Adventures Outside Budapest -- Eger & Tokaj

After six nights in Budapest, we rented a car and headed into the Hungarian countryside to explore two of Hungary's wine regions. Before driving to our first destination, we stopped outside Budapest at Memento Park, a site dedicated to monuments from Hungary's Communist period. The first thing we saw was a vintage Trabant, a car made by East Germany from 1957-1991. Performance was clearly not the goal, as the car is listed as going from 0 to 100 km/h (about 62 mph) in 21 seconds.

The monuments mostly were dedicated to workers or soldiers. Of course, Lenin had a strong presence too. As you can see below, they are generally of very large stature.

The park also contains an interesting exhibit about the events leading up to the 1989 fall of Communism, which definitely helped add to our understanding of the country's history. It's terrific that Hungary had the foresight to preserve these items and use them in an educational manner. There were cheeky references to the failures of the Soviet system.

We headed to the city of Eger, which also gives its name to one of Hungary's 22 wine districts. Eger turned out to be a really great little city with a significant part in Hungarian history. First, it has a lovely Basilica, which was very close to the apartment we rented. It was free to enter, in contrast the the large churches in Budapest.

Second, the city has a nice central plaza with an old statue of Istvan Dobo, the most important person in Eger's history (more on him below), along with a lovely city hall, and a modern fountain that we suspect is very popular in the hot Hungarian summers.

Finally, the castle is renowned. During the wars between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, Eger was near the border between the two and was the site of several important battles. In 1552, an attack by the Turkish armies on Eger Castle was successfully defeated by Captain Istvan Dobo and a small number of soldiers under his command. This successful battle became a central moment in Hungarian history in part through a novel written about it in the late 1800's (and movie of the novel released in 1968): Eclipse of the Crescent Moon, which remains one of the best-known novels in Hungary. This battle did mostly destroy the castle, which was then rebuilt in its current form. The battle also created the mythical name for one of Eger's best known red wine's: bull's blood.

Unfortunately, Dobo's 1552 victory was short lived. The Turks returned in 1596 and took the rebuilt castle, which initiated a period of 91 years of Ottoman rule. As in the rest of Hungary, very little remains from this period, but the minaret from one of the city's mosques survived.

Near Eger, we did two excellent tastings at St. Andrea Winery and Bolyki Winery & Vineyards, which were very different, but demonstrated to us that the region makes very good wines at many price points. We learned that during the Communist period, Hungary made a lot of low-quality wine to serve the Communist "market" for all of the Soviet-bloc countries. Since 1989, the industry has been privatized and many small vineyards are making wines of much higher quality, but because of the limited production, they are not easily avaiable outside of Hungary.

After leaving Eger, we drove to the Tokaj (pronounced "To-kai") region, which is probably the most famous wine region in Hungary. The initial mention of this region was in a document from 1413, and Louis XIV described their sweet Aszu wines as "the wine of Kings, the king of wines."

On our first night in the Tokaj area we had a lovely dinner at the elegant Sauska winery, which provided great views of the surrounding countryside.

The next day, we did a tasting at Disznoko, which was recommended by Tomas, the sommelier at dinner our first night in Budapest. The vineyards are beautiful, and we had a great day to walk in them.

The winery is quite large, and we saw their impressive collection of older bottles. The tasting itself was done in a natural wine cellar, and, although we generally prefer dry wines, we were very impressed with the famous sweet wines of the region.

We did not stay in the small city of Tokaj, but took some time to visit. Clearly wine tourism is a central part of the draw of the town.

On our drive back to the city of Sarospatak where we stayed, we stopped at a series of wine cellars that were built into a hill near Tokaj hundreds of years ago. Many of them have been owned by families for generations, while some are owned by wineries. We entered one of the latter and try a bit of wine with an employee who was from Michigan (of course). That cellar was quite impressive, including a beautiful stained-glass window.

Finally, the town of  Sarospatak also had a castle, but it was much less impressive than the one in Eger (and less historically important). Essentially we did very little in town other than take a walk around the castle grounds as almost everything was closed on Palm Sunday.  

Shana couldn't resist getting a photo at each sign, which certainly ensure you remember where you were.

And that concludes our visit to Hungary. We returned to Budapest and dropped the car before catching a train to Vienna from where we flew back to Bilbao. However, we did not immediately return home as we planned to meet friends in the Rioja region for more wine (and food).

More about that soon.

