Euroadventurer

Today was a travel day. We left our apartment and took a train to Eger, Hungary. It is a two hour train trip through miles of Sunflower fields. Weeks ago I bet it was gorgeous with all of the flowers turning their faces toward the sun. Unfortunately now it is harvest time so the flowers were all dry and brown now. We saw farmers out in the fields harvesting which was interesting though.

Upon arrival Tom decided we should take the easy way out (hey, that is not a complaint!) and we grabbed the one cab sitting waiting for the arrival of the train. 1,000 forint ($5.00) later we were ringing the bell at out newest apartment. We were greeted by Monica (close to her name but not exact I am sure!) and her dog Fifi. She took us to a table in the garden and invited us to sit. She went into the house and returned with her husband Lazlo and English speaking daughter Judith. She brought two glasses and poured me (Tom opted out) a double shot of Palinka to welcome us here. The Palinka is a drink made from grapes (or other fruit) that is 40 proof. The entire family watched excitedly as, per their instructions, I tried to shoot the entire glass. I managed 3/4 of it before my lungs exploded!! My eyes watered and I literally had no breath for about 15 seconds. They all smiled broadly as I gasped for air but came up smiling too. Tom wanted to know if it was like Vodka.... Uh, no. It wasn't like anything I have ever experienced before.

After showing us to our sweet little apartment room (complete with pistachio chocolates on the pillow) we dropped our bags and then Tom and I headed out to visit the "Valley of the Nice Lady". Prior to this we had heard it referred to as the Valley of the Beautiful Woman" and we were charmed by Judith's translation. It is the famous wine region of Hungary. Some of you may have heard of a wine known as "Bull's Blood" which is from this region. As we walked the road to the valley I noticed three men working by a truck. One man was dumping large sacks into a machine and another was picking up stems off the ground and refilling the same sacks. Curious, we crossed the street and approached the truck. The process was man one dumped a sack full of green grapes into the machine, man two operated the machine that de stemmed the grapes and man three picked up the discarded stems and put them in the empty sack. When man one saw our interest he reached into his sack, pulled out a huge double stemmed bunch of grapes and handed them to Tom!! We thanked them and proceeded down the road munching the sweetest, stickiest bunch of grapes we had ever eaten.

As we ate our grapes we approached another bunch of men repeating a similar process. Man one was pitch forking loads of grapes into a machine. He stopped working to pose for Tom and when I approached the truck to look inside (he was ankle deep in sticky white grape juice) he struck a pose for me too! I laughed out loud and told Tom " I am so happy right now! I am having such a great time!!!" . Really, these were small gestures but brought so much joy to us. Makes me want to be a better person. That's always my take away from days like this.

Just when we thought it couldn't get better we rounded a corner and found a place to wash our sticky hand. While Tom was in the WC I wandered over to a wine cave to peek in. It was SOO cool (temperature) inside. I took a few pictures and when I stepped out there was a band playing a one of the grape workers was in the street doing a drunken dance. I started to video tape him just as the band stopped. A woman grape worker called out to the band and asked them to play some more and they obliged while Tom took pictures, the drunk guy danced and I videoed the entire thing.

The wine caves were interesting and the walk was beautiful but storm clouds threatened. We walked back toward our apartment and made a stop at the local mini store for a few supplies. Water, a bag of milk (you read that right), a container of yogurt, a bag of sunflower seeds (in honor of the area) and a package of ricecakes. Grand total? $3.75

Supplies in hand we were on our way back to the apartment and were literally 10 feet from the gate when the sky opened up raining down big fat raindrops. We rushed to our room where we took refuge from the storm that lasted about 10 minutes and now the sun is shining brightly. We are off to dinner and anticipating more exciting adventures! Szia!!! (pronounced see yaw used like Aloha or Ciao.. Good for Hello and Goodbye!)