On my last day in Budapest the tickets for tours of Parliament were sold out, so I went to a Belgian beer bar instead. Beer or government, which one is more fun? I also walked around Margaret Island, which is a big park. I tried an interesting pastry called Flodni. It is supposed to be a traditional Jewish food, and since I stayed in the old Jewish neighborhood it was easy to find.
In the morning, Alain's friend Peter (also a winemaker) showed up at 5:50am to take me to his winery in Szeksard (about an hour from the winery I work at in Villany). He was a lot of fun to talk to. He told me about growing up in Hungary. There were Russian soldiers on the streets to enforce communism, and later he saw rockets flying through the air across the border in Croatia. He also had a good impression of Tito in Yugoslavia because his people were free, unlike the Hungarians. When Hungary joined the EU it didn't change much inside the country, but Hungarians could go work elsewhere in Europe easily. Peter drives to Budapest once or twice a week to sell his wine.
The winery has caves lined with bricks, but Peter doesn't like it because there was a lot of Brettanomyces and other bacteria in there. The lab is nice and clean though and they have a great machine that does all the analysis with one small sample. From the winery Alain's wife Aniko drove me to Pecs to go to the immigration office which went well, but we have to go back one more time. I even had my fingerprints taken.
I got back in time for a big, meaty Hungarian lunch and worked in the afternoon helping on the bottling line. Everything in the winery is new since it is still being built, so I have to be extra careful not to break or scratch anything. I also learned there will be another intern here in September. He's Japanese, studying wine at Montpelier University in France, and is currently working in Tunisia. It sounded strange to me too.
Alain took me to a pension (similar to a B&B) where I'll live for two weeks. The hostess doesn't speak any English, but she does my laundry and makes me food, so I'm happy. Breakfast of bread, cheese, and meat is provided.
Two days this week the electricity was cut off at the winery, so I studied some Hungarian, visited the town of Mohacs where I tried the local brew, and also to Pecs where I walked around taking photos of the cool old buildings. I tried a local pastry that Alain said was made from the same plant as cocaine, but I didn't feel anything special. On Wednesday we bottled and Alain brought me clothes, shoes, boots, and a cell phone.
Yesterday I used a power drill putting 64 screws into each wooden bin at the winery, but I still didn't finish. My body hurt by the end of the day from the crouching and bending. I guess I'm not in great shape after three months of holidays. Go figure! After work Alain, his business partner, and a full-time cellar hand, and I went for happy hour at their favorite restaurant. They know the owner so they didn't even pay for the bread, cheese, or wine when we walked out. They even talked them into giving me a free dinner, which was delicious duck. They also had bread baked with tomato and a smokey Hungarian cheese. While we were sitting outside, we noticed the rain was coming and we saw the wind come right down the street toward us blowing dust and grass everywhere, so we went inside. It was a strange weather experience for me. Later I went to a winery/bar for a glass of wine and the guy didn't even charge me for it. Maybe it's a locals' discount?
Alain brought me a bike, apricots, and two bottles of wine, and took me to the winery to help him with a couple things. He told me to remind him to send an email to his contact in West Australia for a job next harvest. He's been very generous. I read my book and walked around town with the rest of the tourists because today is a National Holiday celebrating one of their revolutions. There are people dressed up and there will be live music. What else is great is I can walk down the street drinking a beer. My night is planned.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Two more cities before I start work
I arrived in Vienna Monday afternoon. The train station was big a bit confusing and the banks closed at 3pm, so I couldn't exchange any money. I wasn't pleased. I had a delicious Pale Double Bock beer from the supermarket across the street and picked up the book "Lost Horizon" which was an interesting tale about three Westerners getting stranded in Tibet and being able to choose between going back to society or having all the time they could want with no modern distractions.
I went to Schonbrunn Palace, but I just walked around outside because I couldn't handle the crowded line of tourists and it was expensive. The grounds outside were very beautiful. A lunch of pork schnitzel and local beer calmed me down. I didn't enjoy walking through modern Vienna with its bright lights, ads, and expensive shops covering the old-style buildings.
The Hofburg Palace was very nice, less crowded, and affordable. I saw a lot of royal silverware, gold plates, and centerpieces, and I learned quite a bit about Franz Joseph's wife Elizabeth. Walking around the center kept me busy looking at all of the cool buildings. Stephansdom Cathedral was very ornate and impressive, even though I'd been seeing a lot of Jesus lately.
