Hungarian Happenings

After a 2 week hiatus I’m back on the blogosphere – Hungary was great, with the exception of a few minor problems (my camera breaking on day two and some credit card problems which almost left me with 3 euros for the last two days). But a quick trip to a camera shop got me a new camera for 60 euros (which was actually a good deal for the camera I got) plus a few calls to my bank and I was (more or less) on my way again.

Budapest was a beautiful city and I particularly enjoyed the thermal baths (I visited the Széchenyi and Rudas baths – Rudas is from the Turkish occupation of the city in the 1500’s, with an original cupola with hexagonal openings and coloured glass to let natural light filter in) and the Budapest International Wine Festival, which takes place in the Castle grounds. At night the castle is all lit up around the festival and there is a fantastic view of the Danube and the city below, as you listen to live music and sip your glass of Villány, Egri Bikavér or Tokaji Aszú.

Eger was also a great place, with some impressive baroque buildings and a whole lot of charm. From there I took the bus to visit some of the most extensive caves in Europe, in a village called Aggtelek on the Slovak border. While in the village I was able to see some a ‘typical’ Hungarian village, with people in the streets and tending fields.

Pécs was different in that it is more of an art town, with art galleries and museums (and the famous Zsolnay porcelain factory). While it certainly attracts more tourists than Eger, I found that there was less to do there – perhaps because I’m more interested in science and history than art. The UNESCO World Heritage site was well worth a visit though, consisting of several Roman burial chambers with frescoes and sarcophagi. It was also in Pécs that a man came up to me and, when he found out that I spoke English, wished me a Merry Christmas before asking me for money.

My last stop was Sopron, on the Austrian border, where nobody – NOBODY – spoke English. Although my Hungarian is bad, my German is (believe it or not) even worse, so some wild gesticulations were relatively commonplace. Sopron is an old medieval town; the center is very compact, with a small central square, a few surrounding old buildings, some Roman remains and a few museums. The main unexpected surprise was when I emerged onto the main square from a museum one afternoon to find a group of people dancing in traditional Hungarian clothing. Again, nobody spoke English so I didn’t establish who they were or why they were there (there was some sort of official photographer going round, so it was staged, but not for tourists since I was the only one watching for quite a while plus it was free), but I believe they were school kids.

On top of the great places, travelling solo somehow gives you more opportunities to meet other travellers (as well as giving you the freedom of being able to do what you want when you want) – either groups or fellow solo travellers, such as the 3 Kiwi bankers working in London whom I met in Eger and shared one several too many glasses of local wine with.

I also kept bumping into the same people again and again – the two Brits I saw at the airport and in the shuttle into Budapest who I saw again in Eger and again in Aggtelek, the Canadian journalist who was on the same tour as me in Budapest and who was then in the same hostel as me in Pécs, two (more) British guys who were on the same bus as me to Sopron who I met walking along a street in Budapest and finally the girl from North Carolina who I ended up sharing a dorm room with in Pécs and then, by complete coincidence, a dorm room in Budapest at the end of my trip.

All in all Hungary was a wonderful experience – I’ll post some more information about what I did and saw later, in greater detail, but I’ll wait until I have my photographic aids (I still live in the film age, so have to get my 308 pictures developed, which will only be done in about 2 weeks).