Eger

Wondering what the day would bring.

Peeking out the window...

To see the lovely main square of Eger.

Give me an old wooden door and a crumbling stone wall any day. 

We knew there was supposedly a place nearby where one could go horseback riding - only five minutes or so by car, so the books said. So, we decided to walk - and our walk took us outside the city limits on country roads with no sidewalks and thick brush on either side. This was when we, the intrepid travelers, stopped for some trail-mix sustenance.

My friend Dan ahead of me, as we reached the summit of the hill that was basically our entire walk out of the city. It was our 'if it's not here, we'll turn back' point on the road.

And this was what we discovered there. To the right on another hill, we could see many, many horses - and we knew we were on the right track.

Kaia even made a friend at the top of the hill.

Dan has worked at vineyards before and taught us a bit about harvesting grapes with the aid of a few that had been left on the vine.

We made it to the riding place just around lunchtime, where there was a fabulous restaurant waiting for us.

Dan and Kaia, with two glasses of wine. The waiter/restaurant owner didn't speak any English, so I was speaking to him in German. I asked for two glasses of wine for the other two and just for some water for me, and he looked at me and simply said, "Why?" To which I had to smile and order a glass also for myself. It was some of the best wine I've ever had. And as you can see, in Hungary, a glass is a proper glass!

Some furry friends that weren't horses, but that I was very, very glad to see.

This one reminded me so very much of my own Abby. It was good for my soul to play with a dog again!

And that was our day in Eger. We made our way back to town, saw the castle, had some dinner, and piled on to a train, sleepy and happy, to come back to Budapest. We did end up riding at this fabulous place surrounded by vineyards. We each got the chance to ride and at first, I thought would be boring - on the website, it had seemed like trail riding would be the thing, but then it ended up being more in a paddock and with the horse on a lead. And, exciting for all of us, it was English style riding, not western. I thought I would be bored, like I said - but when my turn came, it was like a proper (and lovely!) lesson! I only walked and trotted for the whole time, but they taught me a lot about my posture while riding, had me do various things with my arms while riding to show that you don't need them to hold on at all - even to twist and touch my right hand to my left foot and vice-versa while trotting rather quickly! It was beautiful to be on a horse again, even though English riding is like a dusty memory for me. I hope I get the chance to do it again soon.

And it was fun to get to use my German, fun to have a weekend (or even just a day) with no math in it. I gave myself the day completely off, and I'm very glad to have done so. Tomorrow things can begin again, as I suppose they must. But this was a grand, grand day out!