Roy's 84th birthday and the trip to the South for some geocaching

Last Thursday we came into Budapest on an amazingly empty motorway. I was dreading the jams again, but there was no sign of them. I had to ring the guy at the Tisza-lake port at the Northern end, who is providing us some boats for our visit to the Second Tisza-lake geocaching do in a couple of weeks' time. As it happens, Marcsi, the organiser, has already rung him and all is in hand.

Dr. Lakos the expert on Lyme's Disease

On Friday I rang dr. Lakos for an appointment and had that fixed for next Wednesday. This is the three-month checkup after my Lyme's disease diagnosis and I hope I am clear. His tests are much more sophisticated than anywhere else, so hopefully I'll have the desired end result.

The Márai Sándor Hall in Buda

I also went to a music hall I have never been in just across the river in Buda, where I met my friends Klári and Éva and we listened to some lovely Asian lady violinist and her string quartet. She was jolly good, but I didn't think much of her choice of the program. Some really insane, harsh and unpleasant modern stuff left me rather cold. Never mind, one has to try stuff, even when it is not likely to please, just to keep one's hand in.

A lovely building in Nagykőrös

And on Saturday we left for our little three-day trip o the South of Hungary, with staying the first night at Mórahalom and the second one in Szeged. The main purpose of the trip was to do some caching in the South, where there appeared a large number of new caches, as well as return to Roy's favourite restaurant in Szeged, where he had a fantastic piece of steak last year. The first day of our trip was his 84th birthday, so we celebrated that there as well.

Another building in the Cifra Kert in Nagykőrös

We picked up one cache South of Budapest and then went to the plains between the two main rivers of Hungary, the Danube and the Tisza. These areas are generally flat, although you do have a desert-like region with lots of soft sand and dunes, which were quite familiar to me from my orienteering days. Some caches were in Nagykőrös and further South. As I always hated multi-caches, I always left them to last and often didn't do them at all. The downside of that is, that nowadays, when I have found the traditional caches all in most of the parts of the country, the multi-caches tend to dominate. That was the case this time as well, but it being the weekend, town multi-caches are easier to do, as the traffic is less.

The Írisz Apartment House in Mórahalom

Having left BP around 8:30 am, we made our way slowly but surely towards our first stay in Mórahalom. Having booked an expensive room in the Science Hotel in Szeged for Sunday night, I was trying to find a reasonably priced B&B in Mórahalom. I got lucky and discovered the Írisz Apartments, which seemed lovely on the photos and were half the price of the hotel room in Szeged. I booked it and it turned out probably the best decision I made in relation to this trip. An old long house has been modernised and beautifully renovated with high end finishes and interiors, so it was spacious, with AC, large TV, cute little en suite bathroom, fantastic king sized bed and a very well equipped little kitchen. And all this for £45 a night.

The Maty-éri fishing lake and kayak centre

I knew Mórahalom from my orienteering days and it didn't disappoint. In the evening we found a very traditional inn for dinner, which pleased Roy, but I had to be satisfied with a plate of roasted veg. No problems, but if you want a traditional old inn, no 21st century dishes is the price you have to pay. The following morning we headed towards Szeged, starting with a cache that I have missed for the last 10 years. Nice little walk along the dam of a massive reservoir was excellent to wake me up, although the really ghastly jungle where the box was, was not such fun afterwards.

One classical building in Szeged

 

Next we went to Szeged itself and got seriously lucky with parking. Being Sunday, it was free, but the very centre was busy with a variety of events, including a protest meeting, so parking was not easy to find. The first cache was one that is close to being cancelled, but having had a chat with the owner, he promised to mend it just for me. As it happens, he didn't, but that was no problem, we found all the parts that were still there and he helped us out with the logging.

A house across the Tisza from my walk

 

Magnificent fungi on a tree

The next cache was also one that I have made eyes at for over 10 years and it was a gorgeous walk with some nice views of two rivers: the Tisza and the Maros. The box was near the spit of the confluence of those two rivers, which was a bit too far for me to get to, but the walk was lovely. We had to use some really dreadful roads to get to the start of the path to the cache, so we had to take lots of time by going slowly. Once there used to be a ferry that went straight to the trail head, but that was "temporarily" closed 17 years ago and never reinstated.

