18 September Baja – Dunafalva - Budzsak

A windy day on the dyke along the Danube, brings me to a detour. Paving work on the trail, but no signs where then to go. I meet up with Bert from Austria. He is on his mountain bike also heading for Belgrade. His gps helps to find my address. After several times asking the local people I finally reach via a dirt road my warm showers address of

Nina Hornyak.

Her dad is brewing his peer palincka and drinking together we exchange several stories. He mom brings me the local Hungarian specialty, onions, tomatoes and peppers sauce with potatoes, from their own garden. Her father speaks fluent English. Some of his citations are worth memorizing.

“If Russia gets civilized, the world will end” (unknown).

“To be Romanian is a profession” (Stalin).

“An Army should suffer” (Stalin).

It gets cold and after a shower I hit the sack early.

19 September Budzsak (H) – Bezdan (Serb) – Batina (Cro) – Grabovac – Bijle – Osijek

Rain and I leave when it dries 11.30, after enjoying a breakfast with purely homemade sausage, jam but with my own gluten free bread.

The kitchen is the beating heart of this hospitable family that has taken up several orphans.

Host Nina wants a picture with her, me and my bike for her collection of warm showers guests. Under the still dripping leaves we say goodbye.

 

 












 After entering Serbia via the Danube Bridge it finally clears up.

In Batina at a round about, I bump into Scott and Bert. Both guys I met before and we decide to head for Osijek together.

On a sunny blue-skied terrace we overlook the Danube and Osijek’s castle and fort. We decide to combine the very late lunch with dinner and have a hearty meal, accompanied by two half liters of good local beer.

Osijek is a beautiful town with nice architectural buildings. They seem to me from the Habsburg period, but I am not sure. On the market around half past six it’s busy. Some life music, shoppers and many young people. Two hours later the place is deserted and all nightlife has moved to the old center, where our hostel is. It’s Thursday evening, student night, and we are warned that it will be a late one. With the nightclub on the ground floor filling up at eleven that’s right. I go to bed late after working on my blog, but the night is short. I will make up for it to night.

17 September Solt – Harta – Dunapatai – Urdas – Gederlak – Dunaszentbenedek – Uszod – Foktö – Fasjz - Baja

I leave late, but only after I receive a healthy breakfast with sausage, cheese, eggs and homemade jelly. But we start with one home-brewed Palincka, and then a second for the road.

The heavy rainfall has made the gravel dyke track rather soft. My rear wheel spins and I heavy to really push it to make progress. After 15 km, I take the road for some time. When I had back for the dyke, it’s freshly paved, but not for long. More than a shepherd with his flock, 100 sheep, some goats, two donkeys and of course a dog, I don’t meet. But the park is full of birds of prey. Some are quite tame and give me the eye from about 5 meters, before they decide to fly away. Hope that is not a bad omen!

In Baja I reward myself with a room in the Duna Hotel, hose down the mud of my bicycle and go to dinner. I meet with a couple, which live close to Leipzig in a small village. They have decided to make use of early retirement and are now traveling to the former Central European states they could never visit.

 

15 September Budapest

This is a day to meet friends. Viktor drops me and my bicycle at the Danube and I start to make my way to Obudaiszeget (Obuda island) in the Danube, where every year a well-known Rock festival takes place. There I meet Zsolt, a friend from the latest European project on marketing of cycling. He and his Hungarian made ‘Babboo cargo bike’ get a lot of comments. This is not a familiar sight in Budapest yet.

 

I talk with him about the political situation in Hungary, just as I did with Viktor and his girl friend. Their view is not very positive about the latest changes of the constitution.  Mentioned are the connection between the constitution and the Christian religion. It mentions that life starts with conception and that the only legal and correct family form is between one man and a woman. This creates conflicts with the European Parliament.

Also there is concern about the change – towards a politically centralized control – of the educational system. Political friendship, having the right connections and nepotism, seems to gain strength again. I remember. This used to be the case after gaining their freedom in Poland, but at a certain moment the checks and balances became more powerful and from that moment this system started to collapse. In Hungary my friends do not see such change yet.

Viktor, who has started a small business, feels no support, not from the state, nor from society. People seem to find it weird you don’t have an employer. This makes both younger persons feeling that they should maybe leave. But both also want to contribute to the development of their country, but not under these political circumstances.

