Eger

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Eger – the heart of wine country in Hungary. It’s a medium size town with a castle and a minaret – the northern most minaret in Europe in fact. It was a beautiful city to see – despite the horrid weather while we were there. I met up with Megan, Christie, Tara and Kim. We walked to the castle that was right above the apartment we were staying in, and then toured around the city a bit. After a quick glass of forralt bor (hot wine) we decided to climb the narrow steep stairs up the minaret. It was not our smartest choice (and I am probably the one to blame since I was the one who really wanted to do it) since we had just had wine and were collectively afraid of heights or small spaces. It was quite a sight – us in the minaret that is, not the view from the top.

Probably the coolest "Hungarian" picture I've seen yet

Eger and the Minaret

Eger

cannon at the fortress

Calvary hill on the castle grounds

Eger

Eger

Tara pushing me on a horse cart? Not sure what it is...

Kim, Tara, Megan and Christie

Minaret

going up! Yikes

Not loving the view... fearing for our lives!!

Eger

We went to the palacsinta castle for dinner. Palacsinta are the Hungarian version of pancakes – though they’re more like crepes. I got the “Popeye” pancake – it was filled with spinach and chicken.

My popeye pancake with a swan made out of onion

an interesting name for an award

After dinner, we had some bonding time with Xander (Christie’s Chihuahua) before heading out for wine. Taking after my dad, I managed to scare the crap out of the dog and it tried to bite me – which Christie says she’s never seen happen before. Well, I’ve always been a mold breaker J

I knew that there were wine cellars in Eger, that was the reason I wanted to go, but I had no idea it would be like it was. There was door after door to long narrow wine cellars all in a row. We had our pick of several cellars to start with, but we went with the taxi driver recommended #4. We stayed there for a drink and worked our way down the row of cellars stopping in ones that looked either lively or cheap. I brought along “Apples to Apples” so at one place we busted it out, and it drew much attention from others in the cellar.

the first wine cellar we went to

a bird sculpture spitting blood - or red wine

the church in the main square

The lady of the house pouring us wine

Christie getting wine from the glass dispenser thing

rows of wine cellars

my favorite wine house!! Kim is on her way in :)

After a few more stops, we called it a day and headed back to the apartment. Xander still thought of me as the enemy, but what can you do? The next morning, we went to the nicest bakery I’ve seen in a while. It was quite fancy (and expensive) but was recommended by a student so we went. It was quite an affair since dogs aren’t allowed, and Xander came with us that morning. Luckily Christie does a great job of masking him in her duffel bag for dogs.

me bonding? with Xander

Diet Coke and cake for breakfast - can the day go wrong?

Kim, Christie, Tara and Megan

no dogs allowed... well this doesn't look like Xander, so then it's okay?

After “breakfast” (Diet Coke and cake) we went to see the camera obscura. It’s some sort of a lens that is able to project real time using mirrors onto a clean surface. It was in a larger building – I think it belonged to a University of some sort. It was Sunday morning, so there were not a whole lot of people out, and certainly not a whole lot of people seeking out the camera obscura. The “ticket guy” was adorable and thought I spoke fluent Hungarian. I understand lots of things I hear, I just don’t ever really respond in Hungarian – at any rate, he gave us the spiel and then sold us discount tickets since I told him we were all studying Hungarian, therefore students. At least I think he gave us a discount. We then hauled ass up to the 9^th floor to find this camera thing-y. I wasn’t exactly sure what we were going to see, but it sounded interesting and I was curious. Plus we needed to work off that cake I had for breakfast so what the heck? We got to the 9^th floor and there was a small woman sitting in an office there. We took some time to look at the wonderful view of the city, and then addressed the woman asking what the procedure was to see the camera thing. She politely told us that the “tour” starts every half hour, and even though we had just missed the last “tour” we had to wait until the next one – despite the fact that no one else was there, and she was reading a book. Whatever. When it was finally the correct time, we piled into a dark circular room to view the camera and it’s ability to project real time moving life onto this white table. It was quite interesting to see. I’m still not sure how it all worked, but with the use of mirrors and some science it was quite impressive.

Me and Megan overlooking Eger

Tara, Christie, Me and Kim

Xander

the woman who wouldn't let us into the Camera Obscura until 25 minutes later - even though NO one was there, and she certainly wasn't busy doing anything. She adhered to the every half hour schedule... hmph.

how the camera obscura works - some how, it was able to take a lens from the top of the building and as she turned the gold rods, it projected a picture of the city onto a white table. It's difficult to explain, but it was really interesting to see.

Here are the gold rods that project the images - we saw cars moving through traffic, pedestrians, buildings and the landscape of outer Eger.

Christie looking at the rods - with Xander in her bag :)

Afterwards we split up and Megan and I headed back to the train station and the others to the bus station. We got to the station fine, and I had printed out the times for our train so it wasn’t going to be a problem… or was it? There were trains listed as traveling to Budapest (where we needed to go) that got there a heck of a lot faster than the one I had printed out. Why weren’t we on that train? It didn’t make sense. Megan and I deliberated at the ticket window about what to do – why were we on a slower train that had to stop and transfer? Did we want to take the faster train or stay on the small train for the trip back to Budapest? It didn’t seem to make sense to us. We also wanted to make sure that we were able to catch out trains in Budapest to our respective places. We asked two ticket takers if the train on the tracks was the one we needed, since it said on the board that ours left later than the one on the tracks. Well what if our train for some reason didn’t come? What would we do? For two people who both have a Masters Degree, and had lived in the country over a year – we were stumped as to what to do. We asked people on the train if this one was going to Budapest and it seemed as if we were in the right spot. We got off at the transfer station and tried to find the train to Budapest. There were only two tracks and the times were on hand positioned clocks – it couldn’t be hard right? Wrong. Megan and I continued to almost board incorrect trains in a frenzy to find the right train. Keep in mind that it was also raining out so we were not pleased with the entire situation. We eventually found the right train and headed back towards Budapest. The train ran a little late so we missed our next train by literally a minute, but what can you do? On our separate trains, we both agreed that we had made it back to Budapest safe and sound.