Budapest

Fermor describes picking up Malek on Cegléd Road (Ceglédi út), where he has to wait near a small grove of acacia trees. That grove serves, in a sense, as the transition between the outskirts of Budapest and the open *puszta*.  The presence of these acacias is also historically fitting. Across the Hungarian Plain, *Robinia pseudoacacia* (black locust) trees were—and still are—widely planted as windbreaks along roads and railway lines, and as small groves on sandy soils. For a traveler leaving the city, such a cluster of acacias served as a landmark.

Photo below: Cegledi Ut still exists, and—would you believe it—there is actually a small acacia grove at the beginning of this dusty road. Of course, it is unclear whether this is the grove where the first meeting with Malek took place, but it is a lovely thought.

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