Hungary

August 2005

Dear old Hungary. The country (or person) that crashed into our campervan and destroyed our original trip. Here we were, back in Hungary in a car, having completed the trip that we set out to do, even if it was a little faster and a lot more chaotic than anticipated. I had visited Hungary extensively in 1998 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had intended to show my father a few highlights. He said fine as long as I was driving this time. We took a few minutes to cross into our last country. Inevitably the first place we visited was a Tescos hypermarket to have hot pizza and restock on Hungarian sausage/beer/wine etc.

Background: Hungary was part of the polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire which collapsed during World War 1. The country fell under Communist rule following World War Two. In 1956, a revolt and announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact which was met with a massive military intervention by Moscow. In the 1970s, Hungary began liberating its economy calling it “Goulash Communism”. It held its first multiparty elections in 1990, joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004. My initial impression in 1998 was that it was already a fully westernized country.

The CIA rates it slightly smaller than Indiana with about 10m people. Landlocked. Surrounded by Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia Montenegro, Slovakia and Ukriane. Mostly flat country. Capital City: Budapest. Hungarian as a language is one of the hardest to learn because it is one of the few languages not to follow usual grammar. Roman Catholicism predominates. Average income: about $15,000. Agricultural products: wheat, corn, sunflower seed, potatoes, sugar beets, pigs, cattle, poultry, dairy products. Industries: mining, metallurgy, construction materials, processed foods, textiles.

As before I use my 1998 diary. Heviz is the site of Europe’s largest thermal lake ‘Gyogy lo’. The people of this town, 7km northwest of Keszthely have made use of the warm mineral water for centuries, first as a tannery in the Middle Ages and later for curative purposes. The lake was developed as a private resort in 1795 but it really only became popular at the end of the 19C.

The thermal lake is an astonishing sight: a surface of almost five hectares in the Parkerdo (Park Forest), covered for the most of the year in pink and white lilies (not many today). The spring is a crater some 40 metres deep that disgorges up to 80 million litres of warm water a day, renewing itself every two days or so. The surface temperature averages 33’C (Today it was 29’C), allowing bathing throughout the year. The water and the mud on the bottom are slightly radioactive and recommended for various medical conditions, especially loco motor and nervous ailments.

A covered bridge leads to the lake’s ‘fin-de-siecle’ central pavilion, from where catwalks and piers fan out. Well it did in 1998, now it is a construction site being completely rebuilt. You can swim protected beneath these or make your way to the small rafts and ‘anchors’ further out in the lake. It cost 800Fl for three hours. After changing, we swam right around the pavilion. The water had steam coming off it, but it wasn’t as warm as I thought it would be. The depth varied, and it came as quite a shock to put your feet down and fell the squigy mud on your toes. There were maybe 300 people, but the lake was so large, it was easy to find your own private space if you wanted to. We spent 90 minutes soaking.

After narrowly escaping a parking ticket, we drove southeast along more beautiful countryside to Lake Balaton, the largest freshwater lake in Europe outside Scandinavia. This is the major holiday destination of the Hungarians and consequently the towns are ugly complexes of hotels etc. but not as bad as the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts. We made for the Tihany Peninsula which almost bisects the eastern end of the lake. Consensus has it that this is the most beautiful place on the lake and consequently suffers from tourists in the summer. On an overcast day, there were still plenty of tourists but it wasn’t exactly Dubrovnik.

The magnificent twin towered Abbey Church (1754) was outstanding for its carved baroque alters, pulpit and organ. It overlooked the light blue lake with endless tourist resorts around the edge. The local shops had large bunches of red paprika and small white garlic cloves hanging outside.

We didn’t visit the Bugac Karikas Csarda, about 30km SW of Kecskemet. My 1998 diary said it “contained a ‘touristy’ introduction to the horse culture of the Great Plains. We passed on the horse driven carriage ride and walked a mile along the sandy tracks towards the homestead. The wind blew across the Plains into our faces, but the skies were blue, if cloudy and the sun shone. It was a majestic landscape. We visited the Herders Museum, a circular structure designed to look like a horse driven dry mill which was filled with shepherd’s antiquities. Racka sheep with huge curly horns guarded their lambs. Nearby, a herd of long horned grey cattle grazed. There was also a corral of the brown and noble looking Nonius horses. At 1.15pm the horse show began. There were four riders on horses, dressed in traditional costume (flowing white garments with black waistcoats and hats) who roared bareback around an area cracking their whips and doing stunts with the horses. They made the horses sit, play dead and roll over.

The main spectacle was the ‘five in hand’ riding by one cowboy who galloped around the field at full speed with five horses while standing on the backs of the rear two. It looked spectacular. The show lasted half an hour and I shot off rolls of film attempting to capture the stunts. For Jo, this was the real highlight of the trip. Afterwards, we visited the stables. The horses looked in superb condition. It was so peaceful and once the crowds left, we had the place to ourselves, roaming around the grazing long horned cattle and horses.”

When driving around the back roads of Hungary, you cross hundreds of railway crossings. White lights flash to indicate it is safe to cross, though you still look left and right to make sure. There are never any barriers. Another point is that on the maps, the roads look tiny, but they are very good. Fast with little traffic on them. Don’t be put off by their size on road maps.

