Budapest, HUNGARY

Another beautiful sunny day here in Budapest. What a nice city. The worst part of Budapest....it is over-run by tourists! This is still very early in the tourist season and already flooded by German groups of old ladies and belly papas! As much as people may love Budapest....I still vote for Bulgaria and Romania as I hardly came across tourists...other than the odd fellow backpacker.

Did a couple of day trips to small towns in Hungary...most notably was the town of Eger. Eger, a 2 hours train ride to the north east of Budapest, is the center of the historical wine-producing region of North-Eastern Hungary. Its fort, which was defended by heroic warriors during European conquests of the Turks in the 16th century, offers an excellent view the beautiful old downtown. The city, with its glorious historical past, minarets and palaces has thermal baths, good food, and very good wines. The Eger red wines - such as the renowned Egri Bikavér (Bull's Blood) - are characterized by an attractive color and pleasant tannin acid content. During several years of aging in large wooden casks in the cellars, these wines become fullbodied wines rich in aroma. Just a 20 minutes walk south of the town is "The Valley of the Nice Women" with several ancient cellars carved into the rocks...where you can visit several of these cellars. I ended up in three of them. What an experience it was. These old...really old wine makers treated me so well, let me taste several wines from their vats, and then gave me a bottle of the nicest Egri Bikavér. Total bill was US$2. The third cellar did not even charge me anything as I only tasted 4 wines and then decided to take it easy...as I still had to walk back to town. These men took me deep into these cellars which must hundreds of years old, told me interesting stories, tried different wines from the old barrels.... all a very good day spent!

I'll be spending 8 days here in Budapest and area....what a lovely experience.
I'll be leaving from Budapest on Tuesday May 31st up north to Bratislava, Slovakia, for two days before heading to Prague, Czech Republic.
Till later