Kektura: Eger to Sarospatak

Eger in Hungary is not to be confused with Eger in the Czech Republic. Eger is the Hungarian name of the town which in German used to be called Erlau. And the "winos" might know "Erlauer Stierblut" or "Bull's blood from Erlau", a usually rather mediocre wine. And as you might deduct from that: I was in wine country here which led to a another meal in a restaurant accompanied with two glasses of wine. Eger' main attraction is this minaret still dating back to the Ottoman reign in Hungary. The Turks had occupied parts of Hungary for 150 years - from 1541 to 1699. So this minaret is the Northernmost minaret of the former Ottoman Empire! You can even walk up to the top. Eger also boasts Hungary's second largest cathedral. My favourite attraction though were the thermal baths again. It is just absolutely wonderful to soak in 36 degree hot water after a long hike! Going to the thermal baths is a very social activity here in Hungary: Most people come in groups of friends and hang out for hours in the hot pools. Some even sleep in the water or play chess on swimming chess boards.

It was now getting close to November 1st - All Saints Day which is a national holiday in Hungary and apparantly a very serious business. Wherever I went cemeteries were lit be hundreds of candles and decorated with white and yellow Dahlia. And most Hungarians took advantage of the holiday to travel on a long weekend. Usually I did not see anyone in the forests but now again loads of people were on a hike - but no one was camping! I was now hiking in the Bükk mountains -another small and beautful mountain range in Northern Hungary offering great views. Who can say now that Hungary is flat?

Next was Aggtelek National park which is famous for its huge caves. The cave system is 26 km long and stretches from Hungary into Slovakia. The main caves can be visited by guided tour only but there are several smaller caves that can be explored on your own. I took a one hour tour and was amazed. Although I have seen several quite spectacular caves the Aggtelek stalactite cave really impressed me. One spectacular cave after the other - each one bigger and bigger. One cave is even used as a concert hall although due to the "dripping" environment the chairs are made out of plastic. And you better dress up warmly for the concert as the temperature in the cave is only 10 C year round. During the tour pompous Hungarian rock music is played while the different stalactite groups are colorfully illuminated. Quite a tacky experience but I still liked it. Although the village of Aggtelek is a very touristy place full of hotels and holiday apartments there was not a single restaurant open at night. I had to eat noodle soup Hungarian style on my gas stove....

After Aggtelek you hike through Gypsy country. There are Roma people all over Hungary but many are concentrated in this region. The poverty they live in is shocking. You realized at once when you were in the "Roma" section of a village: Garbage everywhere, stray dogs and run down houses that would be classified as ruins in Germany with laundry hung up for drying. And lots and lots of little children on the roads. Most villages here are "mixed", but in some villages only Roma people were left. 

After Aggtelek National Park the landscape got flatter again and more agricultural but still offered some great views. Although the weather was still very sunny during the day temperatures dropped well below freezing every night. Combined with very little daylight and long hours in the tent this made camping very uncomfortable. Therefore I spent the last week on the trail mostly in accommodation and really enjoyed it. Each place was nice and special and my Hungarian hosts offered great hospitality. One time I was greated with a little bottle of Schnaps, another time I was offered a bowl of Gulasch soup. Many places were heated with wood stoves - and it is just great to relax next to such a stove after a long day of hiking. 

My hike ended just in time - the day after I finished brought a torrential rain..... I decided to finish in Sarospatak instead of Satoraljaujhely. The two towns are just something like 10 km apart, but Sarospatak offered a thermal bath and Satoraljaujhely didn't. And then when I had arrived in Sarospatak after a last day of 30 km hiking I was too tired to go to the baths.... I guess it had really been time to finish my hike!

Kektura: Danube to Eger

Then the mud started... Although it had not rained for several days many trails were still a muddy desaster. Every Hungarian farmer seemed to be in the forest to harvest wood and the heavy vehicles had destroyed the trails. Sometimes grazing cattle had helped them....  I was more slipping and sliding than walking and was carrying an extra kilogram of weight on each shoe. On steep slopes the mud was downright dangerous. I don't want to describe how I and my clothes looked these days....

