Our Eger Day Trip Turned Weekend Trip

So this past weekend, Jola, Alex and I made plans to go to town called "Eger" which is north east of Budapest (Click on the picture above and you can locate it). Eger is well known for there wine and the public cellars. The town it's self is beautiful with shops, churches and the ruins of Eger Castle.

Our trip started on Saturday May 20th with a train ride at 9:15 am leaving Budapest and we would transfer to another train at the "Füzesabony" to continue to "Eger". The total time for the trip would be 2.5 hrs. The train ride was fairly peaceful, we were able to get into one of the private bench sections with 3 other Hungarian travelers. Since we had an early morning we slept most of the way to Eger.
Once we arrived at Eger we decided to walk towards the city centre to see the sites. In the picture above I am standing by the second largest church in Hungary, known as the Archbishop's Palace. We were not able to go in because there was a wedding being performedd. Can you imagine...Geting married in a place like that!! It's so normal for the people in Europe to have these beautiful churches .
After about 15 mins of walking we decided to make our way to the Eger Castle to avoid the incoming rain. The castle is partly restored and is the home of a few art exhibits. The castle has one of the best views of the city. It is so neat to walk the grounds where so many people of the past have been. To think that those walls were once full of people selling meats and such in the local weekend market.
Above is a view from the Eger Castle. The tower you see in the middle of the picture is the minaret that was a section of an old existing church before the Turkish soliders invaded in 1596. The tower consists of 97 steps to the top. A very interesting walk up I am sure.
Once we saw the sites and got some traditional Hungarian pancakes we decided to make our way to the famous Eger wine Cellars. This area is well known for there wine called "Bull's Blood". This wine got its name in 1516 when theHungarian soldiers drank all the wine in Eger in efforts to push back the Turkish invaders. All the wine from various grapes were mixed together then when it was drunk by the Hungarian soldiers their beards became stained red. The Turkish soldiers were then frighten by this and the Hungarian soldiers won the fight. In the picture above Jola is sitting infront of some vines for the Eger vineyards.
Each cellar has its own number. The picture above is the first cellar we went into, number 4. The smell was so sweet, something I have ever smelt before but will never forget (Dad, I think you would love this place!) At each cellar you are able to buy a glass, 1 liter or more of the wine. We decided to order a few glass to share among each other. Each glass of wine was about 70 HUF that's about 50 cents CAD) Also, we each brought a large empty 1.5 litre water bottles which the cellar will fill up for you!!! Can you believe that, I loveEurope.
As the day went into night we found ourselves visiting many different cellars. Some are quiet while others have muscians playing outside on the patios. The weather cleared up which allowed us to sit outside, eat cheese, drink wine and enjoy the sun while it was out.Around 9:30 we decided to make our way to the train station hoping we hadn't missed the last train. As we arrived at the train station we boarded the 22:22 train back to Füzesabony. Once we arrived at Füzesabony at 23:00 much to our disappointment we found the next train to Budapest would not be leaving until 2:50 the next morning... All we could do was wait, so wait we did. As you can see in my picture above we decided to take a nap in the station before our train arrived. But we were rudely kicked out of the station at midnight so we spent the rest of our stay in Füzesabony on a bench waiting for our train. After our nap we caught our train and arrived in Budapest at 5:30 in the morning.

This trip was worth it!! Eger has a charm I have never seen before and the train ride home may have been long but made the day trip (sorry the weekend trip) something I will never forget. Now I am back, safe and sound and with about 9 liters of wine between Jola, Alex and I!! Thanks Eger for all your hospitality!!