Back to work...sort of

The harvest has been winding down, so it is not very busy at Fuleky. Lisa took a trip to Prague, then to Austria to visit her family. Gyuri also went to Austria, so the guys at the winery said it was a holiday for us. We were free of the boss.

For the weekend, my coworker Bertie invited to his house for lunch. I ended up staying for eight hours. His family was very kind to me continually telling me to eat something. We shared photos and talked about our respective countries. He was frustrated because most people in Hungary are poor. The wages are definitely way too low, but they still had a decent (but small) house, car, laptop, and photo equipment (his hobby is photographing birds). Their house cost $10,000 but Bertie fixed all the electricity, water, heating, and painted it. They have enough, but nothing more. They certainly don't have as much as in the US, but they still have a first-world standard of living. Bertie's friend was there as well and he spoke good English, but without him we used Google Translate quite a bit. I'd hate to think what I'd do without it! Use a book?!

I walked around the town of Tokaj, but it was quiet because of a holiday. They celebrate November 1st as the Day of the Dead. They take candles and flowers to the cemetery in remembrance. However that meant that all the stores were closed and I couldn't buy groceries. The hours here are inconvenient without Safeway and 7-11.

At work, the guys let me try Eszencia, which is the sweetest type of wine in Tokaj. It is only free run juice from the botrytised berries, creating incredibly concentrated flavor with only 2-3% alcohol. It was intense. They sometimes add it to tanks of aszu to raise the sugar level.

On Friday, I went to the parent winery called Dereszla. Roland gave me a tour. His English was great because he's been to Australia, New Zealand, and California. We tasted out of some barrels and the winemaker, Edit, said I could work there starting some time next week. They dug a lot of caves into the hillside, which made it seem big, but it is still a relatively small winery (350 tons). At least I'll be able to say I worked at five different wineries in one year.