First stop after crossing the border, a cash point. I
haven’t mentioned it since publishing the “Our First Three Months Motorhoming Across Europe: What did we learn” (bullet 7, "financials), but we
mostly (99%) pay our transactions in cash as it is cheaper (after paying
transactions on cards for a few weeks and paying different currency conversion rates by each retailer, we learnt our lesson). As we enter a
new country with a new currency such as Hungary, which uses the Hungarian
Forint, we quickly work out the equivalent of £1 or 1Euro and £10/10Euros and
withdraw the equivalent of 200Euros for a week. We noticed early on that
withdrawing the equivalent in pounds was often too much. In Hungary, we withdrew a little more as we
were staying ten days. Our Lonely Planet guidebook also have a handy key price guide to
use as reference including the cost of; petrol (1L), coffee (a cup), bread (a
loaf) and taxi ride (one journey).
Armed with money, we looked for a “Matrica” (vignette):10-days one for 2975Ft (approx. £7 or 9,50Euros). Vehicles driving on motorways
in Hungary such as Slovakia and Czech Republic need to display a vignette
(sticker) on their windscreen. We knew we’d only stay in the Central and
Eastern parts of the country, but weren’t sure if we’d use many motorways or if
we could avoid them. Rather be safe than sorry! We bought ours at an OMV Petrol
Station in Sátoraljaújhely. A lovely man in his coffee-burger-snack van outside
the Tesco supermarket told us where to get one in town. Yes, as mentioned in
our post; “Motorhoming with Family in South Germany and Czech Republic",Tesco
can be found in Eastern Europe. This may
change due to its recent financial turmoils.
With new country comes new free camping rules. Our Camping Card ACSI book
didn’t have any mention, but the Caravan Europe guide by the Caravan Club had the following note:
“Casual/wild camping is prohibited”. Jamie had read on forums that motorhomers
had wild camped in quiet places without being moved or even fined. Not wanting
to break the rules on our first night stay, we parked at the lovely Köbérc Pension in the village of Bozsva. During the time of our stay (1 & 2
July 2014), the pension only had three hook-ups for “homes-on-wheels” circled
by traditional bungalows. Luckily we were the only one there which meant we
could use one of the bungalows to shower and had all the space we wanted to
wonder around.
Here, we had our first and only taste of traditional
Hungarian food. An early dinner (the kitchen shut at 8pm), it was. With a
little patience and Google Translate (luckily Jamie had downloaded the
Hungarian language pack to use it offline; there was no wifi), we managed to
work out the Hungarian-only menu and order our dishes. Fresh, local and generous portions at a very
good price and served by lovely people; it was perfect. After a couple of
nights, we decided to move on as we only had ten days (i.e. Ten-days vignette).
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| Walking through Bozsva. |
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| Happy Jamie. |
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| Enjoying simple, nice food at the Köbérc Pension in Bozsva. |
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| A panoramic view of the camping space at the Köbérc Pension. |
We free camped without any problems for the next two nights.
En route, we visited the ruined castle, Boldogkö literally meaning “Happy rock”.
It had a couple of dark cave rooms with displays of tools and equipments and
torture instruments of the time. A slick modern upper area contained miniature
model representations of battles that happened during the castle’s life (between
13th and 16th century, after that the castle started to fall into ruins). One
of the best parts, for us, was its long wooden walkway to the castle’s
watchtower where we enjoyed a 360-degree view of the Zemplén Hills, the Hernád valley
and vineyards. (The visit costs 2,400Ft: 1,000Ft parking fee and 700Ft each to
visit the ruins)
The next morning, Jamie and I were looking forward to a nice
sauna and, maybe, massage at Júlia's Fürdö (baths) in Nyíregyháza.
Unfortunately, massage slots were all booked, its big sauna only opened in
three hours time (1pm) and swimming was out of the question as swimming caps
were mandatory! Some things do need a little more planning than others, don’t
they? We still enjoyed the steam room and hot baths and made full use of its
shower. (It costs 5,600Ft: approx.
18Euros or £13).
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| The amazing view. |
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| Obstruction! |
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| The next day, we walk to Júlia's Fürdö (baths) in Nyíregyháza. |
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| Farmlands en route to our wild camping spot. |
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| Our free camping spot on the edge of the Hortobágyi National Park. Parked on a track off the white road linking Rd 33 and 34. |
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| Inside the van, updating our spending and camping log spreadsheets. |
Our travelling journey is dotted with special places we
stayed at; places we’ve loved and enjoyed the most whilst being on the road.
