December 10, 2013
The rest of Hungary: My own little bike-about
They say that everything happens for a reason and I, for one, believe them, whoever they are. Take, for example, my ridiculous adventures in the Budapest night from a couple of blog posts ago. What possible reason was there for that nonsense in the grand scheme of things? Well, here's one rather awesome outcome - my desperate plea on the popular social network site, Facebook.com, for a bed in Budapest was spotted by none other then Keith Hallagan of Bike-about fame. Keith, who I had met once before in Edinburgh, by sheer chance and fate happened to be in Budapest and responded asking if I would like to meet. Our conversation in Edinburgh had been cut short by me leaving to cycle around the world but I should have very much liked to have continued it, and now was that chance.
Unfortunately bad things happened on my way to meet Keith. First of all one of the clips on my panniers which was not broken before and therefore not replaced at the bike shop took just this moment to decide to break. 'Really quite brilliant timing little clip dude' I thought as I whipped out the old reliable cable ties. After that I managed to get quite hideously lost. I cannot remember ever becoming so completely disorientated in a city before, so much so that I was at one point heading west when I wanted to go east and finally went around in a circle. Even when I figured out where I was I cycled past the cafe where we were supposed to be meeting. By the time I did find it I was really rather late. My shame was at least offset by the fact that last time Keith had been the one to keep me waiting.
For those of you who don't know and who couldn't be bothered to click on the word Bike-about up there, Keith cycled from the UK to New Zealand a few years back and wrote a really rather good blog about it. You can find it by clicking on the word Bike-about. In fact I read some of this blog back in 2009, about the same time that Anja was lending me 'On the Road' and making me watch 'Into the Wild' and reading Bike-about probably convinced me that a long bike tour was the way I wanted to see the world. So Keith is at least partly to blame for all this too, it’s not all Anja's fault. Anyway, Keith and I managed to live in the same city for about five months before we realised we were living in the same city and therefore didn't meet up until my last day in Edinburgh. Our conversation then had made me wish we had met earlier, for he is a tremendous guy and I think we could talk for days about bikes and things without noticing the time pass. This time I also got to meet his girlfriend, Lydia, but our conversation together was all too brief. They had been in Budapest for four days but had to catch a flight back to Edinburgh and had to leave after just half an hour or so. I found it curious to think that I had left Edinburgh six months earlier and travelled non-stop all that time, and yet they would be back there in a matter of hours. Its a strange world so it is. Anyway, long story short, I had a brief catch up with Keith and it was great.
Then it was time for me to get back on the bike and start heading north-east (I know its December but come on, Ukraine is a country!) Getting out of Budapest was frankly rather stressful because the city seemed to stretch on forever. I say it 'seemed' to because this effect was greatly exacerbated by my desperate desire to pee, something which city outskirts make annoyingly difficult to do. But before too long (before my bladder actually physically burst at least) I was out of the city and flying along country roads and able to relieve myself (not both at the same time!)
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The rest of Hungary was truly magical. For the first time in a long time I was breaking free from bicycle paths and bicycle routes. I was getting off the beaten track, off the tourist trail and into the heart of the real Hungary at the same time. The roads were quiet and wonderful and I was plotting my own route now, from village to village. These were magnificent places, with smoke pouring from the chimney pots and old ladies talking with heads covered by shawls and old men on bicycles carrying home the firewood and this was real life. That is the great thing about winter touring - life doesn't stop in winter, these people live here all year round and this is it, this is the absolute beating core of the world, people getting by, making the best of it. These villages were so great, so amazing, these roads, I can't find the words, I loved it, I loved every minute.
Today's ride: 165 km (102 miles)
Total: 10,681 km (6,633 miles)
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