MOTORHOME TRAVELLERS' DIARY HUNGARY 2004

What follows are extracts from a diary we kept during our motorhome travels in Hungary during the summer of 2004. We had entered Hungary from northern Romania. After visiting Budapest, Eger and Tokaj, we continued into Slovakia and made our way back to the UK via the Czech Republic, Germany, Holland and a ferry from the Hook of Holland to Hull.

To read the diary of the journey through Romania which led into Hungary, click here.

8 September GILAU, Nr CLUJ, Romania to PUSPOKLADANY, Hungary Camping Arnyas 2,600 Fts (c €10.60) 147 miles

Before leaving, we drove back 9 miles towards Cluj to the Metro Cash & Carry, stocking up with food and warm pizza slices for lunch. Then we returned along E60, past Camping Eldorado, through the hills. People sold fungi at the wet roadside, as well as the usual souvenir stalls with baskets, pots, embroidery and weaving. It rained heavily all afternoon, with thunder rumbling in the surrounding mountains – the western edge of the Carpathians.

The Piatra Craiului Pass had hotels and plenty of space to park and brew up, before dropping out of the mountains into drier weather. Through the centre of crowded Oradea, we saw none of its famous Hapsburg architecture (though we did spot a new McDonalds).

The border was 90 miles from Camping Eldorado and it was busy when we arrived at 5.15 pm. We spent our remaining Lei on diesel at the border village (112.5 litres for just over £60), then exited Romania after a half-hour wait, with nothing to pay on either side. The Customs men came in and looked under the bed as we entered Hungary at Artand. Immediately, we appreciated the smooth roads and level crossings, though we missed the horse and carts.

The next town we came to, 40 miles along E60, had a campsite right on our route and we checked in for 2 nights. It was fairly busy with German-speakers, as it had an outdoor thermal bath and whirlpool!

9 September At PUSPOKLADANY, Hungary Camping Arnyas

Putting our clocks back an hour was a good start to a restful morning, enjoying the warm brown water of the thermal pool.

10 September PUSPOKLADANY to BUDAPEST, Camping Zugligeti Niche 4,270 Fts (c €17.40) 117 miles

Road 4 (E60) took us all the way to Pest (the flatter side of Buda-pest on the eastern bank of the Danube). It was surprisingly narrow for a road linking the capital with Debrecen and the Romanian border (for Oradea) but it did bypass the larger towns en route. We skirted Szolnok on a ring road to the south, across the Tisza, then past Cegled, with lunch in Monor (parked by an empty watermelon or dinnye stall).

Approaching Ferihegy (Budapest Airport), we missed a left-hand turn for the Ring Road and had to continue on an increasingly bumpy narrow road, eventually running out of signs and options. We regained the E60 with relief, thanks to our GPS, then spent 2 hours crossing the city in absurd traffic jams at every set of traffic lights. After long delays, squeezed between the tramlines and a bus lane (with sympathetic waves from the Brits on a Shearings Tour), we finally reached Margit-Hid (Margaret's Bridge) to cross the Danube to the hills of Buda. We tried to keep cool with choc-ices out of our freezer. We even made a pot of tea while waiting!

At last we reached Moskva Ter (Moscow Square) and found our way once more to Zugligeti Niche, a couple of miles to the north-west. There was heavy traffic all the way and an ominous sound from under our bonnet, which we took to be overheating.

Once installed in the space reserved for us at the busy little campsite (among a French convoy), we walked back down the hill to the shopping centre and ate at McDonald's. We rang our good friend Ian, who hails from Yorkshire but lives with Hungarian Judit in the Buda hills. We first met on a campsite in Edirne, when they were touring Turkey with Land Rover and tent – a meeting which led to our first visit to Zugligeti Niche, the nearest campsite to their home.

11/12 September At BUDAPEST, Hungary Camping Zugligeti Niche

A wonderful time as guests of Ian and Judit, who collected us in their Land Rover Discovery for a great day out. In Szentendre (St Andrew), a pretty town on the Danube 12 miles north of Budapest, we walked round the old centre, visited the amazing Marzipan Museum and snacked on delicious langos (large freshly fried doughnuts with sweet or savoury fillings). Continuing north, through wooded national park, we rejoined the Danube at Visegrad where, after flowing east from Esztergom, the river is turned south by the hills. We walked up to the ruins of the 13th century citadel (destroyed by Turks and then Habsburgs), perched high above the town. Declining to pay for the Torture Museum, we still had a splendid view for panoramic photos of the Danube Bend.

Following the river back to Budapest, we enjoyed a long evening of talking and eating – a feast of Ian's carrot soup, Judit's turkey casserole and a chocolate trifle. Ian showed us videos from his days as a Malaria Specialist - in Burma, Thailand and up the Amazon in Brazil - and gave us some medical advice for our forthcoming trip to India and Asia. All was quiet when we returned to Zugligeti Niche after midnight – barrier down and lights out at 10 pm!

The following day Ian and Judit made a return visit, enabling us to reciprocate their kindness with a meal and entertainment – a slideshow of our wedding in Greece, along with recent pictures of Romania and Australia. We said our farewells and promised to keep in touch.

