Eger, Hungary - Jan 30th

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whew what a tiring day.

was up at the crack of dawn again today (perhaps going to bed before 8 again had something to do with it)... jeff made it to 10pm at least. Anyways, off to the train station first thing to see about heading to Eger for the day. After some minor confusion relating to everything being posted in Hungarian only, we bought our return tickets and headed up to the platform. Then we realize that the train we think we're going to get at 830 is actually a fast train which needs a reservation. So we go to the information booth, where the man speaks "limited" (read none) English. He implies that oh yes our ticket is good for that train. We get up to the arrivals/departures sign and realize there is a train at 803 going in the direction we want. So we hop on, and as luck would have it, we still arrive a few minutes before the otehr train. That was Fuzesabony. Then it was an easier 20 minute hop up to Eger. Nice town, quaint, but not a whole lot to do. We walked around for a few hours, saw the old castle, a minaret that supposedly belonged to a mosque centuries ago (they've been christian for quite some time now)... then stopped for some lunch. i had strawberry soup as an appetizer (its cold, with strawberries and whipped cream... very dessertish but delicious) and jeff tried out the goulash soup. then i had a toast and ham and cheese sandwich, which is a slice of bread with ham and melted mozzerella on it. yummy. jeff had a huge plate of spicy pork and unidentifiable noodles. all good.

We saw a few more sights around town, the basilica, tried going to an 18th century observatory/astronomy museum, climbed up to the 4th or 5th floor only to see a sign that says buy tickets on the bottom floor. so we go back downstairs and agree its not worth the climb back up. haha

so we head back to the train station to head back to Budapest. we get on teh train and it was pretty full. back to fuzesabony again and transfer back to the budapest train. we get on and are surprised its so empty. no one checks out tickets and when we get off we realize we were in first class (no, it was NOT that great), and are lucky he didn't check our tickets or we coulda been in trouble.

so we get back to budapest, head back to teh hostel for a little break the nhead out for some supper. we walk for an hour and don't really find anythying, and end up eating about 3 doors down the street from the hostel at this turkish place. chicken in sauce and rice. yummy again.

then we decide to go for a walk. jeff thinks i am going to veg out and go to bed at 8 again - he is mistaken. and just to show him a lesson (haha not really) we go for a super walk across the river, through Buda, through the shopping mall, then back over another bridge and all the way through Pest as well. Very sore feet tonight, i have two blisters and one cut on my right foot. but so worth it, i just need to get a few callouses on the go, and hopefully not lose any toes haha

and thats about it for today. booked a hostel for the 1st and 2nd in belgrade, and hoping to be able to get a little sleep on the train tomorrow night. sitting up. on a bumpy, smelly train full of potential robbers. well gee i can't wait for that. will be interesting anyways!

not sure what the internet will be like in these crazier countries, so will check and report when we can.

until next time

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