4-day holiday in the NE

I am bringing writing the blog post more and more forward, as I know that I will not be able to do it on the Wednesday. The story of last week is mostly that of our 4-day outing to the NE of Hungary, but before that may I outline some more developments with Fáklya?

Egerszalók RC Church

Jack is definitely coming over and actually he is arriving tonight. He is staying with us and will try to talk to everybody. Márkó and I are keeping in touch and some interesting shenanigans are surfacing. Adriam is trying to be sweet as honey, which makes me feel sick, and finally even Zsófi has come out of the woodwork, and is trying to patch up our friendship. I told her that she has lost my confidence in her and I have no intention to stay in any form of relationship with her, be it personal or political.

Felsőtárkány lake

 

She answered this one, which I am not answering back, and of course, even when she seems to like to make out that she is all sweetness and light, started throwing mud at me. I am still unsure, whether this is a power play, as Márkó thinks, or just a complete inability to see what she is doing and what effect it has on others. Basically, I do not care. This phase of my life is over, I will never return to Fáklya, not so much because I lost my political convictions, but because this bunch of people, led by the people that are in the leadership now, is total waste of time. Should there be another similar, but normal and decent bunch building revolutionary communism in Hungary later on, I'll make my decision then.

Felsőtárkány narrow gauge railway

And now for our 4-day little holiday, which was mostly about geocaching and riding little choo choo trains, but during which we saw some interesting, fascinating and beautiful things, plus met a B&B which is a gem and which we will probably stay in again. As there is a series of narrow gauge railway lines still operating in Hungary, most of which have a geocache attached to them, my main motivation for this trip was to get 4 more choo choo train caches, which then would leave only 3 more to get to finish all 25 of them. We were going to leave from Bér, but the unexpected birthday party invitation in Budapest for the Sunday before the trip scuppered that. So we came in, went to the birthday party and then stayed in town to leave from there on Wednesday. 

Roy waiting for me at the top of the valley

The first day included two of these little railways, as well as a few other caches. We stayed at a lovely little B&B in Szilvásvárad where the landlady recommended a nearby, very traditional restaurant for dinner, which was also lovely. The star attraction of the Szilvásvárad day was a visit to the Szalajka-valley. The little train took us up in about 15 minutes to the top of the valley, where there were two multi-caches, each with 2 parts. That made for 4 places where we had to go and plenty of others just for interest.

The Veil Cascade

 

The first place was to the source of the Szalajka stream, which I walked up to, while Roy waited for me by a picnic table a few hundred yards away. Then we started down the valley, and the first marvellous place was at the Veil-waterfall. It isn’t really a proper waterfall, more like a cascade, but it was very pretty indeed. Slowly descending the valley we then came cross a trout farm, together with the first and so far only place in Hungary where they know how to smoke trout. There was a shop as well, and if we were to go home straight away, I would have definitely bought some. 

Waterfall from the Rock Spring

There were various springs, bridges, shrines and finally a proper waterfall. That looked like a Virgin Mary shrine from the distance, as the water was falling from a big rock wall, looking like a typical shrine like cave. We were both pretty worn out by the time we came down that valley, but enjoyed every bit of it. 

A half fallen tree by the lake

The following morning we carried on to Pálfalva, which was quite a long way away, but where another little train ride awaited us. En route we got stuck in an overcomplicated, illogical and extremely badly signposted set of roundabouts and detours on the outskirts of Miskolc, so that now we have yet another grudge to hold against this town, added to the one we held ever since we were robbed there nearly ten years ago. 

Deer in a small Zoo in the valley

En route there we came across some lovely old abandoned quarries, a sweet little village with a Museum of Minerals. This place had some gold and silver mining some time ago. In the museum a very helpful and chatty guy told me all about the place and the area, which I listened to with great enjoyment. Some of the events while travelling come down to the people, not the things on show. This was one of those. 

Szilvásvárad evening meal

Finally we arrived in Pálfalva and as there were no little trains to be seen in the station, we decided to drive to the cache, near a lovely old chateau, which is now operating as a hotel. It was deep in the woods, honestly looking like an enchanted castle, come palace and the topography of rocks, rivers, lakes and other bits of nature making it really attractive. We missed the train on its way back too, so finally we didn’t take the train, but still found the cache and managed to take some photos of it back in Pálfalva before going to our hotel. 

Pálháza narrow gauge railway engine at the station

 

The hotel turned out to be a funny mixture. It was not a large one, but bigger than a B&B and it had its own restaurant. The room was OK, but by the following morning we were happy to leave as the sewer system seemed to have a hiccup and the smell of the septic tank was in our room. In spite of this we liked it, as the staff was friendly and ready to help, we met the owner in the morning and he was nice and chatty, and the meal we had in the restaurant in the evening was delicious and not too expensive. 

An 11th century church in Karcsa

After leaving Pálfalva, we were soon out of the mountains and on the flat plain. The quality of the caches had taken a hit, and on that day we had more than half of the ones we were looking for either missing or in such bad condition that you couldn’t read the password, without which you cannot log the find on the website. I have friends who can help me with these type of problems, but my preference is for well maintained caches and interesting things to see. 

Kőkapu Hotel

 

The final little train was a sad place, and it was upsetting that this was the last one, which should have been the best one. The trouble with this one is that it closed down years ago and while the terminus of it was where the cache was, the whole place was depressing with rotting, falling apart and rusting hulks of once lovely trains and other stuff. Additionally, this cache was missing too, although the alternative one could have been there, but at our age it was impossible for us to climb up for it. 

A derelict train coach in the museum

And at the end of the day we arrived at the final great revelation of our entire trip, which was our B&B in Baktalórántháza, East of Nyíregyháza. It was a tanya, which means something like a croft in Scotland, as in one or just a few houses miles from anywhere. However, this one was brilliant, as the building was only 2 years old, (mostly built on an EU grant), and it had a gorgeous and enormous garden, a wellness suite and we were given the one and only downstairs bedroom which was prepared for wheelchair users, hence it was enormous. 

Bio Flóra Tanya, the B&B we loved

The hosts were amazing. We had plate of cold food on arrival, endless drinks and lots of lovely chats with two lovely people. The guy, Sándor, was a bit disabled, he had something seriously wrong with his spinal cord and had limited strength and movement in his legs. He seemed so happy to talk to us, and we loved his stories. Other guests were equally lovely, so round the table, where we ate our delivered food, which was lovely too, a lively conversation was conducted into the late hours. 

The Tiszalök flood barrier and power station

 

The bed in this place was as good as at home, which is not something you can say about too many beds in B&B’s. Eventually, on the fourth day we made our way home, via another 8 caches, including the main hydro power station on the river Tisza, some very ancient villages, a gorgeous 11th century Romanesque church in or near original state and a magical palace, that used to belong to one of the major aristocratic families of Hungary, the Andrássys. 

The Andrássy chateau in Tiszadob

 We were home by 5 pm, which just showed how good motorways can be when they are flowing with not too much traffic and have no accidents or roadworks, or worse still, both of those at the same time. Good trip, very enjoyable, the only downside was the weather, which was in the high 30’s Celsius most of the time. Now we have to have a small amount of rest before our next trip, which includes my birthday next Saturday. Pray for a slight drop in temperatures, as I do not fancy the puszta in 35 degrees Celsius, not even on my birthday.