I receive a slightly different idea, when I speak to a self-educated person from 60. He is religious and lives in a small village, grew up under the suppression of communism, saw and knows about the cruelties that were committed and how political non-conformists were treated. He hopes that the current changes of the constitution are a sign of religious conservative politics. “Time will learn, he says”. He is however of the same opinion about the nepotism. Playing along and giving up your personal ethics, he will never do. Using as minimal as possible from the state and for food, housing and earning money trying to be as much self-supporting is his survival strategy.

All in all this is not a very promising picture for Hungary, I think.

16 September Budaör – Dunaharasctzi – Szigetszanmiklos – Tökol – Szigetstufalu – Rackeve - Domsöd – Dunaegyhaza - Solt

My friend Viktor drives me towards the Eurovelo route 6. We start at a rather shabby looking outskirt of Budapest. The bicycle path is quite bad, bumpy but after 7 km gets better. After some 15 kilometers I find myself on the main road. Have I missed a sign? I am starting to ask. After the third attempt I am directed to the Danube and a bridge. I figure that this could be a good place to pick up the Eurovelo6 again. That proofs to be correct and I follow the quiet road through beautiful countryside. Lovely houses, flowers, fruit trees and every now and then on my left a glimpse of an arm of the Danube.

This goes on for a while. I stop for an ice-cream. A cyclist with a one wheel trailer passes me. I catch up with him and we ride together for a while.  Henrico from Berlin is also going to Belgrade. We miss a sign and his book "Danube no.4 Budapest – Belgrade" saves us.

After Tökol we split and I lunch under a tree. The planning Viktor and I have done with three alternatives helps me find my way, because Eurovelo follows unpaved dyke tracks that take their toll on bike and cyclist. I have had it, but then a man I am asking for directions and how long this bad track goes on, invites me to eat some of his pears. He has too many and he gives me five. They are nice and sweet. After drawing me very precise directions, I’m off. I go back to the main road. The 51 is very busy and there are many trucks. I push the big blade for about 25 kilometer. Back on Eurovelo 6 that follows a well paved dyke track, I have 15 kilometers left. But there will be no glorious entrance to Solt, because after 2 kilometers I am shuddering again on an unpaved grassy track. Back to the 51 is the only alternative. I finally enter Solt and head for the – at least on the webpage - nice looking Park Motel. But this proofs a grim dump, no wifi as promised, dark and not inviting at all. This is not for me, but this creates a problem. Where then? Asking around does not help. Nobody knows a pension or B&B. It’s getting dark and time is pressing.

I decide not to ask if people know a place, but tell them I need to place to sleep. That is the right strategy, because at the first attempt I strike gold. The man and woman exchange some words in Hungarian and then Janosz tells me, I can sleep there.

Judith and Janosz prepare everything, the bed, sheets and towels. Even my bike is parked inside.

Janosz walks me to the local restaurant and tells that the prize for the room is up to me. When I come back from the restaurant, I find fruit and half a bottle of wine with a glass on the table. These people are saints and made my day. This is what I like about this kind of traveling, the downs and the ups and the belief you must have in yourself that you will find a solution. And secondly after rain comes sunshine. I remember these lessons from earlier adventures in the Baltic States in 1993 and other even earlier trips.

13 September Komarno (Slo) - Moca – Sturovo – Esztergom

It’s rather cold today. Only when the sun breaks through the temperature reaches 19 degrees. The wind is NNW again and strong. After shopping for the necessary gluten free bread or crackers, I start towards Esztergom. Using my new asset, I’ve decided to follow the left bank. That proofs a good decision. I meet many cyclists going to Budapest. Following the dyke along the Danube on an unpaved gravel path, I reach a Roman ruin.

This path asks all my steering qualities and progress is slow. After a 15 km I get tired of it and decide to take the paved road. Every now and then I follow the dyke again.

I have lunch in the sun overlooking the Danube. Miloslav, curious, comes over to talk to me. We start in German, but it appears he speaks Dutch as well, since he used to work for a shipping company in Rotterdam.

He tells me that he is currently skipper on the Danube, five weeks up and then 4 weeks off. He has bought a house in this Slovakian village. I ask him why a Hungarian does so? He reveals that the village appears to be almost totally Hungarian, like many others along this part of the Danube. His grandmother never moved but had 4 different passports during her life. In 1910, 1918, 1939 the border changed back and forth, since 1945 to where it is now, the middle of the river.

We talk about economics and he sadly concludes that so much shipyards have been closed and naval companies started to order ships in China. Komarno had a huge one that built 15 ships per year and gave work to 6000 workers.

I share a piece of my Sicilian sausage. His Hungarian pride aroused, he offers me a piece of his own homemade sausage. He wants my opinion on his touristic plans. We do fantasize a little, but he appears quite negative about the political support and the difficulties to make different touristic stakeholders work together. We decide that a step by step approach is best and then I'm off again.

