To Hungary and Budapest

I woke up this morning rested and starving. No breakfast available in the Pension so I headed off towards the next big town in the hope of finding something. In the back of mind, I was scanning the roadside to see if I could have gone on last night and stayed somewhere better but in truth I had made the best choice as I would have missed the the lovely terrain I passed for the first 50km. A long winding road which rolled over some very pretty countryside.

Tourism has not really hit this part of the world yet but some people are making an effort to make their place stand out. This old airplane was sitting in front of a cafe being used as a sort of sunshade. How he got it there, I don't know as there was no airstrip anywhere to be seen. I headed on and had the idea to find a McDonalds as they have free wifi so I went into the centre of Timishoara which has a well preserved fine old town centre and the usual concrete monstrosities on the outskirts. I plead guilty to breakfasting on the crap fare on offer as I was uploading yesterdays blog effort.

Across another sea of sunflowers, I crossed into Hungary. The terrain here is very flat and to be honest, not much fun to ride through…but hey, you have to take the rough with the smooth. About 120km from Budapest, the first few rain drops started which then became a proper drenching. Rain gear on, I followed the line of cars and trucks avoiding the motorway tolls all the way to the city centre by which time, it had cleared up again.

First impressions of Budapest were that it is a beautiful old city and well worth the trip here and the second was it is very difficult to park. Eventually, I got myself to a student accommodation block which becomes a 'hotel' during the summer which had underground parking. For 5000 florin, I got a whole 2 person little apartment to myself. The only drawback was the stench coming out of the fridge, whichever student had just vacated had not done a good job there.

I wandered the city for a couple of hours just gawping at it. There is a lovely old feel to the place and how it has survived for so long without being 'improved' is puzzling. Maybe it didn't supper so much in WW2 and being behind the Iron Curtain, preserved it in some way? The sunset was just magnificent. That often seems to be the way after a rain from passes and leaves clear skies behind it.

I wandered the city trying to get cash from every ATM in town but for some reason, they wouldn't play ball. with the equivalent of 10 euro in my pocket, I began to despair that I was going to have to repeat last night's dining performance. I decided to treat myself to a meal courtesy of Mastercard which meant paying tourist prices but it was definitely worth it. Filet steak with Foie Gras and a fine red wind to help it down……mmmmm.

The Hungarians seem to be a bit preoccupied with sex if the number of sex shops, peep shows and hookers on the streets are any measure. On my way home, I was propositioned 3 times.







I added this only because it looks pretty...rain on a pane of glass ...thought it might make a good screen background. The Route
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