One of the countries south of Poland is the Slovak Republic. We crossed through it on our way to Hungary and spent the night in the small village of Oravský Podzámok. From our spot for the night we had a great view of the Orava Castle.
To think that we spent the night next to a castle built in the Kingdom of Hungary in the thirteenth century, unbelievable!
We continued into Hungary, where we were earlier during this trip as well. We had two main goals this time, the first one was exploring Budapest. The capital of Hungary is divided by the Danube River. It is a beautiful town on both sides of the river. We started off on the Pest side, where the parliament building is situated.
We visited the town a day after
St. Stephen's Day, one of the most important national holidays in Hungary. The foundation of the state by the nation’s first king, St. Stephen, is celebrated and the highlight of the day was supposed to be huge fireworks at the parliament buildings. In the morning of the 20th, the forecast called for heavy rain and wind at night, and the fireworks were cancelled. What was announced as 'Europe's Biggest Fireworks Display' was postponed to a week later...
But the rain storm the National Meteorological Service had predicted changed direction and struck parts of eastern Hungary instead - missing the capital city entirely.... A few days later, the Innovation Minister fired the two meteorologists responsible for the wrong forecast... An interesting decision...
On the Buda side of Budapest, you have a magnificent view of the parliament building. The Buda area also houses the Royal Castle District, where the Festival of Folk Art was happening right at the time we were there. We were lucky to be there at exactly the right time as we heard the musicians of the band ViGaD play. We had never heard of them, but they were sooo good! Their enthusiasm and rhythm were amazing!
Our second part of our stay in Hungary was spent with our dear Dutch friends Milan and Ina, who were on a holiday with their daughters in Balatonkeresztúr, a small town on Lake Balaton. The first day we were together, the weather was rather cold. A walk in the shallow part of the lake was as far as we got to enjoying the lake.
The second day, the kids were swimming, but we stayed happily on shore, enjoying our precious time together.
Hopping from country to country is a typical European thing to do. Distances are short and borders are easy to cross. So after Hungary, we spent a few days in Croatia, in the village of Ičići, next to Opatija. It was such a lovely place; we really enjoyed it.
When we shipped our motorhome from Canada to Europe, we had to get a special European car insurance in order to be able to drive here. The insurance we took out did not allow us to visit all of the countries in Europe. A few of them need another special insurance, which we did not opt for. That meant we could not visit Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia, all formerly part of Yugoslavia. However, we were allowed to enter the Republics of Croatia and Slovenia. So our next stop was just that, the Republic of Slovenia.
We spent some time in the capital city of Ljubljana. It had a nice city centre, which was very walkable. Raija enjoyed the interactive artwork which is supposed to provide some relief from the summer heat. But when we got drenched later that afternoon by real rain, she was not so amused any more. Still, we enjoyed Ljubljana a lot!
It was a good end of our visit to the Balkans.
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