Walking in Hungary

Every nation projects an image of its landscape to the outside world and the image of Hungary is its Great Plain. As a result most visitors are unaware of Hungary's secret highland landscape of rolling hills, high karst meadows, vineyards, sink-holes, crags, thirteenth-century castle ruins and forest villages. Hungary's volcanic mountains and limestone plateaux stretch in a chain from the Slovakian border in the north-east to central-west and southern Hungary. Hundreds of tracks and trails zig-zag the highlands, which were once used by the Roman legions, miners, Turkish janissaries, pillaging Hussites, herders, beekeepers, charcoal-burners and foundry workers. These ancient trails are now a network of walking paths with a system of coloured waymarks first set up in the late nineteenth century. The book guides the reader around the best of these routes and includes invaluable information about accommodation in rural Hungary, public transport and the little forest trains. Apart from giving an insight into the history and geology, the guide attempts to supply tips on how to survive in the countryside and includes useful words and phrases and a glossary of Hungarian topographical terms to aid map interpretation.