Belgrade - Budapest

Belgrade – Budapest from 15th May till 20th May

From one historic big city to the next in six relatively easy stages. With some beautiful scenery along this big river that I’m following stream upwards, the Danube. And as easy as it sometimes may look on Strava or on Facebook, once the road decides to leave the river you’re in for a climb. And with the weight of the Parcycle it’s always a battle uphill. The most joyful rides are the ones that take you as close as you possibly can get next to the river without submerging yourself. This sometimes means riding unpaved tracks on the dikes that tame this immense body of water. I’ll take those tracks any day of the week and choose them over the motorways I am sometimes forced to ride. I still get annoyed and angry with this asshole attitude some drivers display when they carelessly fly by at ballistic speeds. They don’t seem to understand the scare they can put me through. And sometimes the gusts of wind make the Parcycle uncontrollably swerve out a bit, with a domino like effect on oncoming traffic.

15th May: Belgrade – Novi Sad 95 kms

Well, it was goodbye to Ivana, Ivan and many others of Belgrade that made my stay there a truly nice one. Zoran came to the rescue at the very last moment to collect my cycling cap I had left behind at the hotel. He must have really floored it, because he returned within the blink of an eye! With the cap back in place, on my head, I was good to go.

A short stop at the Belgrade DHL warehouse to check in on Darko (one of my cycling buddies of the city ride) was a fruitless one. He wasn’t at the office, but on the road somewhere. I couldn’t wait, because I did want to make it on time to Novi Sad. I could not promise to arrive there during working hours, but I would certainly try to do so. Novi Sad also has a DHL main office with a couple of Service points throughout the city. Unexpectedly I made good progress and arrived in time to meet Vladan, staff and team. Great enthusiastic guy Vladan, and he had arranged for a room at a resort situated on the banks of the Danube. It had an excellent restaurant where I ate the best steak this trip so far. The view from the terrace was as perfect as this day was. Good ride, great meeting and a finish in style!

16th May: Novi Sad – Vukovar 86 kms

Nice ride and quite easy to Vukovar. So, nothing new there. Vukovar, a town that still shows the scars of the most recent war. The shot to pieces water tower resembles what this town has gone through and is left standing unrestored as a memorial. It really brings it home, and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to hear the bullets and grenades hitting the target. But there are also a lot of houses and buildings that still testify silently of the horror that is called war. It makes for a more thoughtful stay over, and made me reflect om my blessed and peaceful life in the Netherlands. Freedom and peace is not only the absence of war, it is so much more than that. Few of us seem to realise that, but a stay in such a scarred town sure made me appreciate my life and freedom more. Stayed at a nice family run pension. Good room, with a nice breakfast. Dinner at the local pizzeria wasn’t as good as it was cracked up to be by the pension owners daughter. But I guess, young people have different standards? Or am I getting spoiled…

17th May: Vukovar – Lug 65 kms

A short ride. I wanted to stop even earlier, but managed to push on to Lug. Checked in this four starred oasis of luxury. A ballroom sized room would do just nicely. A Heineken beer from the minibar and a Philips TV set, made me feel right at home.

One would expect that the food served in such a high end resort is equal to the quality of the rooms. No such luck, if luck has anything to do with it. The wine was freezing cold, once warmed up quite good, but red wine must not come from a fridge. The cordon bleu was as tough as leather, and the bowl of lettuce was the sorriest excuse for a salad I ever saw. The music that poured from the cheap loud speakers was as silly as it was loud. Apparently the personal favourite radio station of the waitress that was more not present then she was willing to serve tables. And to top it off, one would expect in such a place of suggested refinement that the staff attending to the guests needs, at least spoke a few words of English. This waitress failed miserably, but also wasn’t able to hide her disgust when presented with the task to give it a try… She had to resort to getting the help of the female owner. How they will manage when the place is fully booked with foreign guests seems quite a challenge to me…

And it’s a small world after all. An elderly couple that I saw in the pension in Vukovar, also spend the night at the ‘Lug’. They were more enthusiastic about this reunion than I was. I spotted them already soon after my arrival. This was one of those couples that are on a holiday, but don’t seem to enjoy it very much. She seemed nice, but he was a terrible bore the other night in the pension. It wasn’t the last reunion with ‘old’ friends…

