24th June
Left Budapest by train to Eger where ‘Bulls Blood’ - the Hungarian wine my dad would try to get hold of when we were young - is made. After exploring the city we walked down to the Valley of the Beautiful Women where we visited one of the wine cellars.
We tried a number of different wines and had each one explained to us in part English, part Hungarian plus a ‘splattering’(literally) of German. There was a group of Germans who’d obviously visited a number of cellars before ours as they had to be dragged out they were so drunk they couldn’t even stand up. There was a huge storm including large hail so had to get back to hotel by taxi rather than walking.
25th June
Early start with a walk to the bus station for the local bus to Debrecen just over 2 hours away - it was surprisingly comfortable. We had a 3 hour wait so walked around and had lunch before boarding a train to take us into Romania. This was a 3 hour journey but part of the way through we had a boarder crossing. The Hungarian border Police take your passport vanish for about 20 minutes & then come back. I checked my passport for a stamp but they said (indicated) that I didn’t get a stamp because I was using my British passport. I pulled a face, they conferred & then stamped my passport. Train moves off for 10 minutes, stops and the Romanian Border Police get on, take passports, disappear and quite a while later return. Once again no stamp and there was not going to be a stamp from Romania in my passport!!
Continued on the train for another hour and then we were taken by mini bus for a further two hours. The weather had changed and it was raining and as we travelled deep into the forest and gained height it became
very foggy. Finally we descended and the weather cleared. We arrived at our home stay at 9:30 pm and were sat down to a four course home style meal - very nice especially the schnapps which we had simply for our digestion!
27th June
Today was sightseeing and our first visit was to the ‘Merry Cemetery’. this was an amazing place. Each grave had a painting of the occupation of the dead person complete with a poem, written by the artist, about that person - there was a very funny one about a mother-in- law!
We then went to a large supermarket to buy items for our picnic lunch. Drove into the countryside and just sat staring at beautiful green countryside as we ate. As we drive along we see lots of horses and carts used by the local people. There also seems to be storks nest, complete with adults and young, on many light poles.
We visited a village where a local man showed us how he put wooden ladders etc into bottles - which are then usually filled with home made Schnapps. We were offered Schnapps but when everyone backed off as if we were going to be poisoned it gamely stepped forward and saved face for the Aussies!
Went on to the wood carvers house - they certainly like extra large carved gates. Next stop, a wooden church. It’s not in use any more but it was certainly different. Last stop a Monastery which run by 12 nuns - rather over the top!
Left Budapest by train to Eger where ‘Bulls Blood’ - the Hungarian wine my dad would try to get hold of when we were young - is made. After exploring the city we walked down to the Valley of the Beautiful Women where we visited one of the wine cellars.
We tried a number of different wines and had each one explained to us in part English, part Hungarian plus a ‘splattering’(literally) of German. There was a group of Germans who’d obviously visited a number of cellars before ours as they had to be dragged out they were so drunk they couldn’t even stand up. There was a huge storm including large hail so had to get back to hotel by taxi rather than walking.
25th June
Early start with a walk to the bus station for the local bus to Debrecen just over 2 hours away - it was surprisingly comfortable. We had a 3 hour wait so walked around and had lunch before boarding a train to take us into Romania. This was a 3 hour journey but part of the way through we had a boarder crossing. The Hungarian border Police take your passport vanish for about 20 minutes & then come back. I checked my passport for a stamp but they said (indicated) that I didn’t get a stamp because I was using my British passport. I pulled a face, they conferred & then stamped my passport. Train moves off for 10 minutes, stops and the Romanian Border Police get on, take passports, disappear and quite a while later return. Once again no stamp and there was not going to be a stamp from Romania in my passport!!
Continued on the train for another hour and then we were taken by mini bus for a further two hours. The weather had changed and it was raining and as we travelled deep into the forest and gained height it became
very foggy. Finally we descended and the weather cleared. We arrived at our home stay at 9:30 pm and were sat down to a four course home style meal - very nice especially the schnapps which we had simply for our digestion!
27th June
Today was sightseeing and our first visit was to the ‘Merry Cemetery’. this was an amazing place. Each grave had a painting of the occupation of the dead person complete with a poem, written by the artist, about that person - there was a very funny one about a mother-in- law!
We then went to a large supermarket to buy items for our picnic lunch. Drove into the countryside and just sat staring at beautiful green countryside as we ate. As we drive along we see lots of horses and carts used by the local people. There also seems to be storks nest, complete with adults and young, on many light poles.
We visited a village where a local man showed us how he put wooden ladders etc into bottles - which are then usually filled with home made Schnapps. We were offered Schnapps but when everyone backed off as if we were going to be poisoned it gamely stepped forward and saved face for the Aussies!
Went on to the wood carvers house - they certainly like extra large carved gates. Next stop, a wooden church. It’s not in use any more but it was certainly different. Last stop a Monastery which run by 12 nuns - rather over the top!
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