The next day I went to see a strangely designed public housing building. The architect believed that God hated straight lines. It was blue and had all sorts of rounded shapes for pillars and balconies. I wouldn't want to live there though just because of all the tourists taking pictures. I visited the Military History Museum which included items from as far back as the 30 Years' War. The highlight was undoubtedly the car in which Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated along with his shirt that still had blood stains on it. A bit macabre, but it made the history seem more real than just reading it in a book.
I ate lunch overlooking the Danube and saw the famous ferris wheel, but then it started to rain, so I went inside for a nice black and tan beer at a local brewpub. The touristy brewpub wasn't very good. Taking the subway was a breeze and nobody ever checked my ticket.
My train travelled through the countryside to Pecs, Hungary (sound like Paitch), but I had to use Skype to text the winemaker, Alain, to pick me up because he misunderstood my arrival time. But everything went well after that. On the ride to Villany (sounds like Vill-ahn-yuh) he said he has a contact in West Australia for a possible harvest job there and he would give me the keys to his apartment in Budapest for the weekend! The accomodation for the night was a nice pension (hotel-ish). Most of the countryside I saw was flat with lots of crops, mostly corn, but the hills near Villany had some nice forest on them and everything was green. I had stuffed cabbage for dinner, which is Ottoman-inspired like much of the food here.
Alain and his colleague Nordy looked at vans to buy for the winery and dropped me off at Alain's apartment in the center of Budapest. The neighborhood was used as the Jewish Ghetto during WWII. I found an English-Hungarian dictionary and went to a large park which has Heroes Square. I went to Kaiser's Supermarket (I love the name) for food and enjoyed looking at all the old buildings.
Today I walked across the Danube to a WWII bunker inside Gellert Hill. It had good photos of Budapest in the 1940s, and told about the Jewish part of the city as well as the battles fought. Then I went to the castle, saw the cathedral, walked around the parliament building, and took the second oldest subway back home. There are lots of statues, fountains, and buildings to photograph while walking around. The architecture is amazing, especially Parliament. All in all, a good day of sightseeing. And here I am in Alain's very nice, modern apartment sipping a Pilsner Urquell. It's too bad I have to start work in a few days.
I went to Schonbrunn Palace, but I just walked around outside because I couldn't handle the crowded line of tourists and it was expensive. The grounds outside were very beautiful. A lunch of pork schnitzel and local beer calmed me down. I didn't enjoy walking through modern Vienna with its bright lights, ads, and expensive shops covering the old-style buildings.
The Hofburg Palace was very nice, less crowded, and affordable. I saw a lot of royal silverware, gold plates, and centerpieces, and I learned quite a bit about Franz Joseph's wife Elizabeth. Walking around the center kept me busy looking at all of the cool buildings. Stephansdom Cathedral was very ornate and impressive, even though I'd been seeing a lot of Jesus lately.
The next day I went to see a strangely designed public housing building. The architect believed that God hated straight lines. It was blue and had all sorts of rounded shapes for pillars and balconies. I wouldn't want to live there though just because of all the tourists taking pictures. I visited the Military History Museum which included items from as far back as the 30 Years' War. The highlight was undoubtedly the car in which Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated along with his shirt that still had blood stains on it. A bit macabre, but it made the history seem more real than just reading it in a book.
I ate lunch overlooking the Danube and saw the famous ferris wheel, but then it started to rain, so I went inside for a nice black and tan beer at a local brewpub. The touristy brewpub wasn't very good. Taking the subway was a breeze and nobody ever checked my ticket.
My train travelled through the countryside to Pecs, Hungary (sound like Paitch), but I had to use Skype to text the winemaker, Alain, to pick me up because he misunderstood my arrival time. But everything went well after that. On the ride to Villany (sounds like Vill-ahn-yuh) he said he has a contact in West Australia for a possible harvest job there and he would give me the keys to his apartment in Budapest for the weekend! The accomodation for the night was a nice pension (hotel-ish). Most of the countryside I saw was flat with lots of crops, mostly corn, but the hills near Villany had some nice forest on them and everything was green. I had stuffed cabbage for dinner, which is Ottoman-inspired like much of the food here.
Alain and his colleague Nordy looked at vans to buy for the winery and dropped me off at Alain's apartment in the center of Budapest. The neighborhood was used as the Jewish Ghetto during WWII. I found an English-Hungarian dictionary and went to a large park which has Heroes Square. I went to Kaiser's Supermarket (I love the name) for food and enjoyed looking at all the old buildings.
