Well, I was going to put an exclamation mark after Budapest - to make it seem really exciting - but this keyboard is really, really Hungarian and I can't find one.
Since I last wrote I have cycled a lot along the Danube. I met a very nice man, riding into Vienna, who made the last few miles more interesting than they would have been otherwise. He told me about the 20km long artificial island in the middle of the Danube and informed me that the ships harboured by the banks were not really ships, but schools. Built because land in the city is too expensive.
From Vienna the route to Budapest has been very flat. Lots of green fields, but not a lot else. The people I have met have all been friendly. I think that it is easier to meet people when it looks like you're carrying a house around on your bike. You immediately have something to talk about. Even if neither of you can understand the other...
I am currently sheltering from quite an impressive thunderstorm. It is the only real rain I have seen for almost three and a half weeks so I have been very lucky.
Budapest is okay. There were some quite emotional demonstrations taking place earlier today - lots of national flags, speeches and people shouting. I tried to find out what it was about, but as yet have not managed to. I think, if you want to fall immediately in love with a city, you should probably take a train and arrive in the centre. On a bicycle you have to go through so much rubbish - sprawling industrial estates, busy roads and building sites - that by the time you arrive in the historic centre, there is already too much you have to forgive the place for.
I think I will head north east tomorrow, towards the Ukrainian border and the Carpathian mountains.
Oh, miles so far - 1742.
4 comments:
Sam, that sounds amazing. I'm insanely jealous - except, perhaps, of the icy hills which I could take or leave, to be honest.
Photos are amazing, didn't realise you had hidden photography talents. You should make a book...
Shell came round last night and we talked about you loads. The long and short of it was a) we're impressed at what you're doing, b) we miss you and c) lycra becomes you.
Keep posting, peach, you take my mind off my work which is always a nice feeling....
x
ps. heard this amazing programme on Radio Four (yes I am prematurely middle aged, shut up) the other day about the Danube and the journey from one end of it to the other and how much all the people who live along it depend on it for their livelihoods.
The guy was talking about how different the people who live on the German/Austrian end are to those at the other end and how the river is like a timeline of economic development.
So there's something to think about while you're on yer bike....
So true about the falling in love with citys bit. Anyway sounds like its going well, i am of course very jealous.
Cheers
Byron
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