Often a European tour involves churches, galleries, landmarks and other points of interest. This year I decided to concentrate on laundries and their development in Europe. After all, I have been to Igors in New Orleans where the beer was cold, the band was hot, you could shoot some pool and wash and dry your smalls all at the same time. I have to report that Europe has not in any way approached this American dream. There is room for some entrepreneurial action on the clothes washing front.
Tomorrow we leave for another three day ride, ending up in Romania on June 30. Since leaving Austria we have spent a day in Slovakia, and four in Hungary. Beers are a lot cheaper as is food, provided we steer clear of the main tourist areas. There are several stark differences. One is with the people, women in particular. All the young women seem to have legs that just go on and on, hair that is blonde and long and bodies to suit. The youth is edgy, lots of tattoos and piercings and wild clothing combinations. Another is with the houses - mainly unadorned, grey and utlitarian. Not a flower box in sight, although vegies still abound along with fruit orchards. There also seems to be more household dogs and the woodheaps are neither as big nor as neatly stacked. A third is the roads - pretty bloody awful, with drivers to match. We have officially entered Skoda territory, just waiting for my first Trabant sighting.
We have experienced sudden and violent storms in Slovakia and Hungary - winds, thunder and lightning, rain - each night. There seems to be little or no warning for these weather events. During the day we are riding in 35 to 37 degree heat, so a few of the folks are finding conditions hard.
We have not seen many animals at all, unless you count any number of white horses, and caged chooks panting in their corrugated iron shed. It did have windows though, which is how we got to see them. I read today that horse meat is on the menu more and more often and that most of the flesh comes from Eastern Europe.
As for wildlife, I have seen two snakes, only one of which was dead, several pairs of white swans with cygnets, an eagle and chick, more storks, a dead fox and several dead moles. We have also seen a number of other wild life specimens, all shapes and sizes, all ages, and I guess it is fair to say all sexes. There was the man fishing but we could not readily tell which rod he was holding; the Reubenesque woman sitting on the picnic table; the man laying full length on top of his boat, legs splayed, facing the bank; but my favourite was the woman zipping along in her dinghy, the small outboard puttering and a large grey Schnauzer snuggled up beside her.
Bratislava is a pretty place with cobbled streets and grand buildings, but on a small scale. Budapest is a city where very grand buildings of all styles vie for space between the statuary, roads, tram and train lines. It bustles and hustles, sirens scream all day long and traffic is wild. I was told today that Hungarians like animal husbandry and raiding other countries, but it seems that Hungary has been raided more than it has raided, at least in recent times. There is evidence of the bullets and shrapnel from WWII on some of the buildings although many were completely destroyed along with all the bridges during that period.
We are now officially halfway. I believe I have cycled 2003 kms, and time-wise, we have 23 days to go.
Please send me an email with your news: dogsdelight@hotmail.com will reach me. There is also a changing slide show of pics of our trip at http://www.paristoistanbul.com/ - not many though.
Technical information...
June 23: Vienna to Bratislava, 90 kms, about four and a half hours, hot
June 24: Bratislava to Gyor, 110 kms, about four and a half hours, hot, really our last glimpse of the Danube although we officially leave it at Budapest
June 25: Gyor to Estergon, 100 kms, about four hours, hot with a 5 km climb
June 26 & 27: Estergon to Budapest, 57 kms, about three and a half hours, hot with a 15 km climb to start up a heavily wooded road and then a 20 km downhill - fantastic, although the trip into the city was not quite as scenic, peaceful or enjoyable.
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