Today I walked across the Danube to a WWII bunker inside Gellert Hill. It had good photos of Budapest in the 1940s, and told about the Jewish part of the city as well as the battles fought. Then I went to the castle, saw the cathedral, walked around the parliament building, and took the second oldest subway back home. There are lots of statues, fountains, and buildings to photograph while walking around. The architecture is amazing, especially Parliament. All in all, a good day of sightseeing. And here I am in Alain's very nice, modern apartment sipping a Pilsner Urquell. It's too bad I have to start work in a few days.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
One week, three countries
Neda and Sasha took me to see a secret WWII hospital in the mountains near the border with Italy. It was intentionally built to be very difficult to reach, which is why it was never discovered by the Germans or Italians. The cabins of the original hospital were washed away in a flood in 2007, but they were all rebuilt. There were different cabins for the living quarters, surgery room, quarantine, etc. There were posters of Tito and Stalin, and a letter from Dwight Eisenhower thanking the staff for helping a wounded American pilot. The hospital treated Yugoslavians, Italians, and a few Poles, Austrians, and two Americans. They had to sneak the supplies in without buying things from the locals, so the Axis couldn't track the movement of goods. There were defensive bunkers all up the valley, and the area was attacked twice and defended successfully both times. I really enjoyed the trip.
For lunch we stopped at a Serbian restaurant that had all sorts of meats to choose from. I tried a beef patty cooked in cream, pork loin, and pork/veal sausages, as well as a good salad. When the bill came out, there were three tiny mugs of schnapps on the tray with it.
I left Slovenia heading for Venice. I ended up taking train, bus, taxi, and another train to get there with a five hour gap in between. When waiting for the bus to cross into Italy a driver said he wasn't going to Italy and we should wait ten more minutes, but he was lying, so the retired Australian couple next to me bought me a beer while we waited for a taxi to pick us up. They worked on movies before retiring. She was in casting for Mission Impossible 2 and The Thin Red Line among others and he was a cameraman for Pitch Black and Mad Max as highlights. They said I should look them up if I go back to Australia. Very nice people and they didn't let me pay for the taxi.
When I finally got to Venice, I stayed at a hostel outside of the actual town because it was much cheaper, only ten minutes away by train, and a good hostel. They had a ping pong table and I went to dinner with a few other guests at a nice little pizzeria full of locals. The spaghetti was good and the tiramisu was great. The waiter didn't speak much English but he understood "pasta". When two of us showed up the next evening with groceries and two bottles of wine he looked at us, smiled, and came back with a corkscrew. The wine was less than $10 and good which is the most affordable item I'd seen.
Venice was an incredible city. I'd never seen anything like it and was blown away by all the cool buildings and narrow alleys, great park, and huge cathedrals. I had a great salami sandwich and would definitely go back some day. I could walk around for days. I saw one of the many instances of an old man seeing two younger women walking by and saying, "Bellisima! Mi bella!" I heard one girl say it was flattering even if they say it 15 times a day.
I travelled to Graz, Austria by bus and Fabian, who I met in Fiji, picked me up and took me to his apartment. The mountains in northern Italy were beautiful. I got my own room for the weekend. We had some wine for happy hour then went for pizza and beer nearby before walking around the center of the city. I even tried a girly beer: radler of beer + lemonade, and it was good. The architecture was similar to Ljubljana although Fabian said, "Graz is nothing really special."
We went to a wine region south of town to spend the night, stopping at a small lake for a swim on the way. Most of the wineries were on ridges with great views of the green, forested valleys and steep vineyards. We got a tour of a small cellar and tasted through several white wines. Dinner was a big plate of bread meat and cheese with a few veggies thrown in for appearances, and dessert was delicious cakes. The wines were all good and affordable, $11-16. We enjoyed the wine and views all evening.
In the morning they served breakfast of another plate of good thick bread, meat and cheese. Fabian drove us to Maribor, Slovenia only 15 miles away where we saw the oldest grape-producing vine in the world: 400-years-old. Other than that the town was unspectacular, deserted and a little run down. I did taste a good wine though and got to show off my knowledge of the language after staying there for a week already. Fabian had never stopped in Slovenia, only drove through it. On the way home, we stopped for coffee in a castle and for a swim in another lake. It was a good week.