We also skipped the capital Budapest, but if you visit Hungary, it is worth a visit. Budapest, the capital of Hungary straddles a curve of the Danube River where Transdanubia meets the Great Plain. One Hungarian in 5 lives here. The Rough Guide said ‘More romantic than Warsaw, more cosmopolitan than Prague, Budapest is the ‘first city’ of Eastern Europe’. Strictly speaking, the story of ‘Budapest’ only begins in 1873 when hilly, residential Buda merged with flat, industrial Pest. Layer upon layer of history blankets Buda’s Castle District, and Pest’s ring roads are a testament to the Hungarian and Austrian engineers and architects of the 19C. All 8 bridges now spanning the Danube were destroyed in WWII and were rebuilt

My 1998 diary said “Most of what remains of medieval Budapest is on Castle Hill. It is very peaceful walking along the cobbled streets past the lovely colours of the buildings which had been rebuilt many times over the centuries. The Magdalen Tower stands out alone - the remnant of a Gothic church destroyed in WWII. At midday, its chimes rings around the square. The National Archives building has a lovely coloured majolica-tiled roof. Following the ramparts you will have views of the hills to the north of the capital.

Matthias church with its neo Gothic tower and colourful roof on Szentharomsag Utca, is a church (rebuilt in 1896) which had a colourful tiled roof. Inside, the murals are spectacular and it is certainly one of Hungary’s finest monuments. Franz Liszt wrote the ‘Hungarian Coronation Mass’ for the coronation of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth here in 1867. Behind the church is an equestrian statue of St Stephen (977-1038). It stood in front of Fisherman’s Bastion, a late 19C structure offering great views of Pest, the Parliament building and the Danube.

Kerepesi Cemetery is also worth a visit. You catch a metro to Keleti station and enter the empty spacious grounds. Promoted as the Pere Le Chaise version in Budapest, it is very different. Built over a century ago, it is the final resting place of Hungary’s wealthiest and most prominent citizens. The evocative sculptured monuments scattered among the trees gives the place a unique almost classical air. The most notable personages built themselves huge mausoleums, which now stand alongside memorials to Communists of yesteryear and many of them now minus their red stars. Plot 21 contains the graves of many who died in the 1956 uprising.”

Having missed these two highlights, we headed north from Balaton Lake and eventually holed up at a guest house in the small town of Zirc just south of Gyor. I managed to badly rip the skin off a big toe, climbing metal stairs in bare feet with suitcases. It probably needed stitches but I just dripped blood through a toilet roll wrapping. Later we ordered excellent goulash from the guesthouse restaurant washed down by Hungarian beer (to obviously dull the pain of my toe. My father’s toe was sympathetic which is why it needed beer as well). It would turn out to be our last evening spent in accommodation on the trip.

The next morning we rolled east through lovely farmland along empty roads to the Abbey at Pannonhalma. Standing on top of a 300 metre hill, it was visible for miles. It is the largest monastery in Hungary. We had an excellent guided tour in English with a couple of Americans through the vast complex - still a working Benedictine monastery. We viewed the Gothic cloister (1486), the Romanesque Basilica (1225) and 11C crypt. It was full of minute detail. The 55 metre tower was erected in 1830. It also contained a very impressive neo classical library built 170 years ago which had one of the finest collections of religious books in the world. It was a very interesting tour and the Abbey had replaced all its tourist facilities since my first visit, as well as skyrocket the tour price.

Fertod, 30km east of Sopron contains the magnificent 126 room Esterhazy Palace which was built in 1766, and is a magnificent Versailles-style baroque palace, easily the finest in Hungary. Joseph Haydn was court musician to the princely Esterhazy family from 1761 to 1790 and many of his works were first performed here. In 1998 I had joined a group being taken round by a guide, through all the rooms. There were many different interior designs which were beautiful. The exterior was the typical Hungarian yellow which made it stand out magnificently. Today we just strolled around the front taking a few photos.

By the time we reached Sopron, it was raining. It was always raining in Sopron when we visited. Sopron sits right on the Austrian border, 217km west of Budapest. In 1921, the town’s residents voted to remain part of Hungary, while the rest of the region went to Austria, thus explaining the town’s location in a little knot of Hungarian land jutting into Austria. The Mongols and Turks never got this far, so numerous medieval structures remain intact to this day. In the horseshoe shaped old town, still partially enclosed by medieval walls built on Roman foundations, almost every building is historically important. This is Sopron’s principal charm and wandering among the Gothic and baroque houses are rewarded at every turn. The 60 metre high Fire Tower above the old town’s northern gate is a true architectural hybrid: the two metre thick square base, built on a Roman gate, dates from the 12C, the cylindrical middle and arcaded balcony from the 16C and the baroque spire was added in 1680. The 13th Goat church was lovely inside and relatively untouched by centuries of use.

We had done all of this a month ago while we were hanging around waiting to find out what to do about the destroyed campervan. Today, we visited the new Tescos hypermarket to blow our last Hungarian Florit currency.

We crossed over into Austria. Leaving Hungary around 4.30pm, my dad drove flat out for 4 hours along Austrian motorways through the Vienna rush hour, and into Germany in the pouring rain. From this point on, as it got dark, I drove non stop through Germany, Belgium, skirting Brussels and the last leg through northern France to Calais via Lille. We arrived in Calais at 3.30am 11 hours after leaving the Hungarian border. One hell of a drive. There were no hypermarkets open in Calais this early, so we drove to the ferry terminal and changed our return ticket. We were able to leave on a 6.30am ferry. We were back home by 10am the next morning. We had covered 8165 miles in 24 days.

We did not see another English car from the time we arrived on a ferry until we returned to catch the ferry home.

Final Conclusion: I can thoroughly recommend Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia and Hungary. Not much to see in Serbia. Not much of a reception in Belarus but Minsk and the Brest Fortress are worth a visit. Pop into the Ukraine to see the pretty girls and old buildings of L’viv. Kiev probably had the most spectacular sights in one city but the rest of the Ukraine is a nightmare. Transnistr and Moldova? – don’t even go there!

Final Roadkill Stats: 32 dogs, 11 cats, 5 rabbits, 3 foxes, 2 possums, 2 birds, 2 humans, 1 hedgehog, 7 UFOs