8 November

St Stephen's body parts


After our unscheduled night tour of Budapest last night, we spent the night in the carpark of a hotel attached to a motorway stop. Having had a nice dinner at the hotel, we felt justified freecamping in their carpark.

Hungarians are a proud people with a long and glorious history. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the City Park of Pest. From Attila the Hun to the unknown soldier from WW1, the glories of Hungary's military triumphs are celebrated here. We happen to know ('cause we looked it up) that per capita, Hungarian losses in WW1 were the highest of any nation.

Things have improved significantly in Budapest since we were here 8 years ago. However, the big city ills of dirty streets and beggars on the way in to tourist stops such as cathedrals – how crass? - seem a little more prevalent than in other cities.

We were delighted today to find more body parts of St Stephen! His Basilica in Pest has the Saint's right hand. (See photo) Yesterday we saw his skull and a few other body parts in Esztergom. There is a whole chapel devoted to his hand in Pest. It's a bit dark – but never mind, if you deposit 200 Flt (about $1.50) a light will come on so that you can see the hand of the saint who died in the 9th century. Our search will continue for what is left of Stephen.

There were a lot of Australians around the city today, including a couple cunningly disguised as Chinese. To no avail. As soon as they opened their mouths, their accents gave them away!


7 November (Friday – we think?)

Some things change?

Hungary is every bit the modern European state. Flash motorways (a few), shopping centres and malls (many!) crazy drivers – fewer - and almost the same 'feel' as the rest of Europe. Far different to our last visit in 2000 when we were never game to leave our van unattended and clutched our bags tightly to our chests on the streets.

What hasn't changed in some areas is the number of young ladies who dot some of the the highways at regular intervals. Now, they might just be waiting for a bus. But the bus must be going to a fancy dress party! We suspect that the oldest profession has not yet been adjusted to the “EU Brussels “standard.

Gone, though, are the horses and carts, old women on village streets with bundles of sticks on their backs and the mysterious people with wheelbarrows? (You'll have to read our 2000/01 diary). In some ways, country villages still hold their charm. Houses are much neater and in better repair; streets are less dusty but, other than that, most rural towns and villages are still much as they have been for hundreds of years.

Yesterday, we left Vienna and headed for Sopron, a little pocket of Hungary that, in 1921, voted to stay in that country, while the rest of the area went to Austria. How bizarre! Whatever, it was an interesting town to wander through and, thanks to Janita's great mathematical skills, we now have a squillion Hungarian Forints to spend before we leave, after withdrawing a king's ransom from an ATM, simply by adding an extra zero! We also tried to check out the Esterhazy Palace, but, unfortunately,we arrived on the wrong day. It opens Friday, Saturday and Sunday only from November 1, and yes, we arrived on a Thursday... afternoon. Paul was not as disappointed as Janita as he is a little “palaced-out.”

Our progress towards Budapest was leisurely and peaceful today. A couple of nice towns, Gyor and Esztergom, filled most of our day. Gyor has some lovely old streets and an interesting cathedral, but we were surprised to see a skull and a few other bones on an altar in Esztergom, the ecclesiastical capital of Hungary. We love the gorey stuff! The Cathedral in Esztergom is the largest in Hungary and poised dramatically on a hilltop. Spectacular! Despite an unscheduled dip into Slovakia, yet another wrong turn, our day remained positive – blue skies and temps about 17 C.

HOWEVER ... all turned dramatically sour as we hit Budapest on dusk, on what we still suspect was a Friday? After several wrong turns in heavy traffic, no thanks to the highway signs, we finally found our camping grounds – closed! Great! So, with no other option, we headed off to find a motorway to freecamp. Sounds easy? Not so. After an hour of unscheduled night sightseeing in central Buda – and Pest, (both beautiful by night by the way!) we finally edged our way through heavy traffic on to the M1, backtracking towards Gyor and a free motorway stop.

We have often commented positively on the value of motorway and even general street signing in Europe. Today, Budapest proved us wrong. Hopeless! Even the locals were lost!

Tomorrow is another day and we will attack Budapest again – this time in daylight!