Epic European Cycle : 2015-08-19 : Train to Nagykanizsa

Travel
Type Name Service Provider Origin Destination Cost Notes Actions
Train Budapest to Nagykanizsa MAV Budapest Nagykanizsa $50.00
Accommodation
Type Name Service Provider Confirmation Location Cost Notes Actions
Camp Nyirfas Camping Negykanizsa $12.50


Trip Log

Notes Actions
Before we left the hostel this morning, Brent made a cheat sheet to take to the train station asking for two tickets for us, and two bicycle tickets to Nagykanizsa. He stole words from here and there in our phrase book to make his cheat sheet. He said he wanted to confirm it with Google Translate, so I did that and got a completely different set of words. Brent asked the front desk lady to have a look at them and she said his was better, but she fixed his grammar. She said the Google Translate one was requesting "admission" (instead of tickets). At the train station, Brent presented the cheat sheet to the ticket lady, who happened to have poor eyesight. We got what we needed, though - two tickets for us, and two tickets for the bikes to Nagykanizsa! Yay for Brent's cheat sheet!
When we got to Nagykanizsa, we had a screen shot from Google Maps and my written instructions describing how to get to the local campground. We headed off in the general direction, and at an intersection we stopped to consult our information to make sure we were still headed the right way. As has happened pretty much every single time we've stopped to consult a map in Europe, some people stopped to help. This time it was a fella, Atilla, and his friend, who are cycle touring as well. Atilla's English is very good since he has lived in Australia for several years. They chatted us up and asked us where we were heading. They said they didn't think there was a campground in town - they were headed to a campground 25km further down the road and crossing the boarder into Croatia first thing in the morning. It was good to learn which road to take to get to the border! They stopped a local guy and asked where the campground was, and the local guy said there wasn't one. Then Atilla's friend used his Mighty iPhone to look up a local campground, and they found the one I was aiming for, and it was straight down the road we were already on. Yay! We found the campground AND it is on the road to the Croatian border!
I can't believe I did it again! How many times do I have to learn the hard way to be properly prepared for national holidays in the places we're visting? A number of people have told us that August 20th is a national holiday in Hungary, but that still didn't equate to "get food ahead of time" in my brain! Dammit! After Brent and I set up in the campground, we headed back into Nagykanizsa looking for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. That's when we discovered that the local grocery stores were closed for the evening, and they would remain closed through tomorrow. As in... we have no food and we're unlikely to get any for a day. Brent's cooperative system may have been ok with that, but mine certainly wouldn't, so I started to get pretty worried. As we were standing in front of the closed "Medium Market" (as opposed to Supermarket... yes, their sign actually says "Medium Market"), an elderly lady came up and started "helping" us in rapid Hungarian. What we both got out of it, though, was that there was a Spar in town that was still open, it was a little further into town, and on the left (good thing she used charades in addition to Hungarian), so we set off deeper into town. When we got to town center, we still hadn't found anything and we were standing pondering what to do. A lady was walking across the street toward us and so, using my best "desperation as a communication technique" voice, I asked her, "Spar?" "Spar?". To which she replied, in perfect English, with exact directions for how to find it (behind us, now, and to the right, behind the bus station).


Photos