eating experience!
The next day we headed out for a serious ride, a 70km loop around the area. Well 3 punctures later we were less than impressed with the bike, but riding through tiny (and very poor)
villages occupied by mainly Roma families, that had dirt roads, and no machinery (except if you call a donkey pulling a plough machinery) was quite an experience. We provided a great point of interest for the locals most of who had never seen rich looking (comparatively) travellers on bikes, or indeed a tandem! The rest of the trip was spent on various biking jaunts around the countryside, watching the old couple next door round up their chickens three times a day (to what end we never really worked out), listening to rousing Hungarian music on the village loudspeaker system ( a hang over from communist days when all news was controlled by the local government and hence announced on loudspeakers, apparently now such interesting items as “the peach shipment due today is delayed and will not be in” are communicated through it to the locals) and sitting out the HUGE thunder and lightening storms that sat above the house for 5-6 hours at a time.
On our final day we rode into the Aggtelek National Park and spent on hour in an underground cave system there. The system was huge and pretty amazing (if you go in for caves
Our Village
note the ducks in the foreground- these could be vicious little beasts! and stalactites etc) we even got a light and music show in the underground auditorium where concerts are held (weird).
We left Tornazentandras sadly puffing away back down the valley on the little train, and headed back to the big smoke of Budapest for our final few days.
We had a full schedule but we are not ashamed to say that certain sights which were deemed as somewhat similar to other things we had seen in other eastern European cities got dropped off the list (never did see the Buda castle from the inside and was pretty sure it looked like most of the other Hasberg era castles we had seen in the area). The highlight of Budapest for me was the art nouveau architecture. It was by far and away the best we had seen on the whole trip, and in the last 10 years or so a lot of money has been spent on restoring various buildings. On every street there was a building that was a fabulous example of the period and of all the cities we went to I enjoyed it most for this reason. We attempted to go to the famous Budapest baths
I think I can I know I can
the little train that puffed us up and down the valley a few times, but usually got the timing wrong for mixed male and female bathing. I was less than keen to abandon Paul to all male spa experience (probably about as keen as he was to experience it!) so we settled for a swim in the art nouveau indoor pool at the Gerberd Hotel.
A lot of cakes were sought, as Budapest does have a reputation as cake central, but we were a little disappointed and thought overall that the Czechs and Austrians did cake a bit better, thought the food in general was excellent and duck was eaten on many an occasion.
Of the really great things we did was a day trip out to Statue Park. This is where many of the communist era statues have found a new home and was a pretty interesting insight into that period, especially after the communist museum in Prague. The museum of applied arts was also well worth a visit, even though their permanent exhibition was not on. The building itself was an amazing tribute to Art Nouveau and I finally got to see some Lalique jewellery (though we noted with some irritation that the over zealous museum attendant
was back in full force after a break from it in Vienna!).
So six weeks later and our trip was over. All and all a fabulous time, we were already talking about the next one before we landed at Gatwick to a smiling and joking (I kid you not) passport control officer. We were pleased to be heading back to London and to be getting on with things there, it was great to see friendly faces in Kathy and Nigel and being at their place felt like being home…..
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