Danube Bike Tour Day 29: Bratislava, Slovakia to Lipot, Hungary
Posted by Cassie, December 6th, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Distance: 55km
Today, we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day! I actually was wearing my sunglasses all day long! As we were getting ready to leave the hostel, we met Ken Roberts from England, and he is doing a 4-year bike tour around the world. He biked along the length of the Danube bike tour like us, so it was fun to hear about his experiences. Check out Ken’s blog to follow his adventures as he bikes around the world.
The ride out of Bratislava was really nice. We rode along a dedicated bike path the entire way, and the bike path was full of people out enjoying the beautiful day. As we approached the border between Slovakia and Hungary, we turned off the main, busy road to a secondary road. We were able to cross the border without a problem, and there was just a beat-up sign announcing we were entering Hungary.
Border crossing between Slovakia and Hungary
At the border, we met Steve from the University of Arizona who was also out for a bike ride. He was the first American we had met while biking! He was studying in Bratislava for a semester as an exchange program. We talked to him about studying in Bratislava, and it was much different from our experience at Grinnell. He said masters students don’t show up for the first couple weeks of class. Some people only go to class a few times a semester, and they still manage to pass. He had been at school for a couple months, and there had been a few lectures, no assignments, and no tests. He said it’s a great way to have lots of time to travel and see the country! We bypassed the main border checkpoint by turning off the main road, and Steve suggested we check out the abandoned border checkpoint. We decided to check it out, and it was crazy! It was strange that they didn’t board up the windows when the checkpoint was shutdown. All the windows were broken, and people had gone in and completely trashed the place. It was strange walking inside the building because some things had been left there since the closing of the checkpoint. They still had a calendar up in one of the offices, and there were old documents that were scattered all over the floor.
Abandoned border checkpoint between Slovakian and Hungary
Smashed windows inside border checkpoint
Trashed room at border checkpoint
We had a wonderful day riding through the Hungarian countryside. They had harvested the fields, and they had pyramids of straw bales stacked in the field. The funniest part of the day was getting ice cream from an ice cream truck. The truck was playing music like an ice cream truck, and it stopped on the side of the road for us. However, when we reached it, it looked more like a frozen food delivery truck than an ice cream truck. But, they opened up the back of the truck, and it had a big, picture menu with all their items, which included ice cream. 🙂 This was an adventure for us because this was our first day in Hungary, and we didn’t know any Hungarian. Also, Hungary was part of the EU, but they had not switched to the euro yet. So, we also were dealing with a new currency and had to pay in Hungarian forints. The men in the ice cream truck didn’t speak English, but they did speak German. We managed to get ice cream and pay for it in forints. This was my first time getting ice cream from an ice cream truck, so it was really funny that it was in rural Hungary. 🙂
Hungary was a whole different experience for us. It was clear that Eastern Europe was not as economically advanced as Western Europe. As we were riding, we passed several wagons that were being pulled by mules, and we only saw tractors when we were riding through the countryside in Western Europe.
When we reached Lipot, it was such a nice day that we tried to camp at the campground. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season, so we got a room for the night instead. There were also thermal baths at the place we stayed for the night, so we spent the evening relaxing in the baths. The thermal baths were really nice after weeks on the bikes. 🙂
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