Thinking Allowed: House no. 92

Day 7: Tuesday, May 30

Kms: 15

Start: voda divoka

End: vojka nad dunajom

Mosquito bites endured: ~2,000

We had another pretty smooth day of walking along a levee. Our path was sandwiched between the old and new danubes. During the Soviet era Slovakia and Hungary decided to dam the mighty Danube to meet their energy needs. Seems a risky venture and Hungary backed out of the plan due to potential environmental impact. In order to dam such a vital waterway they had to reroute the entire river into a very long (took us more than two days to walk its length) and wide manmade canal that ends in a dam. The canal became the 'new Danube.'

We walked on the levee of the new Danube which had the advantage of being flat and straight but had literally no shady spots to rest - a shame given the heat wave. Having nowhere to rest out of the sun meant we arrived at our destination around lunch time. Vojka sounded like it would be a cute town but it did not endear itself to us. For reasons unknown even to the locals the area was in the midst of a mosquito onslaught. We tried to sit at the one restaurant for a drink but ended up being drunk. We tried to play in the park but had to flee as we were all being devoured by mosquitos. So we decided to hide indoors.

Our accommodation was very informal. We had numerous communications with Beata, a woman who was listed as having a penzione. She assured us by email that someone would put us up and left it at that. I am not sure where Beata was when we were in town or if she ever puts people up herself but she was true to her word. She told us to find house 92 (yup the town is small enough that they didn't bother with street names) so Jakob and Aurora set off to locate 92 while flailing their arms at the unrelenting mosquitos. On house 92 was a note for us instructing us to find house 132. I was sort of hoping that there would be a further note on house 132 and a further note and a further note until we eventually found a treasure. But given that we really needed somewhere to sleep more than treasure I am glad my fantasy didn't play out. Instead, we came to a crumbly looking concrete home and were greeted by a burly man with a serious expression and not a word of English in his vocabulary. He led us into his home. The entrance had close to a hundred mounted animal skulls

crammed in two short walls. I guess someone is either a hunter or a spooky sort of collector. We looked at each other quizzically as he led us deeper into the house and then breathed a sigh of relief when he ushered us into a very normal looking room with beds made up. He warmed up a bit over a conversation using google translate. Then we had dinner at the same somber restaurant (pike, cucumber salad, scrambled eggs) and turned in.

After a night of rather uncomfortable beds, we set off early the next morning with mixed feelings. Beata is a resourceful woman, and it was very interesting to stay in a random rural Slovakian home; but we are also glad we don't live in that particular sleepy buggy town.

Day 8: Wednesday, May 31

Kms: 25.5

Start: vojka nad dunajom

End: penzion platan, Narad

Number of tantrums: 1 (though surprisingly the first this walk)

Pools swum in: 2

The mosquitoes were still out in full force as we left Vojka, and we danced and slapped our way down the levee. We had a lot of kilometres to cover, so Tova spent most of the buggy day in the buggy making bracelets, cooing at Zadie and bugging Sophia. While Aurora is the one who endures the most hours of walking and scooting with little rest, it's not easy to be a cooped-up three year old either. Late in the day Tova had a full on tantrum, but that seemed to clear the air and she happily walked the last few kilometres into town, talking a mile a minute about the ten things she will do on her birthday.

Midday we crossed the main dam of the Danube, gawking at the cliff-like difference in elevation between the two water lines. The dam-master's bufet was hidden down a flight of cracked concrete steps - we all got popsicles and forgot our map (ten minute detour). Then it was on to another levee on the north side, with only a handful of tractors, bicycles and trucks all afternoon.

As we approached the Penzione we wondered what we were in for. An interesting side effect of this walk is the randomness of our lodgings: because we need to walk 20km a day on average, we have no control over which town to stay in; and because they often have only one or two accommodations that fit our family, it's a real roll of the dice. Anyway, the Penzione Platan was double sixes - a charming guesthouse filled with the owner's family members; we had a large airy apartment right above the two(!) swimming pools, there were plenty of toys, and the meals were overwhelmingly generous. We had some lovely conversations with the unusually nice hosts, learning that our mosquito woes are partly due to Slovakia's ban on mosquito spraying.

After a refreshing swim, we turned in late and happy after a full day.