Hungary

Breakfast at the hostel was spent trying to balance eating with talking to Sophie in Amsterdam and verbally confirm a new flat over Skype that we wouldn’t be able to see and just had to take her word for… Which we did… And so, with a home to arrive to when we finally got there, we made our way to the castle. Skipping the tours and the exhibitions, we instead walked the grounds and took in the views. There wasn’t a great deal to see, but it was a lovely day. We had spied a very tall and pin-thin tower not too far away, and decided to climb to the top. Luckily I am only mildy claustrophobic, as it was so hard to get up, and we had to duck so our heads didn’t hit the steps above us as we spiralled up to the top. It seemed to go on forever, but we eventually arrived at the platform that wrapped the top, holding on to the iron rail for dear life. We shuffled around the platform, and then attempted to get back to the bottom, which proved more difficult than the journey up.

Eger’s highlight was said to be the wine region, and not too far a walk from the town centre lay ‘the valley of beautiful women’, which was where all the wine caves were, and is apparently regarded as an incredibly deceiving name for the area… We arrived to find a varied mixture of different caves, from branded boutiquey renovated caves to basic ‘holes in the ground’ with mould-lined ceilings and big barrels of booze in the back. The idea is that you buy wine by the 2L plastic jug to take away with you. We started in one of the nicer places and enjoyed a different red each inside - each delicious, and it was so lovely to sit in a cool cave during the intense heat of the day. It was then time to move on to some of the cheaper places for some more taste testing, and we were on a mission to find some more bull’s blood to take to Poland, and something else a bit different. We tried some very sweet reds, which were quite odd to us, and some very tasty ones that you could only buy by the bottle, but our testing paid off and we walked away with 2L of bull’s blood, 2L of a lovely cabernet sauvignon, and a small bottle of bull’s blood so that the boys could recreate the legend of the bull’s blood name now that their beards were coming in quite nicely. All very cheaply priced and delicious!

It was nearly time to leave Eger, and we headed back to our accommodation to collect our things before running to get some pizzas for a picnic in the park before boarding our train. Luckily no one was around to witness Josh and Andrew with their tops off, pouring red wine through their beards and playing up to the camera.

We made our way to the station prepared for a long journey ahead of us, as we were catching a night train to Krakow. We had a change to make to connect up to the Krakow train, and when we arrived at the station with 15 minutes to spare before our train arrived, Andrew went to check out which platform we were leaving from. While he was checking, a train pulled up for Krakow, and we checked with the conductor (who didn’t speak much English) what time it would leave to see if it was our train. We thought he told us it would leave in 15 minutes, but when the train took off as we were waiting for Andrew we hit panic mode. Josh found another conductor who said it wasn’t our one (whew!) and that ours was running 45 minutes late. Then he left. Now we were basically the only ones at the whole station, waiting on the platform in the darkness, hoping like hell that the train would arrive. It finally did, and we jumped onto the most rickety old carriage, not sure we would be able to sleep a wink before we arrived into Krakow around 6am.

Josh searched down the rest of the train, and found a slightly better carriage (with seat covers), but the only sleeper carts were getting released from the train halfway through our journey in Slovakia. Josh met a Slovakian family down the train while trying to charge his computer at a power point in the hallway, and made instant friends who bought him a beer when they found out he was from New Zealand, gave him a gift of Bulgarian alcohol they had bought on their family holiday, and warmed his heart a little! Especially as all he had to offer in return was a tacky New Zealand postcard, but they were just lovely.It was beginning to get late, and we contorted our bodies through the cabin, but none of us slept more than a few very broken hours, in the uncomfortable, noisy cabin which got colder and colder as the night went on. We arrived just before 6am to a chilly dawn at the station, all very drowsy, unsure how we could face the day ahead...

This was the day for the old side of the river – ‘Buda’. Our first stop was the mundane task of buying a card reader for our digital camera, as the initial cord we were carrying may have decided to relocate to Austria… So, after a horrible length of time stuck in a Hungarian mall, we had a quick bite to eat before walking to the castle - one of the biggest tourist attractions. As a result (even though we already somewhat expected it), the whole place has been redesigned for tourists and so much of the structure is no longer original; a beautiful building and structure, but hard to see it for its ancient wonder.

