From Óhíd to Pusztaszer

End of Óhíd time!

Now I am travelling again, from Óhíd to Szeged (third biggest city in Hungary, 18km from the Border).
My steps are Óhíd - Kesthely, then a train to Siófok ("capital" of southern Balaton), and then train to Szeged.






Siófok is no more than a tourist city, known to be the place with the most "Saturday night parties" (discos, pubs, etc).

I spent one night in Siófok, sleeping 4 meters away from the shoulder of a road, just outside the town. I must add that Friday and Saturday (the next day) were the hottest ones in all my trip...

Saturday morning I walked along the beach for like an hour or so towards Szabadifürdö, town where Roxi was supposed to be working in. She wasn't there, so I went back to Siófok (this time by train, instead of walking for 1h 30'!!)
I bought my ticket to Szeged, but the train was at 17.13 (6 hours later), so I got something to eat and, since my iPod battery was almost dead, I decided to get a good deal at McDonald's: 500Forint (1.86€) for an icecream, shelter from the wind for 2 hours and full battery charge!
By the way, there are just 3 McDonald's in all lake Balaton, and more than 35 in Budapest!

It took 4h 30' to get there, and by that time it already was dark...





I had to find a place to spend the night, but Szeged is so big that I just couldn't run to the fields and find shelter there; but near the river Tisza, there was some kind of wild forest, the natural wood that usually grows around the rivers (and the kind of mosquitos that live there, too). Don't need to say that I slept there, now, do I?

Szeged:

Next morning I emailed the farmers, and since they were selling vegetables in an organic market, I joined them on my way to Pustaszer, where the farm "Pipacs Tanya" is (it means Poppy Farm).

On our way there we stopped at Ópusztaszer to visit a small circus that has just three small trailers which are pulled by animals (two horses and an ox).
I thought, as I saw them making fire in order too cook, that that was a peaceful way of life...

Weekend off

The last one in "Reynold's Apples", the farm in Óhíd, where I'm staying since August 1st.

This weekend I've been to Tapolca (pronounced "T-a-p-o-l-t-s-a), a well known city near the Balaton lake. I arrived there on Friday evening, and after the huge electric storm, the sky suddenly cleared and I had the chance of visiting on the same evening.

I went to a bakery that Richard had advised me, saying it was the est in town. Well, I can't tell you it was the best, but if it wasn't, then "Oh God!" I'd say! Cheap and nice it helped me to get nourished: 1.01€, 960 grams of pure hungarian bread!




This town has a small lake in the center, just by the church, delimited by stone walls. It has cristal-clear water coming directly from some underground natural caves, and from the lake the water flows into a creek, that eventually will flow into the Duna (Danube).

Since I had my backpack with me, I walked away from Tapolca, towards some castle in ruins at the top of a mountain (much higher than the castle in Sümeg) that was higher than all the mountains for 10km around.
I slept as I could in a field near the bottom of the mountain, and next day at 6 AM I was already walking towards its summit. At 8 AM i was already there, and I can tell you: the best views I've ever seen!

So from there I went back to Tapolca, to take a train to Balatonfüred, touristic city, known by hungarians as "the capital of Lake Balaton".

Not nany things can be said from this town, but i'll try to explain some bits and pieces:

90% of the people were tourists, from which half were hungarians, and most of the other half from Germany. The other 10% were workers there, selling icecreams and postcards and that.

There are some caves, near the mountain, called Lóczy caves. There were discovered by some miners in the XIX century, but were closed two years later because little children came in to play, and since it was dangerous (and there was a lot of CO2) they closed them. There were later opened in 1930, and were named after a geologist.
Inside the caves you can see the different layers from the sedimentation caused by the sea millions of years ago.

There is also a well in the city that provides hidrogenated water. It comes from an underground river (you might have an idea of what I'm talking about if you remember that 'soda' is carbonated water), which water is overmineralized! (and nicely drinkable)...

Bored, I came back home that evening. I must say trains are fun, because you can fully open the windows, lean out and enjoy the fresh air while avoiding the trees!

Monday, Arthur invited me to a Mediterranean restaurant, which was located in a building that used to be Déak Férenc's home.



He was the best (according to hungarians) prime minister of the country. He was offered to be prime minister of the country (actually, candidate for it, but it was known he'd win) but he refused it, since he didn't want to leave the farm and his family working there.

So an Austrian lord that lived in Hungary bought his farm so Déak had no excuse and could rule the country.

Since Arthur knew the owner of that restaurant, and she invited him, I also was invited to a party at her place, a cottage where they go ocasionally (but just during the day, because they don't sleep there).




It was quite international: a woman from Thailand that lives in Canada (Toronto), another man from Thailand, two couples from Germany (one couple made organic wine, that is, whithout any chemical product used neither for harvesting nor fermentation. Little sparkly, but very fruity and wonderful, and sold it in a 5 star hotel in Germany!!), the owner of the restaurant and her parents (born in Hungary but raised in Germany), Arthur, his wife and me.






I have just come back and I'm going to sleep! Remember I wake up at 7 AM!
A funny thing in Hungary is that church bells don't go off every hour, but just to inform of the working hours. That means they bell 60 times at 5 AM, 60 at 12 PM, 60 at 3 PM and 60 at 8 PM. I think it is crazy!



I'm leaving the farm on Friday morning, because I have to go to the other one, at north of Szeged. I will miss the place very much, and especially the huge sweet soft blackberries I can pick here...

Sümeg again on a Saturday

Today we are going to Sümeg: Tiel and me.

We were supposed to go to Balatonfüred, to visit some caves, but we missed the bus at 10.00AM, and the next one was at 13.24, so we decided not to go. We'll probably go there next week, though!

So, we are in Sümeg again (i.e. I am again, she's here for the first time ) visiting the castle and some nice neightbours that have free Wifi...

I would write this post in Hungarian (magyarul), but this blog must be in english, 'és sajnos csak egy kicsit beszélek magyarul...' ( it means 'but unfortunately I only speak a little bit hungarian...')

We went to the church in Sümeg, and literally there wasn't anybody there! Not even God...



Maybe you find that the verb tenses don't match, but that'll be because I am writing in on the run, that is, while the things are happening.

Here in Sümeg there's some sort of Medieval Fight, whith the justins and all that stuff, but we were a bit unlucky because as soon as we went up the hill, from where we could see the epic fights and battles, the show ended...! Lucky us! We'll check whether there's another fight somewhere else, and we will try to get there in time (as it should be)...

Now we have the extra food we NEEDED (like chocolate an cereals and a beer for Tiel) and we are heading back home by foot... It will be a two hour walk, most likely!