SERVAS AND THE CELLAR
So we left Budapest with anticipation for our first stay with a family through the Servas program. We arrived in Eger, Hungary, heart of a famous wine growing region and a city of beautiful baroque architecture. We took the #11 bus from the Train Station to the very North end of the city, to a neighborhood called Felnemet and got off at the stop that we had written down for the bus driver. We have found that our pronunciation of Hungarian can cause a completely wrong interpretation of our intents, despite nods of acknowledgement from both parties. To our surprise, the families two daughters, Flora and Bogy (short for Bogylarka) met us on their bikes at the bus stop and led us to their house at the end of the road, right next to the hills.
Their parents, Attila and Alice are about our ages, so it was really interesting to talk to them and see how one somewhat typical family in Hungary lives from day to day. Bogy showed us around the city and Attila took us to his family wine cellar up the street.
It’s a wine cave built by HAND deep into the hillside about 70 years ago. The cave has no electricity so we carried a basket with candles and wine glasses deep into the darkness. For a moment, I thought I was back at my job inspecting tunnels again and couldn’t help but notice the good condition of most of the caves walls. As we walked down the cave, there are different little family cellars off to the left and right, probably totalling about 12 in all.
Attila’s cave had about 7 barrels of white wine, some from last year, and some fresh from this year that were in the process of fermenting. We lit candles all around the cellar and door (another good test to see if their is enough oxygen in the cave as the candles won’t stay lit if there is not; an old miner’s trick) There was plenty of oxygen and plenty of delicious semi-dry white wine that Attila siphoned out of a barrel with a 3-foot long glass pipette (with his mouth no less).
We talked about the history of the cave, and Attila’s family over two or three glasses of wine and until the candles started to dim a bit. Cheryl and I looked at each other in disbelief, as we couldn’t believe how amazing this experience was, and completely kind and generous the family was to us, and we had only been with them for about 5 hours!
So they invited us to stay an extra day, which we gladly accepted, as we really enjoyed talking with them all, and this gave us another day to go hiking in the beautiful Bukk (pronounced Beeu-ook) hills just to the North of Eger.
The crisp fall air and trees turning shades of yellow, red, and orange made our 20 km hike from Belapatfalva to Szilvasvarad in Bukk National Park a refreshing break from the many days on the dry coast of Croatia and the somewhat gritty streets of Budapest. It brought me back to my childhood days in New England, as I always loved October and the fall weather. And I still do.
The girls are both talented dancers and even gave us a performance on the first night, as well as sharing many of the family photos of vacations. Attila and Alice both speak English well, although they are hopeful that both girls will become fluent in it as it is by far the default second language for all in Eastern Europe. German (and Russian often) is still spoken by those over 40, but that seems to be the clear dividing line. We talked about our families and even a little politics on the last day, which was fascinating, since Hungary is still going through some transitional pains as a relatively new democracy. And so is the US.
We also spent a day sightseeing in Eger and enjoyed the somewhat balmy fall weather with highs of about 70 degrees, but crisp mornings and evenings; however, we noticed the weather is expected to really get cold next week with highs only around 50 and lows below freezing. I think we will be investing in some sweaters and gloves from the street vendors before the weekend is over as we have only brought a minimal amount of layers, since most of our travels will be in rather temperate climates. It apparently can be quite cold in Northern India as well in November, so any clothes may come in handy for the next leg of our journey, which is only a month away!
All in all, our first Servas experience was truly unforgettable and we really now hope to find a family in Poland to stay with in a week or so. We also hope to return the favor and be hosts in San Francisco when we return and settle down again someday. Someday.
Tags: Eastern Europe, Hungary, Travel, Tag Index
rich.coffin
October 13th, 2006 at 6:59 am
I’m so glad your first experience with Servas went so well. If anyone has the ability to be comfortable with strangers, it’s you and Cheryl. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. – Michelle
p.s. Fall in New England this year is beautiful.