It feels weird to be on the road again after 7 days parked up. The last three days really rest days to recover from the heat and long days walking Budapest. We headed for Auchan a supermarket chain we had seen in Italy. They usually have cheap fuel so that was our intention. We pulled in and I went in to do a quick weekly shop. Coming out we headed for the fuel stop. Filling up we waited a few minutes for the payment booth to clear and then got in the queue. One from the payment booth and a car pulls up and blocks the barrier from the other side. All of a sudden this older couple jump out and start asking the guy in the car something. They then try to reverse into the barrier, effectively getting him to back up, leaving us nowhere to go. Jas on the horn and myself jumping out. The queue now growing behind us, the couple are like ” its ok we just want to swap payments” I don’t know what this means and now 20 cars are backed up behind us and most are out of their cars asking whats going on. 10 minutes later, the guy must have paid for them and they give him cash. If this happened in the UK you would have been lynched or horns would be going off. No everyone gets back in their cars and off they go. We arrived in the beautiful town of Visegrad today. Parked up below the 13th century castle and across the road from the Danube. The Royal Palace, or remains of it metres down the road. We are parked up for free in a one way street. Hoping for a couple of free nights, something that seems so bizarre now. Tomorrow a walk up to the castle as the view is supposed to be spectacular of the Danube. We are close to the Slovakian border and hope to cross over next week I now know why they sell loads of icecream in the supermarkets im talking a whole isle not couple of freezers. The heat here is crazy hot, still hitting into the 30’s daily. A few things we have learnt since being in Hungary. Bottled water, blue cap is fizzy, pink cap is still. I found this out by mistake and then had to check with a guy in Aldi who pointed it out as green is also fizzy. Most of the drinking fountains are ok to drink out of in most cities. Bread comes in every shape and size. They like to use paprika with nearly everything. Locals shopping generally take cane baskets and not many supermarkets have bags, so bring your own. The exception is they like to put bread in little plastic bags and you have to weigh and sticker your own veges. Corn here must be huge as nearly all fields are planted out. Watermelons today in the supermarket were so huge it would be a scene out of dirty dancing. They dont sell bags of popcorn only these popped corn things with paprika flavor. German is widely spoken here, more than english. So hand signals are great for gestures. Over all a few words in Hungarian will get you by.
Leaving Budapest for Visegrad
