Egészségedre (Cheers!)

Hungary has a very beautiful countryside, however most people are content with visiting the capital Budapest and nothing more. Well not me, having spent a good long weekend in Budapest and taking photos of all the castles, statues and architecture I went to one of the train stations and surveyed the board trying to decide where I would like to go, Nagykanizsa, yeah that sounded like good name and my guide book didn't have anything to say about it so it was on!

Well, I arrived in Nagzkanisya approaching dusk greeted by two plain clothed officers wanting to see my passport, they looked pretty shady so I was fairly rude and was asking him some questions (although they could not really understand) to make sure he was actually officer and then stood in front of the door while he had my passport. That turned out OK and then I looked to the information desk to find out about accommodation, she could not speak English but I managed to communicate that i wanted a hostel, she sent me walking in the direction of town with no more information than a pointed finger.

Very quickly I had the suspicion that Nagykanisza didn't attract too many tourists. And after two hours of walking around town it was confirmed, hostels didn't exist, the English language was never invented and it was getting dark so i began looking for a sheltered place to sleep while walking back to the train station in the hope of more information.

About a kilometer back from the train station I found an abandoned vintage train, i was certain that this was my fate but I continued back to the station anyway. As I approached I saw a girl playing hacky, she looked foreign so I asked if she spoke English. Fortunately she could and quickly she enquired with "what the fuck are you doing down here?" After talking for a few minutes and she realising my predicament offered me to stay at her brothers vineyard out of town in one of the small villages (Liszo). The following 5 days are history, a rather blurry and hazy history due to over consumption of home made wine...

Being philosophical, only thing i can say i learnt from it is don't use the 'next train leaving the station' method to dictate your travel plans. But then it all turned out well, so perhaps that is the ideal method. oh well i don't know I'm confused and tired.