No Hungarian food? No problem!

Krakow to Tbilisi: Day 1

No Hungarian food? No problem!

Krakow to Miskolc in Hungary, via Slovakia and crossing 2 borders. Distance: 340km

Spent the night in “Babcia’s backyard” as Maria dubbed our apartment for the night, otherwise known as: Rakoczi Vendeghaz apartments.

Maria and I met around 9 on Saturday morning, after I arrived at Balice airport from Tbilisi via Warsaw and made my way to our house to collect the car that would be our means of transport for the next week.

We headed straight to the mall to buy the cat transport carriers we needed for the journey. I had had a good experience transporting a Guinea pig in one previously, and they are more spacious than the ones provided for smaller, rodent type pets. We also needed to stock up on food for the pets for the journey and of course I needed coffee, having already had a night with very little sleep due to the silly flight times.

Once we had the supplies, we headed back to the house to get the car packed with the pets, a few boxes of things we had left behind when the removal company were there and as many plants as we could safely fit in the car as well.

A quick side note here: I did as much research as I could before the trip about the regulations regarding moving plants and animals across borders. And came up with confusing, and sometimes contradictory regulations. But it seemed a good idea to not push it too far and try and bring all the plants we wanted to. The pets were a huge question mark as well.

We managed to leave around 12 and figured we should make it to Miskolc by 5pm, when we needed to check into our apartment. The border crossings were not daunting at this stage and we already had the road tax vignettes secured. My last priority before leaving Poland was to stop at a Zabka to stock up on the kind of instant noodles my children love and have missed. But I figured we would do it on the way.

If I have one regret for this leg of the journey, actually the whole journey, it would be that I had such low expectations. I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the breathtaking scenery driving south from Krakow and towards the Tatra mountains, with the autumn colours still spectacular. It felt like I just caught my breath from one magnificent view and then we would round a bend and another incredible vista lay before us.

But honestly, how do you prepare your heart for such beauty?

It was also hard to take in the fact that we were driving through two countries I had never been to before. They felt so familiar, like Poland and Czechia I guess.

I think that one of the highlights of this leg of the journey was the easy rhythm of conversation and silence, though let’s be honest, there wasn’t much of that!, we fell into. We listened to some music, sang along plenty, but mostly we talked. And after a few months with limited access to adult conversations, I could not have been happier.

The drive was easy, with not much traffic beyond the cities. We managed to stock up on Instant Noodles and even Salt and Vinegar crisps, another rarity. And we simply could not get enough of the mountain views and the gorgeous autumnal colours.

We made it to our stop for the night by 6pm, only to discover that there was no one there to let us into the property. Fortunately the apartment owner had sent a message with a phone number in the morning and we could get hold of him and just needed to wait a while.

What a nice guy he was, explaining everything well and leaving us to get settled. Which for us, for the duration of the trip, would require two trips from the car with bags and pets.

Having set up the pets, we went in search of some authentic Hungarian food. Only to discover that Saturday evenings all the restaurants were full and we could not simply drop in. Maybe it also had to do with All Saints’ day approaching? Who can say?

Having walked far and wide and becoming increasingly desperate, we made the best decision ever: Chinese food!

Now, just picture a cute, old town centre, in any Eastern European town, add a pedestrian area, fill in a few restaurants, add double the amount of bars and finally one Carrefour and a cash machine. That was where we landed. Oh and there was live music and some street food stalls as well, but we didn’t want wine and bread. We wanted food! And the last ditch option was the Chinese place, I want to say it was called something Wok, but I don’t remember. The menu was helpfully also in English, so we didn’t have to order entirely by pictures. And the food arrived fast. And it was incredible. We both agreed that we were no longer disappointed by not being able to sample local specialities, though we did get some local beer, we just so enjoyed that meal!

We rounded the evening off with a stroll through the town and settled down to some herbal tea and a decently early night, ready for a longer day of driving the following day.

At this stage, our journey had begun, but I still had that feeling of being in a dream that I would have to wake from eventually. But I was just so happy to be experiencing the dream and hoped it would last long.