Just before we leave Austria behind we pull into a petrol station where it appears everyone else going over the border is filling up, buying a Hungarian motorway pass and changing money over. There are lengthy queues for fuel and a horrendous line for a motorway pass from a small shed behind the petrol station. We split up and join the queues. After about 30 minutes standing in the heat behind some of the most unfortunate looking Italian men I am ever likely to come across (short, round and hairier than the average bear), it is my turn at the counter. The girl does not have 'campervan' or 'motorhome' in her vocab so I quickly switch to 'car' and hope the motorway charge is the same. We also swap €250 for $20,000 forint which makes us feel rich beyond our wildest dreams!
The remainder of the drive continues smoothly until we're in the rough suburban streets of Budapest trying to find our campground using the directions from Google maps as the sat nav doesn't have maps for Hungary. Lost, we pull into a petrol station and buy a massive street map of the city. We're not far from our destination, so back on track we are soon pulling onto the street where our campground is. Or where we expected it to be - the street given as the campgrounds' address is devoid of any campground. We drive up the street and down the street. We come to the definite conclusion that there is no campground here. We decide to try the other street of the same name as that given for the address of the camp. We're hopeful it will be there, as the location of the street seems to coincide with a camping symbol on our newly acquired map. Though there is a niggling doubt that the two streets of the same name are both on the Buda side of the city, whilst the camping book describes the campground as being in Pest...
On our drive north from the southern suburbs to the northern side of town, we come across a campground and decide not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Whilst we're a little reluctant as the facilities don't look too flash and the ground has seen better days, the camp's staff confirms to us that yes; the ground we were looking for is on the other side of the city. This pretty much decides it for us, as getting lost in the 37 degree heat has frayed the nerves and tested the tempers somewhat.
For the first time, despite the fact we are staying more than one night, we have to pay upfront and its $20,000 forints which is a bit tricky. Lucky we swapped that money over, as now after buying the map and paying for the campground we are skint!
We get a bit of a giggle to find we're at the same site as a busload of Topdeck and Contiki with their little tent city occupying the camp. There are no set sites, it's just a free for all on areas beneath the trees, taking as much room or as little as you fancy and parking whichever way you fancy too. This must be paradise for the Italians, no site to manoeuvre into. But with the free rein, they still manage to require about 3 assistants to help them back into a chosen spot and still make it look awfully hard!
We park under the trees to get some shade. Parked up we immediately head to the small supermarket just down the road for some cold beers to help with the cooling down process! We then spend the remainder of the afternoon in camp cooling ourselves and Betty down from the high 30's to something more manageable.
The following morning we grapple with the showers, no doors, just old fashioned shower curtains here, a perverts delight. And the pressure is surprisingly strong so it gets a good wind going rendering the shower curtain useless as it flaps and blows in the breeze. There's no protecting your modesty here. The saving grace is that the water, which starts promisingly hot, quickly turns less than, so you're in and out with only the necessities washed. Saving water is good for the planet right?
Showers over we head out across the street from camp where the staff tell us we'll be able to buy train tickets for the train to town. The train stop doesn't look its sold a ticket any time this decade. So we jump on and take our chances, ticketless. What looks to be a golden run into town is halted by spotting what appears to be a ticket inspector making his way slowly down the crowded carriage. When the train stops at the next station we jump off (as do a surprising number of other people!) and buy tickets. We jump back on the next train and arrive into town soon after. The proximity to town is the saving grace of the overpriced and outdated campsite.
In town after marvelling at a $10,000 note and admiring the beautiful waterfront Parliament on the far (Pest) side of the river (said to be modelled on London's Westminster) we head over the river to Pest. We take advantage of the persistent hop on, hop off bus reps and take a map of the city. We stop for a cold drink in a supermarket, but struggle to find one. Plenty of drinks, but despite being in fridges they lack a certain chilled quality. Then we set off to walk the bus route to take in the main sights of the city. We strike off down Andrassy Ut, with its many grand 19th century buildings which are World Heritage listed and the fabulously grand Opera House, which is just gorgeous, both inside and out. Andrassy Ut is full of ritzy shops like the Emporio Armani Caffe; and we don't head into any of them! Eventually in the sweltering heat we reach Heroes Square and then cross over into Varosliget (the city park) and have our lunch beside the small lake around Vajdahunyad Castle.
