Day 8: Budapest [Hungary]
After a wonderful dinner last night we slept well and were turned loose in Eger! The day before, Nicole and I decided that we wanted to see the Castle, the Farmers Market, and go find some t-shirts for Mike (weather was much warmer than we planned) and check out the Church!
First things first, the farmers market! This market was just a quick walk from the hotel and had all kinds of locally grown fruits, vegetables and flowers. It's fun to be able to mesh in with the locals and not be surrounded by a sea of "tourists" in these small towns.
From there we took a walk to the Castle of Eger. The Castle is around $5 per person to enter and we feel like it was worth it. The views were fantastic and we had the place almost all to ourselves early in the morning!
After the castle, Mike had decided the weather was a little too warm for all of the thick polos he had brought with him. So we hopped in and out of a few stores and picked up a couple of light t-shirts for the rest of the trip! Like we said before, these places will sell what you need, we're glad we didn't bring a ton of clothes for every condition...go with what you think you will really need, you can adapt from there.
The Cathedral was the last thing on our list to stop in and we are glad we did, it is beautiful inside! Welp, it's about that time to head back to the hotel, load up on the bus and head to Budapest!
Things you should watch before you go!
- Barbara - Perlasca - Hungary 1956 -
On the way to Budapest we were setup to make a stop at a local elementary school. This was such a cool experience to really get a feel for how people in this part of the world live, what they're learning and widen your global perspective! We stopped in a little town called Recsk and was greeted by one of the teachers at the school. She went into detail on how the education system works, how students progress, what they can learn, how it was to teach during the time of communism and other aspects of life within Hungary. Very, very interesting!
We then went downstairs to the cafeteria where the lunch-ladies were in full force and served up a "normal meal" for the students, mind you, this was a hearty-good meal for any adult! We all made short work of the meal and thought it was exceptional!
We wrapped things up at the school and were fed, ready to go! However, with such a big lunch, I think a lot of [excellent] bus-naps took place. We had one more stop to make before Budapest, a wine-tasting!
We then went downstairs to the cafeteria where the lunch-ladies were in full force and served up a "normal meal" for the students, mind you, this was a hearty-good meal for any adult! We all made short work of the meal and thought it was exceptional!
We wrapped things up at the school and were fed, ready to go! However, with such a big lunch, I think a lot of [excellent] bus-naps took place. We had one more stop to make before Budapest, a wine-tasting!
Our next stop was only about thirty minutes away in a town called Egerszalók [Don't worry, even at this point we still have trouble pronouncing these places!]
We arrived at Kohári Pince and were greeted by wine glasses being filled and a violinist! The "wine tasting" may have eventually turned into "wine drinking" and we had a great time here with very good music! Nicole picked up a CD from the violinist and listens to it at home!. We ended up going out front and the group danced together, it was too much fun here!
After the great time at the winery, we made our way to Budapest!
We arrived at Kohári Pince and were greeted by wine glasses being filled and a violinist! The "wine tasting" may have eventually turned into "wine drinking" and we had a great time here with very good music! Nicole picked up a CD from the violinist and listens to it at home!. We ended up going out front and the group danced together, it was too much fun here!
After the great time at the winery, we made our way to Budapest!
Everyone checked into their hotel rooms, there was a quick orientation walk with Katka and then off to another group dinner! The food was great, perfect weather, a very warm welcome to Budapest!