Group Photo in Slovakia
Today was the marathon bus ride through 3 countries (Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary). It wasn’t too bad, but it did feel like we were riding forever.
We left Krakow at 7:30am and headed south through the countryside and to the Slovakian border. It took maybe 20 minutes for the border guards to check our passports and we got 2 stamps, 1 for leaving Poland and 1 for entering Slovakia…I am sure collecting passport stamps on this trip!
We arrived at our lunch stop at about 11:45am. It was the town of Levoce in Slovakia. We walked around a bit and had a group lunch which included turkey, vegetables, cabbage, and French fries followed by a fruit crepe topped with orange sorbet. It was all pretty good and CL picked a great table for lunch. We sat with Wanda and Mike and Rosemary and Dick 2 couples from California who occasionally travel together, they were so nice and as the journey progressed became a few of our favorite people on the trip.
After lunch we all had a look inside the church with its big altar and then tromped back to the bus at 2:30-ish. We continued the marathon bus ride and the roads were incredibly twisting, I don’t know how Bojan, our driver does it! I’m glad he is driving and not me!
We got to the Slovak-Hungary border around 4:30pm and another passport check took about 20 minutes. 2 more stamps in the passport, 1 for leaving Slovakia, and 1 for entering Hungary. At this rate my passport pages will be full!
After crossing the Hungarian border we made a pit-stop and then headed to our final destination for the night, Eger.
I was never so glad to get off a bus! Plus I wasn’t feeling well from all the twisting roads through the Tantra Mountains. I usually don’t get motion sickness like that but luckily it was just a headache, so I took some Tylenol and was fine.
We got to our hotel in Eger around 6:30pm. It’s definitely not the best, but certainly not the worst place I have ever stayed in (youth hostel days in college!). The location was good, directly across the street from the Town’s Minaret, hence the name Hotel Minaret.
Etelka gave us our orientation walk here in Eger because she went to high school and college here. The sun was setting so we didn’t see a whole lot, but we have a free morning here tomorrow.
For dinner it was a group affair and it truly was a Hungarian Feast! It seemed like the food never stopped coming! We had goulash soup, and a sampler plate of sausage, pork cutlet, stuffed cabbage, and then another plate of beef with pasta, cottage cheese and sour cream (sounds weird, but tasted magnificent) and then goose liver with mashed potatoes and apples. Now I am not a "fan" of liver, but at CL's suggestion, I tried this goose liver and ...Oh My God! This stuff was amazing with an capital "A". I am not goose liver expert, but this stuffed just melted in our mouth...very, very, very tasty! And we washed it all down with Hungarian Bull’s Blood wine and a white wine, of course we had to have both! And last, but certainly not least was the apple strudel and apple pancake covered in chocolate for dessert. It was all deliscious! Then I took a little walk, or should I say I rolled, around town.
No alarm clock will be set tonight…I can sleep in tomorrow!
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