Wednesday 18 August 2004

I can’t deny I wasn’t a little nervous about the thought of traveling close to 700 kilometers (420 miles) with two bikes strapped to the roof. The bike racks seemed to be less than stellar examples of design.

This became evident the day before as we were actually putting the bike rack together and it turned out that two of the u-bolts were too long and so the threads didn’t extend far enough to enable us to tighten them properly. A few extra nuts and the problem was solved.

Putting the bikes on the rack (that sounds Inquisitorial) Wednesday morning revealed the need to improvise some more: we had to secure the front wheels with nylon string so the handle bars didn’t bang together as we rolled along.

Before our departure, a group photo was in order.

On the Way

The trip itself was somewhat uneventful – just the third time from Poland to Budapest.

We stopped in Donovalay for a snack, in Sachy for coffee, Vac for a walk, and somewhere for lunch, though I can’t remember where.

Gary denerwowa? siÄ™ trochÄ™ tymi rowerami na dachu ale w gruncie rzeczy to mieliÅ›my poczucie, że nasz samochód wyglÄ…da po prostu – cool – z tak wspania?ym bagażem. NajwiÄ™kszy stres przeżyliÅ›my jednak na ulicach Budapesztu. Jest to miast wyjÄ…tkowo nieprzyjazne dla kierowców, szczególnie tych obcych. Centrum miasta to labirynt ulic jednokierunkowych, w tygodniu miasto jest niewyobrażalnie zakorkowane a do tego budapesztaÅ„scy kierowcy nie majÄ… za grosz cierpliwoÅ›ci i nie zdejmujÄ… nogi z gazu jak tylko warunki na drosze im na to pozwalajÄ….

Poza tym, to jechaliÅ›my sobie beztrosko, s?uchajÄ…c dobrej muzyki, Gary przygotowa? wczeÅ›niej najróżniejsze sk?adanki na wszelki możliwe nastroje jakie mog?y nas dopaść na trasie.

After my folks got on the plane Thursday morning, Kinga and I headed to Balaton, finding a wonderful room with a fenced yard where we could leave the car in Felsoors.