Dear Alex I'm sorry I didn't ask your permission before posting this - but I feel that since it's merely a construct you won't be too perturbed at this letter's direction to you. So it's been a week on the road. Two days in Slovakia, which I enjoyed immensely, perhaps mainly because my feet didn't hurt and there was cheap beer everywhere you turned. That and a huge unforgiving rainstorm while Bratislava-bound with my mum, in which we got drenched and elicited concern and pitying looks from others. We continued warm though, if a little Gray-Gardens-esque. Summer showers; little better. We crossed the border, too, on a thunderstorm, though this one was dry and fork-lightening-spattered. Down the Danube the border is obvious - Slovak care for rollerbladers and cyclists gives way to intense greenery and undefined paths; whither they lead you have to guess (and we were lucky!). Hungary is polarising - such kindness and such stern disapproval I have felt. Two nights ago at a campsite I was given a 'stuck' (we speak in terrible German - it is comfortable for all) for free because of my walking goals, and last night I camped grudgingly at a 'lux' campsite for 17€. And the mosquitoes... And the steak-sized cheese, fried, you warned me about. I've become more carnivorous this last year, but mostly ask for vegetarian options. And it is all true :) I plan to go to Bicske, the site of a refugee camp, tomorrow. I will write more, sometime. Thank you, meanwhile, for being the first of my alphabet envoyees! With love, B.
