Birth of Hungary

I woke up this morning not because of an alarm clock, but because its too hot! The sun hit our tent at 8am and instantly turned up the temperature to roasting. We packed up our tent and checked out of the campground. This was a little confusing since I don't speak very good german and have no idea of any words in Hungarian. The camp lady did spend the entire time we were there in her togs (night and day) which was pretty funny. It was certainly hot enough.

We then explored the castle next to the campground which was made of brick and pretty much completely intact. It was a bit hot (already!) to be exploring it too thoroughly and lots of the stuff was just in Hungarian but we saw enough of it to get a good feeling for it. Climbed up onto the ramparts and had a good view of the town and the surrouding moat.



We headed down the road and had lunch in a pretty town called.... wait for it.... Hódmezővásárhely. Try saying that 10 times (with correct pronounciation) quickly! (Those who can speak Hungarian can't play). We sat in the town square eating our pastries while the wind blew little yellow flowers down from the trees above us like hail :)

We then went to Ópusztaszeri Nemzeti Történeti Emlékpark (its the National Historical Memorial Park) and is the birthplace of Hungary and where the Magyar tribes first decided to settle down. The best bit we saw there was the Feszty Panorama which is a big circular painting 120m around which depicts the conquering Hungarian (Magyar) tribes as they arrived on the Great Plain. The immersiveness of the panorama was fantastc and it was sometimes easy to miss where the painting stopped and the modelled foreground started. It had sound effects too!



Unfortunately the sky opened up again and we're back to thunder and lighting once more. We're holed up in a hotel south of Budapest and are decideding whether to go to Lake Balaton or Budapest tomorrow ;)