***Again, will probably put up photos when the internet is more stable… IE when I get back to the US

Well, I’m winding down to the end of the trip now- It’s 11:30 now, and my plane leaves from Budapest about 13 hours from now [theoretically]. The past few days have been quite eventful though, since my last blog post on Friday. I would have updated more frequently this past weekend, but there was no internet where I was, so it had to wait until today.

So- Saturday morning, I woke myself up around 5:30 AM, since we needed to leave quite early. We ended up leaving the house around 6:15, with the sun already out. This was an easy ride though- After sitting through the 9-12 hours it takes to get to Rome, everything else seems much easier (though I’m not really sure if this will apply to the plane ride tomorrow…). But the car ride was only about 3 hours long, and I managed to sleep through the majority of it since it was early enough.

We rolled up to the living area in Slovakia a little before 10 I think. Based on Zsuzsi’s description of the place prior to getting there, it ended up being exactly as I’d envisioned- a couple of small cabin-esque buildings for the ~40 of us to sleep in. Yeah, there ended up being a bit less than 40 people going on this bike tour, and I was of course the only American in the bunch. Although there was one guy who was originally from Australia, so I was at least able to talk comfortable English with him. Most of the people on the tour spoke English though, so it was really pretty easy for me to meet people. The kids (my age and younger) also spoke English for the most part, and I chattered with them as well. Fruzsi (the girl I’d played tennis with on Thursday) was also there, so I met up with her as well. We were all located a short walk from a hotel, so it wasn’t like we were totally isolated or anything, though we were in the middle of a heavily forested area. Anywho…

We quickly unloaded the car and saddled up for our first day of biking (we were one day late because of Tusi’s graduation). I continued to chatter with people along the way, working on getting used to talking and biking at the same time, and I eventually learned to take pictures with my phone with one hand while biking with the other. The beginning was fairly easy- lots of downhill, paved paths and whatnot. Once we got out of the city though, we started biking along a mound of dirt, which was a bit trickier for me since the bikable path was only a few inches wide- It’s apparently pretty tough to keep a bike going completely straight. I ended up messing up the gears a bit when my heel bounced off a higher section of earth and knocked into the chain, though Robbie (the guy leading the tour) was able to fix it pretty easily.

The gears ended up getting messed up again as a result of the first accident a bit before we came across a little river which we spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to cross. Eventually, Tibi jumped in the water along with Gabor and a few others and started handing bikes across, with the rest of us wading it. While I watched and waited, I observed Robbie looking over my bike, and I actually learned a bit about the gear system from watching him, so I was at least able to figure out what was wrong. Good for future reference…

A little while later, we ended up at a pub. I just took a soda and a sandwich- wasn’t really looking to go biking after drinking any alcohol, but whatever. Saw a goat standing on a wall. We relaxed here for a while, and I talked with people some more (though if it were just me, Zsuzsi, Tibi, we probably wouldn’t have spent more than 5 minutes resting, but I digress). We left eventually and continued to bike, eventually getting back onto some paved road, though here we started going uphill. After a while, we made it to the castle at the top, though it turned out to be closed, though I went up with Gabor and another lady to check out the outside of it anyway and took a bunch of pictures. Had a coke at a pub.

We biked back a little while later, taking an extra detour through the city to avoid the river. We went uphill a lot as a result, which got me a bit more tired. After a while, we started getting close to camp, though I’d pushed myself pretty hard for the previous ¾ of the trip back, and had underestimated the last stretch of the trip. The super easy uphill first part of the trip had turned into the monstrously difficult portion of the end of the trip. Ended up walking part of it, but biked hard for the last 2 kilometers, round trip ending up being about 60 kilometers.

Afterwards I was pretty tired, and sort of just hung around until dinner. We went over to the hotel where we had a restaurant that served our dinners to us, and afterwards went down to the pub on the ground floor and I had a beer (saying that sounds so weird to me…) and chattered with a bunch of people. Went to bed around 10:30 since I was quite tired.

The next day ended up being a rainy day, so we didn’t do any biking. We all went to a pool instead and hung out in the Jacuzzi. The weather the previous day and then had cooled off considerably from the rest of the trip, so the Jacuzzi was nice. Did that for about an hour, and then walked around the town and had lunch at a pizzeria, and I ended up with a strudel for dessert. After this, we drove over to a nearby castle. The castle was pretty cool, though it was set up as a touristy spot with guided tours and whatnot. We decided to pass on the tour and just go around ourselves. I went ahead a little bit since even I can only handle so much Hungarian chatter, and went at a similar pace to David (the Australian guy). The castle’s tower was really nice- Great view of the entire castle and of the village below. Took a bunch of pictures.

We went to a restaurant for dinner that night, and I had a ham, turkey and cheese dish. It was actually pretty good, though upon seeing the steak, I immediately regretted not ordering it. After the restaurant though, we went back, and the adults went to one house to chatter in Hungarian, and a few of the other kids and I went to another and played some poker. I had a good time though- spoke English, and stayed up until around 1 before I went to bed.

Monday I actually woke up at 7:30 to go to breakfast at 8. Had a cup of coffee (my first…) mostly cus I hated the tea… It was way too sweet for me. Anyway, the plan ended up being for some people to leave early to bike an extra 30 kilometers or so, and the rest of us would drive most of the way and then bike for 10 there and 10 back. I ended up taking the easy way upon Zsuzsi’s suggestion, so I took the time to pack up and sleep a little bit more.

We left the houses at around 10 and drove for about an hour (passing the early bikers along the way) and got ready to go biking ourselves in the middle of a small town. Once the early bikers caught up, we headed out, stopping briefly at a pub for the early bikers and then continuing mostly uphill towards the castle. The hill was huge though- I was dead tired after a few minutes of trying to bike up the hill, so I ended up walking most of the way, as did the majority of us who were trying to get to this thing. Robbie biked the whole way though…

This castle ended up being very cool. I liked it a lot more than the one from Saturday, since it wasn’t set up as an attraction, and more just left as it was. The view was gorgeous though. Probably the best view of a landscape that I’ve ever seen. The huge hill ended up being worth it. I also enjoyed climbing all over the castle and finding places to jump around in. It was VERY cool for me, like being a little kid again.

The bike back down was much easier. Picked up quite a bit of speed on the downhill slope, and getting back to the pub was a simple task. Had a pizza and a pepsi there along with most of the others. Of course, Zsuzsi wanted to leave asap, so we parted ways with everyone else and took off back to the car. We made it back without too much difficulty, and packed up the bikes and left before anyone else had arrived. Went to Zsuzsi’s brother in law’s for dinner (again…) and got home around 10 PM. I went to bed.

So today was my last full day in Hungary, and I woke up around lunch time. Zsuzsi and Tibi were working, so I went out and went bowling with Fruzsi and one of her friends for a little while a few hours after lunch. Grabbed a quick bite at McDonalds while I was waiting since I was feeling abnormally hungry, and then grabbed a half a sandwich with Fruzsi once she’d arrived… Anyway, we started bowling around 4. My game was pretty off (like most of my other sports at the moment…) though I cleaned up at the end with two strikes in a row on the last frame. I had a lot of fun though, and I enjoyed it.

Zsuzsi had Fanni and Tusi over for my last dinner, and Fruzsi and her boyfriend also came over for it. Drank some wine and coke and had a good time with everyone. Did a bunch of talking, and took a bunch of pictures.

Once everyone left a few hours later, I ran through my pictures from the summer with Zsuzsi, and once she’d gone to bed, I packed up, and now I’m trying to figure out how to keep myself awake for a few more hours so I can sleep more on the plane tomorrow.