folk lore dancing and another castle

The other night we went to a big jolly Hungarian party at a 500 year old cellar.  The cellar was amazing on the inside, and is the oldest cellar in the "Valley of Beautiful Women" (the valley where sooo many cellars are and where people go wine tasting).  There was a really long table and carvings on the inside...I can't even imagine Hungarians from the 1500's making wine and being merry in there!  They also had some really nutty-looking really old wine-making contraptions!

The wine was a-flowin' at this party...There were several wines from several different cellars--including the one we went to about a month ago (the one who talks and sings to his grapes)!  We sampled a Rose from him, and I swear, you could smell roses off the the wine.  I am not sure if that is normal or what with a Rose wine, but my friends and I agreed that a rose scent was there!  In addition to the wine, there was tons of food of course...

Pastrys, cakes, desserts, Palinka, wine.....and a HUGE pot of Goulash!  Instead of barbecuing here, they make a huge pot of soup called a Bogacs.  It looks like a witch's cauldron, but contains really yummy food!  Seasoned with Paprika, Grey Cow Meat (only found in Hungary...It's a cow with horns and very lean/ healthy meat), and fat....this was truly a very very Hungarian Goulash!  You don't hear too much about cooking with fat in America...but it certainly adds something to the flavor. 

I should also mention that since my wine glass never bottomed out I ended up doing a little Hungarian folklore dancing...The music was blaring and everyone was dancing around in a circle with very specific well-known steps.  Admittedly, I was just sort of running and laughing around, but it was still pretty fun.  We went for a walk and stumbled upon this nearby church built in 1903...Engravings of marraiges and signings were on the bricks...Here's one from 1918!  I get excited when I find one from the 60's or 70's...but old Böske here really left his mark in 1918.

Climbed up to a castle from the 12th century the next day and played there all morning.  It was a really nice day and we had so much fun running through the labyrinths underneath to see where we would end up.  It was dark, cold, and you had to crouch down a little (Maybe ancient Hungarians were small??) but so awesome.  I could almost imagine living in one of the rooms...in it I had a book shelf, a window overlooking beautiful panorama views, and a secret exit (where I would have put my balcony and slide going down to the yard--Hope you appreciate this mom, you know that was my life-long dream as a kid!) 

Here's me looking out of "my window."

The views from up there were incredible and it was just a really nice fluffy cloud day, so we settled down with some bananas and pumpkin seeds and just enjoyed the view a while.