One side provided great views of Buda, where large houses clung for their lives onto the cliffs. We arrived at Magdalen Tower, which at first looked like a tower in the middle of a square, but as we walked closer we saw the remains of the walls of a church destroyed in WWII, except for the tower, and one window, which stood like the memory of a soldier in the corner. Josh and Andrew visited Matthais church, but I had to skip that one as I had opted for shortish shorts that day, and they had a strict ‘no knees’ dress code. I did get to see the photos though, of a beautifuly painted pattern interior very different to the sculptural interiors we’d seen.

Crowds of people were in the area for a folk art festival, and we skipped part of the buildings on the hill to avoid both the swarms of folk enthusiasts and the entrance fee, and instead walked the bridge over the river where the festival continued with masses of food and art stores lining the sides from beginning to end. We were also tempted by the funnel cake at the end of the bridge, but instead kept our appetites hungry for dinner.

Deciding to try out a recommended Italian restaurant became a huge success, as we had one of the tastiest and most flavoursome meals we’d had in a long while. My Tuscan tomato soup was absolutely scrumptious, and the house-made pastas and risottos were delicious. Our very friendly waiter saw me looking at the wine list and recommended a perfect accompaniment – a red from the Eger wine region in Hungary we were due to visit the next day. Very full and satisfied, we made our way back to Krisztina’s (sadly she hadn’t been able to join us for dinner), and shared some of our travel photos with her over a glass of wine before we headed to bed for our last night in Budapest.

The following morning we left the house early when Krisztina left for work to book tickets for our next part of the journey after Eger, which was our trip to Krakow in Poland. We had failed to remember it was the day after the Sziget festival had ended, and swarms of tired and hungover backpacking campers had filled the station. After waiting an hour or so to get seen by a ticket issuer, Josh and Andrew received some truly surly service by an attendant, and had we not checked earlier online tht you could book the route we wanted, we would have ended up backtracking for a few hours to catch a train to our destination. Apparently we were a huge hassle…

Finally, with tickets in hand, we locked up our luggage at the station and caught a bus to the Gellat thermal baths for a few hours of relaxing before our train trip to Eger. These baths were a lot less like a family pool than some of the others, and we had a refreshing dip in a colder pool before soaking in the indoor and outdoor thermal spas and trying out the sauna. After a few hours we had to leave and grab a quick bite for lunch on the way to the station.

Enough time to get our bags out of storage and jump on the train… so we thought, until we saw the queue all the way ou the luggage line doors and almost reaching the train tracks. After waiting in line and realising how slow the queue was moving, someone kindly let us in to quickly pick our bags up, and we ran to the platform, making the train with five minutes to spare.
After our two-hour train ride we walked for quarter of an hour from the station to our accommodation. The lovely hosts couldn’t speak much English, but showed us to our huge spacious room with our own bathroom. A bit exhuasted, we relaxed and napped for an hour before deciding it was time to find some dinner. The famous wine of Eger is Bikaver - also known as ‘Bull’s Blood’, as legend had it warriors of the opposing side thought the Hungarian’s were drinking bull’s blood for strength when they saw their red wine-soaked beards. It was definitely going to be a must-try whilst there. The Lonely Planet also said that the region was known for trout, which we decided we all felt like and went of in search of a meal.

After walking through the small town centre and down the main street which was home to most of the restaurants (five or so…), we couldn’t see an ounce of trout on the menus, which all seemed to have most of the same things, so we settled at one. We immediatley ordered a bottle of bull’s blood, which was very very tasty, and definitely outshone the meals. The Lonely Planet had also recommended a place that was a must for dessert lovers by Eger’s castle, so we made it there only to find t was a list of branded icecream sundaes, but since we had psyched ourselves up for some sweety goodness we endulged in one anyway. We also bypassed a bottle store to pick up another bottle of bull’s blood (yes, it’s that good), but a different year to try and distinguish a difference, and had a few drinks in our room before turning in for the night.

After a very slow start to the day (I seem to keep writing that…), we left Krisztina’s apartment for some lunch around the corner so that we could be at the Sziget music festival by mid-afternoon. Krisztina took us to a little food place on a corner in her neighbourhood with very traditional food (almost self-service without actually getting the food yourself, but you do get to see it all there infront of you). Josh and Andrew tried traditional meat dishes, and I wasn’t as hungry so munched on some veges and shared a plate with Krisztina of noodle-ish things cooked with eggs. I wasn’t initially sure about the taste but it did start to grow on me.

