Valley of Drunkeness
I went to Hungary not knowing much about anywhere other than Budapest and quite unsure about how my friend and I would fill our ten days there. After reading a couple guidebooks though, a town called Eger a few hours northeast of the capital was added to our list of must do's. Being lushes, this decision was mainly due to the town being the birthplace of one of Hungary's most famous types of wine - Bull's Blood.

After about 4 hours, we hopped off our train with no idea where we'd be staying that night. The town didn't have a backpacker's hostel, so we were just hoping for the best. After standing about for a few minutes probably looking like a couple of lost puppies, a woman approached us and in broken English, told us she had a cheap place to stay. We followed her up the road a bit and into her apartment. She had a spare coulpe of rooms, one with the beds and the other with a TV and lounge, and was offering to us for the equivalent of 6 pounds each a night. Seemed like a great deal so we took it!

Eger is a pretty place with a castle on a hill, some towers and old churchs and a nice little river running through the place. We had a wander around but we were here for one thing - wine! We grabbed our guidebook and a map and headed off in search of The Valley of the Beautiful Women. I have no idea where this valley got it's name because we were off to do a bit of a wine cellar pub crawl.

The street stretches down into a valley and is lined with privately-owned wine cellars. We were there in April before the tourist season really kicked in, so many cellars were closed. The first one we went into was empty but for my friend and I. We sat on a picnic table deep within the cellar away from any sunlight and signs that it was actually only about 3pm. We were treated to some traditional wine pouring from a long glass tube and sipped away at the cellar owner's various offerings. We paid a nominal fee for our tastings and went off in search of a more lively cellar.

We didn't have to walk far before hearing some ruckous behaviour coming from a cellar a few doors up. We wandered in to find a long table full of breads, sausages, pickles and lots of wine. A bunch of former East German football players were having some kind of reunion and we were invited to join them at their table. We were practically force fed food and wine and the entire event is all a bit fuzzy. I do know that it all ended with me spewing out the window of their Skoda and my friend dropping her phone in the middle of the street and smashing it in front of oncoming traffic. We rewarded our efforts with a long lie in the next morning...

Eger is a fantastic little town on it's own but throwing this street of wine cellars into th emix makes it, in my mind, a can't miss destination if partying is your thing. It's a big piss-up with a bit of culture thrown in and the hospitality of the cellar owners (even though we only made it to two...) can't be beat!

By: Kirsty Henderson
April 2003