But there were creatures who definitely enjoy this kind of terrain. When I first saw these pigs I did not trust my eyes: Wooly pigs??? But Wikipedia taught me that I had not had an epiphany. These wooly pigs are called Mangalica and they are a Hungarian pig breed that is supposedly a delicacy of white meat with very little cholestorol. I cannot tell you more because I never had chance to try it. These robust beasts can live outside year round. I still wonder what you do with the wool....

These two gentlemen were a surprise encounter one foggy morning. One turned out to be a German hunter who comes to Hungary for many years to hunt deer, wild pigs and mufflons. I was not surprised: Every day I had seen wild life: dozens of deer including a very rare white Albino deer and several mufflons which look strangely out of place here..... Next to him is the Hungarian forester who confirmed what my guide book and Balazs had already told me: Wild camping is legal in Hungary - a fact that made my hiking life in Hungary really easy!

 Hiking was very beautiful now: the weather was sunny most days and I experienced an Indian summer. Almost all forest here is decidouos forest and the therefore the changing of the leaves was a colourful spectacle that reminded me a lot of the AT. I passed through the old village of Hollokö which is classified as UNESCO world heritage. Unfortunately, I did not see much of it because it was already dark when I arrived and still dark when I left in the morning. I had rented another holiday apartment there and the check in and check out process tells you much about Hungary. The owner called me to inquire when I would arrive. Because he would have left then already he left the apartment open and the key in the door. When he heard that I would have left in the morning before he could arrive for cleaning he told me to just leave the money on the table. We both did as promised... 

 I was now traversing the Matra mountains a very scenic little mountain range where Hungary's highest mountain is located: Kekes with 1014 m. I ascended on a long ski slope and was a bit disappointed with the rather unassuming summit. But there was a very touching little monument on top: This memorial for deceased motor cyclist who had died in motor bike accidents. Photos of smiling young men where everywhere - and several motorcycle helmets. Even when I was taking this picture of this sad place a couple on a motor bike approached to pay its last respects to the deceased.

I continued on and made the mistake to not set up camp in time. I ended up contouring around very steep mountain slopes in complete darkness - no flat spot for my tent whatsoever. Eventually I came to a view point where there was just enough flat space for my little tent. Very much relieved I set up camp and was rewarded with a gorgeous view and sunrise in the morning!

I continued in beautiful fall weather to my next rest day in Eger.

Kektura: Budapest to the Danube

I and Balazs

My zero day in Budapest was a real highlight of this trip and this is mainly due to this guy: Balazs. He is the only Hungarian who has thruhiked the AT so far and he had found me through my blog. When I had posted here that I was planning to hike through Eastern Europe he had offered me his help and invited me to stay with him and his wife in Budapest. I very happily accepted his offer and met in Budapest Nyugati train station. We immediately connected well - no surprise with two thruhikers! Eventually I had found someone whom I could ask all the questions I had about Hungary - and Balazs answered them all very patiently.

Dessert at Getto Gulyas

And he took me to two really cool places: First we went to Rudas spa, thermal baths right in downtown Budapest. From the hot tub on the roof of the building you can look down onto the Danube and the bustling city while soaking in 36 C water! In the evening Balazs treated me to dinner in a very hip place called Getto Gulyas. "Getto" because it is located in the old Jewish ghetto and "Gulyas" because it serves traditional Hungarian food. The serve a stew made out of roosters' testicles and combs! I did not dare to order that (which I now regret) but had at least bone marrow on toast as a starter.

View from Dobogo-Ko (699 m)

I left Budapest on a Friday and decided to shortcut the Kektura a bit which makes a big loop down to the outskirts of Budapest. The area north of Budapest is downright hilly, very pretty - and was swarming with people on a sunny weekend. In two days I saw more people than on the entire Kektura before and after!

