Budapest and Eger

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We are alive! ...we just have not been able to find an internet connection strong enough to upload pictures. So, you will have to roll on descriptions for now.

What we learned in Hungary: The best languages to know when traveling are Hungarian (of course) and German. Lucky for us, we know neither. ...and even luckier is the fact that Hungarians don't like signs. Apparently all Hungarians are born knowing which train track they need and the name of all streets.

Lets just say, Hungary was an adventure and Budapest is our favorite city so far.

The city is divided into two parts, Buda and Pest, by the Danube. Buda is the old portion of the city and is strikingly hilly, with its cliffs rising right out of the river. They have special uphill trollies to take people to the castle at the top of the hill. Pest is the younger, fun portion of the city. This side of the river is totally flat and where all the action is going on. Our hostel was in Pest, one block from a long pedestrian street, covered in cafes and shops.

One thing Budapest is known for is its thermal baths. We were pretty excited to try them out and selected the oldest in the city because it was supposed to feel like "bathing in a cathedral." ...if only the guide book had mentioned that it would feel more like "a group bath in the mens locker room", we wouldn't have bothered.

We took an overnight trip to the town of Eger, 2 hours northeast of Budapest....in the middle of no where. We went to Eger for the wine. Mostly the region produces white wine, but they make one red called Bulls Blood, based on an old war story when the town was attacked and seriously outnumbered. The soldiers of Eger won the fight and sustained energy by drinking the local red wine. The attackers saw their red stained beards and the strength of the army and started the rumor that the soldiers of Eger were drinking the blood of bulls. hence, the name.

The town is tiny and all the wine is produced just south in "The Valley of the Beautiful Woman" (direct translation). All local families have wine cellars built into the mountainside. You walk from cellar to cellar, tasting and buying if you like what you taste. The problem is that "tasting" in Eger is an entire glass full. practically overflowing. ...so, the bottles we bought towards the end are a bit questionable.

I mentioned before that Hungarians don't like to mark things. Well, trying to get back to Budapest was an adventure. No one at the train station spoke English and we couldn't figure out which train to get on, despite Sarah's elaborate charades and drawings. We ended up just getting on the first train we saw and discovering a group of three British guys who had come into town for an Army friends wedding and were also trying to get back to Budapest. Lucky for us, they had found an old man with two dogs who spoke broken English and was also going to Budapest. We decided to tag along. We were definitely a sight when we had to switch trains in some random town... an old man, two dogs, three British guys, and the two of us. That poor old man had no idea he was going to end up with an obnoxiously large group of non-hungarian speakers! He ditched as as soon as we got on the second train.

definitely an adventure.

Apparently all Hungarians were mis-taught that "see ya" and "hello" are used as universal "hello" and "goodbye" words...so every time we left somewhere, we got lots of "hello, hello" as they waved.

more to come from Croatia...

hello, hello.

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Comments

[Katie]

hahahaha!!
omigod, that's an awesome story! i was laughing at work about the mens locker room (aka: thermal bath) and the charades :)