The Ham Nomads

14 Jul 2015. <HU> Budapest —

We had breakfast in the cafeteria section — not the alternative full restaurant — at Horti Pihenöhely, and then pulled out for Budapest. As we were leaving, we saw a group of four Russian semi-trailers get onto the highway before us, but we soon caught and passed them.

Hungary is in the middle of everything —
on the road into Budapest are turnoffs to
Slovakia, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia!

We got into Budapest with no troubles. Budapest is an old city with grand old buildings and clunky old trams! We found our way to a Prímagáz establishment to try to get our CampinGaz cylinders (finally) refilled. Oops! We had found the head office, and when Warren went up (having to provide a full ID check), he found that there was a high-level meeting going on in the board-room. But the receptionist was most helpful, and gave him a list of Prímagáz on-sellers. The nearest was about 15km away, but we set off for him. An interesting drive — 10km of it was along the banks of the Danube, so we were already in tourist mode!

A boat passing the Liberty Bridge

Looking upriver to the Chain Bridge

The Hungarian Parliament Building

While we are looking at the Parliament House — apparently the third-largest in Europe —we must tell you a little story we heard here. Apparently an American tourist was being driven around the city. When they came to the Chain Bridge (the first suspension bridge in Europe), he asked what it was how long it had taken to build. The taxi driver told him "That's the Chain Bridge, and it was built in seven years". "Why," said the Yank, "it would have only taken six months in the States!" They then passed by another bridge, and the same question was asked. "That's the Liberty Bridge, and it took a year to build." "Why, in the States that would have taken about a month!" The driver was getting a little angry by them, but he kept his cool. Finally that were driving opposite the Hungarian Parliament Building and, you guessed it, the same question, to which the taxi driver replied "Sorry, I don't know — it wasn't here this morning!"

We got to the on-seller, to find it was a back-yard enterprise, and that he took a lunch break between 11am and 2pm. We had arrived at about midday! We were about to leave, to return later, when he pulled up. He was most willing to help, and ultimately filled 3 CampinGaz cylinders and one AyGaz we had left over from Turkey! We haz Gas! He was so pleased to see us, that he had his wife take a photo of him and Warren shaking hands, grinning, holding full cylinders of gas! (Sorry, we don't have a copy!)

We then went to a local Auchen shopping centre to do a four-day shop. We had lunch in the van, then walked over to the local Macca's for coffee — even though we're not overly fussed with the Macca's food, the McCafe coffee is as good as you'll get anywhere.

Then we drove to the campsite, Haller Camping, which is fairly close to the centre of Budapest — five stops on the Metro (from from Nagyvárad tér to Ferenciek tere), and you could even walk it if you were energetic! This is one of the busiest campsites we've been in — tents everywhere, vans, even buses. We followed a large van in through a side gate — it LOOKED like the main gate — and when we asked the gentleman at the gate where he wanted us to go, he said "Right where you are". So here we were!  And guess what —we ran into our travel friends David and Carole on our first night here.

Distance driven — today, 69 miles ( 111 km ); to date, 24,200 miles ( 38,946 km )