Esztergom Day 3 Visegrad & Svetlana

We set off for Visegrad at 830am to catch the connecting bus to get us up to Visegrad Castle. No sooner had we arrived at the bustop, when along comes a lady pulling a little bag. She is from Ukraine and we got her life story in 5 mins. She continued her stories on the bus, tears and all.
Her daughter's who were working in Budapest went to her border town with Russia called "Happiness" to bring her to Hungary in 2021 as war was looming. She and her younger daughter are school teachers whilst her older daughter's a lawyer. However, they now work as house keepers and for Samsung, not sure in what capacity. Just before we got off at our stop, she invited for us to meet for coffee later in the afternoon after her work. She is even eager for us to meet her daughters and go dancing in Budapest on Thursday night. When asked how her village felt about the war, she said that they all just want peace. Most of them work across the border in Russia but live in Ukraine. She said, "We are Russians, but Ukraine Russians. No problem. No war. Just peace. Work Russia, come home sleep Ukraine. What's the problem. No need war. Just peace."

Visegrad is a very small town with a castle by the Danube bend. Beautiful panoramic views from the castle. The castle holds a small but informative museum. Visegrad was the hometown of King Matthias of Hungary and it was also home to the Summer Palace of the King in the 13th century. Lunch was at a kisch medieval themed restaurant. We shared an entree smoked cheese salad and a bison steak main. The weather was wet and windy so we did not venture for much more hiking than the steep descent from the castle to lunch. We did meet Svetlana late afternoon, and she insisted on buying us afternoon tea. We had to meet her "man " who came to pick her up. He showed us his model planes at the back of his car.

Dinner was a simple leafy green vege soup back at the accommodation.

Distance walked 8.7kmRead more