Saturday, August 31, 2013

Travel Journal

This is my Journey Diary. It is the 20th of August, 2013. I welcomed myself to the country of my ancestors, the country of bats and dark mythical creatures. I'm in Eastern Europe; Hungary.

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Day 2.

Mostly resting today. Me and my crew (read; me and my Love) must have slept about 20 of the 24 hours. Activity only during breakfast, lunch and dinner time. And late at night. Tomorrow we are expecting adventure.
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♥ When suddenly a wild animal appeared and we got photo bombed without noticing until we arrived back on deck (in our room) later that night. ♥
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Day 3. Adventure.

Full of energy, we stared the day with a swim and the most refreshing shower we had in days. After lunch we explored Gyöngyös, a small town nearby. The bumpy bus ride alone was an adventure already. In town I bought lovely cute stuff while shopping. (“I-Shopped” later on.)
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♥ In front of the church presbytery (book store nowadays) ♥

Post-Dinner. We climbed uphill in search of a lookout point and we found this picturesque watch tower, built around 1900.

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Today I am Rapunzel, but my hair does not reach all the way down yet.

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Sun sets so early in this far away land. As far as I could see, the last rays of sun were laying themselves down on the hills and cities around. Fog rises, night falls soon.

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Returned safely to deck. I am satisfied with everything we have conquered today.
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Day 4.

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Nothing exciting happened today, other than a short climb down to the river. Lots of resting, enjoying the quietness inside and the small walks up and down to the dinner area. Prepared for tomorrows trip.
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5th day.

Today's quest for beautiful scenery brought us to a small village nearby. A part of the trip was with a local small diesel train, which was way too adorable. Closed wagon one way and open wagon the other way.
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♥ When I was little my grandparents had brought me to this place
and what I remember most is the little train. ♥

Our destination was the castle ruins of Kisnána. This place has a rich history and was massively restored during the last century.
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♥ These are taken by myself ♥

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♥ This is also taken by me, around 1900, before restoration. source. ♥

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Day 6.

Failed attempt of locating another ruin in the woods nearby due to horrible path marking. No picture.


Day 7.
Last full day at this location. Morning started with a succeeded attempt to locate the ruins of Bene. Some of its walls are restored, but still half covered by dirt and all sorts of flora and fauna (so many lizzards!).


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Reconstruction of the Bene Castle. source.

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This place put me in a romantic mindset of long lost times. Of a little square, surrounded by walls, with wooden towers and pets all around. The castle had not been large, but did have several rooms dedicated to residence.

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Day 8. Inter-country travel.

After lunch, we packed our belongings and continued our journey to the south to visit relatives. Trip was long and exhausting, but it made it even more relaxing to sink into our freshly prepared bed.
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Day 9. In the south.

Wandered through town. This place is weird. Rich and poor are so clearly visible and yet so mixed. The inner city is being renewed, which looks really good. Even the restaurant we ate at in the evening was new. A cute, modern, Italian restaurant (finally somewhere to eat pesto!).
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Decorations in the shopping street. ♥

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Day 10.

Full day of shopping and eating melons. Hungary has the fantasticestest water melons in the universe. Not even near to what is sold in our super markets at home; so full of taste and bright red flesh!

Other that that, shopping until our feet were sore.
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♥ With all my shopping bags and plenty of awesome stuff in them. ♥

I will dedicate another post to my shoppings.

Day ended with fried cheese. Me and my crew are fully satisfied.

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Final day. The travel back home.

Today I drank infinitely more coffee than I have in the past six months, as I started my day with a small cup with clouds of cream and beaches of sugar. In the plane I tried another sip, which -for once- was fairly okay. I usually don't drink coffee at all.

It is nice being in my own country again. I recognize the fashion, things are not broken and the trees are green!

This ten days journey was very relaxing, I saw the beautiful scenery that I was longing for. However, the search for supernatural creatures has led to only small clues; lots and lots of bats at night, legends of dragons living in the mountains around Kisnána (no proof was found, not even in the well) and the coat of arms of the village to which we had moored our ship:
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♥ The weapons of the region with a depiction of the moon and the sun
and their relations to wolves, obviously hints towards werewolves. ♥

But honestly, I am happy to go back to my own warm nest, my home, my bed, my bunnies and my luxury life.
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