Hungary – first impressions

On the road Hungarians drive much more like Austrians than our Czechoslovak friends 🙂 They’re a very hospitable and friendly bunch – but the language!

I mean we’re not unaccustomed to foreign tongues, but here you cannot get a single word in a conversation. It does not make sense. And it really freaks us out a bit, as we’re used to being able to communicate and express ourselves – even if it’s just in a simple way with poor vocabulary.

The pictures below cover the luckily uneventful journey to Polgárdi, which is where we’re staying right now. We stayed in the scenic town of Pannonhalma which has a 1000 year old monastery on top of a mountain and is apparently famous for producing white wine. Nastya was checking the weather forecast for the upcoming days and there was a lot of rain being predicted which doesn’t exactly help when you’re one a cycle trip. After a stormy night we got up at 6 as usual and the rain stopped so we decided to get going as far as possible. Snacking along the village bakeries – here they still bake and do not just heat up frozen products – so delicious. After about 45km the sky got dark and we were looking out for a spot to camp at. Cycling down a dead end road with many cottages (but no people) that turned into a tractor path and then a field with an abandoned (we thought) shed on it, we decided to build camp. 30 min later a granny turns into the property and greats us in Hungarian 🙂 We explain with hands and in all languages we speak that we’re trying to build camp as the weather’s been shite and she responds in a Hungarian monologue that I thought about recording, as I couldn’t tell anything. Smiles prevailed and after opening the shed she called me over to have a look at the little Jesus shrine she had. After me snapping a picture I left her to her prayers and 30 min later she started singing a few songs as well. After a quick nap the sky had cleared up and we enjoyed the afternoon reading in the tent. When it’s been about time to go to bed we heard interesting sounds from the neighbouring forest though. I was hoping it would be a bird “screaming” (Nastya described it as sth giving birth), but soon enough we were pretty sure that this is a boar (wild pig). We went to the granny’s cabin to see if we could climb on top in case the pig comes our way, but I was sure its crroked walls wouldn’t hold me and the though of her coming the next time and finding her little shrine destroyed didn’t particularly please me either. There was a big barrel though, which should do the trick in case needed. We heard the pig further away and shots fired right after a few times. After applying the good old peeing around the tent trick we were left alone for the night though 🙂

****-camp office

villages with castles everywhere

beer break on a hot atternoon

just from a tree

bridge in Györ

Györ

Györ

Györ

Györ

lots of power

crossing the highway – the noisiest part of the day

Ikarus overtaking 🙂

approach on Pannonhalma

UNESCO heritage monastery of Pannonhalma

tasting wine that Pannonhalma known for

kazakh money in the wine place

bread is great

camp ground “Panorama” with Belgians and Dutch. And we got a discount as Nastya is the first person from Kazakhstan visiting 🙂

tvaroh/ Quark/ túró

climbing up to the monastery

view from the monastery

even the pope came

monks produce lavender oil

where does this say sweet?

trying the local wine from Pannonhalma – bit sweet as we didnt understand the label

A new day and Nastya’s ritual anytime anywhere

Lunch break

Just pitched the tent and did not expect any visitors to the shed

our host for the “wild” camping night

cooking in the field

the view from our camp

the sounds we heard that night were quite freaky