Repashuta to Lilafured

A couple of things came together to cause us to make a decision to “ride with the luggage” today.

First, there were some pretty severe thunderstorms overnight. Lots of lightning and lots of rain. Walking today might mean walking through more lightining, and would certainly mean lots and lots of muddy trails. We saw a good amount of that coming into Repashuta.

Second, I’ve been fighting Achilles tendonitis for a day or so, and it got a lot worse overnight. Maybe yesterday’s distance and climb, maybe the fact that I’ve never done a lot of stretching, maybe that I’ve been wearing some different boots. In any case, it’s pretty painful and part of the solution to Achiles tendonitisis to rest it. And according to Marty, of course, part of the solution to any “itis” is to take one of Pfizer’s finest anti-inflammatories. Which he, also of course, was able to deliver. 

So, the three of us waited for the two guys and a van to show up to take our luggage to our hotel in Lillafured. A quick call to Judit, our Hungarian contact for the walk, she made the arrangements, and made sure our rooms were ready up the road.

It was kind of nice having a down day. Out hotel in Lillafured is nice (also air-conditioned), and has a good restaurant with a large patio overlooking the lake. We lingered there a long time over lunch, and again for dinner. Everything we had was good  (including the wine, beer, and palinka), but everyone’s favorite might have been the gulaschsuppe, which we all had at one meal or another.

Szilvasvarad to Repashuta

Now there are three of us on the team. And, for the first time, a woman walking with us. Not that women have not been excluded from our walks before, but this is the first time that circumstances have had one of the fairer sex join us.  And this day was a trial by altitude and distance for all of us. And I’ll say up front that Diana hung in there with the rest of us just fine.

It seems repetitious, but the after a short walk out of Szilvasvarad, the rest of the morning was spent going uphill. Some gradual, some steep.

Szilvasvarad was hosting mountain bicycle races this weekend, and much of the race was along our route. There were three different races, and probably 500 bikes in total.  After a bit, our route left the bike race and got really steep. The bikers got the easy part.

After a few hours of heading up through a beech forest, it leveled off, and we had a couple of hours of high meadow walking before reaching the (tiny) ski village of Bankut. ­The meadows were full of wildflowers in bloom. Diana identified and named more than a dozen.

We stopped for a bit at a lodge in Bankut, but there was some strange children’s  birthday party  going on with a loud announcer and some kind of karaoke. We moved on to someplace quieter.

As is typical, the afternoon walk was pretty much spent giving up the altitude we got in the morning. And after a few hours generally downhill through pine forest, we arrived at Repashuta.

I’ve got to say here that having a woman walking with us does change some of the cultural and social characteristics of the walk. But I know Diana was doing her best to fit in to the ethos of walking in Europe.  That is to say, she only asked for directions twice, which is a remarkable number for a whole day for any woman.  But I suspect that number was kept down a bit by the language barrier that prevented the folks she asked directions of from having any idea what she was asking. And, of course, kept her from getting any useful information out of anything they said.

Repashuta is a quiet little mountain town, off of not only the beaten path, but all others as well. There’s pretty much one street, lined with houses. The houses seem to all have well tended gardens and poorly tended dogs. There is one church, probably two lodging places, and one restaurant.  

We stayed for the night in what was probably a lodging place, but the jury is still out. Our first room had wet sheets, wet towels, ants, and a rusty shower. We tried our luck with another room. The second room was an improvement. It’s amazing what a difference dry sheets and towels can make to the ambience of a hotel.

It’s pretty clear the place we stayed focused more on the restaurant side of their business. It’s apparently known for the game on its menu. Too bad that Diana is not a fan of game on the menu.  Their special of the day was a deer stew, that Marty and I had, and enjoyed. Diana had a breaded chicken breast with sour cream and garlic that was also well done.  Just as important, the place had plenty of cold beer.

By length and altitude gain, this was the longest day of this walk, and one of the longest Marty and I have experiencded.

 For Diana, it was jumping into the middle of the fray. She did great, and it’s so good

having her along.