Danube at Visegrad

And the weather continued to be nice when I crossed the mighty river Danube on ferry full with Hungarian cyclists and Japanese tourists with selfie sticks. I detoured a bit from the Kektura to follow the river - first high above on the river banks and than later on the Danube bike path. And I started thinking again of my plan to paddle the entire Danube one day.....

Kektura: Lake Balaton to Budapest

Although only October Lake Balaton was practically deserted. There were endless rows of holiday apartments and and they were seemingly empty. Waiting out the rain in front of a Lidl I met a fellow German who owns a summer house here and he gave me some interesting insights. Before the wall came down in 1989 tourism was booming here in Hungary because this was one of the few places where East and West Germans could meet. But ever since tourism is declining and hotels are empty - even in high season. We chatted a bit and then I left - trusting the weather report that had forecasted only a bit of rain.

Unfortunately it was totally wrong. Rain poured down for hours and I was soaking wet when it got dark. Luckily there was one of the very rare shelters at the end of this day and I set up my tent underneath it. Next morning I had to realise that my clothes were inappropriate for that kind of weather -  I had to buy some more stuff or I would suffer from the cold. In the  next market town I entered a trendy fashion boutique and the poor sales girl must have thought she had an epiphany: I came in dripping with water, wearing a blue trashbag as a skirt and gesticualting around my head. But she quickly understood - and after five minutes I left the shop with this warm wool hat!

Zirc was my destination for a rest day: the town boasts a huge monastery. Although the monastery and especially its library was impressive I was more fascinated by its recent history. During the Communist regime the monks were deported to prison and the abbott even tortured. He spent the rest of his life in prison and never saw his monastery again. The buildings were uninhabitable when the monks returned in 1990 to restore the monastery. My personal highlight though was the holiday apartment I had rented for my short stay: it had three bedrooms, one kitchen, one dining room, one living room and a huge bathroom with this bath tub. Of course I did not need such a big place but nothing smaller was available - and the whole palace just cost me 25 EUR! 

I now got closer and closer to Budapest - and the flat landscape became hillier and hillier. This picture is taken from Nagy-Gete at an altitude of 457 m.... the last 100 m were really much steeper than you would expect from such a flat country! From here I descended to the industrial town of Dorog and took the train to Budapest.

Kektura: Köszeg to Lake Balaton

Sopron

I started my hike on October 3rd, directly after a presentation I had given in Germany. Thanks to Deutsche Bahn I arrived much later than expected in Sopron where I had planned to spend my first night in Hungary. As I had breakfast in a little park in town I was approached by a talkative old man who praised Germany in German: "Germany is the best country in the world. Angela Merkel is a great women." and so on. Apparantly he had once lived in Germany. And soon it became apparent why he was so talkative: He wanted some money. I tried to offer him some grapes I was just eating, but no luck. "The town is full of grapes but I need money to buy beer...." I gave him two Eur and he happily left. By the way: This was the only time in Hungary I was begged for money.

Balaton Bumm on the right

I was excited to do my first resupply in Hungary at a Lidl  and immediately discovered some interesting Hungarian specialties: The Hungarian type of Top Ramen Noodle soup with Gulasch flavour and a candy bar called Balaton Bumm! The noodle soup was ok but Balaton Bumm became one of my favourites - what a name! Then the hiking started at Köszeg at the Austrian border with some more positive surprises: The trail was incredibly well marked and there was forest everywhere. Free camping was dead easy!