Along the Danube the beaches become prettier, the shore hillier, vineyards appear and the current becomes quite fast.

In the distance an enormous dome rises up. That’s Esztergom on the Hungarian side. A beautiful steel bridge from Sturovo brings me across the river. The pension is nice and I retire for a nap and some writing. Tomorrow to Budapest. The ‘Mediterrano’ a restaurant right next to the bridge serves good food and nice wines. With my Euro ’s it’s very tempting to become an alcoholic. The local wines are gold here and the prices incomparable. Good night!

14 September Esztergom and by boat to Budapest

A rainy and very cold day, barely 12 degrees. Taking a look at the gigantic Dome.

 

Not much to report, just some pictures of the Dome, the view from above and the bridge at Esztergom.

Wine exhibition telling all about Hungarian's very good wines. 

 grand entrance to Budapest by night





 

11 September Hainburg – Bratislava - Lipot

Super wind NNW and I did easily 85 km. The previous fights with the Eastern winds finally pay off. The weather has changed though. In the night long and heavy showers, but by 9 a.m. it is dry and at 11 the sun breaks through the clouds. But it stays around 20 degrees.

I bike towards Bratislava and on my left I see a typical high-rise suburb of a former central European city. The colors from orange to yellow, pink and light blue and high-rise apartment buildings. ‘Plattenbau’ from former Russian design and make. I remember my work in Kiev, where we retrofitted three of these buildings 15 years ago.

Then I pass the formerly hermetically closed borders between East and West. The oh so typical brown windows in the grim looking buildings, where you had to wait for hours sometimes a day, if you wanted to pass. Now these are the standing skeletons of the past.

I pass through Bratislava and continue in the direction of Gyor (Hungary). At the Slovak – Hungarian border I reach Rajka. It has only taken me 2 hours. 

The European union Interreg Cross border program between the two Republics has connected the cycle paths since one and half year. The design is a bit overdone if you consider the amount of traffic. Less than a car per minute passes.

The villages on the Hungarian side become friendlier. The gardens are better kept and everything is just a little more ordered. Of course I’d like to know why, but the people can’t tell me.

No Couch surfing reactions from Gyor, so at 4 p.m. I decide, I am going to check into this pension. They have WIFI and the room is nice.

Some villages suffer from eager politicians, trying to launch their village onto the European stage. I see two new laid out neighborhoods. Everything, including the street lighting is there. But will the houses come? If they do, they tend to be American style, big one story and with a grass yard.

I find a good pension in the nice looking village of Lipot. Wifi, dinner everything is there. In the evening sun I do the first maintenance on my bike. I oil the chain and brackets, pedals and lock. My Koga keeps up very well. Tomorrow I’ll see what I will do. Just to Gyor or maybe all the way to Visegrad. The weather and wind will decide for me.

10 September Bratislava

I decide to take a rest day and take the bus to Bratislava. This capital of the Slovak Republic is the city that is situated only 45 km from Vienna.  No former central European capital is so close to a Western capital. Although Bratislava tries to extract tourists it’s no match for Vienna. In more than one way I believe this makes the city suffer. As a capital there are many high paid jobs for foreigners that work in the embassies. It also attracts younger people from the Slovakian countryside to go and try to find a job here. The prices of housing have risen quite sharp. For Miriam who is well educated and has a stable job in the CSOB, a bank owned by the Belgium KBC Group, the choice was quickly made. She has thoughtfully bought her apartment in Hainburg (Austria) for reasons of cost – quality and beauty and tranquility. She also would like to improve her German language skills and this is better done in Austria then Bratislava.

Although many of her friends and social life takes place in Bratislava, she tries to enlarge her Austrian friendships. This is difficult. Around 20% of the population of Hainburg is Slovakian. In the shops and streets I sense an atmosphere of animosity, sometimes silent hostility.

International tourists visit Bratislava for a day and then return to their hotels in Vienna. Some come by bus others by boat over the Danube. This is very unfortunate for the city.

However there seems a lot to improve in the way they present their museums, statues, churches, castle and other sights. I can only characterize it as boring and cold. Without a hired tour guide not many sights explain themselves. Of course the alcohol is cheap compared to Austria, but that attracts the wrong kind of tourism. If there would be cheap airline flights this could be another stag party paradise.

A little disappointed I take the bus back to Hainburg. I cook a meal in Miriam’s apartment and we eat together. Tomorrow back to the bicycle and into Hungary.