Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Easter in Börzsöny Mountain

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We spent Easter long weekend (4 days) on a hiking trip in the Börzsöny mountain in Hungary with friends. Börzsöny is a beautiful place with gorgeous nature and great hiking opportunities, throughout the mountain is the right place for a weekend getaway. The weather was warm and sunny, the air was fresh and “crunchy”. We heard the birds chirping all day. Actually it was very relaxing to spend a couple of days outside the city.

Börzsöny is a mountain range in Northern Hungary and about 70 km away from Budapest, near the Slovakian border. Its tallest peak is the Csóványos with 938 metres (followed by the Nagy-Hideg-hegy – meaning Great Cold Mountain -). It is the westernmost member of the Northern Range. The varied landscape offers good hiking opportunities. A large part of the Börzsöny is national park. From the Csóványos we can see one of the country’s most beautiful panorama with the Dunakanyar (Danube Bend).

We visited a traditional vintage museum in Drégelypalánk and learnt the history of Drégely Castle. The small castle was probably built by the Bozók branch of the Hunt-Poznan family in the second half of the 13th century, during the Árpád dynasty, by order of Béla IV.

A large part of the Börzsöny is covered with oak and beech. The mountains are still registered 16 species of mammals. The 117 species of birds occur each year in the mountains, of whom 90 are regularly spend. Best-known songbirds are the nightingale, the thrush and the skylark. Among the amphibians the most spectacular is the spotted salamander.

Visiting a little farm was also a great experience itself. City dwellers like us wandered around and looked at the animals with amazement, especially a 2 weeks old baby horse. She was so cute.

Listening to the silence of the nature calmed us down. Our bodies filled up with energy. The landscape was so romantic everywhere in the Börzsöny. 
We saw many trees blossoming… pink petals created pink carpets in the streets of every village. I couldn’t help but take many photos of it.

We spent our last day in Esztergom. The town lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there. Esztergom was the capital of Hungary from the 10th till the mid-13th century when King Béla IV of Hungary moved the royal seat to Buda.

Esztergom is the seat of the prímás (primate/bishop) of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. It’s also the official seat of the Constitutional Court of Hungary. The town has the largest ecclesiastical collection in Hungary. Its cathedral, Esztergom Basilica is the largest church in Hungary and it is dedicated to the Saint Mary of the Assumption and Saint Adalbert.

Our beautiful trip was celebrated with a cup of creamy, dark hot chocolate. We couldn’t find a better end to say good-bye to this wonderful weekend filled with lots of laugh, friends, energy and beautiful nature. What a fantastic weekend it was! Actually it was everything we could have wished for!