We went back to Krisztina’s for a drink before the concert, and Josh was the only one game enough to share a glass of traditional Icelandic spirit with our host, who had brought it back from Iceland during a recent trip to do volunteer work. I took a sip, and the syrupy menthol spirit really warms you from the inside out. After the very high temperatures of the days before, we weren’t exactly sure what to expect, but the forecast was for more than 10 degrees colder, so we had to be prepared for a shock to the systems.

The festival was on one of the islands in the river between Buda and Pest, so we caught a train to the gates, and joined the herd of people queuing to get through to the grounds. Krisztina was there to see the rock and metal acts, which we were planning to avoid, but she spent the first wee while with us walking around the island and having a drink or two. The place was filled with market stalls, the scent of every kind of food merging in the air and accents from all over the world. So many stages and areas were jampacked onto the island, from live theatre to dance. The place was like a small city, and tents were squashed like sardines onto any available inch of grass. We left Krisztina at the metal after poking our heads in for a taste and seeing the mass of long hair being thrown around like ragdolls in a dishwasher. Then it was off to see Roisin Murphy of Moloko who put on a great show with countless changes into fantastic 80s attire – headpieces, shoulder pads, giant bright ponchos. Her, combined with her enthusiastic back-up dancers just oozed cool… The whole crowd was shaking, and it was so early in the evening - that was the only downside. It would have been so much better to dance to later on, but still got us off to a great start.

Dinner was next, and we sat at a picnic table surrounded by food stalls, deciding on some spiced chicken breasts, sauerkraut (yes, still a staple), and bread, which was very filling… Some drinks (wine which was okay, and cheaper wine which was AWFUL!), and after finding a few uninteresting acts in the break between the next gig, we sat down for some drinks in an outdoor bar and met Krisztina so she could have a bite with us. She kindly shouted us to a shot of the Hungrian spirit Palinka we’d tried with her before, but this time tried peach, which was very sticky and yummy…

Krisztina then left for her next gig and we headed to the main stage to see REM. There was a huge crowd as expected for the headline act for the night, and they played some old stuff, some stuff we didn’t know, but they did put on a great show and the audience loved it. The next thing we wanted to see was Maceo Parker in the jazz tent (via some dancing in the dust...see photos), who was a member of James Brown’s band, and composed some of his music. We don’t think they quite expected a gig in the jazz tent to get so big, as they had tried to make the area into a lounge atmosphere including an area with tables and chairs (which quickly became viewing platforms for people in the back to see above the swarm of people). The music was great, and definitely got us moving and shaking, although some of the crowd were idiots, as it was nearing midnight and the drunkards had come out, and jazz wasn’t quite the music to headbang to.

After an hour or so there, we left the tent going into the morning and tried out the huge wooden seesaw outside. A half-moon shaped structure that fitted twenty or so people onto it, the idea was that people crowd onto each side and push down with their bodies alternately to start it rocking. Josh and I were right at the very end, and were moving metres up and down and losing our stomachs quite nicely. We then walked the length of the island back, and tried the delicious funnel cake (sweet bread baked over coals in a tube shape, then rolled in vanilla and cinammon sugar… mmmm). Deciding to check out another gig before it was time to meet Krisztina, we entered a tent to see a DJ, had a dance, and then met Krisztina to start the trek home. After a VERY crowded bus ride, we finally got home around 4am, and easily crashed out for the night.

After a terribly hot night and not much sleep at all, we rose as Krisztina left for work and were introduced to a small sit-down shower (as everything is tiny is a tiny apartment!) Andrew had gone to buy milk for breakfast, and had to really try hard to remember which way to go. The neighbourhood was built with rows of very functional-looking buildings that all look identical. It looked as if the area may have been in the early stages of getting a new life, as Budapest was.

After breakfast, a very overweight local greeted us with a megaphone yelling up into the houses from the street, while others yelled back. We later asked Krisztina what he may have been doing, and she explained that some people often use this tactic to sell fruit and other goods. Deciding to spend the day in Pest (the newer side of the river), and do Buda, the older side, on Sunday, we armed ourselves with guides, maps, and information that our lovely host had pre-organised for us, and caught the metro into the city. It was already so hot, and the temperature was forecast to reach 38 degrees in the heat of the day. We caught a tube to the park, and Josh attracted an unwelcome guest who tried to sit and chat with him. In Hungarian. Walking around the very dry and somewhat sombre park, we weren’t too sure what there was to do and see there, but we found the set of many Hungarian baths throughout the city, and decided we had to visit some on Sunday.

