Szeged and Sunshine

With the best weather I'm going to Szeged on Saturday and to lazy around in Velence on Sunday - including barbeque on the campsite in the evening.

City of Sunshine

Szeged is a city you should visit at least one time when you're in Hungary for a longer stretch of time. Because it's not only the third biggest city of Hungary - after Budapest and Debrecen - but also holds, next to what feels like at least two dozen churches, a cathedral, which is counted amongst the architectural wonders of Hungary.

And besides having a beautiful city center it is also the place in Hungary where the most sun hours are measured every year - and this sunny side of hers was demonstrated perfectly when another volunteer from Finland an I went to visit Szeged on Saturday.

The journey took, coming from Budapest, more than two hours even though it was a direct IC-connection. Because Szeged lies at the southern end of Hungary, close to the trijunction of Hungary, Serbia and Romania, in the Great Hungarian Plain.

The region couldn't be more idyllic, especially not now in spring, when everything is in full bloom. The train station is basically a breath away from the Tisza and the city center is full of young students, that are sitting around in small, artistic cafés, eating ice cream. All the more well-known sights of the city are easily reachable by foot and the weather simply invites to a lazy stroll.

After a long stop for ice cream we slowly have to head homewards, the sun is already setting and it's more than three hours until I reach Velence. There are no buses back to my village this time on weekends, so I will stay at the Volunteer-House in Velence for the night.

Summer's Preview

On Sunday the weather is even better than on Saturday. After a unhurried breakfast with Linda we're going to the train station to collect a friend of hers - a girl from Italy that she met on her On-Arrival-Training - that is coming to visit Lake Velence for today.

For the first time this year I'm walking around completely barefooted - the stone isn't overly hot yet and the feeling of sand between my toes was something I sorely missed during the winter.

We spend the whole day lazying around at the beach, lying around and eating ice cream. Linda has never tried avocado before which leads us to making a stop for grocery stopping - a few hours later, admittedly - and then going home, where we enjoy a fruit plate with pineapple, oranges and avocado while this day, too, slowly disappears behind the horizon.

I still want to check on the horses, but when I reach the campsite, Sebastian and a few other people are already there, making a barbeque between the yurts, and they invite me to join them after feeding the animals. So my day ends around a campfire, grilling bacon in the flames.