Debrecen and Hortobagy National Park

We’ve moved on to the far east. The far east of Hungary, that is, close to the Romanian border. We are staying in a campsite in the middle of nowhere, yet we are only about 10 km from Debrecen, the second largest city in the country.

The Oldies first set out to explore along the border, popping in and out of Romania as they went. Well, inasmuch as queuing up and having your passports and the boot of your car checked quite thoroughly each time can be construed as ‘popping over’ the border. The Hungarian villages we passed through looked to me as if they had a larger stork population than a human one. And the storks at times appeared to have better accommodation than the humans…

The Romanian villages we saw were even more decrepit. At least the Hungarian ones had roads. Some Romanian villages we passed through had one potholed main street and the side ‘roads’ were mere dirt tracks. And the western border areas of Romania are supposedly the more prosperous parts of the country! In spite of the poor state of the buildings, however, the towns and villages we saw were at least clean. Which is more than you can say for many towns in western European countries.

With the help of some friendly and very helpful Hungarians using a lot of sign language, the Dynamic Duo managed to get to Debrecen (and, thankfully, back) using the local bus service. Debrecen is a lovely town with a most relaxed atmosphere. The slow pace may of course have been partly due to the temperatures being in the high thirties. No fun! Though at least it meant that the Oldies didn’t drag me around too many of the museums or churches. We were stumped by the English translation of the nickname of one of the many famous reformed churches, ‘The Stumped Church’. It is apparently so-called due to having lost the roof of its spire many years ago leaving it rather stunted. Just like Her Ladyship. Ouch! Damn, she read that bit…

On the way back to the bus station, we stuck our noses and beak into one of the cities two synagogues. It was just closing time, but the friendly caretaker beckoned us in and gave us a tour with explanations in perfect English. The synagogue has been beautifully restored, but it was the commemorative wall that has been erected to the 6,000 Debrecen Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust, mainly in Auschwitz, which left the biggest impression on us all.

A large group of people at our campsite appear to be on some kind of organised summer camp. Lovely folk, but the group organisers have deemed it necessary to schedule early morning aerobics sessions. Daily. To pop music played at an ear-splitting volume. And, for some reason best known to themselves, they have placed the loudspeakers next to our caravan even though the aerobics class takes place at the other side of the campsite. This means we are lifted out of it at the crack of seven o’clock every morning. The only upside is that we have been getting an early start every day – whether we like it or not – and the Oldies amazed me this morning by having the bikes loaded up on the car and setting off for a trip into the famous Hungarian Puszta (Pannonian Steppe) at the ungodly hour of 8.30am.

The village of Hortobágy is pretty enough, but a bit too touristy for my liking, so I was quite happy when the Oldies chose to venture out into the vast plains on the bikes themselves, rather than visiting the interpretive centres in town. I never thought that so much flatness could be so beautiful. These plains are far from plain! They are full of life too. There are the famous Hungarian long-horned cattle of course, but also water buffalo, a huge variety of wild flowers, bird life en masse, and lots of other scary creatures besides…

Her Ladyship was calm enough when she met yet another snake en-route, but she got quite a shock just after taking this photo of a very ancient and neglected looking level crossing marker. His Lordship calmly remarked, ‘Careful now, there’s a train coming.’ She was sarcastically replying, ‘Yeah, sure!’, when a train actually approached at speed, causing her to move faster than I’ve seen her doing in decades!

It was a very tired but contented trio that returned to the campsite, all too happy to rest their weary bones after the exhilarating but exhausting day. And then the karaoke night started.

We’re moving on tomorrow morning. Early.