KYRIL DAMBULEFF'S TRIP TO
Crossing from Austria into Hungary is not a problem at all. Just like
in the US, the Austrians seem not to care who leaves their country and
as result you will only be stopped by The Hungarian border guards -
soldiers in military fatigues armed with machine guns. They looked at
my passport, gave it back to me and waved me through. I did not even
have to take my helmet off. I could have been anybody. It appeared
that an American passport is a good thing to have in those parts of
the world.
The Hungarian roads are decent but relatively slow which is OK because
you get a chance to look around and see for yourself some remnants of
the mess the socialist regime left behind. At first it looks dirty
and gray but then you get used to it only to get a small shock of
color from the occasional prostitute's mini skirt. The air was
heavily polluted with exhaust fumes and it was almost impossible to
ride behind those smoke-belching, toxin-spewing old Russian trucks and
busses. Whenever I came behind one of those, I just pulled over in
the next village and washed my throat with a soda or two. Everybody
takes US$ but make sure that you bring some small bills. The dollar
was doing extremely well against the forynth, I got F202 per $1,
changed only $50 at the local bank and was wondering if I will be able
to spend it all. A delicious lunch of big bowl of goulash and all the
bread I could eat cost only $1.50. Gas was relatively cheap too at
about $1.20 per gallon.
It started to rain and in the hope that the rain would go away, I
decided not to put my rain gear on. I had a BMW rain suit which I put
on only after my leathers were soaked through. I highly recommend
taking a rain suit, it takes very little space and is the only thing
that will allow you to cover some ground on a rainy day.
I put down for the night at a small motel in a charming village by the
beautiful name of Szentendre. It's on the Danube river about fifteen
miles north of Budapest. It had been built in the 16th century by
Serbian merchants and it still has wonderful cobblestone streets.
It's a bit of a tourist trap and is full of small bars and
restaurants. I was beginning to learn at this point that it is much
better to stay the night in a small village where it will take you 2
minutes to find a hotel rather than arriving in a big city in the
middle of rush hour (I never rode at night) and spending the next two
hours trying to find a hotel which would be three times as expensive.
In Europe, you can walk anywhere and most of the places you would want
to see are accessible by foot, so once you've parked your bike leave
it there for the night, do your laundry, hang your leathers to dry and
enjoy the beer which is very good and very cheap - about $0.75 a pop.
KYRIL NEXT GOES TO YUGOSLAVIA