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Hi, everybody!
Wow, it's been a full weekend. On Friday, as I told you, Forrest, Mai
Anh, and I went to a flea market. As it turned out, it didn't really
fit my conception of a flea market, because most of the things for sale
were new. Also, almost all of the stalls in the market were selling
clothing, so it didn't have the eclectic, "you could find ANYTHING
here!" feel that I expected. Nevertheless, it was fun to stroll
around
and check out bargains. Forrest was tempted by a dark purple, faux-
velvet hat that only cost 250 forints (a little over a dollar), but in
the end, none of us bought anything.
The market was large, and the stalls closely packed together; in some
places, there was only enough room to walk single-file down the aisle
between the stalls. This gave the market a claustrophobic feel, and
made for interesting manouvering when vendors pushing dollies piled
with large boxes met us going the opposite direction. At one point
while we were there, some Asian teenage boys started shouting and
running down the aisle. (Most of the stalls were run by Chinese
Hungarians or Vietnamese Hungarians.) At first, I thought they were
just horsing around, but then other people started shouting and
hurriedly packing up their stalls. About half the vendors in that
aisle of the market closed the metal doors to their stalls; the other
half of the vendors looked completely unperturbed. Maybe the police
were coming, and some of the vendors didn't have licenses for their
stalls?
On Saturday, Forrest, Mai Anh, Pei Zhuan, Melody, and I got up early
and met at Keleti Palyaudvar (train station) at 8:00 am. Mai Anh had
found a brochure about a wine festival in Tokaj, which looked really
entertaining. The English part of the brochure said that an
inter-city
train (one of the faster trains) left Keleti at 8:30 for Tokaj, so we
were planning to go. However, when we got to the ticket window, the
woman selling tickets informed us that no such train existed! There
was an inter-city train to Miskolc at 9:00, and from Miskolc we could
catch another train to Tokaj...but this was not what the brochure had
advertised, and it wasn't what we had our hearts set on. Between the
additional half-hour of waiting, and having to change trains, we
wouldn't get to Tokaj until after noon. Since we wanted to have time
to explore and get back to Budapest in time to get some homework done,
this wasn't a good option.
We consulted with the woman in the information booth at the train
station, and decided to go to Eger, instead. (The information booth
had a sign saying, "It's only Hungarian train information."
I think
this meant that you couldn't get information about international trains
there, but the sign seemed amusing and reassuring--"Don't be afraid,
it's only Hungarian train information!") Eger was nice! It
was a
drizzly, fall-looking day, so it was the perfect time to walk through
the Bishop's Park in Eger and admire the colorful leaves. We had
lunch
at a restaurant with spectacularly slow service, and my meal was not at
all what I was expecting (serves me right for paying attention to the
English translation of the menu), but I did try a glass of Egri
Bikaver, Eger's famous "Bull's Blood" red wine. According
to legend,
this wine helped Eger troops defend their castle against the Turks in
the late 1500s (it was the first time a Hungarian city was successful
in its defense against the Turks, even though the castle fell in a
second attack some years later), so Turkish soldiers said that the Eger
soldiers were gaining strength by drinking bull's blood. The glass I
tried was strong and rich, living up to its legend.
After lunch we visited the castle. It's on a hill, so we got a good
view of the rest of the town. We visited the castle museum, which
describes the castle's history, particularly the Turkish siege, and we
visited the Dungeon Museum, a small museum with pictures and replicas
of old punishment devices. We also played on the wooden
rocking-horses
in what was apparently the castle playground.
After visiting the castle, we went back to the train station. On the
train home, we picnicked on bread, cheese, apples, and peanuts, and we
did some homework, although as always, we didn't get as much done as we
had hoped. After the excursion to Eger, good old Keleti Palyaudvar
(which we walk through every day on our way from the metro to school)
felt like home.
I hope your weekend was interesting and productive, too. I'll write
again soon!
Sziasztok,
Abra
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