It did. The whole electric motor. This from Graz (yes, Austria already – what happened to Hungary?!) – do you remember that post the other day when I said I wonder what disaster might be about to befall me next? Hoping none would? After all, I’d just smashed my expensive smartphone, ruined my favourite shirt … Read more …
Here I was thinking how kind these Hungarian ladies were offering me a space to sit out the searing midday sun today half way between Lake Balaton and the border with Slovenia, to charge my literal and metaphorical batteries, eat my picnic lunch and generally cool down as I now finally pedal westward and home. … Read more …
So, right up front, NOT a good idea to pack one’s very expensive Pixel smartphone into a particular point on the back of the bike where there’s serious pressure on the screen, including from a heavy spare battery. Yup, elromlott, as I now know the Hungarians say. Broken. Although I feel more like saying, Kifeküdt … Read more …
Time perhaps to catch up on Hungary and the turn from language learning to cycling home from next week – through Slovenia, Austria, CH and France, dropping in on old Reuter colleagues on the way in Geneva and Paris. Seems my Hungarian continues to come along nicely. My last night in Budapest brought reunification with … Read more …
Indeed, why on earth (in devil’s name, which is closer to the Hungarian above) am I – and have been for so long – learning Hungarian? Sitting in Budapest half way through a three-week (almost) sojourn in Hungary in the early summer of 2025 with the specific intention of getting to grips with this intense, … Read more …
Listen carefully, and (my previous post refers) God is laughing his (their?) head off now as we prepare to drive home after a fascinating fortnight in Transylvania (writing this in Alba Iulia as the Romanian presidential election results come in – at the moment, looking good for Europe.) Instead of tandeming from Hungary to Bucharest … Read more …
Then and now pictures below (scroll down) of the Ceausescus’ palatial Bucharest residence (and apologies for having had Budapest inexplicably in the title for months!), including the photo I took of their bed at Christmas 1989 literally still unmade from their last night in the building Dec 21-22. Three days later, both were dead. Recalling … Read more …
From one bloodthirsty dictator to another? Ever wondered what Bran Castle is like, supposed home of the Transylvanian ruler to beat them all, and even Nicolai C, Count Dracula? Also known charmingly as Vlad The Impaler? (Don’t ask, as what that means as a way of despatching your enemies is pretty gruesome). The bulk of … Read more …
Blog been very quiet for over a week as first I recovered from this year’s nasty cold-and-chest, and then we recalibrated our trip to drive round Romania rather than tandem, with a view on return to pedal round Lake Balaton instead. So this is from Bucharest, a return for me 36 years after covering the … Read more …
Yes, tell him your plans. The view on the left is not of some Great Caparthian Mountain, but of what I can see from my sick bed just a few hundred metres north of Hungary’s border with Serbia, hunkered down for a few days as I finally fight off the back end of a month’s … Read more …