Maria Ut portal

Unfortunately, the weather did not quite cooperate in this first week - it rained a lot and out came my favourite blue garbage bag as a rain skirt. This photo shows me under the "portal" of Maria Ut or Maria Trail, a pilgrimage trail that traverses the whole of Hungary on its way from Romania to Mariazell in Austria, a major pilgrimage town. Maria Ut more or less parallels the Kektura for long stretches and I used it various times for short cuts or detours to resupply. Other than most pilgrimage trails I know it is real hiking trail that stays in the woods most of the time.
In Sümeg I escaped the cold weather and ventured into my first Hungarian restaurant. Although it was a rather upscale place the prices were very reasonable for German standards and I was delighted to discover that a glass of wine costs less than 1 EUR! Not to mention the delicous deserts of which I ate two generous portions. That combined with two glasses of wine made hiking relatively easy for a while...
The landscape in this section is rather uneventful: Lots of forest and mostly flat - a rather pleasant than exciting hike.

"To" means lake and "Fürdö" is a bath

But a real highlight was soon to come: Heviz, a spa town which boasts the world's largest natural and active thermal lake. Even in the coldest winter the water temperature here never drops below 24 degrees C and on this balmy day in October I was swimming in 32 degree C water! The lake and the entire spa complex is plain huge. It attracts a mainly older clientele and despite having been renovated it still exudes some sort of Soviet-style elegance. The water has a strong sulphuric smell and it takes a while to get used to the slimey algae that cover everthing but it still was a very pleasant experience.  

Kektura - a thruhike of Hungary

My hiking season has not ended yet - I'll be on another trip in October. And it will be a rather exotic destination: Hungary which is usually not really on the European hiking agenda. But Hungary boasts of one the oldest European long-distance hiking trails, the Blue Trail or Kektura as it is called in Hungary. In roughly 1000 km it traverses the entire country from East to West. Although very few Western European hikers know about it this trail is extremely popular in Hungary itself. And fall is one of the best seasons to hike there! I am extremely curious what is waiting for me there!

E1: Denmark to Gothenburg

I have hiked this 380 kilometre long stretch in summer 2015 together with a friend for whom it was his first long hiking trip. After an overnight bus trip from Berlin we started at a windy morning in Gothenburg centre. I had been here the year before at the end of my paddling trip and could therefore lead us directly into the only cheap and vegetarian restaurant in the city centre for a last decent buffet meal before setting off. The first day was on the very comfortable Bohusleden passing fantastic swimming lakes - and hordes of vacationing Swedes.

We were hiking South and soon reached the relatively unknown Hallandsleden which soon turned out to be relatively unmaintained as well! Clear cuts had often destroyed the trail and waymarking was generally very poor. We even ended up in a swamp area when looking for a shelter. To sum it up: Hallandsleden is not a highlight of Swedish hiking culture and I was happy to soon reach Varberg. I splurged for an AirBnB accommodation because my 48th birthday was coming up. But with Swedish prices I was celebrating with supermarket food and not in a restaurant ...

We took the evening ferry from Varberg to Grena in Denmark which meant that we arrived after dark - and finding a stealth campsite turned out to be difficult. There was a small forest within walking distance from the ferry landing - and it was crisscrossed by endless trails. Eventually I thought I had found a hidden campsite - only to realise in the morning that I was camping right next to a jogger path. We left pretty quickly and were greeted friendly by some curious joggers when we packed up. The E1 now follows some unknown trails: First Molsruten and then the Silkeborg-Arhus-Trail. Both trails were rather unspectacular and even the sea did not invite me to go swimming.

Last but not least we reached the Haervejen, an old but revived pilgrimage trail. In typical "Camino"-tradition there are "albergues" along the way which were beyond our budget due to Danish prices. But you could even buy soft drinks and snacks along the way ... At least the waymarking was great there were some free camp sites along the way as well complete with fire rings and grates, shelters and dry toilets. One morning we had already packed up and were eating breakfast when a very furious man approached our wild camping site and told us to leave immediately. It turned out that he was the advance party of a big hunting group - luckily we were not shot ...

To sum it up: This stretch has not been the most exciting hiking! It has been a pleasant experience and it was a great hike for beginners but I would not particulary recommend it to anyone. But on every long-distance hike there are connecting bits - and this was one of them.