We explore the grounds around the castle and then head for a look at the infamous Szechenyi Baths, a 19th century baths complex with more than nine indoor and outdoor pools, all completed in a cheery yellow. We take a look at everyone froliking in the water but don't join them, as it's quite pricy, at around $3000 ft.
Walking back through town, Ryan picks up some new jandals as he's worn holes in his old trusty pair! Further down the road he manages to part with the old pair, and we feel sure someone less fortunate will fish them out of the rubbish bin. Our walk back through town was meant to take us via some markets but they didn't eventuate where the map suggested so we carried on walking. After a stop in an air conditioned mall for more liquids we headed back out into the heat again. It was unbelievably hot, a fact reinforced by the army of vehicles the city had out spraying the roads with water to stop them melting. We're melting, what about us!?
We continued walking in the direction of home, and crossed onto Margithid Island, a leafy green oasis in the middle of the river. We come across a water fountain with the fountain spurting in time to classical music playing. We sat down on the edge of the fountain and let our weary feet dangle into the cool water before eventually dragging ourselves up and continuing down the island to its other end and catching the train the remainder of the way home. Phew, what a day! We must have walked miles in what was over 35 degrees. Somewhat hotter than you get used to in London! Or Auckland for that matter!
On our second day in Budapest we explore Buda. We kick things off by catching the funicular up the hill to the Castle Hill, where much of medieval Budapest is. We're only up the top for a short while before a shower of rain comes down and we have to dash for cover. We've gotten a little cocky after seven days without rain (our longest stretch to date!) and have left our umbrellas behind. Fools! The shower passes so we carry on with our sightseeing heading to the Halaszbastya or Fisherman's Bastion, an arcade built in 1905. We also see the Matthias church which has an amazing colour tiled roof, though, as per, there's scaffolding over some of the church. We wander along the hill exploring the small stores and stalls that are dotted about. One such store is selling paprika; sweet paprika, hot paprika, many types of paprika; a seasoning used with a heavy hand in Hungary.
We then head along the hill top to the Royal Palace where we explore the grounds before going down to the riverside again. We catch a tram south along the river before climbing Gellert Hill in what is again becoming quite a warm day. After puffing my way to the top we have great views of the city and see the Citadella fortress and statue at the top. The Buda side of the city has swarms more tourists than the Pest side and the day is hot, hot, hot again, but we've seen everything we wanted to now.
We're expecting to meet our flattie Ryan in Budapest today, but haven't heard from him so we hike back down the hill and head back to camp. Back at camp we're relaxing and debating as to whether to still expect our flattie to join us when we get a call from him. Ryan meets him in town and they get back to camp, reunited as 'team Ryan'. We pack up camp ready to leave early the following morning. Oh and in true kiwi style, he'd gotten drunk and lost his phone which is why we hadn't heard from him!
Ryan's first up in the morning and he's sitting on our bed when he notices that the front passenger door isn't shut properly. Investigating up front he finds the glovebox open and realises someones broken in. Outside the camper he finds my backpack open and discarded on the ground by the front wheel. This is not good. Panic ensues as we try and figure out what has happened and what has been taken. As we find my camera, passports and wallet (minus €40 in notes) we calm down a little. We find the ipod and stereo are still in the glovebox. We panic when we can't find Ryan's wallet which had been put up front, but then find it has been put in my bag. It too is intact, save for the few notes of Hungarian forint he had left.
It would seem that someone has broken in through the front passenger door and raided what they could get their hands on, but have only taken cash. We have our bank cards, licenses, passports, cameras and other gadgets. It could have been a lot worse. What is disconcerting is that it happened in the dead of the night and not one of us heard a thing. We figure it was probably a homeless person, seeing as only disposable cash has been taken. The camp is surrounded by road to two side with a crappy fence and bush between the campers and the road. Anyone could come through the trees and steal stuff from the campers.
Pissed off and probably a little frightened that it happened right under our noses and could have been worse, we drive Betty to empty her grey water. Thing have been going well with Betty but when we get out to empty her there is water everywhere. One of the clips on her hose from the grey water has rusted right through and the hose has come loose. Ryan 'long term borrows' a clip from the camp's water hose to fix Betty and the problem is quickly fixed and we're on our way.
The plan is to head south-east to the border of Croatia and see if we can buy third party vehicle insurance on a temporary basis, we've heard this is possible, so here's hoping its true. The plan is, if the insurance doesn't eventuate, we'll turn north and go through Slovenia, then up to Salzburg, then into southern Germany with 'other' Ryan staying with us for a week or so.
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