For lunch we stopped at a Serbian restaurant that had all sorts of meats to choose from. I tried a beef patty cooked in cream, pork loin, and pork/veal sausages, as well as a good salad. When the bill came out, there were three tiny mugs of schnapps on the tray with it.
I left Slovenia heading for Venice. I ended up taking train, bus, taxi, and another train to get there with a five hour gap in between. When waiting for the bus to cross into Italy a driver said he wasn't going to Italy and we should wait ten more minutes, but he was lying, so the retired Australian couple next to me bought me a beer while we waited for a taxi to pick us up. They worked on movies before retiring. She was in casting for Mission Impossible 2 and The Thin Red Line among others and he was a cameraman for Pitch Black and Mad Max as highlights. They said I should look them up if I go back to Australia. Very nice people and they didn't let me pay for the taxi.
When I finally got to Venice, I stayed at a hostel outside of the actual town because it was much cheaper, only ten minutes away by train, and a good hostel. They had a ping pong table and I went to dinner with a few other guests at a nice little pizzeria full of locals. The spaghetti was good and the tiramisu was great. The waiter didn't speak much English but he understood "pasta". When two of us showed up the next evening with groceries and two bottles of wine he looked at us, smiled, and came back with a corkscrew. The wine was less than $10 and good which is the most affordable item I'd seen.
Venice was an incredible city. I'd never seen anything like it and was blown away by all the cool buildings and narrow alleys, great park, and huge cathedrals. I had a great salami sandwich and would definitely go back some day. I could walk around for days. I saw one of the many instances of an old man seeing two younger women walking by and saying, "Bellisima! Mi bella!" I heard one girl say it was flattering even if they say it 15 times a day.
I travelled to Graz, Austria by bus and Fabian, who I met in Fiji, picked me up and took me to his apartment. The mountains in northern Italy were beautiful. I got my own room for the weekend. We had some wine for happy hour then went for pizza and beer nearby before walking around the center of the city. I even tried a girly beer: radler of beer + lemonade, and it was good. The architecture was similar to Ljubljana although Fabian said, "Graz is nothing really special."
We went to a wine region south of town to spend the night, stopping at a small lake for a swim on the way. Most of the wineries were on ridges with great views of the green, forested valleys and steep vineyards. We got a tour of a small cellar and tasted through several white wines. Dinner was a big plate of bread meat and cheese with a few veggies thrown in for appearances, and dessert was delicious cakes. The wines were all good and affordable, $11-16. We enjoyed the wine and views all evening.
In the morning they served breakfast of another plate of good thick bread, meat and cheese. Fabian drove us to Maribor, Slovenia only 15 miles away where we saw the oldest grape-producing vine in the world: 400-years-old. Other than that the town was unspectacular, deserted and a little run down. I did taste a good wine though and got to show off my knowledge of the language after staying there for a week already. Fabian had never stopped in Slovenia, only drove through it. On the way home, we stopped for coffee in a castle and for a swim in another lake. It was a good week.
Monday, August 1, 2011
I took a train to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. To do so the train crossed the border of the EU, so I got several stamps for the day trip. The city was nice with plenty of Baroque architecture to look at and a huge cathedral. The prices were similar to in Slovenia (unfortunately), and there was the same strong cafe culture for all the tourists. Neda told me that there are local prices and tourist prices, especially along the coast. I visited the Zagreb city museum, had a local beer and a good pastry because bread seems to be the local specialty. I saw a lot of backpackers including some sleeping in the train station.
Neda and Sasha made apple strudel so I could have more traditional Slovenian food after my sausage and saurkraut two days before. Then I went to a free concert in the city with their daughter Maya. As she introduced me to some of her friends, most of them immediately switched to fluent English, making me feel a bit slow. The band was good even though I didn't understand any of the words and I tried another local beer.
I saw the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit that is in Ljubljana right now. It was very nice and had a video about his life. I had yet another local beer before I went back and booked two nights in Venice and three nights in Vienna for the following weeks before I go to Hungary.
Neda and Sasha made apple strudel so I could have more traditional Slovenian food after my sausage and saurkraut two days before. Then I went to a free concert in the city with their daughter Maya. As she introduced me to some of her friends, most of them immediately switched to fluent English, making me feel a bit slow. The band was good even though I didn't understand any of the words and I tried another local beer.
I saw the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit that is in Ljubljana right now. It was very nice and had a video about his life. I had yet another local beer before I went back and booked two nights in Venice and three nights in Vienna for the following weeks before I go to Hungary.
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