Bike trip in Hungary with my friend Andrei Ozizu (june 2009)

In the beginning of june me and a friend of mine decided to have a nice bike tour in Hungary. Andrei who is an experienced cycletourer from Buzau, but who lives and works in Bucharest, travelled till Arad by train and from there he pedalled till Dorobanti village where it was our meeting point at a thermal spa. I cycled till there about 60km. We enjoyed very much the first day, taking a swim, sunbathing, drinking beers and talking to gorgeous girls in tantalizing bikinis. Then we cycled about 25 km till we entered Hungary at Turnu customs. We pitched our tents near the border behind some bushes.
The next day we cycled 50km through the steppe under a sweltering heat till we reached the town of Mako where it was time for us to have a tasty lunch at a restaurant.
We also tried the local beer which is not so bad, indeed.


We were enjoying our meal on a terrace and we were happy to see people of all ages, and of all sorts, cycling to and fro. Even old hags were using bikes here.


Cycling is such a healthy way of life. It is so pity and a shame that in Romania we can not see so many bikers like here in Hungary, the mentality of our people is still precarious.
Dear citizens, if you want to lose weight and enjoy life, you would better start cycling like the hungarians do!


Beautiful girls were also cycling to our sheer delight, and we kept on snapping photos.


Then we cycled another 30km on a secondary road till we reached Szeged. We started visiting this lovely town. We liked very much the center.


The cathedral was very impressive, too.


Around the cathedral was a huge and magnificent palace. We stopped to rest a bit on a wooden bench.


In this town we saw many gorgeous girls on two wheels.


This town is crossed by the mighty Tisza river and our big river Maros is flowing into Tisza at the entrance of Szeged. There are some interesting and modern bridges over Tisza here.


Then we erected our tents in a clearing next to a forest not far from Szeged.
The next day we cycled on secondary roads with almost no traffic.


Soon we had to cross Tisza by ferryboat. The weather was so hot.


We were lucky to find great cycling tracks and so our trip in Hungary was very enjoyable under these circumstances. There were plenty of cycling ways of good quality even between localities.


My Kona Sutra bike works smoothly. Andrei is a fit cyclist, sometimes we cycle with 30km/h. Plenty of cycling tracks will be still finished in Hungary.


All of a sudden I run into a dead badger. It seems the great hungarian steppe is full of wild animals.


Then we enjoy a nice sunset in the middle of the wilderness.


Soon we find a good place to camp behind a old cottage. The next morning we snap a picture of this wild spot.


Andrei is a great fellow-companion, very resilient and always joking. Thanks to his GPS we cycled on safe secondary roads with light traffic.


We have to face a scorching heat so I'm very pleased to take advantage of some water when I come across it.


This day we have to make many halts, we even spend 3 hours in a lovely touristic place where we have a lake to swim and a pub to refresh ourselves with some beers.
Later we admire another wonderful sunset and we pitch our tents not far from Budapest near the Danube.


Finally we get to Budapest, one of my favourite cities. We immediately climb to Citadella to enjoy large panoramic views over the city.


The weather changed drastically and it started raining and the temperatures dropped a lot. We had to put on some clothes and then everythin was OK again. We were happy to be here.


Such a lovely view can be seen from here over the metropolis.


Here we find an interesting bench where we rest a bit.


This is one of the best places in Central Europe.


We also meet here a huge statue. We can see lots of tourists from all over the world in this particular place.


Then it's time for us to visit other landmarks of this city. The Royal Palace is absolutely stunning.


When we get close to the biggest cathedral of Budapest it starts raining cats and dogs.


But putting on a long raincoat solves the problem and we carry on sightseeing.


The Parliamentary Palace remains the most fascinating construction in this wonderful capital.


Outstanding statues can be found here, too.


We have four days of incessant rain so we make a very slow progress but when we get to Balaton lake, the sun comes out again. We cycle on the northern part of the lake on a good cycling path.


At Balatonfured we see swans with cubs. They are so cute and we start feeding them with some cakes.


I simply fall in love with the tiny nestlings.


All along this huge lake which is the largest from the Central Europe we find swans and we are quite excited about this.


On the other part of the lake at Szigliget we stopped at a lido and there we decided to separate for I wanted to head for the Alps to climb there as many passes and possible and Andrei wanted to go to Wien.
So after 9 wonderfull days we had to take leave of each other. Before leaving he gave me some money and I promissed him that one day I would return the favour.

Thank you a lot dear Andrei for this wonderful trip!
I'm looking forward to our next adventure on 2 wheels!

Thank you very much to Mircea Florescu, the generous sponsor who gave me the great bike Kona Sutra for this tour!