Ahoj and Szía

Amber sun glints off

dragonfly's translucent wings -

among wild flowers.

Ahoj and szía – meaning hi - are about the only Slovakian and Hungarian words we've been able to get a grip on so far. Though we've spent less than a day in Slovakia and nearly a week in Hungary, our grasp of Hungarian remains abysmal, our only confident additions being kérem (please) and kosonem (thank you). It's embarrassing but it seems that the harder we try, the more the words just slip through our grasp. To our defence, apparently Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages to learn for an English speaker.

We left Petronell-Carnuntum bright and early Friday morning with clouds swirling above, undecided as to whether they should allow the sun through or not. We had a light shower of rain just before leaving Austria and by the time we stopped for lunch in Hungary the sun was blazing bright.

Quick break for a bite to eat just before leaving Austria for Slovakia.

The deserted Slovakian border looked like a soviet-era relic, a big unattractive angular concrete ediface, now peeling and grafittied over. We passed smoothly from Austrian bike paths to well maintained Slovakian ones, the main difference being that we could no longer decipher the road signs or billboards.

Having decided to bypass Bratislava, we stopped for a quick look - the impressive old castle dominates the skyline, clearly visible from the other side of the Danube - then cycled on, along bike paths nearly all the way to the Hungarian border. 

Bratislava castle, from the opposite side of the Danube.

Just over the border, cycling on (rather bumpy) roads, Neil calls out from behind (it being my turn to take the map and lead),

“How do you say 'hi' in Hungarian ?”

“Szía”

“Deer!”

“No, szía, like see-ya”

“No, deer – on the right”

There were three russet coloured deer grazing peacefully, or had been, now they were looking rather startled at our yelled conversation, in the fallow field between corn crops.

After a couple of hours spent on a mixture of very potholed roads, deep gravel paths and the occasional decent road we arrived in Lipot, and halted at the lovely peaceful campground between two lakes off the Danube (called the Duna in Hungary). After our dinner of pasta with tomato and tuna sauce we relaxed over a couple of cups of Hungarian red wine (a very cheap one, which was actually pretty good) and watched the sun sink behind reeds at the lake's edge, and the full moon rise in the other direction. Then the mosquitos arrived.

Cyclists welcome ? Slovakia-Hungary border.

Saturday was our first full day in Hungary, spent mostly on cycle paths (which were sort of smooth) and roads (which were mostly smoooth), with a couple of really rough sections on extremely bumpy and potholed roads just to test our mettle. Just before lunchtime, passing through Gyor, we happened upon a festival of some sort in the (very attractive) main square. It looked to be a bit of a medieval fair with costumed dancers and a really cool (very) old fashioned merry-go-round. 

Main square in Gyor.

My sort of fair ground ride !

This wasn't the worst by any means.

The food stalls looked and smelt fantastic too, but we had already bought our bread and cheese so we continued (eventually, after a wrong turn and some help from a couple of locals) out of town where we ate our picnic in between corn fields beside the bike path. We stayed that night in Komárom, a spa town, where there was also music happening, of a different sort. We were treated to Tom Jones and Beatles covers, some in Hungarian, some in English, until late into the night.

Komárom is twinned with Komarno on the Slovakian side of the Danube (they were one town until separated in the redrawing of boundaries after the first World War) and there we crossed back into Slovakia on Sunday morning to cycle among wild flowers (and the occasional goat herd) to the ruins of the Roman fortress of Kelemantia. 

Across the Slovakian plains to the Visegrád mountains

A stone map of the larger Roman garrisons of the area.

Wildflowers in front of the ruins of Kelemantia.

We have seen many relics of Roman occupation in the area - for a couple of centuries the Danube was extremely important as the boundary of the Roman empire. Of course there have been many civilisations along the Danube from early stone age times and one of the things I regret not being able to see in Vienna (on account of the Natural History Museum being closed on Tuesdays) was the Willendorf Venus, a tiny stone fertility figure found by the river about a century ago.

Cycling through the flat plains of rural Slovakia, alongside fields of hay and corn, wild flowers and occasionally forest, we could see in the distance the blue mounds of the Visegrád mountains gradually coming closer. Then, about 10km before the town we saw the green verdigris dome of Esztergom's basilica, rising above the plains with the mountains as backdrop.

Esztergom basilica, from the bridge between Slovakia and Hungary - and it's not even called the Friendship bridge !

It had been our intention to arrive in Esztergom early in the afternoon, in order to explore the historic buildings of the town. We arrived early enough, making good time in the heat, but it was so hot by then that all we wanted to do was relax in the shade. So we did. Only rousing ourselves to move to go and see the spectacular sunset over the river.

Danube sunset.

Looking upstream from Esztergom.

From Esztergom, the Danube curves around the 'Knee of the Danube', changing general direction from west-east to north-south because of the bulk of the Visegrád mountains to the east. So, riding out from Esztergom on Monday, early because we knew the forecast was for an even hotter day than Sunday, we were treated to lovely scenery all around as the river curved between foothills. 

It's only 9.30 and we're sweating already !

As the hills faded into the distance behind us we began to pass more and more riverside cafés, bars and restaurants, boat ramps and beaches (some of them even sandy) as we got closer and closer to Budapest. To avoid unnecessary headaches, we elected to stay at a campground a couple of kilometres north of the city centre and catch the train in to sightsee on Tuesday. It is so much easier not having to negotiate city streets searching for information and accommodation with the fully laden bikes.

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words by Gabby, photos by Neil except for the pretty wildflower one