Eger.... the Alamo of Hungary, and damned fine wine

Eger is one of the more important towns for wine in Hungary..... kind of like Napa since its known for its red meritage, Bikaver. Its also called Red Bulls blood wine.... and I will tell you more in a bit.Took a 2 hour train ride to Eger from Budapest. I didn't have housing arranged but had a target hostel in mind and figured it would have space on a Tuesday afternoon. In the train station, I was approached by this lovely lady to the left, who called herself..... Kathy (hmmmm, not sure if I believe that). She offered me a room in her apartment so I jumped, especially when she said washing machine and cable TV - yippeee !!!! Its very common for widows , especially, to rent rooms in their house to travellers. I shared a spotless kitchen and bath and had a living with plenty of room - for $15 per night. I ended p going the grocery store and making my own meals for three days and figured I was living on $25 per day, including museum fees. It was awesome... I was in a cheap mood. This pic is of Kathy making me coffee -kinda like Turkish coffee, since it steams up into a container - you boil it on a stove. I had this impulse to go and buy her a cheap drip coffee maker but then thought why, this works fine and she probably would like it more. Laundry is a treat on the road... here is my entire wardrobe except a dress I was wearing , drying in her bathroom. The washer is the white appliance to the right. It drains into the tub. On the left, you can see the hot water boiler.. they are in both the bathrooms and kitchens. When you need hot water, they spring to life..... very antiquated. Her apartment was basically a Communist era building.... kitchen, bath, the living room that had and the last room that she lived in. I think its very brave to take strangers into your house. And she was charming.

Not so charming is how American fast food is creaping into Eastern Europe. Burger King owned Budapest, and there was even a McDonalds in Eger, which is maybe 50,000 people. Not too many overweight kids but enough to see that video games and fast food are having a bad impact.

The shot above is from the castle in the town center. The mineret is the northernmost evidence of the Ottoman/Turkish occupation of Hungary. Behind it you can see the Orthodox Christian Church, and behind that some of the hills surrounding the town with vineyards on them.

Eger was a reallllllly mellow town... and after the frantic energy of Budapest was great. Instead of seeing large scale things , I got a chance to slow down. For example, the picture here is a shot of one of the churches in town reflected in the Camera Obscura at the local teaching college. Its like a big camera - the room on top of the building is darkened and light images from outside are sent to a white table in the room via mirrors. The guide was joking that he was could wear the clock on the tower of the church as a watch. This is the oldest Camera Obscura in Europe, from around 1776, I think.

Pictures of Mary from inside the Orthodox church, as well as the wall of the altar. Pictures of the apostles are always the top row, then pics of New Testament stories follow below. Mary is always to the left of center and Jesus is to the right in Orthodox churches.

The buildings in the distance are Communist era high rises - painted bright colors after the fall of the communist government in 1989. The museum guide said that the buildings spell USSR when viewed from the air. Creepy.
A typical street off the older part of town which the tourists don't usually see. These buildings look alot like houses all over Eastern Europe outside of the Medieval town centers.


The reason that Eger is like the Alamo is that it was the site of a prolongued seige by the Turks in 1552 that the Hungarians ended up winning. The Ottomans had taken over most of Hungary, even Budapest, and Eger was considered the last stand. About 2000 Hungarian troops holed up in the Citadel/castle against a force of about 40,000 Turks, who finally gave up and left. They came back about 40 years later and successfully took the town.

This plaque shows the siege. I especially like how women are portrayed as actively partipating... they are pouring boiling oil on the Turks below. Red meritage is called Bulls Blood in Eger, supposedly because during the seige the Turks saw the Hungarians drinking red wine on the castle ramparts and thought that it was bulls blood - and the Hungarians let them think that so they could be thought of as bad asses.

The original Hungarians (Magyers) came from central Asia and so Hungarian names begin with the family name, then the personal name, very much like eastern Asian countries. I knew that my maternal grandfathers name , Ferenc, was Hungarian, but after a week in Budapest and Eger, I realized its a common name, like Jones. I took this picture of some of the names of the 300 men who died in the castle during the 1552 seige - two are named Ferenc like my grandfather.

A pretty shot of a canel near the town center. I walked around alot. Also went to the local thermal baths. They werent as fancy as Budapest..... more like a water park. But you gotta love this image....a 60 year old woman, overweight, wearing a flowered bathing suit, yellow baseball hat turned backwards, blue wraparound sun glasses and a puca shell necklace. It looked like she got dressed in the dark next to an American rapper.
Y city I've been in..... lots of school groups, which makes sense here for them to be hearing about the historical importance of Eger. I love the head kerchiefs on the girls.

Now on to wine tasting! I didn't have a car to drive around the area, but there was a nifty option within 30 minute walking distance. There is a valley to the southwest of town full of caves. When the Turks approached the city, the townspeople not in the castle lived in these caves. Now, there are about 00 caves that store wine. They also are open for tasting... so you wander up and down the row of caves and can taste for about 25 cents per taste. If you like, you buy. Just bring a bottle and they fill it up with your choice of wine. I got a really nice Bikaver in a 500 ml Diet Coke bottle and had it at home with a bowl of pasta. I liked the cat at this cave.

This gent had some fresh cherries for sale.
A view of the vineyards as I walked home. The pic below has alot going on. There is a McDonalds sign advertising the restaurant a mile away, a Hungarian looking guy walking up the hill, a cross , and some crusty buildings. Captures Hungary to a tee!