Jul 21
See our Files for more photos (2008 July pics part 2) or to download this blog as a Word doc (2008-07-21 Blogupdate Hungary 2.doc)
Blog update Hungary 2
Penny
I am going to start this entry with a few photos that relate to the previous entry.
The first shows Tamas and his wife Mercedes with their eldest daughter as we were about to leave the riverside camp. The second is of our host Imre (hope I’ve spelt his name correctly) our host and owner of the bar. The third is the elderly gentleman who brought me a bunch of flowers presented with kisses and hugs.
Tamas and Mercedes set us on the road to Sarospatak, where there is an ancient fort, via an unusual river crossing that reminded us of one on the River Fal in Cornwall.
From Sarospatak we headed up into the Zemplen Hills. We were not especially looking for castles but liked the look of the densely wooded hills above the highly cultivated vineyards. Stopping, even for a tea break, proved impossible as there had been another storm the previous evening, the ground was too muddy and mosquitoes terrible under the trees. Then the narrow road ran out of the trees to open grazing country with a sign pointing up a track leading to a ruined castle on a mountain top. There was no need for a discussion; we just set off up the gravel track. This ended in half a kilometre at a small car park, from there 2k of earth track led up to Regec Castle. As it was late in the day and we were tired and exceedingly hot we decided to camp there overnight and walk up at first light.
That was a great decision. We strapped Bill’s knees up, they have not improved, took some refreshments in a rucksack and hiked up the hill through another wood to a glorious ruin of a castle with 360 degree views over the surrounding countryside. What an excellent spot as can be seen from the photos. We were back down and breakfasted before the tourists even started to arrive (& feeling disgustingly smug as they all headed off in the heat of the day!).
But we did have a problem – our gas ran out as I started to cook. Fortunately we have the paraffin stove so could still produce a large pile of egg bread to restore our energy. However it dictated our next move, instead of looking for more castles as planned we now needed to find gas. The first garage would not contemplate filling our bottle nor would they sell us a Hungarian one as we did not have an empty Hungarian one to exchange. This looked like a catch twenty two situation! We found a small business and decided we would not leave until they sold us a bottle of gas. Bill started to open the rear door to get at our bottle, and the door came off in his hands!!!!!!!!!!! Yet another breakage caused by the Russian roads.
Penny
Bill
Stay calm folks, this is your captain speaking everything is under control; well almost, but at times you might be forgiven for thinking this is a bit of a goon show. Once the two lads at the gas station realised I was supporting a heavy door on my head they rushed to my assistance, and took over while I sorted out tools and disconnected the gas struts. They were unable to refill our bottle but agreed to sell us a Hungarian bottle without exchange. It’s the same old rip-off as back home, so we gave them 10,000 Forint, = about £26.00 and set-off to find a friendly welder. These proved to be thin on the ground, but while discussing the problem with a tyre dealer one of his customers knew just the man; he phoned and explained we were on our way. Armed with his instructions and a hand drawn map, Penny amazed me yet again with her navigational skills and within twenty minuets we met-up with a Hungarian madman! Over the next 4 hours he worked like a slave, kept a full running commentary on his method of getting the job done (all in Hungarian) while only partially setting the van on fire; though to give him his due he was very reluctant to use “oxygen” to free the seized roll pins from the hinges. But I could only stand so much of his method i.e. laying into the problem with a 7lb hammer and drift; cast hinges can only take a little bullying. In the end we were all ready for the road but had to settle up first; we offered him our calculator and stood back, 12,800 flashed up on the screen; we gave him 15,000, he had no change, we hesitated, he said “koszonon” (thank you) and stuffed the notes into his overalls. Job done!
A few days later we were being visited by a few jumbo sized wasps; we of a less aggressive nature than ‘you know who’, I attempted to shepherd a particularly large one out the cab and received a sharp reminder that one should not try to be kind to jumbo wasps. I despatched him swiftly but within ten minuets my thumb resembled a very large sausage; this of course gave Penny a great chance to improve her skill at administering all manner of pills and potions, mostly to little effect on my thumb, hand and arm. Despite all this I enjoyed a good night’s sleep (perhaps due to some of the potions? Penny) but in the morning it was very plain we would not be driving anywhere today, so rested in our lay-by camp site and watched my hand gradually return to a more normal size. But word was out in wasp circles that we were the cause of the demise of one of the clan, so we had to fight off several sorties from the rest of the squadron; but we were ready with wasp killer and fly swat and finished the day victorious. (He is now as much as a killer as I am! P)
Being thoroughly fed-up with an A/C system that did not work we Googled Webasto Hungary and set off armed with a map and a good idea on how to tackle Budapest traffic. Sunday evening seemed our best bet, once again Penny proved an expert at navigation and we wound up almost outside the Webasto depot, having only had to ask our way once, from an English speaking filling station attendant; our luck continues to hold. We camped on the grass verge alongside a truck just as the heavens opened and thunder and lightening fizzed around. 8am next morning found us first in the queue. Excellent service from all and sundry over the next 3-4 hours put the unit back in service; one new water pump, new fuses, and a thorough briefing on how the system works; corrosion caused by lime scale deemed to be the culprit, distilled water being recommended! They all had to agree that was a bit of a joke when we told them where we had been and where we were headed, also we pointed out the manual only recommended drinking water! So this is something we must look into. Fit and ready for the rest of our journey we set-off to take on the mid-day Budapest traffic, but first Penny just happened to spot a fabric shop!
