Trip Log: Eger, Hungary, 10/26–10/27

Eger, Hungary was our quickest visit, since we were there for less than 24 hours. It was a nice chance to take a breath, however. Even though we did several things, they took only the better part of an afternoon.

More photos are on the Eger page.

Our trip from Krakow involved taking a night train to Budapest. We had the same car number, same bunk numbers, and once again a lot of Americans, presumably different ones than the last night train. While in Budapest we got the last train reservation we'd need, Füzesabony to Budapest on the following day. We then caught our train to Füzesabony, then transferred to the one which took us the rest of the way to Eger. There was a surprising number of people on the last two trains.

We got oriented, found a map at the Tourist Information Center, then found where we were staying. This is the only place where the owner didn't speak English, but she knew enough words that we were able to communicate well enough.

View of Eger's Dobó Square

Eger is a pretty small town, at least the core of it; many people live just outside of what you see in the picture. In the center you see Dobó Square, dedicated to Eger's greatest hero who held off the Ottoman advance in the 16th century.

Knowing that time could be tight, we had layed out an itinerary while still in Kraków to figure out what we'd have time to see. We had to whittle down the list (notably cutting out the Marzipan Museum) to fit things in, since most of what we wanted to see closed in the late afternoon.

Looking towards Eger Castle

First up was Eger Castle. There weren't a lot of descriptions of what we were seeing, but it was interesting to wander around the grounds. We passed on the museum of wax figures.

Market Hall

We then went to the Market Hall to grab lunch, then took it to Dobó Square to eat on a bench. In addition, we looked at the square itself (including the monuments), the Minorite Church (the twin towers in the first picture), and Eger Cathedral, which is the second largest church in Hungary.

Minaret with cross at the top

Looking at the time we decided we would be able to fit in the Marzipan Museum. However, we noticed that it was supposed to be closed on Monday. We decided to at least take a look at the building, so we headed off towards the minaret. It's strange to see a cross a the top of a minaret (which normarally are attached to mosques) but this one is left as a symbol of Hungary's victory over the Ottomans.

Chess set and deck of cards made of marzipan

The Marzipan Museum looked pretty active for being closed, and it ends up it was indeed open. All the displays were made of marzipan (glazed with an egg white/confectioner's sugar mixture and then painted). The works took all forms, including sculpture and paintings, but mostly were imitations of real-life items.

Back in the room, Melody flipped on the TV to see what was on (she had tried this in a couple other cities, but couldn't get the TV to actually display anything). This time she got the programs, which naturally were in Hungarian, dubbed when necessary. She even found a Japanese program (probably a soap opera), also dubbed in Hungarian.

After grabbing dinner, we got our laptops and went to the common room where there was wireless, and this time we could both connect. The next morning after breakfast (provided with our room) we headed back to the train station, ready to go back to Budapest.