Thinking Allowed: On peut Szentendre

Day 13:

Start: Visegrad

End: Vac

Kilometres: 17

Hungarian phrases learned: 3

First, a language lesson. "Thank you" is "Kyo So Nem", strangely like the Korean "Kyul Suh Nim" meaning "face the flag." Saying sorry sounds like "Anne is Isht" - Jakob pictures his high school friend Anne being the Mesopotamian goddess of love. And please is "Kiram" which sounds like the author Kiran Desai. Hungarian seems impossible to learn without these elaborate mnemonics, so that's as far as we got.

We had a smooth walk to Vac after yet another ferry ride. The landscape is now vineyards and rolling hills, and much more built-up compared to the backwaters of last week. After lunch we had some good chats with Aurora about religion, ancient Egypt, and Scrabble while the smaller girls watched Magic School Bus in the buggy.

In Vac we unexpectedly spent half the afternoon coping with accommodation. Our booked guesthouse can charitably be described as dank and moldy, so we ended up splurging on an apartment that was three times the price and ten times the comfort. Tova had a full blown tantrum in the town square, we had gemelli for dinner, everyone got (of course) ice cream, and the day was suddenly over.

Day 14:

Start: Vac

End: Szentendre

Kilometres: 15

Berries eaten: 300-400

We are all stained vivid purple from the cherries and mulberries we ate all day. We picked berries from trees and bushes, plundered a fruit shop, and even bought another kilo from a wizened woman sitting by a noisy road. The girls got excited every time they saw Tamar swerve the buggy into the bushes, knowing mulberries were to come.

This made the walking much more bearable - we spent the first half of our day on major roads, often without any sidewalk. We won't miss scurrying up the highway with the buggy guerrilla-style, clumsily shoving our load from one grassy shoulder to the next in between trucks. Luckily the second half was a quiet bike path, which relaxed us all and is much better for our life expectancy.

We reached Szentendre at 2. The girls played recklessly in a playground while we planned the next leg of our trip, then we explored town. We were deeply impressed and confused by the Marzipan Museum, featuring life-size Michael Jackson, fairy tale scenes, dragons...all sorts of colourful, hyper-detailed, 80-kg marzipan renditions. After an exceptional dinner at Mjam, and (yet again) ice cream, we returned "home" for the usual round of smarts, ablutions, book reading and bed.

Tomorrow we meet Tamar's parents and enter Budapest - crazy to think our walk is actually ending!