Felsotarkany to Szilvasard - and Diana Arrived

We left Mrs. Szabo’s after a fine Hungarian breakfast, and headed into the National Park. Uphill. Constantly. For 3 ½ hours. 

The uphill was gradual at first, but got a lot tougher as we got near the top of Or-ku (880m).  After a long break, we started down. And we went steadily down for the next couple of hours, giving up all that hard earned altitude, until we got to Szilvasvarad. 

Szilvasvarad is a little Hungarian mountain town, know for, among other things, breeding Lipizzaner stallions. We headed straight for our hotel and got there 10 minutes before the third member of our party arrived by train. Diana  has caught up with us after traveling from Portland to Chicago to London to Budapest. And took trains to Eger and then to Szilvasvarad. Walking 15 miles tomorrow will be a piece of cake.  

Eger to Felsotarkany

Finally, the first day of the walk. A cab picked up our bags and us at the hotel in Eger. He was going to take our bags to our stop tonight in Felsotarkany, and on the way dropped us at the trailhead a couple of kilometers outside of Eger.

After getting things sorted out, we headed out in the direction you might expect – up. And we continued mostly up for the next couple of hours, through vineyards and farmland.  Along the way, we missed a turn and wound up going up a mountain bike trail for a couple of kms. It wound up taking us to where we wanted to be, but was steeper and rougher.

We wound up on a grassy slope at the top of a mountain (In North Carolina this is known as a Bald). There was a terrific view looking down on Eger. There was also a large cross as a memorial to Hungarian fighters. Out here in the middle of nowhere.

Several other folks arrived at the field from another direction, with Paragliding gear. They were going to wait for the wind to be right before Paragliding back to Eger, but we headed on out, down the trail. A few hours of  trail walking later, we headed downhill into the village of Felsotarkany.

The night’s stay was in the home of Mrs. Szabo, who lets rooms to passing hikers, and it was a great place to stay.  Think of Mrs. Szabo as Aunt Bea with a bottle of Schnappes. She greeted us, showed us to our rooms, and asked if we wanted a glass of beer or wine. We chose a cold beer, and it was perfect. A shower and a nap later and it was time for dinner.

Marty says that his Dad’s favorite recipe, that his Dad would make himself, was Chicken Paprikash. So when Mrs. Szabo (who, btw, spoke no English) was able to tell us that she was making Chicken Paprikash for us for dinner, Marty was pretty much beside himself. But before serving dinner, she brought out a chilled bottle of Schnappes and three glasses. One for me, one for Marty, and one for Mrs. Szabo. We toasted the evening, she poured another round for me and Marty, then went to finish dinner. And, she left the bottle of Schnappes behind.

Dinner itself was started with vegetable soup, followed by chopped salad, the Chicken Paprikash, in a rich paprika sauce, gnocchi (home made of course), and peach cobbler for dessert. We went through a bottle of Eger Bull’s Blood, and had to turn down another.

I’m no expert on Hungarian home cooked meals, but this one had to be pretty close to perfect. And I think Marty agreed.

The next morning, Mrs. Szabo sent us off with bottles of water, and “picnics”, that we later figured out contained three sandwiches, an orange, and a candy bar.

Homestay’s don’t get much better. Oh, the beer, schnapps, wine, bottled water, and picnics were not included in our tour price. So we paid Mrs. Szabo directly. Total bill was Two Thousand Huf.  Less than $7.00. 

   

The Valley of Beautiful Women

On the edge of Eger, a 20 minute walk from the middle of town, is a small valley. When the Ottoman’s first took over the castle and town in the 1500’s, many of the residents fled to the valley, dug caves in the hillside, and made their homes there.

 When the Ottomans were driven out, the residents moved back to town, and their caves became their wine cellars. There are more than 300 caves throughout the valley, which is now the home of many of the Eger wineries. 

A lot of these caves are concentrated in an area closest to the town and they range from individual family’s cellars, some which look abandoned, to high end caves owned by the wineries, with tables, covered porches, wine lists and wine showrooms.

