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Cheap Cheap Wine and Physics in Action
6th July - Kecskemet -> Eger
 Arriving early at the bus station, I found that I had to buy my ticket to Eger on the bus itself instead of at the little desk, as normally happens. An hour or so later, I worked out why. The bus wasn't the normal long distance bus, but a sort of local bus that happened to go a long way. i.e. it called at a million different stops as it wound its way up Hungary to the town of Eger.
A few hours later, and with numerous changes of passenger loads we pulled up to Eger bus station, dominated by the nearby Cathedral, in the scorching midday heat.
As in Kecskemet, the best places for a budget traveller to stay in are the college dorms. However, after finding the place, a short walk from the station, and with an array of miming techniques (no English spoken here) it turned out that the place was fully booked. Uh oh...this was the only budget place in town. I managed to explain that I wanted some alternative places, and she made some marks on a map which I set off to investigate.
A short walk up the hill took me into the centre of the old town, a picturesque collection of winding streets leading up to the old castle at the top of the hill. I found a place with a picture of a bed on it, and the words "Zimmer Frei"...the German words for "Rooms available".
However, after the receptionist inside, a young woman with dark hair and limited English, told me the price, it wasn't really in my range. They were the equivalent of £25...and my limit was about £10.
Luckily, she informed me that there was another place just round the corner that should be cheaper. The "Tourist Motel" (that's its name, not just its description) was indeed cheaper and at £9 was in my budget.
The "Motel" was good enough, I had a single room, with no bathroom, which was spacious, and the wooden fittings made it feel quite homely. The location was also pretty good, near to the castle and pedestrianesed streets, but a little far from the bus station.
 The town of Eger is really nice and a great place to spend a night or two. The huddled streets grow up the hill like a meandering river delta, linking the main town square with the castle and old citadel at the top. There are a myriad of sights to check out, including half a dozen impressive buildings, such as the Basilica, the Cathedral and the Castle.
However, them main attraction of Eger is a 20 minute walk out of town. Eger is famous for having many of the cellars which stock and sell much of the famous Hungarian wine to Budapest and the surrounding area. The cellars are all grouped together in a small valley, the name of which translates to "Valley of the Beautiful Women". This has nothing to do with the place being the source of Hungary's most aesthetically pleasing women, but more to do with the quantities of wine sold in the valley. In this valley, if you drink enough wine, every woman becomes beautiful!
The walk out to the valley was very scenic and as it was midweek, I had the route pretty much to myself. While in the valley, I picked a cellar at random and asked to taste one of the famous red wines. It was actually really good and I did the standard thing of asking them to fill my empty plastic bottle. At only 300 forint (about 75p) per litre, the wine was ridiculously cheap. In fact, if I hadn't have been visiting the valley on my own, it would have been a great place to get merry (getting drunk on my own would've been a little bit sad...).
I spent most of the day exploring the back streets of town and enjoying the ambiance of the quiet ville. It's easy to see why this place is packed at the weekends!
 As you need to pay to visit each of the buildings in town, I chose to limit myself to the old Basilica for three reasons, firstly because I've seen more impressive castles and cathedrals in other towns, secondly because the top of the Basilica affords great views across the town, and thirdly because there was an astronomy museum inside! Yes, yes...it's a bit geeky, but I've just finished a Physics degree...it would be wrong not to check it out!
Strangely, the standard entry price was 600 forint and the student entry price was...600 forint. The old woman at the desk couldn't speak English and in the end I guessed they had this sign to make it clear that they no longer offered student discounts.
The museum, or should I stay "small random collection" was on the 6th floor. So after climbing the many wide, stone steps I had a peak around. The collection was ok, mildly interesting but very small and basic. There was also another room, that was mildly amusing, it was a collection of some equipment allowing people to try out some basic physics experiments, a bit like A-Level Physics!
But the best thing by far, and the thing that made it worthwhile, was the "Camera Obscura", an ancient periscope-type apparatus in the roof of the building which uses some lenses and mirrors to create a moving, real-time image of the town on a large white table under the equipment. This fairly simple, but very entertaining device, was used by the old bishop to watch the townspeople inconspicuously, back in the old days.
Eger is another relaxing town, which is meant for strolling, relaxing and drinking beer/coffee while watching the world go by, so that's exactly what I did for the rest of the day!
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