We left Zagreb today and headed into Hungary. We had thought that converting the written Croatian language into a verbal form was difficult, in retrospect it was easy compared to the territory we were heading into. We took the route past Lake Balaton, through Nagykanizsa, Balatonkeresztur, and Szekesfehervar. Try getting your tongue around those puppies.
We went to the supermarket on our way out of town firstly for supplies and secondly to use up our Croatian currency. So around we went with a calculator to fine tune as much as possible, allowing a certain amount for the toll road on the first part of out trip. We even went without chocolate to maximize our spendage. The sad part was that we over estimated the tolls and when we went through we had 17 Kn left over, which was exactly the amount of the chocolate that we had forgone.
The border control into Hungary was the strictest so far. The first one to put a stamp on our passports and make us open up the boot. We’ve heard similar stories from others. An English guy staying here, touring by motorbike, was made to strip down everything off his bike and out of his pack, only to leave him with the job of packing it all up again. The first time he has experienced that.
Our introduction to being streetwise in Hungary was the warning sign for bikes, tractors, and horse and carts! Soon after this we passed what looked like a used car lot for Russian Tanks and Personnel carriers. Wouldn’t that be a cool souvenir to bring home?
The currency was a surprise. The conversion rate from NZD to HUF is 122.3, which means that 500 HUF is about 4 NZD. In common terms that means a Big Mac meal costs 1500 HUF, and when you get cash out of the eftpos machine, you get 20,000 HUF notes. Somehow that just seems wrong, but it does make you feel very rich … until you hand over big wads of cash in exchange for very little.
Apart from the currency and the language, Hungary is flat! The landscape that we drove through was either forested or cropped, with large fields of sunflowers looking like a sea of brilliant yellow in the sunshine. Our experience of Hungarian drivers is that they either drive through open road at 40kph or they pass you at 140kph, with nothing in between.
We spotted the Danube on our way into Budapest, and despite what we have been led to believe the Danube is not blue, it is more of a camouflage beige/brown. But it is very large, and quite impressive. Well it has to be to divide a city into two (Buda and Pest).
We found our Hostel, on the Pest side, but fortunately this wasn’t an omen. It was in a large 19th Century apartment building, which in its day I’m guessing was very fine, but I don’t think it has seen much maintenance since then. Fortunately these buildings were built to last, so it’s still holding up OK. The staff at these places always make up for the refinements in life that may be missing. The house rules on the wall gave us an indication of what to expect. As well as the usual, check-in and check-out times, etc, it had things like – If you smile nice to the receptionist she may make cook for you a Hungarian dish – We can suggest many places to go out, do not go to any strip bars unless you have 600 Euro for a drink – We do not serve breakfast, but we may surprise you with waffles in the morning, but leave some for others.
There are plenty of eating places around here (and strip bars) but I read a magazine article bemoaning the fact that it was hard to get Hungarian fast food anymore because KFC, McD, Burger King, and pseudo Turkish had taken over that corner of the market. We went for the pseudo Turkish for dinner, which was very nice, but we lost something in translation as I ended up with something completely different to what I thought I was ordering.
We went to the supermarket on our way out of town firstly for supplies and secondly to use up our Croatian currency. So around we went with a calculator to fine tune as much as possible, allowing a certain amount for the toll road on the first part of out trip. We even went without chocolate to maximize our spendage. The sad part was that we over estimated the tolls and when we went through we had 17 Kn left over, which was exactly the amount of the chocolate that we had forgone.
The border control into Hungary was the strictest so far. The first one to put a stamp on our passports and make us open up the boot. We’ve heard similar stories from others. An English guy staying here, touring by motorbike, was made to strip down everything off his bike and out of his pack, only to leave him with the job of packing it all up again. The first time he has experienced that.
Our introduction to being streetwise in Hungary was the warning sign for bikes, tractors, and horse and carts! Soon after this we passed what looked like a used car lot for Russian Tanks and Personnel carriers. Wouldn’t that be a cool souvenir to bring home?
The currency was a surprise. The conversion rate from NZD to HUF is 122.3, which means that 500 HUF is about 4 NZD. In common terms that means a Big Mac meal costs 1500 HUF, and when you get cash out of the eftpos machine, you get 20,000 HUF notes. Somehow that just seems wrong, but it does make you feel very rich … until you hand over big wads of cash in exchange for very little.
Apart from the currency and the language, Hungary is flat! The landscape that we drove through was either forested or cropped, with large fields of sunflowers looking like a sea of brilliant yellow in the sunshine. Our experience of Hungarian drivers is that they either drive through open road at 40kph or they pass you at 140kph, with nothing in between.
We spotted the Danube on our way into Budapest, and despite what we have been led to believe the Danube is not blue, it is more of a camouflage beige/brown. But it is very large, and quite impressive. Well it has to be to divide a city into two (Buda and Pest).
We found our Hostel, on the Pest side, but fortunately this wasn’t an omen. It was in a large 19th Century apartment building, which in its day I’m guessing was very fine, but I don’t think it has seen much maintenance since then. Fortunately these buildings were built to last, so it’s still holding up OK. The staff at these places always make up for the refinements in life that may be missing. The house rules on the wall gave us an indication of what to expect. As well as the usual, check-in and check-out times, etc, it had things like – If you smile nice to the receptionist she may make cook for you a Hungarian dish – We can suggest many places to go out, do not go to any strip bars unless you have 600 Euro for a drink – We do not serve breakfast, but we may surprise you with waffles in the morning, but leave some for others.
There are plenty of eating places around here (and strip bars) but I read a magazine article bemoaning the fact that it was hard to get Hungarian fast food anymore because KFC, McD, Burger King, and pseudo Turkish had taken over that corner of the market. We went for the pseudo Turkish for dinner, which was very nice, but we lost something in translation as I ended up with something completely different to what I thought I was ordering.
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