Hungary #2of2

Except Budapest

When we left Budapest to return to Austria, we drove on a different route than the one we used yesterday. The land in this area is more hilly, and we have seen several fields of sunflowers. A lot of the farming has been on a very large scale, government farms no doubt, but there were some little farms in between.

We have had beautiful weather. A little rain last night, but today’s weather is sunny. We drove past Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Europe. The southern shore is more of a resort area than on the north, where we drove. If we found a campsite, we would have spent the night, if we could be assured our short-time Visa would permit the extra night.

In the little town of Nagycenk, Hungary we saw a family of storks perched on the roof of a large building. The babies and mama were in the nest and papa proudly stood at the other end of the building. With the camera in hand, we slowly drove down the side-street to try for a good photograph. When I saw three eight to ten-year-old school girls walking along the street, just for fun I casually pointed the camera their way.

But I was frozen in my seat as these girls sprang in the air with arms, legs, lunch pails, school books, and pigtails flying in all directions, just like a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover. They were thrilled their picture had been taken, and I was so disappointed my finger was motionless, I hadn’t snapped that picture.

We stopped in the border town of Sopron and looked and looked for something to buy with the last of our Hungarian money. It’s worthless after we leave the country, and almost worthless here. Finally bought a small candy dish at an atrocious price.

About a mile from the border we were stopped by a guard who wanted to see our passports. Then we waited an hour for our turn to move into the Hungarian customs area. There was no reason for the delay, just policy. When it was our turn at the border, they only took a moment, opened a couple of drawers, and looked around inside the camper. We felt the Hungarian Border guard was more interested in the Dodge Cobra Van, than in what we had with us. In two days we had driven about 325 miles from Vienna to Budapest and back.