From there we walked around the Vajdahungad Var, a castle described as schizophrenic due to its various design styles (this was becoming quite common among the castle world…) but it was now home to an Agriculture Museum. Instead of venturing in, we continued around to the impressive Millennium Sculpture. The name confused us, since it looked so old and surely couldn’t have been built eight years ago… but it was actually built for the start of the 19th Century. Our Lonely Planet recommended a place for coffee and cake, and when we arrived we felt as if we were in the lobby of a posh hotel, where we didn’t quite fit in, so after seeing the exorbitant prices (and admiring the delicious-looking delights in the cabinet), we left. We tried another recommended place for lunch that looked a lot less snobby, and enjoyed a nice meal with some super sweet, but very refreshing, homemade lemonade.

Josh decided his shoes had finally overcome him in the heat, and he headed for a shopping area in search of sandals (the sound of his dad saying “I told you so” ringing loud). Andrew and I checked out St. Stephen’s Basilica – another very golden and beautiful church interior, and walked the Pest side of the river to the shopping street to meet Josh. We found him in the indoor markets, which initially looked great, but seemed to have rows of the same stuff on repeated throughout, and weren’t a patch on Dijon’s. After a bit of iced green tea at a quiet, relaxing teahouse garden right of a main street, we decided we were in definite need of a swim.

It was now early evening, and Krisztina had told us the smaller out of the two islands in Budapest’s river had some good swimming places, so we made our way there, only to find hoards of people leaving and discovering it closes at 6pm (in summer…). Another place slightly further down the island was open until 7pm, so we made our way to the outdoor baths as fast as we could and arrived with 25 minutes to spare. The place was huge, with pools of varying sizes and temperatures, and fountains everywhere. Just enough time for a quick plunge and a cool down, which was so worth it!

We met Krisztina for dinner at a place she likes to go which is remniscent of an American corner bar, and sold many different styles of food, including Hungarian. We tried our best to taste the local food in every country, and scoured the menu for Hungarian delicacies. Starting off traditionally at Krisztina’s request with a small glass of apple-flavoured Palinka (Hungarian liqueur – very strong!), we sipped the drink before dinner, and ordered our meals. We waited so long for our meals, and were getting incredibly hungry. The waitress came out, a long time after we’d ordered to inform us that one of the side dishes wasn’t on the menu, then more waiting… Once the meals finally came out, they were quite tasty (I tried the Hungarian bean soup, pork fillet Hungarian style for Andy, a chicken dish for Josh). We did enjoy listening to the annoying Australian at a table next to us try to chat up three woman with ‘enchanting’ stories of his travelling adventures. One more drink at a different bar across the road, where the boys tried a local beer, and I tasted a delicious local red wine (not chilled!), and then it was back to Krisztina’s, saving up for the Sziget music festival the following night.

All very tired after our previous night in Vienna, we managed to make it up for our early morning start to catch our 7.50am train to Hungary. After a quick breakfast dash in was onto the train where we all tried to sleep for a bit, and managed some very uncomfortable quick naps. We arrived just after lunch and felt immediately objectified as tourists (damn those big backpacks..), with scammers trying to corner you from every direction unless you keep your head forward and look as if you know what you’re doing. After trying to get out money from machines that wouldn’t work, and being forced to change some Euros into HUFs at the station (where they usually have the worst exchange rates), we had to bypass the scammers outside trying to swindle you, yelling their offers of ‘very good rates…’

We weren’t meeting our couchsurfing host for Budapest until the following day, so with a day to spare, we decided to try out a place called Balatonfured, on the coast of huge Lake Balaton, for some swimming and relaxing before the big city. Trying to organise tickets to get there when no one spoke much English was quite hard, as was trying to master any of the Hungarian language in the short time we were there. This was the first place we’d found quite so out of our comfort zone, and when we really knew we needed the underclothes travel wallets. After finally deciphering the train system (and discovering we needed to depart from another train station to go in that direction, which was across town), we grabbed whatever food we could find and departed for the lake.

