We wanted to spend more time in Hungary and had read about Eger, which was only a few hours away by bus. We found a studio loft (Almafa Apartments) not far from the historical center of town. We've been so lucky meeting great hosts in family run rentals. The loft was bright, comfy, clean and had great wifi (always a bonus). Again, we were greeted with a local shot of grape brandy that could clear out the worst stuffed sinuses and grew hair on my chest, I'm sure of it. The Mom spoke no english, but as we've noted before, it never seems to be an issue. We couldn't walk by her without getting a warm greeting or having her sharing some fruit with us. She even gave us a homemade bottle of wine when we left, not that we needed it, as you'll see.
Eger is known as THE place for wine. There are vineyards everywhere and most of the sampling goes on in a place called Szépasszony-völgy or Valley of the Beautiful Women. It's also known for its castle and thermal baths, the latter apparently being where your supposed to go the day after drinking all the wine. They've got all the angles taken care of.
I tried to find out more about the name, but it seems to be a bit of a mystery. Some people say it is named after the goddesses from a pagan religion while others say it described the women who served the wines. I told Jamie the latter reason and curiously enough, he didn't give me any argument when I told him we were going wine tasting one afternoon. The valley was only about a ten minute walk from our place and there are about 200 wine cellars here. We picked wine cellar number 2 and were greeted by a wonderful woman who brought us a wine menu, 2 glasses and lit our candle. The next hour (or was it longer?) was spent sampling wines from her family's vineyards in this cool and slightly musty cellar. Our host put on quite a show every time she poured our wine from a long decanter and she was very animated in showing us how to smell and taste the wine. The cave we were in was carved out by hand and was hundreds if years old. Perfect for making great wines. We wanted to buy a bit of the most popular red wine, Egri Bikaver, or for "take away" as the menu noted. We only wanted a litre, but either our hand gestures confused our hungarian speaking host or she only had big bottles left... but we wound up with a 2 litre bottle!
Wine Tasting Afternoon Tally:
2 litre jug of wine
3 glasses of wine tasting each
cheese tidbits
entertainment provided by our most hospitable host
Total: 1679 forint, or just over $8!
We had read and saw other people bring their own containers to be filled at many if the wine cellars, so keep that in mind if you ever make the trip!
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| Tucked away in a corner, one of the smaller venues in the valley |
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| Our host had flare! |
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| We had this quaint wine cellar to ourselves |
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| Our host and our two litre jug |
We also visited the Eger Castle, which is situated up on a hill in the middle of town. Best spot for a castle, I hear...they all seem to be found in the same place wherever we go. 😜
This castle was defended in 1552 by about 2000 locals against an army of about 40, 000 Turks. Remember the Egri Bikaver that I mentioned earlier? Well, legend goes that the Turks saw the fierce castle defenders drinking a red drink that stained their beards and clothes. They figured the smaller army was getting their strength from the drink and that they must be drinking bull's blood, and so coined the nick name for Egri Bikaver.
To be fair, I should also mention that the Turkish army returned in 1596 and won the battle and the castle. Guess they found some of there own bulls blood somewhere.
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| Walking as long the wall |
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| Cannons ready...and fire! |
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| I wouldn't have wanted to scale that wall! |
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| What a view of Eger! |
Well, we moved on from Eger and said see you later to Hungary for now. Jamie's working on the next blog, so I have to czech myself and not spill the beans. For those who are curious though, it is known as the city of a hundred spires...
