Eger Mountain Road Trip!!

Wow, things have been crazy.  I'm trying to fall into my schedule here, but I have so many lessons that I get confused easily, no matter how many notes I write to myself.  School aside, I did have a great day today!  A colleague took me to a mountain outside of Eger, the wine "capital" of Hungary. 

Eger is the red dot, lol......

We drove about 30 minutes past Eger to the mountains.

Eger street.

Going down the street into the main "area" of Eger.

Past Eger now, heading to the mountains!

Beautiful fall scenery!

We were walking around some of the highest mountains in Hungary.  I believe they were called the Bükk Mountains.  We didn't do much except for walk down a nice paved path, sloping gradually uphill.  The trees were absolutely beautiful because they are just starting to turn their fall colors but haven't lost a lot of their leaves yet, and with the crisp air blowing through them, it couldn't have been a better day.  On the way up the path, they had some cute little deer that the kids were feeding.  They were pretty tame.

We walked up the path for a while until it turned into a dirt path up a steep hill.  We climbed all the way to the top and, lo and behold, there was an awesome cave!  It was the first cave I've ever been in.  I took a rock from it to commemorate this monumental occasion. 

On the way back to the car, we witnessed what appeared to be trucks carrying drunken polka dancing, beer-drinking patrons who were loudly singing along with the music.  There were actual LIVE polka musicians playing in the backs of these semis while the trucks drove down the street.  It was the strangest yet most hilarious thing I've ever seen.

Drunken polka dancing, beer drinkers on a truck.

Not so drunk but listening to polka and waving at everyone as they drove past.  No idea...

 And then we walked back to the car, chuckling.  Here are some photos of the beautiful scenery on the way back!

Cute Hungarian houses on the outskirts of Eger.

September Update

Things are going well at the school.  I can't say that I've had any lessons bomb yet, but I find myself continually underestimating or misjudging the students' English ability, so maybe a few times they were bored.  It's just gonna take some time to get to know them.  BUT, at least I've figured out a system to keep things more organized with less prep time, so I'm thinking that, from next week, I can stop the long planning hours and make things a lot less complicated.  Aside from that, everything is going well.  The weather is starting to cool off, and I woke up this morning to fog and a slight chill in the air.  It's been a long time since I've felt that!  I'm kinda excited for winter because I haven't really had a winter in a few years. 

Visegrád Castle

I had an amazing day today!  A fellow English teacher at my school offered to take me to Visegrád, which is a small castle town in Pest county, near the Slovakian border.  I was NOT disappointed!  We started off with a beautiful drive through the countryside:

Horse-drawn carriage that we would eventually meet up with again today.

Then, when we arrived in Visegrád, he took me to an old palace where the king and royalty would stay, located at the bottom of the hill that the castle sits on top of.  It was mostly destroyed when the Turks invaded Hungary, but they are working hard to rebuild it.

After milling about and viewing the ruins and some amazing ancient stonework and carvings that is being recovered and reconstructed, we started the hike up the hill to the castle.  I don't know what possessed me to basically RUN up the hill, but I left my poor teacher friend in the dust, and it looked like he was gonna have a heart attack.  At any rate, we got to the top and started exploring Visegrád Castle.  It had one of the most stunning views I've ever seen, overlooking the Danube river and the Slovakian border.

Danube River from Visegrád Castle.  Beyond the hills is Slovakia.

Lower castle gate

Cool wax sculpture of an historic meeting between the Czech, Hungarian, and Polish kings to propose cooperation between their countries.

Wax sculptures demonstrating the opulence of royal dancing

After the castle, we walked over to a downhill, summer bobsled track.  That's right--summer bobsled.  It had a little track like a roller coaster for the slower cars, and it had a deeper "trench" if you will for the braver souls who wanted more speed.

Summer bobsled course.

Walking back down the hill from the castle

Castle gate going down

Amazing little cobblestone street going up/down from the castle

Cool cable bridge

I also bought a printer today, so I can start to print stuff at home instead of trying to use the Hungarian language Microsoft Word and the German language Xerox machines.  I love technology, but this I just can't figure out.  It's just gonna be way easier to print at home and make copies at school, and it will save me a lot of stress.

Overall, it was an outstanding day, and I wish it could have been longer!  Oh, and did I mention that the weather was PERFECT?  Seeing old castles like this and learning about the history of the country is fascinating and MUCH more interesting than just reading about it in a textbook. 

1st Week Down

It's now been a week at my new school.  Chaos can hardly describe it, although it's not chaotic in the way you might think.  It's crazy because teachers are required to work 26 periods a week to be considered "full time", and this is a lot more than they had worked in the past.  As a consequence of this, they don't have time to plan or meet, so they're staying late after work to do so.  I haven't left before 3:30 at all this week, and I've been coming home to plan some more.  I feel like I'm doing something wrong to have to plan this much....

At any rate, the teachers are extremely nice and accommodating, and they are helping me a ton.  One teacher wants to take me clothes shopping and another wants to take me out to lunch next week.  Another teacher wants to show me the library and explain all the books to me.  They actually seem genuinely happy that I'm here, which is a HUGE improvement from my last job in the UAE when nobody wanted me around and they all thought I was Satan incarnate.  Maybe that's while I feel so compelled to plan compulsively--I want to go a good job because they're taking such good care of me.. Not sure.  Either way, here's some pictures I took last weekend as I was walking around town!

So green here!

I likes me some countryside.