Most of these “special places” are so-called “special” not just because of
their surroundings, but of their owners. Chy-Kara Camping (click on the link to read our review) was one of them. After
reading its review on Google maps, we decided to give it a go. Half way through
its dirt track, desperately trying to avoid the unavoidable branches and big
stones, we wondered if we had made the right choice. As soon as we made our
approach, Jay; one half of Chy-Kara, came to help Jamie park whilst I got a
glimpse of its beautiful small farm. We knew then we’d made the right choice.
We were in Yorkshire-hands too! Jay is from Sheffield (UK),
his partner; the other half of Chy-Kara, Annemieke from The Netherlands. They
showed us around their farm and lovely “tanjas” (traditional Hungarian farmhouse) and
price list. Even though the price was a little bit higher than what we would
usually pay if staying at a campsite, we already had fallen in love with the
place and its people. We only stayed three nights, but made the most of it.
On Jay’s recommendation, we cycled to one of the region’s
popular “beaches” on the river Tisza. After a long ride (about 1h30 to the free
ferry and another 30minutes to the beach) through Pusztaszer and Ópusztaszer in
the Summer heat (the hottest day we experienced that Summer), we joyfully
dunked ourselves in the cool waters of the river. The sandy banks were very hot
too reminiscent of childhood Summer days in the South East of France where one
had to run in the water to avoid burning their feet. It really was Summer, the
traditional bungalows on stilts were opened, their occupants airing bed sheets
and carpets on washing lines, the few cafes were busy with local tourists and
kids buying ice creams. (Access to the beach is not free, it costs 100Ft each;
approx. £0,50 or 0.64Euros)
Being the only ones staying at Chy-Kara meant we got Jay and
Annemieke’s full attention. It almost felt like they were looking after us. We
spent our last night talking and drinking (wine and beer) until the wee hours
of the morning. Annemieke and Jay told us about their lives; living in Hungary,
building their bungalows/traditional “tanjas” and opening their
B&B/Campsite, their families and travels. It was nice to hear about their
love and passion for their farm, Hungary and its people. It was inspiring to
hear their story. Hungover, it was even harder to say goodbye to our wonderful
hosts. As a good luck travel gift, Annemieke gave us a basket-full of her own
farm-grown vegetables. If one day we were brave enough to open and run our own
place, Jamie and I both would want to make our guests feel at home like Jay
& Annemieke made us feel.
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| Chy-Kara Camping and B&B. |
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| Late afternoon walk to the nearest village, Pusztaszer. |
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| Farmlands separate Chy-Kara with Pusztaszer. |
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| Next day, setting off on our bike ride to the river Tisza "beach resort". |
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| A lovely common sight in Eastern Europe; poles or lamp posts adapted for storks' nesting. |
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| Much needed water after a few kilometres riding in the 40 degrees heat! |
It didn’t seem not so long ago that we’d done our last MOT
(December 2013). Technically, we didn’t need to go back home until December
2014. However, after thinking hard about where we wanted to go in the next
year, we realised that we were best stopping in the Summer to have a full year
ahead. Our aim was to visit Turkey and Greece; two big countries to explore.
Too hot to visit in the Summer, we concluded that we’d only have about three
months (September to beginning of December) to explore them. If we were to go
in September, however and not go back home in December, we wouldn’t feel so
rush and have time to enjoy living in places for longer periods of time. The
only thing was that we wouldn’t come back home for Christmas.
We didn’t rule it out at first. We thought that I could fly
out if we’d find a nice place for Jamie to stay somewhere. But leaving him in
an unknown country for Christmas didn’t feel right. We’ve always spent
Christmas apart since we’ve been together (12 years) so the idea to spend it together
for the first time was very appealing. We decided to take the decision later
and concentrate on what we needed to do; contacting family and friends and make
necessary bookings and appointments (ferry, garage, dentists, etc.)
For the moment though, Jamie had read nice
comments and stories about camping in Romania on online forums. So we decided
to spend two weeks to discover Romania before heading back home. It wasn’t long
enough to go in the Eastern parts of the country, but enough to explore areas of the Western
and Central regions; Crişana & Banat, Transylvania and Wallachia.
To be continued...
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