Hungary
I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the roads on the Hungarian side on the border, when I visited the church of the first town, Vallaj, even the small roads were paved – and there was even a paved path for pedestrians. Also, as I was studying my map, someone showed up, asking if he could help me. So pretty good impressions of my native country – and then I found a real, newly finished bike road. I really did enjoy Romania; had the roads been better…
I reached Mateszalka, where I had some of my favorite Hungarian snack, Turo Rudi. I recalled that it is actually produced in this town, I tried going to the factory, but they would not let me in, even though I claimed to have consumed thousands of Turo Rudis in my life…
Then it was going to the town of Vaja, there is a newly renovated protestant church, where I was allowed to climb to the tower on the 6th floor, offering a nice view of the surroundings. There is also a castle, where Rackozy (the 2nd) had negotiated an important treaty. It has a museum, but I’ve postponed visiting it for my next visit. Riding on, in Gyulahaza I suddenly saw a fighter jet - in front of the local school. As it turns out, the first (and only, unless we count Charles Simonyi, who was also in space, but is an American) Hungarian astronaut, Bertalan Farkas, was born there.
Getting to Kisvarda, the town had a big Jewish cemetery and a synagogue and some really nice public buildings. There is also a huge bike shop, where I would spend the next few hours of my life. You know, in Sigetu, my bike was only temporarily repaired and here I figured they would have all the spare parts. They did. The owner, Laszlo, is just a few months older than I am and is also an avid biker. His shop has a huge turnover, he has some 1,000 bikes and the stream of customer is constant. Still, Laszlo was really cool, we have a lot in common and discussed to do some trips in the future. We talked about a trip to Odessa, riding there in September. We shall see…His mechanics in the meantime made some important repairs on my bike – and Laszlo even gave me a special price for all stuff that had to be changed and repaired.
It was really late by the time I left town – and I almost had stayed. The town was hosting an open-air theater festival with performances going on all day. It would have been nice to stay, but as it was Thursday and I needed to be back by Sunday, I decided to move on. Crossing the Tisza (which by here is a major river), I saw a beautiful sunset. Laszlo directed me to a bike path and it was quite a tranquil one: I counted three foxes and five deers, they all darted away when they heard me coming. Incredibly how fast these animals are, especially when under pressure…
It wasn’t all too far to the Slovakian border, where I found a nice room in Velky Kamenec – actually, I had an entire house for Eur 12…