…then buy some food in Hungary and picnic in Slovakia, only to finish the day 30km from Budapest.
That was pretty much the summary of our day yesterday. We woke up where we had camped, in the nice camping by the lake in the north of Bratislava. I woke up after a night in the hammock, there was no mosquitoes and I took the chance. It was pretty nice.
Without further ado (save a shower of course, with boiling water though) we set off on the road to Budapest by the highway. Yes, the highway, but not for long. We stopped for breakfast at a gas station just past the border of Hungary where I bought the most useful piece of kit so far and instantly realized why I had been taking so many highways: because I didn’t know were the other roads were!!
From then on, the day was completely different to the previous days, we took the national roads following the Danube along the Slovakian-Hungarian border. Stopped at a supermarket on the road to buy some food for lunch that we would eat later on the road. When we arrived to Komárom, we wanted to have lunch and decided to cross the river into Slovakia again and set up our picnic in a nice park in Komárno, Slovakia. I enjoy crossing borders with the bike, it gives me a feeling of the distance I’ve travelled.
I especially enjoy these European borders, which are just lines on the ground with no one to stamp your passport even if you wanted to. Although here in Hungary you are supposed to buy a vignette for your vehicle to pay for road use. I’m not so sure if I had to buy it if I’m not using the highways but I bought it anyway, just to be on the safe side. By the end of the day, we had stopped for a couple of pictures in Ezstergom, visited Kisoroszi where we wanted to camp but decided against it, mainly because we didn’t have cash and it looked like a party camping. Back to the mainland and with some cash in my pocket, I was so tired of riding that we stopped at the first camping sign we saw just across the river in Tahitótfalu. It turned out to be a nice camping managed by a very nice Hungarian guy who had hung a French flag in his house as decoration. So we offloaded the bike and went for a pizza in the surroundings.
Although the hammock was there too, it slept on its own that night because it was full of mosquitoes and I didn’t want to wake up itching everywhere. Today, I am writing this from a hotel room in Budapest (I needed to sleep on a bed) as I am about to leave for Debrecen or maybe further. Alice has just left to take her bus back to Prague. She’s such a great friend has helped me so much with all the preparations that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to repay her. Thank you again, Alice!
Now, off to the bike before it’s too hot to ride again!
Hello Nacho. We were missing your posts!
How different is to ride two people on the Ténéré? 😉
Not much actually. It makes balance when stopping just a bit harder. Remember that ladies hardly add any weight 😉
nacho don't miss the chance to take away hughe and tasty salamis from Slovalia! U could be really hunger when biking your monster 🙂
Nacho,
We were reading the last posts with Nuria and we realized that after all these years you moved to another continent, you traveled across many many countries, you learned to ride a bike and you managed to start your own adventure, but some things never change, you still wake up at noon!!!
Actually we ‘re really happy to know some things won’t never change!!!
Seba and Nuri
Eso no cambia nunca! Y por eso me cago de calor!!! Igual estoy tratando y logrando salir un cacho antes porque de verdad que me re-cago de calor. Cuando acampo es más fácil porque me despierta el sol. Esta noche estoy en un hostel y ya me jodí porque son las 12 y media y todavía no me acosté. ¿Qué se le va a hacer? Yo soy del cronotipo de los de la tarde (o incluso noche…).