Day 49 – June 3 Friday

Awake at 6am, the birds are singing – it is so peaceful here – the birds are everywhere – I even saw a golden pheasant in the cornfield near the house.  Another great breakfast then it was off on a bicycle ride around the village.  While I was away Antal was going to spray the grapes & fruit trees.  The village is so flat that cycling is very easy, I went up & down every street in the village, stopping to take photos of interesting houses & things along the way.  In one yard as I went past a gypsy family were killing a calf, as I came back the other way they were washing the blood away with the hose so they could continue butchering it, just laying on the ground (hygienic – I think not).  I rode around the purpose built fishing pond that is on one end of the village, around every 10 metres around the bank personal fishing platforms have been built, to varying degrees of comfort.  Some have chairs, others shade, nearly all have rod holders of some type, another a canoe launching ramp & others a small jetty.  At the other end of town I rode out onto the main road & onto the old steel bridge over the Bega River, with cobblestones leading up to the approach that had been overlaid with bitumen at one stage that has now worn totally away.  The edges of the river are overgrown with trees & the water is flowing well, though a dirty brown.  On the way back to the farm house I rode along a footpath on the outskirts of town down to the street the farmhouse is in.  The footpath was overgrown & I picked up some stings from some nettles my legs brushed against.  Apparently I was now in Serbski Itabej (changed spelling to Serbian) & after a while rode past the Serbian cemetery (not the Hungarian one) with a couple of Orthodox religious chapels.  I also rode past some very dilapidated gypsy houses, they really stand out.

Back for a coffee & then I had a snooze, I didn’t realise how much the cycling had taken out of me.  We had a great lunch of pea soup & pancakes then tidy up the house ready for departure.  Luckily there was no blockade by the farmers, apparently they have agreed to give them a subsidy for up to 100 holdings (there is a bit over a hectare in a holding).