Harta - Hungarian Hospitality

After leaving Budapest, we had one more major point to see in Hungary before heading to Romania: the Kiskunsagi Nemzeti National Park, located south of Budapest. However, it was already quite late and the national park center was likely closed, so we decided to set up our campsite on the Danube River. We found a beautiful spot right in nature, about 100 meters from the Danube shore, about 1 kilometer from the nearest road on a field path (which is also part of the EuroVelo route), and we spent the evening with a nice walk and a relaxed dinner...

The next morning, after a short jogging and strength session followed by a 'shower' from the water canister, Floh just wanted to quickly move the car into the shade so that we wouldn't melt during breakfast... But instead of starting with a loud and steady rumble, Winniefred only made a pitifully soft noise and didn't start. Damn, that sounded a lot like a dead battery, but why? The radio had only been on for 10 minutes and all the lights had been off the whole time... We couldn't explain it. Unfortunately, getting help was not so easy, as no one would accidentally come down this field path and the only cyclists on the EuroVelo route had passed about 16 hours ago... What to do? Pushing it. Two people pushing is a bit difficult, so we took everything out of the car to make it lighter. Just as we had spread out all our stuff on the meadow, a car arrived: a couple and a woman (her name was Fujt) who were looking for a lost party guest who might be lying drunk somewhere in the field... Jump-starting was quickly done and they also invited us to come with them to their farm, which was only 2 kilometers away, to have lunch there. So we joined them, but we soon found out that Winniefred's electronics had completely failed: no speedometer, tachometer, power windows, all the lights were on, and the engine was stuttering badly...

We arrived at the after-party with quite a bit of concern. There, Laszlo immediately took care of the situation. He was a party guest who had worked in Baden-Württemberg for 5 years and spoke perfect German. He said he was 99% sure that our alternator was broken. However, on Saturday afternoon after 12 o'clock there was no mechanic to be found in Hungary, and even all the mechanic friends of the party guests were not interested in a weekend job... So it happened that we were invited to stay on the farm over the weekend, where Tamas, Gabi, and their 3 children (Csenge (and her boyfriend Bence), Reka, and Lilla) lived... and an endless number of animals :) We were even allowed to sleep in a really great treehouse and were invited to all meals. It was simply incredible how friendly we were received and we are still infinitely grateful for it; it is definitely a highlight of our journey. So we not only learned about Hungarian specialties but also some Hungarian and quite a bit about the history of the nearby village of Harta: it was founded by Danube Swabians and to this day there are many people in the village who speak German, have a German name, and the signage in the village is bilingual.

On Monday, Laszlo drove with us to Budapest (almost 100 kilometers) to buy a new alternator, which a friend of his then installed for us. Tuesday morning, Winniefred was ready to go again, and we could hardly believe it. So much hospitality and helpfulness. Some Germans could definitely learn a lot from that.

Speaking of hospitality: Tamas, Gabi, and the family gave us homemade sausages, wine, and garlic (because we were heading to Transylvania to meet the vampires ;)... Happy and sad, we continued on to Romania. We will come back to Hungary and especially to Harta :)

Köszönöm!

P.S: Oh, and the funniest part of the whole story: there was actually a national park, but it's just Hungarian lowlands, which we saw a lot of, but it's not necessarily accessible for tourists. Most people in the village didn't even know which national park we were talking about.

P.S.2: The missing person they were looking for when they found us had already hitchhiked home a long time ago and just forgot to check in.