Some 50 of these winery owned caves are clustered together in a little valley with a small park like area in the middle. Think of Napa Valley in a cul de sac. Picture bar crawls where the next “bar” (i.e. cave) is 5 steps away. Imagine really really good  wines served to you in comfort in front of these caves. Imagine the best cabernets at 700 Huf (i.e $3.00) a glass, and most all wines priced lower.  

Hey, is this Heaven? No, it’s Hungary.

About the name. In Hungarian, this place is Szepasszony Volgy. Literally, The “Valley of Fair Women.” The popular name for the place is “Valley of Beautiful Women”. The signs in Eger point to “The Valley of Nice Women”, possibly influenced by the local Chamber of Commerce. I’ve also seen travel guides refer to it as “Sirens’ Valley.”  The “experts” say no one knows how the valley got its name.  But I think this whole name thing sounds suspicious.

Eger, to Get Started

On this trip we’re taking the Anthony Bourdain approach to hiking. That is, we’re as focused on the culture of where we are as we are on the task at hand. 

For Anthony Bourdain, it’s about the food. For us, we’re learning the culture before we lay our boots in the Hungarian woods. Also like Bourdain, a large part of our learning is about food. And wine. And more food and wine.

All of that is to say, we spent all day in Eger today getting ready for the walk to begin tomorrow.

Eger is a town of about 60,000 people a couple of hours outside of Budapest. Descriptions of it say that it has the feel and interest of a historic Hungarian town, without the hustle and bustle of Budapest. That’s an apt description.

It has a castle, cobblestone streets, an historic square, good shopping, great restaurants, and is a center of wine making. It has withstood Mongol and Ottoman invasions. It withstood Worldwar II, and the Communist control of Hungary It also has an historic hero.

That hero is Istvan Dobo. In the middle of the 1500’s, Istvan was the commander of the Eger Castle.  The Ottoman army, from Turkey was sweeping through d Hungary. They’d defeated the Hungary army, taken over 30 other castles, and were ready to move through the rest of Hungary.

Dobo Istban and 2000 other Egerites (Egerians?), including women and children, were defending the castle when the Ottoman army of over 40,000 arrived. After a siege of 39 days, including the good women of Eger pouring tar on the Ottomans from the ramparts of the castle, the Ottomans left. Eger was saved, and Dobo was a hero.

The downside is that the Ottomans returned 40 years later, sacked the town (sans Dobo), and ruled Eger for nearly 100 years.

Today there’s lots for a tourist to do in Eger. We chose to walk around a lot and just do a couple of things.

We went to the Beatles Museum. The museum has a tour which starts in a basement purporting to be an air raid shelter in Liverpool in 1940, and goes from there. Three floors of Beatle information, music, and memorabilia.  Actually, it’s pretty well done. I learned some, and remembered a lot. Why is it in Eger? It seems an Eger resident worked briefly with the Beatles in their early days. He’s now a school teacher in Eger. That’s reason enough for me.

After the Beatles, and a walk through the Market, we went to the Varos a Varos Allat (City under the City). This is a series of tunnels built as wine cellars under the church and surrounding streets. This network of tunnels was once 4km long and held the wine that the church took in as taxes.

Finally we got to the Eger

wine district. That’s a separate post. Then, after another in a succession of good meals we retired to the hotel to get ready (finally) for tomorrow’s walk.

  

Itinerary - The Walk Coming Up

The itinerary for the walk is below. 5 days of walking, between 19km and 25km each day. Some pretty good up and down every day. We’ve got some pretty good maps and trail descriptions. The trail descriptions are even in English.

Each day looks like it follows the typical pattern of village to village hiking. That is that vilages are typically in valleys, usually by a water source. And in mountainous country, villages are as often as not separated by high country; a mountain or a ridge.

So, a typical walking day starts with going up. Up to the top of the nearest mountain or ridge. And it usually ends with a downhill into the village.

