water and wine (hungarian rhapsody)

Budapest was fun, and Hungarians are great...where else can you hang out at a crazy painter's apartment drinking Jim Beam till the wee hours and being served goulash (which I believe was supposed to be somebody's lunch the next day) at 2:30 in the morning by an exceptionally drunk, middle-aged William Shatner lookalike with a major Grand Canyon obsession? Shat had some pretty complicated porn on his video-playing cell phone but he couldn't figure out how to dial a US number. I wish I spoke Hungarian so I could have listened in on the conversation he had with the phone support guy. I wonder if support people get a lot of drunken late night calls. Does it alleviate the boredom?
I have now got a recipe for really good goulash written out in shaky Hungarian...we will see if I ever manage to get it translated.

Also great was the opportunity to hang out with Phil and Benedicte again and check out a serbian gypsy brass band (and kick some major butt at foosball, though I can't take any credit for that. James is a foosball hustler.).

Finally we decided to get out into the country and headed to Eger where we were intercepted at the train station by Margaret (Margit?) a sweet widow who rents out her spare bedroom for the best deal in the country. Eger was all about too much red wine (the home of Bull's Blood) and partying with long haired youngsters who took us under their wing and down into the Eagle club which I think was under a basilica. The recovery phase was aided by Eger's thermal baths which allow you to sit outside in a steamy warm pool and enjoy a water massage.

Then we decided to see Boldogkő castle at Boldogköváralja (this country has many things in common with Iceland - thermally heated pools and unpronouncable place names being among them). For an approximately 160 km journey we had to take 4 different trains and one bus. Then we learned that Boldogköváralja has no accommodations at this time of year and since it was getting dark and the last train was in an hour, we had to forego seeing the castle up close and personal and start walking to the nearest train station (2 km away). The train 'station' was in the middle of nowhere, guarded by two possibly feral dogs, but we eventually found it and the train eventually came. James gamely tried to interact with the giggling teenagers sitting behind us and at one point a woman came over with her cell phone and stuck it in his face...she didn't speak english but her friend on the phone did and they wanted to make sure we were going to make it to our destination intact. They were very kind and very concerned and she must have brought the phone back to us two or three times so her friend could provide more information.
On the next train (the 6th? 7th? of the day? it's so hard to keep track...) we met a Canadian and a Brazilian girl who were in Hungary on a Rotary Exchange for their last year of high school, which brightened the last leg of a very long day considerably as they gave us their pins and cards and helped us get off at the right station and bonded with J over mutual exchange experiences.
In Sarospatak we ate delicious italian food and also delicious hungarian food (an enormous soup and plate of chicken and potatoes and some mysterious but tasty green sauce for $3!).

Next on the agenda was Tokaj, wine country, where we landed after dark and were taken around town by Sylvester and Istvan, a couple of 14 year old men-about-town who helped us find a hotel and entertained us with very broken english. We still can't figure out why Sylvester started to undo his pants at one point, but a firm "stop" and a stern look put a stop to that weirdness right away. Then they looked embarrassed like we had misinterpreted something and said "Sylvester, stupid boy!".

If you ever go to Tokaj, do yourself a favour and go do a wine tasting. I don't even like white wine but Tokaj is something special, especially the sweet 6 Puttonyo Aszu.

A little buzzed, we hopped on the next train or two for Debrecen which is Hungary's second largest city but frankly not all that exciting. Perhaps something to do with it being the middle of the week in low season. Still, the Hungarians proved themselves once again as what started as a quiet drink in a little bar turned into an extravaganza of fun and weirdness courtesy of Joe who blew enormous smoke rings and pretended to be in love with me. Bonus: I can sort of blow smoke rings now.
Debrecen also has thermal baths, some of which are dark brown and small of coal tar - highly theraputic I am certain. The best was the hot and cold dipping pools, where you can slip from 20 degree water into 40 degree water...stingy!

And finally, on to Pecs (pronounced Paich), where I am now...Pecs was once again all about smelly thermal baths (in Harkany, near the Croatian border) and italian food. We didn't have time to go out to the thermal lake in Heviz before James had to go home (stupid work!;) but I am going to hang out here for a couple more days and then check it out on my own.