Idyllic last holiday stay

This morning we left from Eger, the place where we have stayed the last 5 days and it was the perfect spot to end our sightseeing in Hungary.

Saturday morning we left from Budapest after eating our favourite sweet snack from the local supermarket; csoki ciga. A rolled up bread (like a koffiebroodje) filled with chocolate and this specific one covered with chocolate too. Soo nice...and soo bad at the same time. You can't eat it without having your hands and face totally covered with chocolate either.  We had some fruit too though (finally); some abricots and strawberries; really nice and sweet. After this we went cruisin again...and according to our Lonely Planet we should defenitely take route 24, one of the most beautiful roads in the country. So we did....and it was not a good choice. Ok, the area around the road sure was pretty (we went trough hills and forests), the thing is; we couldn't see it because of all these trees right next to the road, so no nice view or anything AND the road had such awful turns that you didn't even want to take your eyes of the road. Poor Bogdán had to fully concentrate (especially to avoid the cars that were parked in the middle of the road in a turn or people hiking and biking there). We were really happy to arrive in Eger and see our nice apartment and the beautiful garden. And a cat, but this one isn't interested in us or anything at all, except sleeping. We got lots of information about things to do here (even folders full of information, 1 in Hungarian and 1 in English). And soon after that we went off to the centre; it's really cute because of all the nice churches, cobbled small streets and the castle that watches over the town, but it's also big enough and has a lot of sights/activities to entertain yourself for a while here. We had dinner at a nice inner garden where an old man was playing the piano. He was playing very well and even asked us specifically if we had some requests (we were the only ones enthusiastically clapping). Bogdan asked for a song from a cartoon and he played his own cool version of that and many other beautiful songs, like from Ennio Morricone (really special). That night we fell asleep by some other concert; from the frogs surrounding us (oetelconcert!). Really funny how much different they sound here and how much they "talk".

The next day we got up with a superb breakfast; freshly made scrambled eggs with ham, bacon and parmesan cheese and some paprika powder. Delicious! There was paprika, tomato and fresh made jams too. We were busy for 1,5 hours there, also because our hosts are really talkative. But well, we decided to take it slow these last couple of days, also because of the nice and warm weather. We had a tour through the town that day; first the castle and its museums and beautiful views over the city. We also visited the Marzipan museum (finally one that was open!!). And this one was full of mega sized objects all made of marzipan. The owner even made a baroque room, with stove, tables, seats, curtains and even wallpaper made of the sweet good. Pretty amazing! I had to have some marzipan after that of course so I had a parizsi csúcs (looks like a negerzoen but it ten times more chocolaty and heavy; filled with dense chocolate mouse and with a marzipan bottom). It felt like a bomb in my stomach. We had some süti too; a lovely pistachecake and really good rétes with cherry and cinamon (love that combination). Topping all of this with some beer was not a good idea it seemed....I felt quite sick after it. Only late at night I was into some soup, but no big meals for me. That night there was a festival with live music and groups of majorettes dancing and from the terrace of our restaurant we could finish our evening with watching loads of balloons going up in the dark blue sky.

On Monday we decided to visit Szilvásvárad, a village famous for its Lippizaner horses and a place I visited some 30 years ago during family holidays. I was excited to go their again and on our way we already got impressed by the beautiful nature here. Green hills everywhere, with nice valleys and cute villages. So pretty! When we arrived we first wanted to eat, especially Bogdán was super hungry. I had some smoked trout bruschetta, the local fish you can eat at every restaurant there. Very nice and light for once. After some searching we found the Lippizaner stud farm including coachmuseum (somehow even in these touristic places they forget to put some signs). Hmm, love the smell! The coaches were looking nice, but I wanted to see the horses of course. We could go into some stables and even saw a big group of horses with their new born ones. Really nice, especially when the young ones tried to "hinnik" (no idea what the English term is for that and I'm writing without internet now, so can't look it up). We've also seen a fierce and restless stallion which had to be walked by 2 persons. I hoped to have a similar experience like I had 30 years ago, when 100+ Lippizaner horses were galopping off a hill (and at first you don't even see them but just hear them coming), and we drove around to see if there was a recognizable place but unfortunately. But we did get enchanted by the beautiful surroundings and views. What a magical place this is! A Hungarian colleague of us who is born here wrote down some things to see/do so we followed that obediently. We took a narrow-gauge train up to the hills (we felt like kids again) and from there we could walk down ourselves. It was lovely and nice to be in the shadow mostly since it was hot. There were some very clear and turquoise lakes full of fish and some waterfalls from the river that constantly followed us. Very idyllic. We also visited a neighbouring village with a lake and soms nice cliffs on the background. Hmm...love it here! It was hard to leave again, luckily Eger is a great place too, so we had a nice drink at the square with view at the sunlighted big church and we had nice dinner, where we tasted really fresh chicken for the first time. Not a success though; it feels like eating rubber! We looked it up afterwards to see if we weren't fooled or something, but apparently this is the case with really fresh stuff. The kitchen was already closed so no desert, but we got  Hungarians favourite sweet; Túró Rudi. A small bar of cottage cheese covered with chocolate. Totally fine too.

Yesterday we didn't feel like going to the caves in Aggtelek (2h drive away from here) but just enjoy the nice wheather, relax and see some last highlights of Eger. But before that, it was time to work it and have a run! It was hot and difficult because some height differences, but we did it! Never sweated so much in my life I guess, but having a cool shower afterwards was the best thing ever and made us forget about fast. We had (just) a sandwichlunch and then went on a tour under the city; through a huge cellarsystem of 142 km that was built on request of the bishop so he could store his wine. Little slavedriver he was. It was a cool tour, cool emphasized cause 45 min under ground in a temperature of 12 degrees with moisty feel was something. My feet felt cold even 15 min after we got out. But it was special to see and we had a funny guide making a lot of jokes. We warmed up by having a drink on a terrace and I saw a nice watchshop; I want a new watch for quite some time now. And we found a super cool one! A wooden clock, dark brown leather and a white and rosé golden plate. Love it! And Bogdán like it so much he wanted to give it as a my birthday present already. How can I say no to that?! To celebrate we went to the best Cukrászda ever (the one we went two days before too) and had some delicious süti; we also deserved it after our difficult run. The last thing we wanted to see was The Valley of Beautiful Women; this is the famous place where all winecellars are and some nice old fashioned csárdas. Cause Eger is famous for its wine and especially its Egri Bikavér (Bulls blood). And while we walked up there, the city just stopped quite sudden and a beautiful green valley appeared with small houses. It's really the backgarden of Eger. There are some 50 wine cellars in the horseshoeshaped valleay next to each other, all with their own atmosphere (from knight/medieval-look to super hip) and you can taste their goods per deciliter. After the winetasting and getting sick Bogdán was not into tasting wine that much, so we just went for the famou Bikavér and the superior version of it. We were spoilt with some good wines but this one was delicious too. We had some traditional dinner and our last walk through town back to our place. What a nice stay we had here!

Today it's time for a last family visit and celebrate Miláns birthday (last time was apparantly only for his Nameday). So cake-time it is! And tomorrow we will leave Hungary and travel back to Holland with probably 2 stops. Hopefully we can find some cute towns to have our last sightseeing. Have to go now; I need to prepare for some last big feastmeal!