Sunday, June 27, 2010

Vacation Journal IV: Mosquitoes

The floods of 2010 are receding as we speak; the sun I brought with me, evidently, is helping.

Charting Danube flood levels 
on the ferry landing across from Szentendre.

This is indeed good news.  Although from our vantage in the Danube flood plain, it has been a slow drying-out.  Balint and I biked 10 miles north to Vác Saturday evening, on the back roads adjacent to the river, and the muck and standing water reeks a bit like a musty basement.


Another side-effect has been the mosquitoes. By the hundreds, thousands, and hundreds of thousands.  In short:  by the swarm.  We discovered that if you ride a bike, you can just keep your mouth shut and not swallow any ... and that your relative speed keeps them from landing and biting.

Which was great incentive for us to keep pedaling during the 20 or so miles of our route.  But alas, if you are trying to stand still to capture the visit to the old Serbian town of Szendtendre.

Swat, swat, swat.

Now a pro at posing without flinching.

Interestingly, though, once we got on the ferry and moved off the banks and into the river channel -- the pea soup appearance of the water not to be taken literally -- the breeze blew these suckers away enough that we could enjoy a 5-minute respite.

Crossing the Danube back to Dunakeszi.

We haven't been lucky enough to keep them out of the house at night for such respites during sleep.  But we'll take what we can get.

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