The end

One day, I went to a spa where people could swim, but I chose to relax in the hot tub and saunas. During the week, I visited a different winery where Roland and I tasted the wines in tank with the winemaker. The winemaker there lived in Calistoga for two years and we talked about different wineries and breweries that he remembers.

At Fuleky, we pressed the small amount of aszu that they picked this year. It only made half a barrel of wine and it won't be the highest quality, but at least I got to see what happens. On my last day of work, my boss gave me five bottles of great wine to take home with me. I would have liked to be paid in money, but wine is good too. I left behind some clothes because the wine was more valuable. I even declared it on the customs form for $300, but no one asked me any questions.

For my last few days I visited the town of Eger, which has a historical area with old buidlings built in the Baroque style. The inside of the basilica was quite impressive. There was a castle to walk through and the northernmost minaret from the Ottoman empire.

I spent my last night in Budapest drinking wine with a couple of Australian guys because I had too many bottles to fit in my bag. I think it was appropriate that I was drinking wine the night that I had a phone interview for a harvest job in New Zealand.

I only slept one hour before I had to catch the 4am train to the airport. The first flight went to Frankfurt, then on to Las Vegas. I enjoyed watching the landscapes pass by beneath the plane. Norway was covered in snow and had a lot of lakes. Greenland was amazing. There were icebergs, snow-covered mountains, dramatic valleys, and one building with lights on for some poor researcher in the middle of nowhere. While lining up with the runway in Vegas we passed over Hoover Dam and saw the snow on the mountains around the city. The airline, Condor, got bad reviews online, but I was quite happy with them. There were no personal video screens in the plane, but it was also very inexpensive.

In Vegas, the hostel I stayed at was not as nice as the ones in Europe, but the staff took us out to the Stratosphere and we wandered around Ceasar's Palace for a while. I even met a Hungarian guy and we both know the same person in Tokaj. Although, I will give the hostel a good review for the free pancakes in the morning. It was exactly what I needed.

At the airport I had to take 4 pounds out of my bag, but the flight to Santa Rosa went well and now I am happily back at home. At this point I feel like I should have some sort of conclusion with what I learned on my trip...

While there are cultural, social, economic, and other differences most people just want to live a happy life with food, shelter, family and fun. The places I can recommend going to are New Zealand, Fiji, Turkey, and of course Europe. I want go to Egypt again only to dive in the Red Sea. I would not go back to South Africa because I didn't like the people. I feel like I saw Hong Kong in a few days and there's not much more to do there. Hungary got a bit dull after a while, but I would go back to see all the nice people.

Whoever is reading this: I hope you enjoyed it, but I'll be glad to be finished because writing this blog was like doing homework!