Lillafüred and Tokaj

Well, life has been pretty busy in Máriapócs lately. With Gaye and Derek being here, Daniel and I have been trying to be good hosts by taking them out to see a variety of Hungary's tourist locations. Last Thursday it was my turn to play tour guide and I decided to take Gaye and Derek to a few spots around Miskolc.

Our first destination was the picturesque mountain village of Lillafüred which is about 12 kilometres out of town. Our original plan was to catch a small train from the base of the mountain through the forest to the village, but things became unstuck when our GPS unit was unable to locate the train station. After spending some time searching the backstreets of Miskolc in vain, we eventually gave up and decided to drive instead.

We slowly zigzagged our way up the mountain and then suddenly we turned a corner in the road and were greeted with an absolutely beautiful sight - the majestic Palace Hotel building overlooking the tranquil green waters of Lake Hámori. We quickly parked the car and spent some time wandering around taking in the view and enjoying the lovely Summer sunshine.

After enjoying a quiet lunch at a local restaurant - interrupted only by a loud splash caused by an elderly man accidentally falling into the lake - we all piled back into the car and made our way back into Miskolc. Our destination was the awesome cave bath complex (check out Gaye and Derek's blog for some cool pictures). It's one of my favourite places in Hungary.

Yet more adventuring followed on Saturday when we all set off for the famous Tokaj wine region. Both Gaye and Derek are major wine buffs so I knew that they were really looking forward to seeing Tokaj and, more importantly, to tasting some of the white wines that the town is known for. It's really a bit sad that Daniel and I hadn't been to to Tokaj before Saturday because it's actually quite close to Máriapócs, perhaps just over an hour's drive from our house.

Tokaj is a really pretty little town, nestled at the bottom of a small mountain (or more like a hill?) and situated alongside a river. When we arrived we wandered leisurely down the town's main street, chose a place for lunch and managed to score some directions from the waitress to a nearby borospince (wine cellar). While Daniel and I weren't able to drink because we were driving, Gaye and Derek both sampled several different wine varieties and chatted enthusiastically with the cellar's owner about the local grape varieties. They were obviously suitably impressed as we walked out fifteen minutes later with about half a dozen bottles of local wine between us!

From there we continued to explore the town for awhile, then just as we started to make our way back to the car we encountered a rather lively character who invited us all to check out his own wine cellar. It turned out to be a massive 200 year old tunnel network that had been carved into the side of the mountain (hill?). I was pretty horrified by it at first as it seemed pretty grungy, but Gaye and Derek assured me that all of the cobwebs and mouldiness was necessary to make the best wine. Hmmm.

Anyway, they seemed to like the samples that were provided as we walked away with several more bottles of white wine for the ever-growing collection. Looks like we're in for boozy week!

- Amanda