Kilencedik nap - Day 9

Day 9 was when we headed back to Budapest. Anna's friends drove us and we stopped in the town of Eger where the 'Bulls blood' wine comes from. There's a whole story behind the name:

The story of Bull's Blood Wine began in the fall of 1552. Castle Eger, located in Eger, Hungary, was under attack by over 2,000 invading Ottoman Turks. Totally surrounded by the ensuing army, a group of 200 Hungarians, consisting partly of women and children, were able to defeat the attackers.

One version of the story tells how the Hungarians, who were hopelessly outnumbered, began drinking a deep red wine to give them strength and courage. The wine spilled over onto the men's beards and armor, coloring them red. Word spread among the Turks that the Hungarians had been drinking the blood of bulls, and that the Hungarians would be a formidable and fierce fighting machine. The Turks, being naturally superstitious, began spreading rumors of a terrible fate. The battle was broken off and the Turks retreated.

Here's Rob posing with an oversized bottle of Bull's Blood :-)

The Basilica

At the wine festival

Memorial

Turkish Minaret tower: The Minaret is actually a covered staircase. You go up and there's a balcony from where you can wave down and look around. It's scary and exciting and it is not for those with a fear of heights :-)

In the Eger Castle with the Minaret and the town in the background

Tomorrow is our last day and we will try to go see the Parliement, and it is also shopping for 'chatchka' day LOL

Nyolcadik nap - Day 8

Still in Miskolc... Anna took me around her hometown and showed me her communist roots LOL

Miskolc is the chief city of Hungary's industrial region. Industries include cement, glass, textiles, and food processing, and there is a large food refrigeration plant. Wine making is important, notably in the limestone caves of Mount Avas, which are used as cellars.

Diosgyor Castle

Miskolc is a very nice city, sort of a mix between Johstown in size (maybe a little bit bigger) and the main street is similar to the street in Annapolis.

Downtown Miskolc (National Theathre on the right)

Stopped by Anna's godmother, Agi.

In the afternoon we spent some time at a cave bath where the water is again natural thermal sping water.

We stayed at Anna's friends who were at our wedding. We grilled food Saturday night and they made me drink different kind of palinka, which is a traditional Hungarian liquor. Anna's family is overly generous and made me feel at home.


Serving 'palinka' ... 50% alcohol!!!

Hetedik nap - Day 7

We went to Miskolc for Anna's cousin's wedding. The ceremony took place at a hotel in the Bukk mountains. It was really nice. Her husband's family was there from Boston too. Unfortunately, we managed to miss the entire church ceremony due to scheduling issues... Oh and I drank Unicum which is probably the most foul drink i have ever tasted....

The happy couple

Rob is dancing 'Csardas'

Hatodik nap - Day 6

Anna tried to kill me crossing the Danube... We took a train up north of the city to this little town called Nagymaros, where we caught a so called 'ferry' across the river to the medieval town of Visegrad. The ferry was more like a rusty barge that was only about a foot out of the water when they loaded a semi truck full of wood onto it. At least if it sank we had wood to hold onto - we thought.

Swimming was not required we made it safely to the other side where the castle was upon the hill.

We took a taxi up the hill to go bobsled riding.

We then went to the castle. There is a nice view of the bend in the Danube.

In keeping with the medieval theme for the day we had lunch at the Renaissance Restaurant where they serve you food in the style of the medieval era. Later we took a very long boat ride back to the city.

Later we took a very long boat ride back to the city.

Otodik nap - Day 5

Day five was our Vienna day trip. We left from the train station early in the morning and took the Railjet train - which is their new high speed train - and it still took three hours to get there!! I must admit though that the train was the smoothest train I have ever been on, and also, the most quiet. You could not hear any noises from the wheels on the rails as it was moving - unlike the trains at home.

We were traveling with Anita (Anna's sister) who showed us around Vienna via a schedule she had prepared with Viktor (Anna's brother-in-law who lives in Vienna). Vienna is a much more Westernized city when it comes to tourists. More touristy than Budapest. It is also a very beautiful city - with all of the palaces, galleries, and small side streets it is what you would expect when imagining Vienna. I can't really describe everything we did because it would take too long so let the pictures speak for themselves and I will fill in details when we get home to New York.

Stephansdom

Drinking Raspberry Prosecco at Naschmarkt: Vienna’s largest and oldest market

The Secession Building


The Opera House

Opera Toilet with opera music :-) ... btw what is that man behind me looking at???

Chilling in the Museum Quarter

Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig

Stuffing his face with cheese sausage and sweet mustard ... yummy!!!

Hofburg: Home to the Habsburg dynasty which ruled Austria for six centuries

Castle district

Negyedik nap - Days 4

In the morning Anna went and took care of official business with address changing and her condo so I stayed at the hotel and slept. It was good - I needed the extra sleep to finally fully adjust to the time difference and alot of walking from the previous two days. The only problem with the whole scenario was that I was on my own in the wilds of Budapest to meet up with Anna and her mom later in the day at the market house. Anna gave me some pretty good directions and, relying quite a bit on memory, I was able to find my way to meet them in the afternoon.

We met in front of the main city market building. It is a very large building - think train station scale. Inside are all local people selling all kinds of vegetables, meat, fruit, breads, pastries, chatchka, you name it. We walked around for a bit but once you've seen cow stomach five times you've seen enough - so we left.

The Historic Market Building

Rob's favorite Hungarian salami ;-)

From there we walked across one of the bridges to the Buda side of the city and up the hill into a cave church that had recently been re-opened after it had been abandoned for quite some time. We walked around in there for a bit and then headed across the street to the Gellert Bath / Hotel - quite possibly the most overrated hotel / bath in the city. All of the tour books and guides tell you to go there but it was very dissapointing - very run down form all of the tourists, and the people we saw working there couldn't have looked less thrilled to be there - so we left.

Cave Church

We took a tram (like a surface street electric train) back across the river and walked up along the Danube heading to the Parliament building but I spotted St. Stephen's Basilica through some buildings so we went there instead. St. Stephen's is the largest basilica in the city and it is very beautiful inside. I thought Catholics in the U.S. had the market cornered on over-the-top ornament and decoration in churches but this place took it to a whole new level.

St. Stephen's Basilica

The most interesting part of the Church was seeing the mummified right hand of St. Stephen himself. Appartently the hand is a national treasure of Hungary and seeing it is one of the things you must do if you are Hungarian - or a tourist. There is a small catch though - you have to pay 200 Forint (about a dollar) to turn on a light for two minutes to see the hand in the glass case - who says the communists haven't embraced capitalism?

The Holy Right Hand of St. Stephen

From the Basilica we went home and did laundry - clean clothes were running low - and then headed back out after dark to get some night pictures of the city with my ancient film camera and Anna with her digital. The city is very beautiful at night when all of the buildings are lit up.

The Parliament

The Chain Bridge and the Buda Castle