One last story must be told, we had shopped at a small village store, a few days later we found ourselves passing the same shop, “Stop!” yelled Penny “we need a litre bottle of drinking water”. She was gone ages, eventually staggering back with a jumbo bargain 12 litre pack. 12 litres, I ask you! There has to be a reason. “Oh you should have seen him, he had wonderful eyes, and he tried so hard with his English, I hadn’t the heart to tell him I only asked for 1 litre!” That’s grandmothers for you!
Post script to the A/c saga, as we departed the office staff advised us that the forecast was not good for the coming week, correct, it’s turned cold, rained most of the time and we have hardly used the A/c more than a couple of times. But it works!
Bill.
Penny again
I have to have the last word simply because I have found a fabulous fabric shop! After leaving Webasto we drove round a corner in a back street of Budapest and there was this great old building filled with every kind of fabric you could require, from patchwork cottons, flimsy stuff for evening dresses and all manner of fleeces for a babies snow suit, they even had some proper wadding for quilting. I spent ages choosing some fabrics and then found that Bill was off choosing threads for his third piece of cross stitch!
Now we are in Kecskemet, the capitol of the Hungarian Plains area, and for the first time on the entire journey we have connected to WiFi, just sitting in a back street of this lovely town. We have also found a market here (just as we had agreed not to spend any more money after the last few expensive events!) and Bill is happy again – he was really missing chatting with all the stall holders.
Blog update Hungary 2
Penny
I am going to start this entry with a few photos that relate to the previous entry.
The first shows Tamas and his wife Mercedes with their eldest daughter as we were about to leave the riverside camp. The second is of our host Imre (hope I’ve spelt his name correctly) our host and owner of the bar. The third is the elderly gentleman who brought me a bunch of flowers presented with kisses and hugs.
Tamas and Mercedes set us on the road to Sarospatak, where there is an ancient fort, via an unusual river crossing that reminded us of one on the River Fal in Cornwall.
From Sarospatak we headed up into the Zemplen Hills. We were not especially looking for castles but liked the look of the densely wooded hills above the highly cultivated vineyards. Stopping, even for a tea break, proved impossible as there had been another storm the previous evening, the ground was too muddy and mosquitoes terrible under the trees. Then the narrow road ran out of the trees to open grazing country with a sign pointing up a track leading to a ruined castle on a mountain top. There was no need for a discussion; we just set off up the gravel track. This ended in half a kilometre at a small car park, from there 2k of earth track led up to Regec Castle. As it was late in the day and we were tired and exceedingly hot we decided to camp there overnight and walk up at first light.
That was a great decision. We strapped Bill’s knees up, they have not improved, took some refreshments in a rucksack and hiked up the hill through another wood to a glorious ruin of a castle with 360 degree views over the surrounding countryside. What an excellent spot as can be seen from the photos. We were back down and breakfasted before the tourists even started to arrive (& feeling disgustingly smug as they all headed off in the heat of the day!).
But we did have a problem – our gas ran out as I started to cook. Fortunately we have the paraffin stove so could still produce a large pile of egg bread to restore our energy. However it dictated our next move, instead of looking for more castles as planned we now needed to find gas. The first garage would not contemplate filling our bottle nor would they sell us a Hungarian one as we did not have an empty Hungarian one to exchange. This looked like a catch twenty two situation! We found a small business and decided we would not leave until they sold us a bottle of gas. Bill started to open the rear door to get at our bottle, and the door came off in his hands!!!!!!!!!!! Yet another breakage caused by the Russian roads.