Eger to Felsotarkany               19km      345m ascent    640m   descent

The first day’s walk is described as through vineyards,  fields, and cool green forests, with several river crossings. And over a mountain range. Felsotarkany is small enough that the evening’s overnight is in an individual’s home. She’s known for her cooking.

Felsotarkany to Szilvasvarad   24km      640m ascent    640m descent

Today’ we’ll follow the Szalajka River Valley north, past prehistoric caves, lots of waterfalls and several lakes. Lippizaner stallions are bred in Szilvasvarad.

Szilvasvarad to Repashuta       25km        301m ascent   600m  descent

Forests of beeches (bukk), panoramas, looking for eagles and falcons.

Repashuta to Lillafured            22km       310m ascent    600m descent

Lots of rocky outcroppings, caves, and more waterfalls

Lillafured to Miskolctapolca   

 19km       300m ascent

Following a series of ridges, pass through a couple of mountain villages, and end in Mikolctapolca, famous for its baths encompassing natural caves.

Budapest,:Briefly

A quick entry before I go to sleep in a bed for the first time in thirty hours.

We are in Budapest. The Hotel Mikosz. Got into the Budapest airport around 2:30 and took a taxi to the hotel downtown.

All the flights went fine. After all the recent news about TSA security lines, we did as they recommended and got to the airport three hours early. We were checked in, through security, and at the gate in 20 minutes. Thank you TSA for wasting my time with your mismanagement.

As I said, the flights went fine. Overnight to Paris, a walk from one end of Charles deGaulle airport to the other, and an on time arrival in Hungary.

We met with the rep from the company who’s organized the walk and got lots of maps and route guides. I’ll be reading them as soon as I can stay awake long enough.

Had dinner at a place close to the hotel. I had homemade gnocchi with wild mushrooms and fresh basil. It was as good as it sounds, and for 2300 Hungarian forints (Huf).  That’s a little over 8 dollars. Marty's burger looked good and got good reports as well.

Surprisingly, also on the menu, as a small plate, were “barbecued Tennessee shrimp with mashed potatoes.”  Before you laugh about Tennessee shrimp, you'd better Google it. I had some great lines written about Tennessee shrimp boats before I checked. Sure enough, Tennessee shrimp do exist. And Tennessee shrimp with mashed potatoes is like the Hungarian version of good ol' shrimp and grits.  Sort of. 

Tomorrow we take a train to Eger, where the walk will start.

   

It’s a long way to Miskolctapolca

Our next great adventure in walking in Europe is getting close.

Monday evening, Marty Szabo and I leave for Budapest.  From there we’ll go on to Eger, Hungary. From Eger we will spend the next 6 days hiking through Hungary’s Bukk National Park (Bukki Nemzeti).

More on the itinerary later, but from Eger, the walk takes us through Felsotarkany, Szilvasvarad, Repashuta, Lillafured, and ends in Miskolctapolca. (There will be a spelling test later).  

As in our other walks in Ireland, England, and Spain, we’ll be walking village to village, inn to inn, with day packs. Our other bags will be driven forward for us.  All we’ll have to do is walk the 12 to 16 miles a day between inns, and deal with the elevation gains of up to 2100 feet on the longest day. (!)

Why Hungary?  Although John Nelson and Dick Gamertsfelder have been part of one or more of these walking adventures,  Marty and I have paired up on all of them. The two of us agreed that before we hang up our trekking poles, we would do walks in each of our homelands. If you haven’t guessed, Hungary is the home of the Szabos. The Strickland turn will come when we walk the Lake District in England in one of the upcoming years.

This adventure won’t be over when the walk is done. There’s a pretty awesome after party planned. When we return to Budapest, we’ll meet up with Scott and Pat Kremers, who are leaving Charlotte a couple of days after us. They’ll go to Paris and Munich (Scott’s birthplace) before joining up with us.  From there, the four of us will ultimately come back to Charlotte together. Via Vienna, Prague, and Paris.

More on that as we go along.

And in case you're wondering, pictured are Hungarian Racka sheep. We'll see them along our walk in the Park. Seems sheep are part of most of our walks.