My bum is sore!
Let me explain...
I didn't have big hopes for Kezsthely as i felt very rough getting of the bus, i don't suffer from car sickness or even bus sickness but the driver was particularly bad. My hotel (there are no hostels) was closed when i arrived, so was the second, and the third gave it away by the 2 cobwebs i had to walk through to get to the front door. It was then i had a proper look around - this was a ghost town...
a ghost town on the banks of a beautifully calm huge freshwater lake. i did find a hotel, but it cost me 35 euros which is now a fortune for me, but this did include a 25m pool, gym and a buffet breakfast. obviously it was the thought of cake for breakfast that sold it to me :)
I had a chilled night where i spent most of it in the bath (a bath yipee!) and I got up early to hire a bike for the day. The hotel had predicted bright sunshine and there's a cycle path all around the lake. I'm given a ladies bike, but what the hell I've played at being an old lady for an hour so i can manage a girly bike. The bike also has a back brake that you use by pedaling backwards - no problem i think. what i didn't realise was how often i actually pedal backwards not wanting to slow down. When i go around corner, navigate obstacles etc etc. i straighten the pedals or put one side down, and i always do it by moving the pedals backwards. You can imagine, I'm happily cycling along, i come to turn a corner and i suddenly lurch as I'm braking and nearly fall of the thing.
So i soon nickname this bike death trap... it takes me a little while to get used to it.
Its fully autumn though and i am pedalling as fast as i can down a little cycle track that is winding its way through little villages. The leaves are all bright yellow and orange and look fantastic. I am loving it! It soon gets windy , but that's OK as it means i can pedal through storms of these amazingly coloured leaves. Then it starts raining. Then my bike stops changing gear, only to remember to do so 10 seconds after i have asked it to!?
I'm only about 15km from the hotel, but there is nothing open. This place is deserted. The bike then starts changing gear randomly - this is really annoying. You are pedalling really hard and all of a sudden the bike goes into 1st gear so that your legs become a blur as they are going round and round so fast and then you come to a bend and you forget not to pedal backwards so you lurch and slow down too. this was seriously not funny and it was actually painful when it caught you unawares so you fall over the handle bars. i re-named the bike Christine. This bike was trying to kill me!
My fantastic ride through the countryside - It was raining, leaves were smacking me in the head - gloriously coloured leaves true, but they kept smacking into me and blowing into my face, and I kept slowing down and changing gear when i didn't want to.
I ended up fixing the bike by dismantling the gear mechanism - i knew my DIY skills would come in useful sometime. This was great stuff, i had a great day and explored loads of the area.
I wonder what this place would be like with people in it...and how long it will be before i can sit down without grimacing.
