Eger

Hey, y'all! I'm back from Eger! It was awesome, Eger is a pretty nice town, with a cheery, sunny, atmosphere. Its architecture is baroque, and very pretty. The buildings tend to have up to five stories, lots of windows, and are painted in bright colors. Eger is also nice because everything is 15 minutes from everything else. The food is also really, really, good in Eger, and at reasonable prices.

Dad, Eli, and I stayed in the Hotel Flora which, for once, is actually on the map! The first day in Eger was spent mostly outside. Immediately after dropping off our bags at the hotel, we went to the Dobo Istvan square (see picture) , where we had lunch. We walked around for a couple hours before going back to the hotel. Later we went for a refreshing walk in the country.

The next day we went around to some of the sights. First stop was a tour of the city (the directions for it were in our guidebook) of which we only did half. We went to the Basilica, a cathedral where people went to worship. The building was huge, but it was surprisingly light and airy on the inside. Next we went to the Lyceum, which was across the street from the Basilica. It was supposed to have a 20,000 volume library in one wing, and the Astronomy museum in the other wing. We went to the Astronomy museum, and we got to have a special show at the top of the building too. In the attic-like room there was a machine that had a metal cylinder on the roof. The natural light came into the cylinder, through a trapdoor (only when the trapdoor was open, of course), and was reflected down by a mirror, finally going onto a viewing table. A person then could adjust the cylinder and the mirror, and reflect a view of the city onto the viewing table. A staff member gave Eli, Dad, and I a show of the city, stopping at all the major points. It was absolutely priceless, usually something like that had 150 people crowding in to see it! Before the museum this instrument was used to entertain the bishop's guests. The picture is of the view from the balcony a few floors from the top of the museum.

After the Lyceum we were planning on going to the castle, but decided not to seeing as we were tired and I wanted to spend some time in the hotel pool before it closed anyway. I spent the rest of the day-until dinner- in the pool.

The next morning we got up and went on the 2 1/2 hour train ride back to Budapest (the picture is actually of the train ride to Budapest, but I wanted to put it in). So here I am! I am so glad we went to Eger, and I hope that one day I will see it again.