So I decided to take a trip to Budapest just before Christmas. This meant being in Hungary for winter solstice it turned out to be the best adventure ever! It was the first time that I had experienced a frozen white forest. Now, this was not your typical forest covered in snow, there wasn’t really that much snow around. I assumed it was a combination of moisture in the air and cold temperatures that had frozen everything white. It was gorgeous! And for this gal from the South Pacific, this was a sight like nothing I had ever seen.
The location was a place called Dobogòkö which is in the Pilis Hills about 30km out of Budapest. This is a spiritual place and is known to some as the ‘heart chakra of the earth’. Dobogòkö translates to ‘beating stone’. I was told the Dalai Lama had visited here. So how did I end up there?
At the time I was living in Zagreb, Croatia and decided to take a short trip, just before Christmas, to Budapest. What a treat to experience this city around Christmas time! I am a Couch Surfing member and an event had popped up to go hiking with a local. This is my sort of adventure so I was certainly keen. My new friend, Szilard, took myself and another couch surfer (Katalina) and her 8-year-old son on a very cool adventure! Szilard was born in Transylvania, Romania and Katalina in Moscow, Russia. I was a little confused about Szilard’s nationality. He said he was Hungarian but apparently borders don’t really mean much to them, or that is what I understood.
Katalina was the most interesting person! She was well travelled including much of Asia and even Australia. Over the years she had acquired a variety of skills and experiences from a tourist guide to yoga expert and she once owned a hostel in Budapest. She has four children and had just started hosting Workaway travelers. On that particular day, she had a Mexican couple who had just arrived. Her older daughter was left to deal with them.
Dobogòkö was just beautiful. For me, it really was one of those ‘wow’ moments. I had to keep reminding myself how lucky I was to be able to travel and discover places like this. I was majestical. We came across these ‘beating stones’ on our walk which are a sacred part of the place. It turned out to be quite an adventure as we lost the path. We had to use phone GPS to find our way back to the road, making it out just before dark. Katalina and her son had to get home so they caught a bus back to the city. Szilard had something else for us to check out which we were both curious about. But first, we walked to a cute little cafe in the woods where we got a hot drink and something to eat. The drink was a hot ginger concoction and the food we got was fresh bread with a duck fat spread, a sprinkle of paprika and some sliced red onion. There was a lovely warm fire which we enjoyed before heading back out into the cold.
So what we were curious to check out was a Shamanic Winter Solstice ceremony that Szilard had heard about. He didn’t know too much about it or anyone else who was attending but it sounded interesting. Let me just mention that it was below freezing and if I remember right probably about -5 degrees Celsius. I can’t even remember how many layers I put on when we got there. The meeting place was an old monastery ruin and it was easy to spot a group of people by a small fire enjoying a hot drink out of a pot. I have no idea what it was and no one spoke English so I had to rely on Szilard to translate for me. After a little investigation, we learned they were soon to embark on a 2-3 hour walk through the forest in the dark before returning to light a large bonfire. We decided we were not up for the few hours walking in the below-freezing cold so we ditched the group and headed back to Budapest.
I definitely count this as one of the most awesome random days I have had travelling. Some might suggest this was totally unsafe to go off for a day with strangers in a strange country. However, I have always trusted my instinct and it has never let me down. Random adventures are all a part of great travel experiences and I look forward to sharing a few more with you.
