Day 20 - We are very Hung(a)ry

Day 20 Friday September 2

We leave the Balkans and enter Europe through Hungary (country no. 6). It's a relatively short drive of about 400 kms or so we thought!!!!

We are very careful while driving on the highway as it is raining quite heavily. The speed is also under control. Our first stop is the town of Novi Sad where we go up to the fortress and look out point. The town looks very pretty with the river flowing along and we can see 2 - 3 bridges built across the river. Interestingly the safety grille is full of locks, maybe for good luck. It's quite windy and chilly at 14 deg. We had garam chai and biscuits.

The first hiccup began from here. T & S's car no. 1 refused to start. They tried many things but to no avail. It was decided that Sanjay would stay with the car and have it repaired but the convoy would proceed towards Budapest. He will join us as soon as possible. Tomas (our local guide who will be with us till Estonia, he joined us in Bulgaria), Karl and Srivijay with car no. 9 would stay with Sanjay

The Serbia Hungary border is at the village of Horgos. There are 2 checkpoints where you can cross the border. Trucks go through Horgos 1 and passenger cars use Horgos 2. We reached Horgos 2 at 2.45 pm. There are about 100 cars and only one booth to clear the line. We thought that we should be out in about 2 hours. But things do not work as planned. Till 6 pm we had moved almost till the gate. At 6.10 a police guard came and said that all the remaining cars must go to Horgos 2 as this gate closes at 7 pm. Hastily we made a U turn towards it. There the long line became longer as other than the normal traffic the overflow of cars from the other gate also came here. We got out of Serbia at around 7 pm. The Hungarian border control took another hour, they had not seen India registered cars crossing over into Europe and some cars had their luggage minutely checked. Anyway we entered Hungary at 8.30 pm, regrouped at a gas station and drove toward Budapest.

Anticipating to cross the border in one hour, we actually spent 7 hours doing so. We unloaded the bags at Hotel Inter Continental at 10.45 pm. By now everyone was HUNGRY. Food from an Indian restaurant that was thoughtfully pre-ordered was delivered to the hotel and all of us barged into Tushar's room and had dinner at almost midnight.

We are now eagerly waiting for Sanjay, Karl & Srivijay to join us.

This trip is a learning experience, two more lessons I learnt today are: 

1. Being humble.

Crossing an international border by car is a very humbling experience. All pretenses and arrogance that one might have vanish into thin air. It plants your feet firmly on the ground.

2. Being courageous.

For me, courage is not the absence of fear. Darr sabko lagta hai. It is the ability to look at fear in the face and move forward in spite of it. Extraordinary people like Sanjay and Tushar are courageous and I have a lot to learn from them. 

The day's figures:

Hotel Moscow Belgrade 8.30 am

Novi sad view point 11.30 - 12 noon - 92 kms

Car no. 1 breakdown

Lunch at gas station 1.30 pm - 2.15 pm - 71 kms

Serbia Hungary border Horgos 2 - 2.45 pm - 6 pm - 53 kms

Horgos 1 crossing at 6.30 pm - 9 kms

Hungary 8.30 pm - 8.45 pm rest

Hotel Inter continental Budapest 10.45 pm - 176 kms

Traveled today 401 kms

Total distance 6175 kms