Читать книгу Walking in Hungary. 32 routes through upland areas онлайн

5 страница из 60

Glossary of Useful Words and Phrases

ssss1

Glossary of Hungarian Topographical Terms

ssss1

Useful Addresses and Telephone Numbers

INTRODUCTION

When you go out into the big forest

Look not behind you

Lest your heart be heavy

As you set foot in a foreign land.

(Hungarian folk song)

The Highlands of Hungary

Every nation projects an image of its landscape to the outside world. In Hungary it is the Great Plain, and most visitors to Hungary are unaware that large areas of the country are covered in highlands and rolling hills with deep wooded valleys, high karst meadows and rocky viewpoints. A walk along the ridges of the Mátra and the Börzsöny or the limestone outcrops of the Bükk will dispel the myth that Hungary is a flat country. Hungary’s highland chain of humpback mountains, limestone plateaux and buttes was formed by a combination of volcanic activity and the raising of tropical seabed sediments. There are about 13 000km (8025 miles) of tracks and trails in the hills. For centuries they have been used by medieval miners, Turkish janissaries (soldiers), pillaging Hussites, herders, beekeepers, charcoal-burners and foundry workers. These ancient highways are now a network of walking paths with a system of waymarks first set up in the nineteenth century.