July 12th – 22nd 2013

The Big Fat Hungarian wedding was still loud in our heads as we woke up the following morning, the 60% proof Palinka certainly hangs around for a while BUT we had, rather unusually for us, NOTHING at all to do!

We had another day to relax before we had to say our farewells to Janet and Sue and then make the most of Varga Tanya’s fantastic Wellness centre. We lounged in the toasty warm modern spa, took a dip in the hot-tub, steamed the alcohol out of our pores and Alex fell asleep on a chais lounge by the bubble bath while I read my book in peace.

We wandered the gardens and enjoyed the gorgeous flowers, the hydrangeas were as large as my head and in full bloom, the pond was filled with beautiful water lilies and the air scented with their wonderful perfume.

Varga Tanya was such a tranquil place and as we waved our goodbyes to everyone a few days later (with the unavoidable tears on our part) we realised just how tired we were. Having being constantly on the move since day one of the adventure over 2 years ago we had barely stopped to catch our breath.

Hungary had infected us with is beauty and we wanted to relax a while and enjoy it. As we drove we were captivated by the hippy happy sunflowers bobbing their heads to the sunshine and our smiles beamed as brightly as their faces, before we knew it we had come to a stop and made a firm decision to rest.

We pulled into a McDonalds car park, hijacked the wifi and looked for somewhere cheap to sleep, cook and relax/blog for a while! We worked out that we had 4 days before we needed to set off for the next wedding and booked ourselves into a lovely little wooden house just over the border in Slovakia, high fived and hit the road HARD to get there the very same day.

We were so in love and awe with Hungary but as we got further North and into Slovakia it just got better and better, such a beautiful part of Europe and we would recommend the drive to anyone at this time of year.

Cherries weighed down the branches of their trees and shone like rubies in their uniform pairs in big juicy bunches, the sunflowers continued in their millions turning their heads to the setting sun and every now and then a flash of incredible bubble-gum pink burst from a tree startling me into thinking I had imagined it!

A pink so, well, so pink, that it doesn’t seem possible to be produced by nature, flashed before my eyes and it took a minute for me to realise that there were trees laden with pink lady apples dotted along the road! The apples glowed like a perfect sunset and made my mouth water!

We drove along dreaming of gorging ourselves on the fruits we might find there if we became stranded and enjoyed the freedom of the road. We seemed to be the only people on Earth at that moment and the wind rippled through my fingers as we flew along at speed.
I closed my eyes to absorb the beautiful feeling of fresh air, nature and all the possibility in the World.

We made it to Chapulko and on meeting the lovely and VERY helpful owner we settled in as rapidly as we always do. Peggy was unloaded and the fridge filled within the hour and we sat and absorbed the last of the bright pink sunset in the garden with a glass of wine.

For four days we literally hibernated in our little wooden house, we cooked, ate and worked solidly on the blog from dawn to dusk!
We would force ourselves out of the house for an hour a day to walk along the village streets and nosey into everyones gardens to see what they were growing. Apples, cherries and pears hung fat from all of the trees, vines snaked along the ground holding big bulging courgettes and butternuts and dusty looking grapes hung delicately over miles and miles of string. Chickens darted about our feet and the locals waved at us as we passed every day.

As always, before we knew it, it was time to hit the road again but, with the memory of the beauty still fresh in our minds we were looking forward to it. We did have a HUGE day or two ahead of us, we had the whole of Poland to drive across and had to find our way to Lithuania for our next wedding!

Over 1100km and 13 hours driving according to Google maps but of course our experience included the CRAZY Polish drivers, the insane roads such as dual carriageways with 70mph speed limits WITH traffic lights and of course the mental traffic!

We finally made it through the three very different landscapes, from fields of sunflowers and fruit trees as far as the eye can see in Slovakia, to constant farmland, epic skies and locals selling mushrooms and berries on the side of the aforementioned crazy roads in Poland, to a different again Lithuania. From farmed-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life-Poland, into a pretty, laid back land.

Hand farmed fields, pretty houses and terrible roads were the form for Lithuania. We found our way to Kaunas and with all of our four days of refreshment already wiped from our minds, settled in for the night before getting our wedding week on for the 54th time!