Boarding the oldest train we’d seen on our journey in the stinking heat, we had to use one of our bags to hold the window down, which didn’t do much at all to subside the heat. Sticky and sleepy, we endured the three-hour journey, and the toilets, which were basically a hole onto the tracks, with a warning sign not to use them when the train is at a station. In a relatively empty train we did hear some familiar voices behind us, and ended up meeting three New Zealanders on this tiny overland train. Much sweat and many empty water bottles later, we arrived at our station. We had booked accommodation over the phone, and the guy we’d booked it through told us to give him a call when we arrived at the station. He gave us directions, and we walked down the street to a green gate, and he would meet us there. Awaiting us was a rundown house with a sign outside “Cheapest rooms in the area with lake views in this house!” Maybe from the roof… The inside was very tidy, and fine for one night.

Deciding a swim was much needed after the heat of our train ride, we pulled on our togs and headed towards the lake. We then realised that most of the lake around the promenade is all fenced off, and the only place we could find to swim charged an entrance fee. Everyone else seemed to be going there, so we ended up paying, only to walk into swarms of families and elderly bathers crammed like sardines onto the grass by the lake. Not quite our scene, but we were here now… After naps in the shade it was time for a swim, and the water was nice and warm, but not very clear as the sandy lakebed gets stirred up by swimmers and makes it cloudy. Disappointed with the area, we weren’t sure we were in the right town at all.
We ended up walking back to our accommodation and getting ready to go out for dinner. Choosing a place called Balaton by the lake, we met our gruff waiter who proceeded to present us with the somewhat strange meals we had ordered. The lakefront was filled with wine stalls, as there was a wine festival in the area, but again, it wasn’t quite our scene. We decided to pick three different wines, one of which was good, the others okay, and as we weren’t really feeling the vibe, we went home.

Waking up in need of a coffee and breakfast, we walked in the growing heat to the supermarket to buy some picnic ingredients and ate by the waterfront. Afterwards, in search of a coffee through an area where everything looked equally crap, we looked at the menu at one place before Cher starting blazing through the speakers “Do you believe in life after love…” loud and proud; enough to send Josh running immediately, even before I’d realised what was playing. We found another small bar, and had a pretty decent coffee in the end, and even managed to order what we wanted when the girl only spoke Hungarian. The spirits among the group seemed low, and this was when we all proclaimed that Balatonfured was dead boring, and we’d rather not be here. After questioning whether to go back to Budapest early, we decided to give the place a go (mainly because the hassle of having our bags in Budapest for five hours before we met our host was enough to deter us).

We walked back up away from town in the scorching heat to hire bikes for a ride around the lake, as we’d heard there were some free areas to swim that way. Making it to the bike hire place just as the guy was closing for lunch, he quickly dashed inside, which we thought was to help us out quickly, but was actually to give us a map directing us to the other store in the opposite direction. We were getting over it all very quickly, but ventured to the other store and made it there with enough time to get a few hours riding in before our train to Budapest. After continuing past a few areas in search of one with sand (which we’d heard existed), we were running low on time, so settled for an available spot for a swim. It was nicer on this side without the hoards of people, and after a swim and a dry-off it was back on the road. After dropping off the bikes and picking up one of the best fruit salads ever with perfectly sweet melon from a street market, we headed off towards the train. The journey back was only slightly less hot than the first one, but we did have to share a carriage with the most shriek-happy child, who drove me to put on earplugs for the trip.

We made it to Budapest and this time we (kind of) knew where we were going, and jumped on the metro to meet our host Krisztina. After arriving around 8pm, she met us at the metro station and we walked back to her room. We couldn’t believe she’d agreed to let three people invade her small place for four nights, which was basically one room that was filled up when all of our beds were laid out, and a tiny separate kitchen and bathroom. We were incredibly grateful, and she was a saint to tired travellers, and such a welcoming host, who had cooked for us, as she knew we were arriving late. We sat and enjoyed her home-cooked meal with a glass of Tokaj Hungarian wine, which was very nice, before having an early-ish night as Krisztina had work the next morning. She even gave up her bed for us, and took a foldout futon, while we made Andrew a make-shift bed on the floor and crammed into the room for a very hot night’s sleep.