11th of March, 2022.
It is a nice and calm hitchhiking spot. After a few cars passing by, a priest of an Orthodox church stops for me. He tells me to be going only to the next village, but since I know it is a bigger one, I take it!
He speaks some good English and we talk a little bit. He stops at the church where he is going to give classes to kids, and I take the road towards Tihani and Lake Balaton.
A lovely elderly lady stops. She has the cutest small old car. Viktória is going to Papa and even though she cannot speak English, we understand each other. When we arrive in Papa, she calls her son, András, who lives in Budapest and speaks English, so we can clarify where she should drop me off. He is a very kind and polite man, just like his mother. Viki is so adorable that she drives a lot out of her route just to drop me off outside Papa, in the road to Tihani. I give her my blog and email address.
Jon Bernthal, from The Walking Dead, stops for me. I mean, almost. His much younger version and much more Hungarian version. But I swear to Loki that it freaked me out how much they looked like the actor. He is very nice young man, who has travelled before, and we have a good drive together. He has a lot of time so he drives me all the way to Tihani, even though he was going somewhere else, and we take a nice walk alongside the lake.
After about one hour, he has to come back to his car and I decide to sit by the lake and eat my sandwiches.
Lake Balaton is a great stop in Hungary. At least this time of the year the water looks gorgeous in turquoise shades. There is plenty of space for nice photographs and walking. Unfortunately, towards the end of this path, there is a private yacht club, which sucks because you could have some more nice walk and views if it was open for the public. Even if it was only for the Hungarians! Absurd!
I walk back to town to take my walk now around there. It is alright but there is not that much to see. There are plenty of shops, cafes and restaurants, and a lot of lavender products shop. A lot! Perhaps that is the reason why is so touristic. The monastery could be a nice thing to see BUT, of course, it is under restoration, so completely covered. But there is a gorgeous view just behind it.
Now, what I truly suggest is, if you have one or more extra days, there are some lovely trails to do around the town. It is so green and full of trees. There is also another lake, a smaller one. It seems that spending a few days going around the trials and exploring the whole area it is a good thing to do.
I come back to the restaurant where I asked to drop off my backpack. The tourist info was closed before. The young man with whom I talked to in the restaurant was so pleasant and kind.
Not the same I can tell about the priest with whom I talked at the visitor centre (because you need a ticket to visit the monastery). What a jerk! When I came in and explain everything to a nice lady standing just beside him, she was very kind and polite, and turn out to ask him what to do. What did he do? Talks to me in such a reckless and negligent way, as not giving a shit to my request of help. And he even has the guts to say that, if I want, I could rent a room in their PENSION! Oh, you should see the look at the lady’s face. She seemed very sorry about it and as she wanted to help. I am not saying him or anyone HAVE necessarily to give help to someone who asks, no. But why do you have to be a prat?
Of course I start to cry immediately as I live the building. Now is easy for me to say what a jerk the guy was, but at the moment, I feel so sad for his mistreatment towards someone who is only asking for a roof to sleep under it.
Anyway, I try another church, a bit outside of town, but apparently there is no one living there. So I decide I will camp in a park just nearby. But because there are some workers doing a building job right at the road I need to take, I decide to sit in a bench and wait for them to leave. It is late afternoon so I don’t think it will take long.
The bench I sit is right in front a nice house. A very cult elderly lady comes outside the house and start to do some work. The only problem about my camping is that I don’t have any food. After considering for a long time if I should ask her for food or not, I decide to do it.
She doesn’t speak English but quickly takes me to the neighbour, who is working also outside, and he does the translation. He is a young man but there is also an elderly man around. Perhaps his father? He is very friendly and translate my quick story to the lady. She is very lovely and tell us to wait while she goes back inside her home. Middle time I chat a bit with this young man. He also likes to travel and seems like a nice person.
The sweet lady comes back with a bag full of small breads, a cheese-spread and some super cute tiny biscuits in animal shapes. Many different animals shape! How sweet! I ask the young man to say thank you to her a hundred times and then I say goodbye to them both.
I made my camping just behind the cemetery. There is a road right above my head and is still day light but I think it is a good option. There are lots of traces of human beings around here. Shame. For two times people pass by with their dogs while I am putting up my tent but during the night nobody comes.
Early in the morning though, I hear a big animal jumping around. I can tell it is bigger than a normal size deer because the sound of its jump it is massive! I get scared a little bit but them I calm myself down by thinking that, what ever animal is, it is probably more scared of me than me of it. And that is because I know it is not a lion or a bear. Right?
