Dobry Dyen! I am now in the Ukraine. I find myself in Rachiv, really as result of an unwanted momentum – sparked by a dangerous Hungarian breakfast in Budapest. Bread, jam, cheese, ham, pancakes, with sugar and chocolate, as well as a huge kind of bread-like cake with custard. It was the stuff of heart attacks! The accompanying three cups of coffee and a manic 22 mile dash from one side of the city to the other led to a day of unsettled anxiety. A feeling of hurtling towards something unknown at a speed exceeding my comfort zone. The speed, incidentally, was about 12 miles per hour, so probably just a lesson to cut back on strong coffee!

Traveling into the east of Hungary, I started to draw more and more attention from the villages I would pass through. So often, as I rode down streets, with people sitting outside their houses or drinking at cafes, I felt a Mexican wave of stares following my path. If I stopped in village, I did not have to wait long before I was surrounded by children, counting to ten in English, asking ‘What is your name?’ over and over again, and laughing hysterically at my reply. It is the kind of reception I think I may have to get used to.

Arriving in Tokaj, two days later, I found the fourth campsite I had tried in the town to be closed. There were a few guys there, getting ready for its opening in May. I explained that I didn’t need water or showers and that I could pay. “Okay – zero Forints”.

After which Norbi brought me drinks from their bar, and Benjamin, Jobi, Tamas and Matyi helped put up my tent. Benjamin spoke English and it was good to talk about my trip as well as experiencing such an amazing welcome. In the morning the Romanian owner, whose name I didn’t learn, helped me pack and said goodbye. Well actually he said ‘hallo, hallo!’, but that seems to mean goodbye there.

After a couple of nights of wild camping, and several nights without a shower, I am very happy to be sat in a guesthouse, in the Carpathians, where I will rest tomorrow…