Cyclists, cyclists everywhere: Budapest - Esztergom - Say hi to the elephants, and hope the weather improves - CycleBlaze

September 29, 2012

Cyclists, cyclists everywhere: Budapest - Esztergom

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The leafy delight of leaving Budapest for Esztergom
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I'VE RARELY SEEN so many cyclists. They weren't there when I made an early start out of the city, past the parliament buildings, its guards and its warnings not to linger, but I could barely move for them later.

Leaving the city was a good deal easier than riding into it five years ago. Then, we had become lost in high-rise suburbs and stumbled on what we're sure was an amateur drug deal in a service road behind lock-up garages. It was only because the lads were as surprised as we were and that we vanished as quickly as we had arrived that we passed through without trouble.

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The busiest stretch was around Esztergom, one of many tourist haunts I'm going to ignore on this ride because we explored them so thoroughly on that other trip. Instead, I was entertained by an oompah procession of banners behind a

I still have no idea what they were up to but they added to the gaiety of the afternoon
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"It's only being so cheerful as keeps me going..."
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marching band. Some of the men were in traditional jackets and hats, a wine glass attached to the loops of their button-fixings.

Shortly afterwards I was attacked, flock of seagulls style, by tipsy women in colourful peasant outfits or with painted moustaches and beards.

Shpeakingg Hungaywyan ish even more diffico when you're tipshy
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They talked alcoholically but it made no sense in Hungarian. I pointed at my wedding ring to ask if they were celebrating a marriage and two said yes. But I realised later this must be a significant date because not only had I seen the procession and then the Happy Ladies but, in my tent in a meadow tonight, I can hear fireworks in the nearest village.

I wonder what it's all about.

A meadow beside a woodland path was all I need for a good night's sleep
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