Everything's peachy

Cloudless, pale blue sky,
hot winds blow across the plains.
We ride into them.

We enjoyed a lovely couple of days in Budapest, relaxing, wandering around the old and not so old parts of Buda and Pest, sampling the cuisine, looking about. Unfortunately because the weather was so warm we didn't try lagos, a Hungarian deep fried dough that we had been hanging out for. We did try some Hungarian red wine though and it was very drinkable.

Fisherman's Bastion, near Buda castle.

Fisherman's Bastion from the inside.

Really cool froglike building on the Buda side.

Neil on the Szabadság hid, Pest side behind him.

Szabadság hid.

Fovam ter food markets - all the paprika varieties you could ever need.

Pest, another of many fabulous buildings.

Thursday morning as we cycled along the Danube through the city, the sun shone off verdigris roof tops and spires, promising another warm day. Summer certainly came to us in Hungary, we've had nothing but hot sunny days for more than a week now ( the only rain or storms, at night). And as we head further east, through Croatia and Serbia, it is only going to get hotter. We've seen the forecast.

Riverside cycle path through Budapest.

We're rich ! It was bamboozling working out the Forint to Euro rates.

The ride south from Budapest was a bit of a marathon, not just because we covered 95km but because the majority of it was on really badly potholed paths, into a headwind. We learnt a new Hungarian word that day - uthibak. That was the road sign that came just before each stretch of ridiculously potholed road, accompanied by a big exclamation mark.

Not finding any campgrounds anywhere near where we wanted to camp, we wild camped between the dike that the cycle path followed and a stretch of poplar trees. It was lovely and peaceful to be camping in the countryside again.

Early morning, sun not quite over the horizon, a heavy dew still on the grass.

Looking down from the dike top at our camp - note the lovely bike path.

But Friday was to be even worse - hotter and windier. We gave up after throwing ourselves into the wind for almost 60km and gave ourselves the afternoon off. At Szeliditó there was a tiny ramshackle hotel/campground at an old lake resort where we camped in the shade of more poplars for the princely sum of  €5 (1500 Hungarian Forint) - cheaper even than the cheapest camping in France (€7).

Preparations were underway in the village for celebrating the Hungarian National Day on August 20. We didn't stay for the celebrations but on our way out the next morning saw every man, his dog, bicycle, horse and cart on the way into town for the big day.

Instead we decided to try a different approach to the bumpy cycle path and minor road problem - ride down the highway, almost empty of traffic for the public holiday. We made good time on the lovely smooth surface, the wind having abated a little overnight. Even a 10km diversion down bumpy dirt tracks (due to lack of signposting and vague mapping) couldn't stop us from cycling 105km - the longest distance we have done in one day before and the first time we've made a century.

Neil playing with the camera as he rides along.

Another drive by shooting.

That was yesterday, we camped across the river from Mohács, intending to catch the ferry over the Danube then cycle south to cross over into Croatia. However, we missed the ferry this morning, by about two minutes and begrudging the hour's wait, decided to cycle on the left bank down into Serbia first, then cross over the river on a bridge into Croatia.

So we headed toward the border of Hungary and Serbia, stopping at the last village in Hungary, Hercegszántó, to fill our water bottles at a tap in a park. The tap didn't work and we were just about to continue on when a man who had been playing football with his wife and young son in the park invited us to follow him to get some water. He lived over the road so we went into the cool shaded courtyard of his house, filled with flowers and plants.

He only had one or two words of English so he beckoned us in calling for his sister "angolul, angolul" (angolul means English). She came out, hands covered in dough from baking, to translate. So we had this multi-sided conversation with her asking questions about us and our trip and then relating them to assorted family members in Hungarian. When the man's mother heard we were cycling to Istanbul, she hit herself in the chest in shock. When she heard that we had already ridden from Dublin she almost fell off her chair, smiling hugely the whole time.

Our water bottles filled, we made ready to leave and we were bade to wait a moment while the sister (the only name we got was the son's - Zoran) went off and came back with a plastic bag full of ripe white peaches. It must have weighed about 2kg. We thanked them profusely in English and Hungarian and gave Zoran a kangaroo pin.

Unfortunately, by the time we stopped for lunch the ripe peaches were a little worse for a couple of hours travel in a pannier - but delicious none the less.

Serbian Euro Velo 6 signs - read the fine print...

Hmm, life is hell. Lunch by the vines, shaded by a walnut tree, on a hill in the Croatian countryside. All that's needed is a cool breeze - yep, there it is.

The bag of peaches, looking considerably less full than when it was received.

So tonight we are in the lap of luxury, in a B&B in Bilje in Croatia, just outside of Osijek. We have air-conditioning (and boy, did we need it when we arrived mid afternoon), wi-fi, and a private bathroom. Why ? Because there are very few campgrounds in this part of the country and wild camping is illegal (possibly because of the still extant minefields dotted about the place, but I think it's mainly paranoia about gypsies).

More hot weather to come, so plenty more early starts ahead...

*
words by Gabby, most photos by Neil.