Day Trips and Places to Visit

The Hungarian plain, the Puszta, covers approximately half of Hungary. In the middle-ages the area was thickly forested and had large numbers of villages. It was regularly under water, caused by the annual flooding of the river Tisza. Later the forests were cut down, or burned, for military purposes. Denuded of vegetation, the land became swampy (Puszta means abandoned, deserted, bleak). As a result of flood control work along the Tisza, grassland increased that made the land suitable for pasturage and in time this became like a Hungarian ‘wild west’ complete with cowboys and other wild west type characters. Drainage and ground improvement schemes made sheep, cattle and horse farming possible. Political changes over the years altered the way that the land was owned and run and it is likely that joining the EU will also add it’s own changes. Some of the horse and cattle ranches on the Puszta welcome visitors, providing displays of horsemanship, together with meals with musical entertainment, and the sale of souvenirs.