DISASTER ALMOST STRIKES

Having left Croatia we wondered how any scenery could be anywhere near as beautiful as what we have already seen. It just keeps getting better though. We have said before but will say it again that when things are so different to home they are mostly stunning to us.
Driving through rural Hungary we saw quaint little towns, sprawling fields and rolling hills instead of enormous mountains. We also spotted a Tescos, the first we’ve seen since England, and were quite excited to see if they sold gas bottles as we have been living without a gas since our bottle broke its seal.
No luck with the gas bottle, much to Mikayla and I’s disappointment and Mums relief (she’s enjoying not being able to cook), so we hit the road making fantastic ground towards Budapest and stopping at Lake Balaton, Hungary’s inland sea, for lunch. We have taken to long leisurely lunches followed by a game of UNO or two to give Mum a rest from driving such long distances. We took off again stopping again another half hour down the road where we needed Mums purse to buy something, only to discover that Mums purse was not in our possession.
Not quite panicking, but very close to it, we retraced our steps to the only place it could be, the last place we used it, Tescos, a two hour drive back in the wrong direction.
The two hour drive took us one and a half this time with Mum playing rally car driver and Vincent playing along nicely. All our most important things in one small purse that was a hundred kilometers away from us, not good! Mum had left her purse on the sink in the toilets while washing her hands and forgotten it because she was so worried about leaving our little gas bottle that we use as an example of what we want to buy.
Arriving at Tescos Mum was out of Vincent and into the shop like a shot and to our relief the security guard recognized her. Textbook relief and a bit of form filling out and Mums purse was safe and sound back with us. We are so lucky, Mum may be in charge of the contents of the purse but I will stay in charge of the actual purse because the one time I let it out of my sight it got lost!
We were lucky to drive back as we found a beautiful camp spot on a river, next to an arboretum, where all tree free banks were occupied until dusk by old men and couples quietly fishing, and were again first thing in the morning. We went to sleep listening to the sounds of the cuckoo birds and ducks that night and woke refreshed in the morning, just what we needed after the stress of the previous day.
In the morning Mum got talking to a Hugarian couple, they couldn’t speak English and Mum couldn’t speak Hungarian but they had a full conversation anyway. Hand gestures and miming can get you a long way! They were lovely and even caught a fish while Mum was with them though they were hoping for a bigger one.
We left late and ended up having lunch on Lake Balaton again, although in a different spot this time, then finally made it Budapest (with purse) in the early evening after visiting Memento Park on the cities outskirts. This is a park where some of the despised propaganda and statues of the communist era were moved after liberation, giving us a glimpse into the streets of communist Budapest. Also accompanying the park is a small museum containing information about communism and where you can also watch old police education tapes and learn how to plant and bug, conduct a home search without the owners knowledge and transfer illegal information on the street, handy.
Stay tuned for more of our time in Budapest and don’t forget to have a look at our photos on Facebook in the album BUDAPEST.