13 September BUDAPEST to EGER, Hungary Autos Caravan Camping 2,760 Fts (c €11.25) 94 miles

We kept in touch with Ian very soon! On starting the engine, Barry found the fan belt had shredded and twisted all round the fan (that noise hadn't been overheating after all). We rang Ian to ask if he knew where to get a mechanic and he promptly came round himself. (As part of Budapest's Catastrophe Relief Team, he is just the man to know in emergency.)

Ian and Barry struggled to fit one of the spare fan belts we carry, eventually realising that it was too short and managing to get the second one on. After 2 hours' work (with copious coffee and digestive biscuits) we managed to leave, extremely grateful to Ian.

We found our way into the city and across the Arpad Bridge (despite a detour due to the absence of signs), then followed the M3, stopping at a large shopping complex (McDonalds, Praktiker, Metro, etc) to buy the required motorway toll-vignette at the Shell service station. It cost 1,270 Forints for the minimum 4 days – only later did we discover that we should have paid more for the 'Over 3.5 tons' category, so it's lucky that no-one stopped us to check! In fact, we only followed M3 as far as Fuzesabony, where we turned off for Eger, 10 miles north along roads 3 and 25.

The enormous campsite is north of the city on the left of road 25, just before a big new Tesco store on the right. We settled in among the trees, as far away from a Belgian convoy as possible, and rang to thank our hero, Ian.

14 September At EGER, Hungary Autos Caravan Camping

Internetting in Eger

A beautiful sunny autumn day, on which we caught up with writing and laundry. After lunch we walked about 5 miles, into and around Eger and back. There is a bus into the town, 160 Fts each way, but we enjoyed strolling in past blocks of flats above small shops and garages.

Eger is a lovely baroque town, famous for its Bull's Blood red wine, Egri Bikaver. We have explored it previously (Cathedral and churches, Camera Obscura, Castle, etc) and do not recommend climbing the spiral staircase to the top of the Turkish minaret to those with no head for heights!

In the centre we found ice creams and toilets in McDonalds (as ever), then Tour-Inform, who knew of no internet places – strange, as we went on to find 3 ourselves! Egres Est Café had one computer (already occupied), then the Broadway Café (next to the Baroque RC Cathedral, second only to Esztergom's in size) had a 'problem' with its terminals. Finally, we came across an internet room in an anonymous building near the minaret, where we had a very slow hour for 125 Fts (about 35 pence). We managed to copy our incoming emails onto a floppy disk before walking back.

Hungarian TV being utterly incomprehensible, we spent the evening reading (the true Victorian murder mystery 'Who Killed Charles Bravo' is our current favourite, very intriguing).

15 September EGER to TOKAJ, Hungary Pelsoczy Camping 2,565 Fts (c €10.50) 92 miles

After visiting Eger's new Tesco near the campsite (roast chicken, cakes, bread, veg, biscuits – wonderful!), we drove back through the town to road 3 and headed north-east to Miskolc, where we lunched in Praktiker's car park and bought some DIY bits.

After passing Szerencs, we turned off round the southern edge of the Zemplen hills (clad in vineyards) to Tokaj, home of Hungary's most famous wines. There is a quiet wooded campsite just over the Tisza bridge, on the left along the bank of the broad river. There were a couple of other motorhomes (French and German), but no convoys.

After a welcome pot of tea (it's still very warm), we walked back into Tokaj, where the Tisza meets the River Bodrog. A ruined castle stands on little island by the confluence. The baroque RC Cathedral is beautiful inside, but the shops and Tour-inform were closed.

Tokaj was just a short walk away and we took the opportunity to make phone calls and catch up with internet banking and answering emails, working from a small internet centre at the back of a wine shop (for about 80 pence an hour). We even bought some samples of 'the wine of kings and the king of wines' - Louis XIV – and a bottle of Palinka (plum brandy). Most Tokaj is sweet dessert wine, but Furmint and Haslevelu are drier.

We are planning a year round-the-world, starting with India in November, and made some progress with organising an MOT on our arrival in Hull, dental appointments, motorhome storage (at Milton Farm in Dorset) and Hertz car hire in Delhi. We got information on international driving licences, vaccinations, trains in Australia … what did we do before the internet?

18 September TOKAJ to SAROSPATAK, Hungary Tengerszem Camping 3,550 Fts (c €14.50) 27 miles

A few miles along road 37 to Sarospatak, a town with a lovely setting on the Bodrog in the Zemplen Hills, 7 miles from the Slovakian border. We made lunch in the coach park by the castle, then decided to stay another night in Hungary.

There are 2 campsites – a busy new one next to the thermal baths and a bigger, quieter one across the road, where we were the only guests! We walked back into town (about a mile along the banks of the Bodrog – beware mosquitoes!), spent our last few forints on bread (and paid the campsite in Euros).

19 September SAROSPATAK, Hungary to TATRY LOMNICE, Slovakia EuroCamp 424 SK (c €8.70) 194 miles