I've been 'umming' and 'ahhing' for the past couple of months about what to write for my first blog, and as I've just come back from a lovely holiday in my Dad's native country of Hungary, I thought I'd share my holiday experiences with the world!
However, this wasn't just any holiday...WE WENT IN THE CAR! (argh!). I've done this trip twice before..and I vowed to never do it again, but I found myself sat in my Dad's car on Sunday 21st July, at 9.38 in the morning....Hungary here we come!!!
At 11.20 we stopped at Watford Gap Services as my Dad had a flat tyre. I already wanted to cry, we couldn't even get out of England without any problems! At 2.00 we arrived at the Dartford Crossing and at 15.36 we finally reached the Channel Tunnel..hello France, goodbye England!
At 17.02, we arrived in Calais...Bonjour France! We travelled through France and I kept myself occupied with those celebrity magazines which are all full of the same rubbish, but which at the same time I still love and am addicted to! We arrived in Belgium at 7.00, where a toilet stop and 'fag stop' (for my aunty) was well overdue, and were lucky enough to witness a beautiful sunset.
By this time, I'm not going to lie, I was fed up of travelling and I was definitely ready to settle down to sleep! We arrived in Germany at 11.25 and we were planning to find somewhere to sleep for the night. My Dad has been doing this journey for years, but even professionals get lost sometimes!;). We took the wrong turn at Aachen when looking for Köln, but thanks to my 'expertise' of the roads of Germany (joking haha!) we found the right turn and we eventually, one hour later, ended up at a service station and I treated myself to a good old traditional German sausage and chips, and a donut! A few kilometers down the road we finally found a motel/hotel, 'Siegburg West'. I was absolutely shattered, so God only knows how bad my Dad felt! We settled down for the night at 1.24 and it wasn't until the morning that me, my Mum, my aunty and my Dad all saw how beautiful this little motel/hotel actually was!
We had our breakfast at the services and I had a cup of tea (my all time favourite!), a donut again! and this amazing little pot of Nutella and biscuits, 'Nutella & Go', I was in love! After many a stop in Germany, we FINALLY, (after suffering a horrible, tiring day with weather reaching 42 degrees in Germany) arrived in...Austria! With it being the last country before Hungary I was actually getting really excited, we were within touching distance now! We were driving through the night on Monday, with no motel stops, and because of this we were lucky enough to witness a lit up pylon near Vienna, well those of us who were awake were!
To be completely honest, I really can't remember much of the journey from this point. We reached the Hungarian border at 11.24 and I know this because there was a huge hotel there called 'Paprika'! It made me feel a little better that it was only 6 hours and roughly 200/300 miles left to go! Even though the weather was boiling outside, we had the air conditioning on in the car and I was rudely awoken with the information that there was no toilet at this service (which I had needed since we last stopped) and also that they didn't have any 'normal' tea. Without my tea, I am ashamed to admit that I am not a happy girl!! Once again, I fell asleep, and this time I was happy to be woken up when we reached Tiszaörs. It was 4.46am and every single dog was barking as we drove down the street. My Dad opened the gates to his house..home sweet home!
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So, what can I tell you about Hungary?! One word, hot, hot, HOT! Some days it was even too hot to do anything, literally, even too hot to sunbathe! It even got up to 45 degrees one day, but I still managed to get myself a bit of a tan, together with lots of annoying, itchy mosquito bites!
On day 3 of
the holiday, we'd all just about recovered from the journey and so we paid a
visit to 'Aggtelek' national park to see the caves, next to the Slovakian border. The day
didn't start off brilliantly as I had a headache and so we left late (it's
always my fault), but not only that, we thought that the journey would take 1
hour, but in the end it took 3, THREE HOURS! I found it quite funny but no one
else seemed to be impressed! We had dinner in a lovely restaurant and then went
inside the cave. Some facts for you about the cave: it is 24km long and when
we were inside there was 200m of rock above us! Whilst inside, we were just 2km from the Slovakian border however it was absolutely freezing and we were
inside there for an hour, the temperature dropped to under 10 degrees! The rock
inside the cave takes 300 years to grow ONE CENTIMETER, mad! Nonetheless, I
loved it and it was an amazing experience, it was so pretty inside.
The next few
days consisted of chilling. We went to the swimming pool in Berek and I tried
my very hardest to catch some rays! We went to a gorgeous little restaurant
next to the river Tisza, however we were all eaten alive by mosquitoes, but
this definitely didn't ruin the night! We also went to visit my great aunty Marica
in Szolnok, about 1 hours drive away. Also, on one of the hottest days of the
whole holiday I went on a motorbike ride with my sister Jeanette, I loved it!
If I was brave enough I'd definitely learn how to ride a motor bike myself!
Day 9 was
probably my favourite day of the whole holiday! We parked up in the 'Valley of
the Beautiful Women' at Eger, a city which is very important historically to
Hungary. We then caught a 'road train' to the castle and were able to see a lot
of the city.
After
dinner in a lovely little 'castle garden' restaurant, where I had the traditional
Hungarian dish 'Goulash' served in a mini cauldron, we went up to the castle.
When I say castle, I mean what's left of it! The castle was where the 'Siege of
Eger' took place, when the Turks invaded Hungary with the desire of expanding
their Turkish Empire. This photo shows an image from the battle:
We walked
around the castle ruins, up the various castle walls and admired the beautiful
view. It was such a hot and sunny day so we didn’t stay too long up there; I
loved every minute of it!
The
next day, my brother Richard, his wife Gemma and my little nephew Stanley
arrived, together with Gemma’s sister Adele and her son Dylan. The last 4 days
of my holiday were mainly spent playing with Stanley, and my brother spent ages
putting up a big swimming pool in the garden which we all enjoyed!
My
holiday in Hungary soon came to an end, and to be honest I was very sad to
leave! But one thing’s for sure, I was NOT at all sad to turn my back on the
horrible mosquitoes! Hungary is definitely calling me, and I will be back soon
to enjoy its hot weather, yummy food and amazing cities!!