Jeff and Shana

Budapest: A Most Scenic Melting Pot of a City

We spent five days in Budapest and easily could have spent more time soaking up the history and the atmosphere. While Hungarians are distinct ethnically and linguistically (and in many other ways to be sure), this area of Europe is a true melting pot of cultures. In fact, Hungary recognizes 13 different minorities and ensures they have representation in Parliament.

Overall, we found Hungary to be a more expensive tourist experience than most European cities. Entry fees are notably higher than in other places. We judge everything based on the ticket price for the Louvre, arguably one of the best museums in the world. The fee was around 15 or 16€ back in 2018; it is now 22€. While it is subsidized heavily by the French government, we figure it is not a bad standard to evaluate the value you get for your tourist dollar. Imagine our shock to learn that it costs over $30 to visit the Hungarian Parliament (for 45 minutes) and $35 to visit the Dohany (Great) Synagogue. We don’t recall seeing such high fees in other places, although inflation is making its impact everywhere. (I just checked, and the Prado is up to 30€.) It is interesting that Paris’s sights are cheaper.

We took an evening cruise on the Danube. Our ride started before “sunset,” and it was fabulous to see the contrast as the lights came on. Here is the progression:

It was a very cold night, but it was worth it to go to the top of the boat to take the nighttime photos.

Parliament is the most iconic building in the city, and we saw it from many angles. Despite the cost, we were glad we did the tour, which was well-organized and highly informative. The interior is elegant and beautifully decorated. The grand entry hall is only used for the opening of each parliamentary session and special events. The meeting room is decorated with many historical symbols.

Previously Hungary had a bicameral legislature but post-WWII, it became unicameral. The two chambers built for the earlier legislature are identical, and one is shown on the tour while the other is used by the current legislature.

Just down the river from Parliament is the Shoes on the Danube monument memorializing the Jews who were killed by the Hungarian Arrow Cross militiamen between 1944 and 1945. The victims were shot at point blank range after removing their belongings, including their shoes, which the soldiers could then profit from. It is a moving display.

We explored both the Buda and Pest sides of the city, which were historically separate cities on either side of the Danube, and enjoyed the different neighborhoods. We had plans to visit the Fine Arts Museum, but found it unexpectedly closed for the morning due to some special circumstance. Rolling with the punches, we took an architectural stroll of the adjacent City Park’s many museum buildings, starting at Heroes’ Square, created in 1896 to mark the 1000-year anniversary of the country. It features statues of the leaders of the Magyar tribes who founded Hungary, along with famous kings and historical figures.

Nearby sits Vajdahunyad Castle, modeled on the original castle located in Transylvania, which was once part of the Hungarian Crown. There is quite a history between Hungary and Romania involving the region. Perhaps we’ll learn more when we get there on a future trip.

We then made our way to the House of Music Hungary, which is a stunning building. The architectural design even allows the trees to grow right through the roof.

Finally, the park includes the Museum of Ethnography, which is also an architectural gem. It rises out of the park like a two-sided wave (only one side seen in the first photo) and has a “green” roof garden, which we climbed.

From these terrific Pest sights, we took the metro and a tram over to the Buda side, where we had a lunch reservation. We explored the Castle Hill neighborhood, including the famed Fisherman’s Bastion, a 19th century fortress, and the13th century Matthias Church (Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle).

Hungary is predominantly Catholic, a legacy left by the first king Saint Steven who spread the religion in the late 10th/early 11th centuries by establishing a church in every 10th village. But other religions played a role as well. We did a tour of the former Jewish Quarter in Pest, where there are several synagogues. The Dohany Street Synagogue, finished in 1859, sat next to the house where Theodore Herzl was born the next year. The back of the building includes a Holocaust memorial built with the support of actor Tony Curtis, the son of a Hungarian Jew.

The Rumbach Street Synagogue was finished in 1873 and was renovated and reopened in 2021. Both synagogues became a part of the Pest Ghetto during WWII. On the Buda side we visited the Tomb of Gul Baba, a 16th century Ottoman ruler. Although this site is a national monument, it was almost empty. We noticed that Hungry's Ottoman period gets short shrift in the country's history, but note that both synagogues (photos above and below) have obvious Moorish architectural influences.

Budapest is a historical, ethnic, and religious melting pot with a rich and complex story to tell. Our exploration was educational and entertaining. From Budapest we headed east to visit two of Hungary’s many wine regions, which was a whole different type of education.

More to come soon,

Shana & Jeff