Penny
Bill
Stay calm folks, this is your captain speaking everything is under control; well almost, but at times you might be forgiven for thinking this is a bit of a goon show. Once the two lads at the gas station realised I was supporting a heavy door on my head they rushed to my assistance, and took over while I sorted out tools and disconnected the gas struts. They were unable to refill our bottle but agreed to sell us a Hungarian bottle without exchange. It’s the same old rip-off as back home, so we gave them 10,000 Forint, = about £26.00 and set-off to find a friendly welder. These proved to be thin on the ground, but while discussing the problem with a tyre dealer one of his customers knew just the man; he phoned and explained we were on our way. Armed with his instructions and a hand drawn map, Penny amazed me yet again with her navigational skills and within twenty minuets we met-up with a Hungarian madman! Over the next 4 hours he worked like a slave, kept a full running commentary on his method of getting the job done (all in Hungarian) while only partially setting the van on fire; though to give him his due he was very reluctant to use “oxygen” to free the seized roll pins from the hinges. But I could only stand so much of his method i.e. laying into the problem with a 7lb hammer and drift; cast hinges can only take a little bullying. In the end we were all ready for the road but had to settle up first; we offered him our calculator and stood back, 12,800 flashed up on the screen; we gave him 15,000, he had no change, we hesitated, he said “koszonon” (thank you) and stuffed the notes into his overalls. Job done!
A few days later we were being visited by a few jumbo sized wasps; we of a less aggressive nature than ‘you know who’, I attempted to shepherd a particularly large one out the cab and received a sharp reminder that one should not try to be kind to jumbo wasps. I despatched him swiftly but within ten minuets my thumb resembled a very large sausage; this of course gave Penny a great chance to improve her skill at administering all manner of pills and potions, mostly to little effect on my thumb, hand and arm. Despite all this I enjoyed a good night’s sleep (perhaps due to some of the potions? Penny) but in the morning it was very plain we would not be driving anywhere today, so rested in our lay-by camp site and watched my hand gradually return to a more normal size. But word was out in wasp circles that we were the cause of the demise of one of the clan, so we had to fight off several sorties from the rest of the squadron; but we were ready with wasp killer and fly swat and finished the day victorious. (He is now as much as a killer as I am! P)
Being thoroughly fed-up with an A/C system that did not work we Googled Webasto Hungary and set off armed with a map and a good idea on how to tackle Budapest traffic. Sunday evening seemed our best bet, once again Penny proved an expert at navigation and we wound up almost outside the Webasto depot, having only had to ask our way once, from an English speaking filling station attendant; our luck continues to hold. We camped on the grass verge alongside a truck just as the heavens opened and thunder and lightening fizzed around. 8am next morning found us first in the queue. Excellent service from all and sundry over the next 3-4 hours put the unit back in service; one new water pump, new fuses, and a thorough briefing on how the system works; corrosion caused by lime scale deemed to be the culprit, distilled water being recommended! They all had to agree that was a bit of a joke when we told them where we had been and where we were headed, also we pointed out the manual only recommended drinking water! So this is something we must look into. Fit and ready for the rest of our journey we set-off to take on the mid-day Budapest traffic, but first Penny just happened to spot a fabric shop!
One last story must be told, we had shopped at a small village store, a few days later we found ourselves passing the same shop, “Stop!” yelled Penny “we need a litre bottle of drinking water”. She was gone ages, eventually staggering back with a jumbo bargain 12 litre pack. 12 litres, I ask you! There has to be a reason. “Oh you should have seen him, he had wonderful eyes, and he tried so hard with his English, I hadn’t the heart to tell him I only asked for 1 litre!” That’s grandmothers for you!
Post script to the A/c saga, as we departed the office staff advised us that the forecast was not good for the coming week, correct, it’s turned cold, rained most of the time and we have hardly used the A/c more than a couple of times. But it works!
Bill.
Penny again
I have to have the last word simply because I have found a fabulous fabric shop! After leaving Webasto we drove round a corner in a back street of Budapest and there was this great old building filled with every kind of fabric you could require, from patchwork cottons, flimsy stuff for evening dresses and all manner of fleeces for a babies snow suit, they even had some proper wadding for quilting. I spent ages choosing some fabrics and then found that Bill was off choosing threads for his third piece of cross stitch!
Now we are in Kecskemet, the capitol of the Hungarian Plains area, and for the first time on the entire journey we have connected to WiFi, just sitting in a back street of this lovely town. We have also found a market here (just as we had agreed not to spend any more money after the last few expensive events!) and Bill is happy again – he was really missing chatting with all the stall holders.
![8 what have we here[1]..jpg](/i/An eventful few days in Hungary 2nd to 7th July/8 what have we here[1]..jpg)