We checked into the campground at
Budapest, only to discover that a mechanic was directly over the road from us.
After some broken English conversations, they agreed to replace the spark
plugs, distributor cap and cables. That evening we caught the train into town
and went out for a tasty dinner of Goulash, Hungarian sausages and pancakes
before heading to a Ruins bar for a few drinks. The Ruins bars are basically
old communist houses that have many interior walls ripped down, but beyond that
are still largely intact with all the retro wall paper and various rooms in the
homes. Insight was a three storied Ruins bar, quirky in decoration (it had
flying rabbits across the rooms above head) and huge- it took us ages walking
around all 70 odd different rooms. It was a good night, but a quiet one albeit
a Monday night.
We took the next day as an opportunity
to walk around Budapest and see the sights before David headed to the airport.
We walked up Buda Hill to Buda Castle, and looked at the amazing view of the
city from Fisherman’s Bastion and even walked through some underground caves,
carved out over the years from the geothermal activity. It took us 20 minutes
through the labyrinth of caves to find our way out, not really my idea of fun
in a dimly lit room. We also found the local food market and walked around
looking at all the meat, salami, paprika and fruit and vegetable stores. I made
a purchase of some sweet paprika and a paprika cream in a tube, ever hopeful at
recreating the tasty Hungarian dishes we have been eating on our return to
London. We ate lunch here too, David having a meat skewer and James and I a
Hungarian pancake filled with mince and served with a paprika and sour cream
sauce. We arrived back to the campsite to find the van fixed. Not long after
the taxi arrived and we farewelled David after a week on the road with us.
James and I took the afternoon to plan our adventures for the next two days.
We had booked onto a Bike tor of
Budapest so arrived to meet our group ( an American family of four) and our
tour guide at 11am. Though it threatened rain it did not eventuate and it was
really hot as we rode along, especially climbing up Buda Hill. James favourite
place was Hero’s Square where we learnt about the history of Hungary. Interesting
to note that Hungary is the only European country to boarder with itself, as
the lands surrounding it all used to be a part of Hungary. Hence why the
Hungarian government thought it was a good idea to support the Nazi’s in World
War Two in a bid to win back this land. It didn’t work with Hungary loosing a
little more land to Yugoslavia post war.
On our last day in Budapest we spent
the morning at the Terror House on 60 Andrassy Street. It was the building of
the Nazi and then the Soviet Headquarters and was used to torture and kill
people suspected of not supporting them.
It housed prison and holding cells, some so small you would not be able
to stand upright in even. A really hard hitting place to visit and echoed the
themes of the previous countries we had visited.
Despite the 38 degree heat, we decided
that we ought to visit a Hungarian spa, as the area has the second largest
geothermal activity area in the world (second to Iceland). We weren’t brave
enough to use the sauna but did soak in the hot baths as well as the outdoor
pool, which had a wave pool James enjoyed. The building was so pretty; the
walkways were marbled and the doorways were arched and heavily decorated in
rich colours and gold tones. It was worth a visit but we both felt it was a bit
overpriced! And the wait on spa treatments was three hours long so
unfortunately no mud baths or massages for us either. But is was a relaxing way
to end our stay in Budapest.
With Dusty running better than he ever
had before, we drove to Lake Balaton, aka the Ibiza of Hungary. The campground
was by the lake and filled with holiday goers. They even had a wakelake pulley
system for wakeboards (much slower but longer than the one in Bratislava. We
immediately went for a swim and found it was so shallow we had to walk out 700m
to get waist deep! We spent the afternoon and evening strolling the lake front,
sampling “ice cream of the future”-basically tiny balls of ice cream! And
having a few beverages. We also spotted a Kiwi van doing van tour, all spray
painted with kiwis and called “the Gooch” off Outrageous Fortune. Unfortunately
we did not run into these guys to say hi.
Having to detour back around Budapest
we headed west to Szeged, a boarder town with Romania where we camped for the
night. We were surprised when the satnav suddenly told us on route to “cross
the river” to get to our campground. Turns out there were ferry crossings for
the 70m wide stretch of river….but not on Sundays. Not impressed with the
satnav we backtracked and found another way to the campground. Given it was Sunday there was not a
great deal open in town so we spent the night planning ahead and preparing for
our boarder crossing tomorrow.
