7/8/2006 Keszthely to Kishegyes

Hi all,
We haven’t had an Internet connection for a week and a half because of our trip to Serbia. The Internet cafe we had hoped to use is closed, so no posts. Back in Keszthely now, here is what you missed.

We left midmorning and took the "back roads" to the Serbian border, Peter driving. This is one of the first trips that he has taken in a car with automatic transmission, so starting and stopping was quite an adventure. As this trip was on back roads, a certain amount of passing was required. I can tell you now from frequent review that I have lead a short but interesting life.
We reached the Danube, and I took over the driving chores. We took a ferry across the Danube. Mr. Strauss was wrong and Spike was right, the Danube isn’t blue, it’s green.

Before continuing our little adventure, a few words about where we are heading. If you are not a student of recent history, I urge you to plug Serbia into a good search engine and take a look. Go ahead, I’ll wait...

OK, so you know, Serbia for Serbians, ethnic cleansing, mass graves, etc. Most of this took place in the southern part of the country, but as our story continues, you will see that the north was not unaffected.

With this said, you can understand the certain amount of trepidation with which I approached the Serbian border. There were four stops on the way through, and at each one a gate is lowered behind you, two for Hungary, and two for Serbia. At the last stop at the Serbian check point we were entertained while waiting for the border guard by watching a car in front of us begin to load an entire moving van of household goods back into a "U-Haul" type van. A few barked commands and we were on our way. I guess you never know. While all of this was going on, one of those summer heat storms was building, dark clouds and all. Just as the first lightning strikes were hitting the ground we passed a billboard featuring three men in "Klan" type black robes and hoods holding a black book with blood red letters. Really! I’m not making any of this up!

The fun part of this trip for me was getting driving directions in German, Hungarian and the occasional Serbian, eventually arriving at English about a minute too late. The other great thing was watching farm life up close and personal. At one point we passed (as quickly as possible) a tractor pulling a trailer containing a stack of hay bales about 90 high. Really! I’m not making this up! They were just clearing the power lines.

We reached Zia’s house in Kishegyes latish in the evening and had a light dinner while watching a pretty great show on a Balkan Folk Music and Dance Festival. After dinner, a soda and the World Cup, Germany 3-Portugal 1, go team. Then off to bed.

Dave