Roy in both Hungary and Romania

J. in both Hungary and Romania

After that one, on yet another pretty bad road we went further South, picking up some lovely caches by some chateaux, two insisting being the lowest point of Hungary, some places related to the border guards, as the Serbian border was pretty near there and finally to one which was called  the Tri-Border Monument. This one was situated at a point where Hungary, Serbia and Romania meet. That was strange, but fun. As Romania is now in the Schengen zone, there was no fence, just some low little posts next to the new road that led to the border crossing with Serbia. Roy and I stood on either side of one of the posts, playing at being in two countries at once. We did that already with Slovakia and Austria once, so now it's been done with Romania too.

At the end of the day we got back to Szeged where the beautiful hotel we loved so much last year, unfortunately let us down this year. First disaster was the apparent crashing of the entire door key cards system, and with only one poor young woman in reception we spent over an hour in reception waiting to be seen to our room. There were several guests queueing to register, with the paperwork taking a lot longer than normal and then as there was only one key card that worked, everybody had to be taken to their room to be let in by the single receptionist.

Roy hitting his head on the ceiling

I was really tired as I have been up since 3 am, so when we got to our room, it was dreadful. Up in the attic space, it was tiny, hardly any space between the furniture, overheated, windows impossible to open due to restriction on safety grounds and the heater on in the bathroom, so there was no chance I would have any sleep there. Also, as their beds are of king size proportions and this tiny room was obviously a single originally, the bed was so close to the sloping roof and windows that whoever slept on that size would have to almost bend double not to hit their head on the roof and window.

Roy with his pint in the John Bull

The celebratory T-bone in the John Bull

 

I rang reception explaining that this room will not do. Amazingly, the over-stressed and rather harassed young woman was very accommodating and provided us with another, much better, room in the new building behind the old one. We went from the 5th floor up in the attic, to a spacious and comfortable room of perfect temperature on the ground floor in the new building. The reason why this was very stressful for us as well, was not only that we were quite tired, but because this was the night we were having Roy's birthday dinner in the John Bull pub, with the table booked for 7 pm and we both wanted a little nap prior to that. Well, that went for a Burton, and we departed around 6:30 a bit woozy, but looking forward to it.

My penne with prawns in the John Bull

Roy with candle on the ice cream

We had a lovely time in the John Bull, with lovely waiter providing excellent service, the food being of high quality, although Roy said that his Rib-eye last year was better than the T-bone this year, I still watched him put away an enormous piece of steak, so it couldn't be too bad. He had a little candle on his apple crumble, so the birthday was celebrated extremely well. I had a rose spritzer and have to admit that it tasted superior to any I had lately, even though those were nice too.

Heavy machinery in the puszta

And on the last day we started our trip slowly, but surely North and homewards. The bulk of the caches on Monday were in a tight area where a new and enthusiastic couple of people have peppered the area with caches in the last 5 years. We saw two beautifully kept villages, some fishing lakes, forests, a memorial cross in memory of a lady, a study route, another forest etc., etc. There was even an outdoor museum of the Sarmata folk from 2 and half thousand years ago, but unfortunately the museum was closed, as they are only open at weekends outside of summer.

Little pond in Bordány

Entrance to the Sarmata Museum

 

Most of the planned caches were so easy to find that we finished all those on my list earlier than expected. So as we travelled homewards in a Northerly direction we also put in another 3 new caches that we have not yet visited nearer Budapest. One was a little ravine, which was pretty and it also had a study route, followed by a village with 5 old manor houses/chateaux and another one in memory of a Hungarian Nobel Prize laureate. Just before the worst of the evening rush hour, we were safely home by 5 pm, where we both collapsed and are still trying to get over these overactive, but delightful three days in the South.

Flowers in the Main Square in Bordány

The Bohn family cross in the forest

Beautiful little manor house

Ever since we have been back I have been dealing with caching paperwork, which is online work in reality, as nothing is on paper any more. When I logged my finds, there was no time to extend the log with a few comments as expected and I usually upload quite a few photos as well, so it takes a while when you have cached non stop for three days. I am about half way through at the moment, but hopefully I should finish it by tomorrow.

Another fishing lake on the study trail in Üllés

Today I will go out to lunch with Roy to his regular Wednesday lunch with his expat mates. The last time I went, most of them just ignored me and hardly exchanged more than a few words or none all the time with me. So, I wasn't actually thinking of going again, but when Roy told me that they are going to Becketts, I said yes at once. That is an Irish pub and restaurant not too far from the flat and the only place you can get decent fish and chips in town. I am going and if the boys ignore me again I will just play on my telephone and ignore them back.

Becketts upstairs

Next instalment of these epistles is due next Wednesday, when we will still be in BP, due to other commitments. More about those in next week's post.