adventures in the bükk

Sometimes, I realize that I don't need to travel far to see amazing things. Like this weekend, we stayed right outside of Eger and hiked in the Bükk Half the day Saturday and all day Sunday....I got to see breathtaking scenery, breath fresh air, do a little rock-climbing, and test my strength.
Here is me on top of the little point towards the left of the first picture!

Yesterday, we went to a small village, Bélapátfalva, with a church from the 13th century (Bélapátfalvi Apátság). Next to the church, there is an old mine/mountain. The weather was gorgeous, so we had a really nice hike up. When we got to the top, we found some flowers were in bloom, which was nice to see. This mountain is weird, as you can see from the pictures, because there is SO MUCH ROCK. So when we got to the top, we had to climb up this huge hill of rocks...only to get to a huge deserted platform that looked like where the dinosaurs lived! From there, we had to keep climbing up onto a gigantic rock sitting on this platform of land in order to get the best view. It was really fun and really beautiful and quite adventurous!

There is a spring there, so we filled up some big water bottles with the mineral water. When we go hiking, we always try and fill up these big 5 liter bottles for us to drink off of for a week or 2. These little springs are hidden all throughout the Bükk, so it's easy to fill up bottles and lug them back home to drink! I should say that the springs are by where you park the car, not up the mountain itself.

Today, we went to another really gorgeous area. Ben's brother Boti brought us to this awesome place he had hiked before. Again, we had perfect weather, so we were having so much fun going through the mountains getting to our spot. When we got there, the view was completely gorgeous! There were flowers and you could see a valley with a little house down below. After we explored a nearby cave (we actually went inside via a little hole), and wondered how the cavemen lived. The thing was, they found remains in this cave, and it was not ho-mosapien remains.... Neanderthals lived there! 40,000 years ago! It was pretty nuts to explore something like that!


Here is me getting out of the cave and Ben and I in the cave. (Unfortunately, Ben shaved his beard yesterday...otherwise it would have been a more accurate depiction of a caveman)

Here is the sign that says "Neanderthals lived here"











We decided then to climb down the mountain and get to the little house in the valley....There was no trail though! We literally climbed down a mountain. Using rocks as steps and to hold our balance...It took a while because we had to go pretty slow since it was so steep. I told the boys that I never would have said to myself, lets climb down this mountain and go explore that little tiny house in the valley.

Then came the climb back up. We were halfway through the hike and in a valley!! I was pretty tired, we had already been hiking a few hours and we still had to climb a mountain...with no trail! It was incredibly hard physically, and I had to keep aiming for the next tree to grab on to so I wouldn't lose my balance because it was so steep. To be honest, I didn't think I was going to make it.

Hurling yourself uphill from one tree to the next 15 feet away is crazy. I am sure I looked like a cave-girl, hunched over to distribute my weight evenly and groping onto any root or plant I could find to help pull me up. I did need help in a few spots, and Ben was able to help pull me up or push me up when I needed, but I didn't want him to lose his balance and fall down the mountain! Every time I looked back to see how far we came I couldn't really believe how steep it was or how far we came or how far we still needed to go.



Here is the view of the mountain from the valley (we climbed the smaller one). And above it is the view of the valley, (The house is the tiny white speck in the center), from the top of the mountain. Yikes.




I should also add that we found an owl's nest by accident. He flew out of a hollowed out tree I leaned on for support, and we obviously freaked out a little.

Anyway, all I know is that I better have buns of steel after this weekend, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to move at school tomorrow!