Friday, August 1, 2014

Budapest Paragliding



I have about 4 more posts to go about Amsterdam and Amsterdam life but since I am back in Hungary now I wanted to share the epic day I had yesterday! It was literally all too perfect, random and incredible.




After the whole day this was the random synopsis my friends and I came up with about our Hungarian paragliding adventure:

"Amazingly insane paragliding trip. It entailed driving 2 hours through the completely empty Hungarian countryside with a random salsa-dancing crazed Hungarian scientologist, galavanting around an abandoned military air strip, herding sheep, feeling so utterly confused, running like we were on steroids, fly attacks, handstand push-ups, and swimming in an epic lake full of locals. Complete with Hungarian pastries and an offer to go salsa dancing tonight. Day so ridiculously well spent"

That is truly what our day was. We were told that if we wanted to go paragliding we could  get picked up by this local at around 11am and for $50 we would get an all day adventure. I was super keen so we signed up right away!

and this is how our day went down...

We were picked up at 12 (not exactly 11) and then were driven for 2 hours out to this abandoned military base. I didn't know how long the drive would be but we just kept going and going and going out into the countryside. Flat land and hay barrels, but damn Hungary is beautiful! 

We stopped at this tiny local pastry shop in this little village and tried some traditional hungarian cake which was incredible!

Then we continued on for awhile until we arrived at the air strip. It was really cool and had even the old abandoned control tower you could walk around and visit. 





Then this car drove up with a wench on the back. I was not keen on going 500meters into the air first so I let my friends go first. The first one went off without a hitch but we were all pretty nervous. After we saw him up the air we could tell is was going to be just plain incredible. They were SO high up and it looked super free and incredible. 











Then my second friend went but there was a small delay because we had to move to wait for the wind to shift. About an hour later she was finally taking off from this shed filled with sheep (told you it was random....)





I was up next and getting nervous. We started running and then before I knew it we were lifted into the air. At first it was just confusing as you gained height, but once we got to the top the view was plain STUNNING! Just green fields and little villages in every direction. Not to mention an epic view of the Danube river. We were all the way up in the clouds, I couldn't believe it. Then he let me steer the glider for awhile and turn us left and right when I wanted. Then as we began to descend he began to do aerodynamic moves where we would flip upside down and the glider would literally be below us. I was scared but loving the thrill of it all. It is truly like flying, you are completely detached from anything except for your glider. 









This day was JUST. SO . GOOD. It is random things like this that remind me why I travel and make traveling just so so worth it.




We finished off the day with a swim in this local lake that was like a beach resort for Hungarians. Our guide ensured us that we were the ONLY non-locals there, and the lake was beautiful, with awesome fresh water that was warm like a bath. There were cute little docks to jump from, and sandy and grassy areas to sit and enjoy the sun. Couldn't handle how great this was.






This day was one of the best I've had in Hungary, and I hope there are more like it in the future!















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