18th May: Lug – Baja 78 kms

This ride took me through three countries in one day. From Croatia into a shrapnel of Serbia and then into Hungary. Beautiful as always, but it never gets boring. Each time I cross this enormous river I stop near the middle of the bridge to take a few pictures. It doesn’t seem to narrow down, but it must as I slowly progress upstream. Baja, nice town but I decided on a stay in a hotel outside the city. Right at my route and close to the dike. The owner spoke only German, and made me shift to the language of our eastern neighbours. He obviously wasn’t prepared to entertain guests and the place looked like it just had opened for business. So, taken by surprise, if there was any room available he had to consult his agenda. Flicking through the unwritten blank virgin like pages he concluded: “Jah, Ich habe ein zimmer frei!” He had me going there for a brief moment, because back in the saddle wasn’t an option at that point. He showed me the room, and the double bedroom looked fine. Not ‘Lug’ standard, but that standard will not be met soon I guess. The owner took off in his car.

 So, collecting my stuff and ready to take a shower, I opened the windows of the room. The second window opening fired up an ant colony that almost immediately started colonizing the room. For every ant killed, ten or hundred came back. There was no stopping these animals! I went down to inform the waiter about the unwanted guests in my room. After the rat in Kathmandu, these little warriors were equally unwanted. An older women, the help around the house, also inspected the situation. The waiter was embarrassed and showed me the neighbouring room, and suggested that I could take that one. The owner was called, and reappeared in no time. A vacuum cleaner was fired up to deal with the problem. Walking down the stairs and giving the place a better look than the first glance, proved that this building had some real issues with bugs and insects. Corpses of these arthropods were scattered everywhere. A real plague…

19th May: Baja – Motel 108 kms

A long and pretty ride. Ended up in a motel in some place I don’t recall. It had a long and difficult name. And finding a place to stay was a bit harder than usual. So, I was happily surprised to stumble into this motel that appeared at the moment when I already had given up. One should not be over critical when the need is that high. However, service in this place was at the lowest level I experienced so far. The people, obviously related to one another in a family way, just didn’t give a damn. The guy that ‘helped’ me and handed me the key, didn’t bother to show me where I could find the room that supposedly was situated in another building. The woman behind the bar made advantage of my lack of knowledge of the Hungarian coins. I think she tricked me into paying twice for one beer. Then the waiter in the restaurant. He looked like a hybrid between ‘the Rock’ and Vin Diesel, but seriously off diet. Big beefy muscular arms over a barrel sized stomach. I ordered a pizza, unaware of the mega size. The Rock grinned viciously as he served the pizza that could feed an army: “Enjoy your meal!”

Soon enough I hated this place, the motel and its staff. So maybe that’s the reason for not remembering the place’s name. I just didn’t give a damn…

20th May: Motel – Budapest 75 kms

A nice, not too long ride took me from this motel into Budapest. Hard wind in the face. Same wind as yesterday but then it blew me fast forward. I didn’t bother to have breakfast at the motel. I checked out, gave the key to ‘the Rock’ and mumbled ‘goodbye’ to the guy that could do with a course of hospitality. I figured the left over pizza could serve as breakfast, lunch and dinner. Stopped at an small ‘mini market’ to do a little shopping. These places are brilliant. They sell everything and often have a coffee machine that pours out coffee that is really tasty! So, I took three, a Snickers bar and a bottle of wine (to go with the pizza) for less than two euros (the wine). I am not your particular ‘foodie’, and I guess I will never be. As long as I keep cycling and thus fit, I can abuse my body with this unhealthy garbage. And all in moderation of course…

After some searching I found a hostel named Hobar. Your typical hostel type deal, with alternative music, pot smoking guests and a rudimentary low budget décor. Excellent draft beer.

Budapest is also the city where a cycling buddy of mine resides. He doesn’t ride anymore, but he’s great company and we met that afternoon for a stroll and some beers. This afternoon we went for an extended excursion, and I must say Budapest is an amazing city. It embraces the Danube like Belgrade, but with even more style and grace. Some buildings could be marked as somewhat dissonant, because they sometimes stick out like a sore thumb next to the ‘fin the siècle’ architectural masterpieces. But as in Belgrade, great panoramic views that deserve a second viewing…

But lo and behold, coming back from our last and farewell beer I heard two familiar French voices. They came from one of the neighbouring rooms. It was the couple with the tandem bike I met in Tekija, Serbia! These people I do care for and are nice to meet again. But, cyclists you know. I guess that’s pretty much self-explanatory…