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.

this photo just about sums up my weekend

  

This weekend we drank a lot of wine in a 500 year old cellar....and explored a castle with crazy labyrinths.  

More words coming soon, but this photo is all I can handle right now....bonus points to you if you can spot cheeky Bence!

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!

life lesson 742

keep your mouth closed when bike riding.




learned the hard way.

small town life

OK, so I've never lived in a small town before...The kind of town where you really can't walk anywhere without bumping into someone you know. So, I've gotten used to it...Bumping into students, colleagues and friends on the streets or bus unexpectedly. Riding past them on my bike, seeing them in the baths, shopping in the same store at the mall....It happens all the time, practically every time I leave the house.

But bumping into a student at a family birthday party is too weird for me. Going to the bar and seeing my 10th and 11th grade students there is too weird. Having one of my oldest students serve me a beer because she's the bartender is so weird that it's awesome.

Good thing I like most "weird things" in this world, oy!