Kilometers walked: 139 km
Nights in a tent: 4
Nights in a hotel: 3
Days walked: 6
Zerodays: 2, Hajduszoboszlo
Local attitude towards free camping: ⭐⭐⭐ (3 out of 5)
We actually don’t know. They don’t seem to care, but we haven’t met anyone while pitching our tent to verify this.
Local hospitality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5),
Along our trail in Hungary, people are more to themselves and less familiar with hikers. We’ve been stared at quite a lot 😅. Due to the language difficulties and the fact that we didn’t meet any other hikers, we haven’t really had conversations with people. People are not unfriendly and when we asked for water, we were offered a beer or palinka. Due to the public water sources, we haven’t had the need to ask much of the locals.
Local attitude of traffic towards hikers: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5)
They seem to be familiar with people walking along the street and they are mostly considerate. They often give space, but keep their speed. The trail we walked used a lot of road sections in Hungary, but generally avoided busy roads.
Trail conditions: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5), mostly farm tracks, reasonably maintained, and road sections and 1 bit of bushwhacking when the trail stopped.
Trail markings: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5) Reasonably well marked on the E8 part with white-blue-white markers. The Maria Út was also mostly easy to follow.
Trail views and impressions: The flat trail makes it possible to hike longer distances, but it is not very interesting. The villages along the way gave us an impression of Hungary, and made us wonder about many aspects of Hungarian history; their part in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the history of Roma people, the role of Hungary in WW2, the rise and fall of communism here… Hiking Europe really is relearning all history lessons you forgot in school, but now in real live context 😅.
Favorite drink/snack/meal: Langós
Best memories: Our zerodays in Hajduszoboszlo spa
Would do it again: No
Would recommend this trail to: people who are hiking E8 and are looking for a practical quick way from the Slovakian part to the Romanian part. Otherwise, there is no reason to hike this part. Hiking Hungary would definitely be something to do again, just not this part.
Tips if you go: The blue water pumps are a great facility for hikers. They are in every village. Do visit one of the off trail spa villages!
Will do this after we get home because of the trail: Drink Tokaj wine
