I was of two minds today. Do I leisurely go to Budapest over 2 days or do it in one day. Well the Slovakian part of the ride was excellent and I had 50 kms under my belt before noon. I’d even stopped for a beer along the way at a pop up caravan on the river bank. When the man learnt I was from NZ, the beer was free. Life was looking good.
At Esztergom I thought about taking a short cut cross country to Budapest, but 5 km into it I felt I was somehow cheating so turned back and kept going along the Danube. Not very long afterwards, the usual thunderstorm closed in and while sheltering, I met an Aussie who’d started out from Budapest. He’d seriously underestimated the distances and was going to have difficulty making his destination before evening. Anyway, as it had taken him about 3 hours to get to where we met, I decided to push on.
Well, one of the websites did mention that the Hungarian section could be a little bit rough and wasn’t necessarily suitable for all types of cyclists. I ended up cycling much of the way standing up, such was the jarring and bouncing from the “path”. Then as I neared Budapest, the path ceased to exist and i was in a stream of Sunday afternoon motorists keen to speed home. But the time I finished the journey, I had sore, frayed at the edges and ready to quit Hungary.
On the plus side the condition of the roads did put to rest any lingering thoughts of going beyond Budapest. Anyway tomorrow is a new day.
