All sausaged out

As usual I awoke without any idea where I was or why I was (or wasn't) there. Nothing to do with beer, I barely had any last night (less than four doesn't count), I normally get that until I've been travelling for more than a few days and get used to the feeling of transiency once more. It was worse in Budapest on Friday night as I was convinced I was in a hotel I had stayed at in Amsterdam years ago.

I decided during breakfast that I would drive today, mainly because I wanted to beat a hasty departure following the eleven o'clock appointment and explore the surrounding area and Gyula but also because I wanted a reason not be bombarded with Palinka by the crazy Hungarians. As it transpired neither of these reasons became an issue.

I arrived in Bekescsaba just after nine with no sign of the festival starting any time soon. I drove around a bit, revelling in the bright, blue, crisp morning air, just killing time more than anything. At just before ten I parked up, paying 800 Forints for the privilege, and walked through the unmanned kiosk into the festival. Compared to the previous afternoon there was very little activity, the main marquees were empty as was a majority of the seating areas. Many grills had not long been lit and there was a marked absence of drunken activity. There was no evidence of any competition or any presentation, it began to dawn on me that perhaps Laszlo had meant 11PM. There was no way I could hang around until just before midnight, I opted to perform a brief scan and vamoose. The Hungarian sausage club stand was in full flow, a Serbian troop were giving a demonstration of carcass to sausage in five minutes flat, impressive. At this point I left.

I decided to have a drive through the countryside and through the nearby National Park where I saw something quite peculiar.

Absolutely no idea!!!

After driving around a bit I headed back to Gyula where I visited a car boot sale in the local Tesco car park then went on a hunt for lunch. I finally decided on a restaurant where I ordered chicken with parka, dumplings and goose gizzard, very nice. There was a moment when I nearly ingested a wasp, for the second time this year, but was saved by some fancy knife and fork work.

There were no shops open to buy any presents, well it is Sunday, therefore I deemed it beer o'clock and returned to the hotel to catch up on some writing and similar.

I do feel guilty about not visiting the festival for another full day but, as the title suggests, I am pretty much all sausaged out for the time being.