
So here I am in Lenti, a small spar town on the Slovakian border. We have had a really busy week, travelling a long way and it’s actually hard to believe that it is only a week since I wrote from Tokaj.
Our journey took us from Tokay south out across the Hungarian pustza (or prairie) towards the Hortobagy National Park, unfortunately as we are only in Hungary for a short time I had not been quite as conscientious with my reading as usual and had failed to discover that Thursday (20th August) was Constitution day and consequently a huge bank holiday. We got horribly stuck in traffic in the middle of nowhere surrounded by flat grass lands as far as the eye could see, thought it was roadworks, but in the end discovered it was the queue to get to the village we were aiming for. There was no way we would get the van through all the parked cars to the campsite so we decided to head on and get some miles under our belts. Out came the Hungarian camping map and we picked a random spot on the map. Martfu.
The random choice turned out be rather good as we had picked a thermal camping, basically a campsite attached to a thermal spa. As we drove in we weren't sure if it was open as there was not a caravan or tent in site, and our campsite book said that the spa was still under construction last year. Well it was open, just very quiet and we booked in for two nights of "wellness"! The facilities were luxury after some of the communal showering etc we have been subjected to in the Czech Republic, shiny new and spotlessly clean and I was in heaven! The only slight drawback was the heat. We arrived to 38 degree temperatures and as the site is new there was NO shade.(picture)
To recover from the heat we indulged in ice-cream and cool coca-cola in the campsite bar in the evening. On the TV they were showing the fireworks live from Budapest and they were amazing, definitely somewhere to be one August in the future.
After a day soaking in the thermal waters (which are brown and made my skin tingle - that’s good right?!), we continued our journey across the prairies, which became more and more reminiscent of the Midwest - strip towns along railway lines, truck stops, diners and ladies of dubious character stood around on the sides of the road - to Pecs.
Pecs was an interesting if slightly uneasy town. It is capital of culture in 2010 and has a lovely old centre, but also some very poor areas and people rummaging through bins just outside swanky bars. A city of contrast, where rich and poor extremes were much more obvious than anywhere else we have been so far in Eastern Europe. Having said that though we had a lovely few days here, the campsite was great, and we were lucky enough to catch a free classical music concert on Sunday night in front of the Cathedral. The Budapest Symphony performed Mahler’s 8th and I have to say I was surprisingly enthused, particularly by the 2nd movement.
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