Hungary

Even if my sister is already back home, I have to mention our first days in Hungary. In Slovakia locals told us that Hungary is flat flat fact country. So, we entered into new country (Balassagyarmat boarder crossing) with a vision of flat (like Finland ) roads. The north part of Hungary was not flat, even if the hills were not as pig as in Slovakia, the hills were still there. Since the altitude went down, the heat went up as well. One word of my stay in Hungary. It is hot. Ok, two words: it's hot and it is boiling. Summer of 2015 has been very hot in Europe and in Hungary the rivers were dry, so it was hard to find a place to swimThe heat eats lot of energy, and makes me lazy to drive long days. One early morning ( at 6.30 am) when we were cycling towards Budapest, we had wonderful thunder storm. We were so happy to have some rain that we did not mind at all to get totally soaked.

We managed to get into Budapest without too much trouble. Normally, I don't like to enter into big cities but this entrance was pretty easy. While asking directions from locals, we got some cold energy drinks and right directions.

The type of nature changed after crossing to Hungary, for example, the forests were totally knew type. . Also, to be mentioned, the country did get flatter after Budapest. I enjoyed the easy riding, since I know there will be mountains waiting for me in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina !  

With my sister we already wondered where are all the people from the villages. While riding through the villages I could barely see anybody. When I say it, I mean it. I have passed villages and villages without seeing a single person. The only people I saw were inside the passing cars. Yet, the people I have met, have been absolutely wonderful. People are greeting me, waving and smiling. I have gotten food bags from grandfathers. Not many people speak English, so it has been hard to communicate. Yet the Hungarian language is beautiful to listen and actually Finnish and Hungarian languages comes from same language groups.

After my sister left, I cycled to lake Balaton, which is the biggest lake in Central Europe. Since I come from Finland, which is the country of 100 000 of lakes, Balaton was small and packed with tourists. Yet, I was happy I choose to cycle there, since there has not been many swimming opportunities in Hungary and it's one of the only places in Hungary having cycling roads. And free thermal water in every village!

So, how does it feel to cycle alone again? I admit, I have been catching myself often going back into memories ( how far can I go?) or planning the future, instead of being present. Sometimes, I realize that 20km have passed me by, without noticing. Yet, there has been magic in every turn when I feel most lonely, and this pushes me to continue with smile upon my face. I give an example.

When I arrived to lake Balaton, I was happy to see a lake again, had my second breakfast and thought to put my outer tent to dry, which I had put  on my back rack in the morning, since it was wet from heavy mist. When I looked at my back rack, I found out that the tent cover is not there anymore. I have to admit, I am bad in this kind of a situation. I panic, I did not remember when I had seen the tent cover there last time, was it 5km away or 30km away? I try to look at the pictures on my camera, but the memory card does not function. I have been so happy with my tent, it has kept me dry during heavy rains along the trip. I got myself into this self blaming circle, why did I tight it there, why I have not head when it felt? Why this and why that? Then I remembered the words of a friend, who stopped me once into this kind of panic situation, and I decide to sit down and breath until I feel calm and I know what I will do.



After considering all the options, very strong trust on finding the tent cover arrived. I went back on my bike, stopped first group of cyclist who were coming from same direction than me (I had met them before, because one of them had a flat tire and I asked if they need any equipment). I asked them if they had seen orange tent cover and without having same language I understand that 10km away they saw it and a lady had picked it up, and put in in her bag. They had not seen the lady afterwards, so I thought that she must be ahead of us. I continued cycling, and after 2 minutes I found my tent cover hanging from the tree. I felt so relieved and thankful.

In Hungary, the roads that I have done are not going through big national parks, or remote areas, since I am meeting my mom in less than 2 weeks in Montenegro. Yet I have been close to wildlife, sometimes closer than I wanted. One evening, I was so happy about my camping spot and after dark, I was looking my next day's route. Suddenly I hear sound from the pushes,but I don't really care about it. I thought it is just deer passing to drink water from the river. Suddenly, I hear this weird sound, and my head is wondering if the deer is horny or what's wrong with him.

Then I start to recognize the sound and understand that there is wild boar outside of my tent. I have seen them before, realized how huge they are and heard they are pretty aggressive, when surprised. First I thought that he is just going to drink water, but when he started sniffing my tent, I got pretty nervous lying right next to this 200kg of fat and muscles. Normally, I don't have food in my tent, but this evening for some reason I had put all the food under my tent. In addition, I did not think that wild boars would come so close to human. The boar was there for one hour coming and going, making my heart beat faster than ever before ( I was afraid he heard my heart beat as well, since in some point I was not able to hear anything else than my own heart beating). Nothing happened and I figured out that my nerves are in a good conditions and the wild boars might be just curios.

I crossed the boarder to Croatia few days ago, and soon I will be in Bosnia.