Time for a city break! We rented a car in Budapest and headed north to see what we could find in rural Hungary and surrounds. Being Australians and having just completed an 8000km road trip back home its easy to forget that 2 hours of driving over here gets you into another country, and with Hungary surrounded by 7 of them we planned to cross a border or two.

And so it was we were back in Slovakia to the north of Hungary and on the hunt for a castle! On the way we passed through quaint little villages where we stopped for coffees and food, impressed at how the Slovak people are welcoming visitors from all over. In the tiny town of Levoca we booked a room in a small guesthouse (a pension) and our host was amazed at how far we had travelled and that we had chosen to stay in her little town.

Spis Castle was an incredible ruin up high on a hill that allowed amazing views of the surrounding villages and the remnants of the once imposing castle, said to be one of the largest castle sites in Central Europe. Yet another great find from one of our many travel books back home.

The castle was abandoned in the mid 18th century

Views for miles

Spis Castle in Slovakia

From the castle we crossed back over the border into Hungary and moving clockwise around Budapest travelled through more lovely cities (much smaller than Budapest) taking a detour through the wine region too. It’s usual as a travelling Aussie to bump into fellow Aussies in most places, but rural Hungary had us as the odd ones out which was a nice change with many people surprised at how far off the tourist trail we were.

Summer blooms in Kosice, Slovakia

Wine and prosciutto in the town of Mad, in wine country

Vino time in Levoca, Slovakia

The same could be said for our foray into Serbia to the south as we headed for the small city of Novi Sad, just an hour over the border. For the first time we queued at a border crossing since we arrived on the continent and saw first hand the impact of the current refugee crisis with a large camp of desperate souls attempting to cross into Hungary. Given the opportunity we have to do what we are doing this year, it is sobering and gut wrenching to imagine what these people are going through.

Novi Sad was an interesting place – we had no concept of what to expect and even the host of our apartment questioned why we had chosen to visit this city when most tourists (or ‘strangers’ as she said!) would head straight to the capital Belgrade. Armed with her food recommendations we hit the streets to see what we could find and were pleasantly surprised by the incredible meals and $4 cocktails! The main square and churches were nice, although in some cases not refurbed to the same standard as other euro-cities. The turmoil in this region during the 90’s took its toll on Serbia but from what we could see here they are a people and country determined to move forward and following this quick intro we will definitely put Belgrade on the travel list down the track.

Novi Sad at dusk

Baking by the lake in Siofok

$4 cocktails!! Thank you very much!

Excellent food at Project 72, Novi Sad

Our final stop before we wrapped up our Hungarian adventure was the lakeside village of Siofok, a 2 hour train ride west of Budapest. Being a land locked country, the Hungarians have turned to this large body of water in the west and created a string of villages along its shore for holidaying and partying. Think Gold Coast by a lake. It was a refreshing change from cities and villages; at times tacky and certainly not a culinary destination, but it was fun and quirky and provided hours of people watching entertainment as DJs pumped the tunes all day and night.