Eger

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Day 9 (Saturday, September 13th, 2008)

We were woken up on the train on Saturday about 7:30 in the morning when one of the attendants brought us our rail passes. We finally reached the station in Budapest around 8:45. Once off the train, we had to find the nearest departure board to determine what platform the 9:05 departure to Eger would be leaving from. The board listed the train as leaving 10 minutes earlier than originally listed, so we both ran to the train as we thought we only had a few minutes; however, when we approached the train, we realized that it was still leaving at 9:05, so we had several extra minutes to spare.

The train ride to Eger, Hungary took about two hours. From the tiny train station, we took a taxi into the center of town as we didn’t feel like walking the 20 minutes with our own two feet. We checked into our hotel, Offi Haz (http://www.offihaz.hu/) which was located in the picturesque and quaint Little Dobo Square. Our room was located on the third floor of the building in a decently sized room that contained an internet cable (free internet is always nice!) and a small refrigerator.

After dropping our bags off and freshening up from the long train ride, we walked into town. I was thoroughly impressed with the small town of Eger; it was filled with beautifully preserved baroque architecture, clean streets, and many different types of cafes and restaurants to choose from. We stopped in for a quick lunch of sandwiches, croissants, and cake at a place called Radi Bisztro (less than $5 for everything!).

Our first stop of the day was at the Lyceum, which is a university that was built in the mid-18th century and is still in use today, with current enrollment around 2000 students. The school is best known for its 20,000 volume library and the Astronomical Museum, which contains the famous camera obscura. Within the museum, we visited an interactive exhibit that allowed visitors to try out several different scientific experiments such as using air pressure to make a small ball levitate. Afterward, we walked up several flights of stairs to the outdoor terrace, which provided panoramic views of the entire city of Eger and it’s beautiful surroundings. Next, we walked up the final flight of stairs to the darkroom containing the camera obscura. It’s difficult for me to explain how this piece of equipment worked (you might want to Google it) but basically, a guide moved several levers around in the room, which would then display live pictures from the streets of Eger on a large table in the middle of the room. It was quite fascinating and interesting to watch, but I wonder what people would have thought of the apparatus over 200 years ago when it was first created; it probably seemed unreal and maybe even like magic to some!

After leaving the Lyceum, we walked across the street to the brightly yellow painted Eger Cathedral, which is the second biggest church in the country of Hungary. The church was completed in 1836 and features a neoclassical exterior with a beautiful and colorful baroque interior including gorgeous ceiling frescoes.

From the church, we walked back to Dobo Square, stopping at the Minorite Church which had a striking Baroque exterior (probably one of the most stunning churches I have seen) but just an average interior, especially when compared with the Eger Cathedral.

Afterward, we walked uphill towards Eger Castle. The castle complex overlooks the city of Eger below, granting beautiful views from many points along the ramparts. We only paid for entrance to the grounds of the castle as none of the four museums within the property sounded interesting to either one of us.

From the castle, we walked back down into the city, this time heading to the Minaret, which was originally part of a mosque. For only a little over $1 per person, we decided to climb the 97 steps within the narrow structure to the top. As soon as my feet hit the slippery steps, I knew that this wasn’t the best activity to be partaking in, especially with my flats which provided absolutely no grip. As we walked up, we saw that two of the lights were out, which made for good times trying to climb in the pitch black. When we reached the top, I instantly felt vertigo set in and found myself having difficulty looking down. Climbing back down those steps was almost as much fun as climbing up (NOT!). I took each step one at a time, gripping as hard as I could to the step above my head and wrapping my right hand around the minaret’s central pole. I was glad to make it safe out of that building!

We then walked to the nearby market hall which is home to the town’s large indoor market. Unfortunately, as I completed my research, I had not realized that the market closed earlier on Saturday, so we were not able to go in. We walked back to our hotel and ended up eating dinner at the restaurant below the hotel. I ordered a pork tenderloin dish with potatoes while Mike had wiener schnitzel with fries. For dessert, I requested profiteroles (cream filled pastry with chocolate on top) and Mike had a sponge-like cake drenched in chocolate sauce.

After dinner, we had a taxi drive us a few minutes outside of town to the Sirens’ Valley (also known as the Valley of the Beautiful Women) which was an area devoted to local wine cellars. As we were dropped off, I was surprised to see how large the complex was; there were over 40 different wine cellars, so it was difficult to choose which cellars we should visit. As I am not much of a wine drinker, we selected two to go into (#2 and #43) and Mike chose glasses of white wine to sample. A glass of wine on average cost only 50 cents! We also walked around the complex and listened to music for a bit while some young people dressed in traditional costumes danced to the music. I really enjoyed watching all of the locals interact with one another; I swear that we had to have been the only English speaking tourists there. In fact, during our entire stay in Eger, we did not encounter any English speaking tourists. It was such a nice reprieve from the tourist clogged streets of Prague and Krakow. Eger was a wonderfully unique and authentic Hungarian town; without a doubt, it is now one of my favorite small towns in Europe.

As always, you can find several pages of additional pictures from our visit to Eger on the next few pages.

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