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Published: June 30th 2007
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Hello everyone,
Well since I last left a blog we have been to Eger (HUngary), Kosice (Slovakia), staying a night in Miskolc (HUngary) between the two, and Vysoke Tatrz (Slovakia(. To let you know this keyboard is a nightmare, what a suprise, and for some unknown reason will only let me do brackets facing in one direction. Great stuff.
So anyway, since I last wrote we have left our original path for one less well known, and with this has come increasing difficulties with language, some interesting situations at restaurants (when the dishes are named in Slovakian/Hungarian and none of the waiters speak english( and a lot of excitement. After Budapest we headed off to Eger, a town famed for its wine. Fantastic we thought, wine and rural Hungary. Unfortunately on arrival we discovered that the town was more like a small city, and that our Motel - posh eh - was situated a 15 minute walk from the centre. Hmmm, this place was going to involve a lot of trekking. However on the plus side our luxurious motel room costing a whopping 9 pounds a night each was spacious and had a private bathroom along with our
own sky tv ... eat your heart out polly. Unfortunately, the delights of having a private shower soon subsided when we discovered it flooded the bathroom floor everytime you used it. Ah so this was why they had left a bucket and mop there. Eger itself was like a more upper class quaint budapest. It lacked the dirt and realness of some areas of Budapest. It also lacked the internet cafes as we later found out, we had to use the most awkward computers ever in McDonalds of all places. Central Eger was very pleasant, with ornate buildings and cosey parks where you could get away from the heat for a while. On our second day there, we went to visit the Valley of Beautiful Women, or as the locals called it slightly less enchantingly Nice Woman Valley. Here was where all the wine was produced in rows of wine cellars, unfortunately when we were there they were all inexplicably shut - probably saw Tori coming. So we contented ourselves at a nearby restaurant, who luckily sold the same wine, only more expensive... it was good wine though. In Eger we also climbed to the castle, which wasn,t really anything
to write home about. Plus the dungeons were shut.
In order to get to Kosice, SLovakia - country no.5, we left Eger and stayed the night in Miskolc. On arrival we tried to find a hostel, no one understood us at all, even when I whipped out the phrase book at attempted some shody Hungarian - previously we had managed to act out whatever we needed. 5 minutes later I was talking to the Taxi drivers daughter on the phone as she acted as a translator between the two of us. Eventually we got to a hotel, expensive (12 pounds), but we didn,t care.
The next day, after queuing for our tickets behind a woman who for some reason took about 30 minutes to buy her ticket, we were on our way to Kosice. The train ride was sunny and beautiful. The trains have such charm, they are quaint in there own journey-worn, slow moving way. Life is fantastic when you have your head stuck out of a European train. Maybe because I was in such a good mood, but Kosice instantly struck a chord with me. It was maybe the same size as Eger (though we were
centrally located this time, and so never ventured into the housed areas), but Kosice had much more to it. It had more charm. The central area was dominated by the sharp gothic stylings of the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth. In contrast, seperating this and the only slightly less impressive Theatre, there was a musical fountain, singing various cheesily romantic songs whilst its jets of water appeared to dance to them. This combination could have seemed ridiculous, but Kosice can completely pull it off. However, there was not actually that much to do in Kosice, I,m not sure if this was good or bad. It was nice to chill out and mosey around, to relax a bit, to window shop - we held strong and didn,t buy any clothes. In Kosice we also met Greg, an australian travelling around, and we all just generally hung around, played giant chess and enjoyed the atmosphere of Kosice.
We are now in Northern SLovakia in the mountains, but that can be saved for another day...
Take care all, see you soon Xx
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dad
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news from rainy England
hi meg good to hear from you. I will expect Hungarian over the breakfast table on your return. Much rain here as we go towards the summer holidays, floods in some parts of country. Good old England! Love dadxxx