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DEAR VISITOR,

Hungary doesn't have high mountains, its tallest peak, the Kékestető is only 1014 metres high. Hungary doesn't have any seaside, our biggest lake, the Balaton is only 10 metres deep and you can go round it by car in two hours. Nevertheless I would like to invite you to this small country to do a long distance hike through its middle mountains, hilly countries and plains on the meandering marked footpath of the Countrywide Blue Tour.

This site tells the story of our Countrywide Blue Tour's completion with more than 1000 photos, travelogues and supplementary data. But what is the Countrywide Blue Tour (or simply Blue Tour) exactly? If we look at the official version it is the Hungarian section of the European Long Distance Path E4. But the Blue Tour is more than a part of a European footpath.

If somebody tells about himself/herself in a company (of course in Hungary), that he/she is a hiker, almost sure that the first question will be "And have you completed the Blue Tour?" Nearly every Hungarian has heard about this thing. The completion of the Blue Tour is an important part in the life of a Hungarian hiker. This route is more than fifty years old and it goes through the whole Hungary. Its length is more than 1000 km and we can find 147 checkpoints on it. If somebody can collect the stamps of all checkpoints in his personal completion brochure, only in that case is the Blue Tour completed by that person.

But not the number of the collected stamps is important if you go along the path of the Tour, but more important thing is to visit the most beautiful natural and built sight of Hungary during the long hike and become familiar the history of this small Middle European country. We walked the route of the Countrywide Blue Tour during more than three years and we have had so much experience, that we believe it is worth bringing them within reach for somebody else.

What is our aim with this website? Well, it is a very difficult question. We have made this site for the advertising not only the Countrywide Blue Tour, but the whole Hungary, which is our mother country. We are very proud, that there are already such Hungarian people, who have begun the completion of the Tour for that reason, because they read this website. We hope the number of them will increase in the future. But we would be prouder and happier, if we met with foreign hikers on the route of the Tour.

Now, when we are writing this short introduction you can find more than one thousand photos and about forty sheets of travelogues here about our hikes. Unfortunately the translation of the travelogues of the 67 days long hike is an almost impossible thing for us without any help, but the comments of the pictures are ready. We think if you go along only the pictures and the comments, you will understand our purposes.

And the last sentences: We started to write the English version of the website in January 2005. Unfortunately the translation takes very long time, but we try to do this work as fast as possible. So you can find fewer descriptions here, in the English version, than in the Hungarian parts of the site. Some links does not work on the left side of the screen, because they do not have any contents in this moment. If you want to see more than these few pages can offer, visit the Hungarian pages please, where you can find much more data, than here!

We wanted to tell you only this much as an introduction and now we would like to wish you good time. If you have any comment, please do not hesitate, send an e-mail to us!

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