Drinking the bull's blood

I've been trying to post my video for the past two days with no success.  I guess there is a known issue with uploading videos on Blogger recently, and it simply spins and takes forever, so I'll have to wait and share the video when I get home. 

We had a three day weekend in northeastern Hungary, visiting the cities of Debrecen and Eger, the national park in Hortabágy and the quaint, little village of Hollokö.  In both Debrecen and Eger there are universities that have the most amazing libraries!  I also don't know why my Eger university picture won't load, but the ceiling is this amazing trompe l'oeil painting that looks like a gothic cathedral when the ceiling is really flat.  Their collections include works from the 15th and 16th century and they are simply on the shelves.  A few of the greatest treasures are under glass, but let me say that the smells in those rooms were equally amazing! ;-)  Nothing like catching a high off old books.

Eger is also in one of Hungary's 21 wine regions.  Saturday night we had dinner in the "Valley of Beautiful Women" where they had more than 100 wine cellars along the road.  At dinner, we tasted three wines of the regions which were served from a large glass pipette (just like what you might remember from chemistry class), and the waiter would also serve directly into the mouth after filling your glass.  That's what the video is...!  In the video I'm actually drinking sweet red wine, but the bull's blood had been just before that.  Eger is famous for a siege fought and won in 1582 when the Turkish army of more than 40,000 attacked Eger's 212 soldiers, laymen and women.  The Hungarian's won with some ingenious warfare tactics.  They also combined all the wine available in barrels to sustain the fighters and when the Turks saw the red stained beards of these men fighting with unending vigor they figured they must be drinking the blood of bulls for the strength.

I am having such a great time and learning so much.  It is hard to believe that a week of our time in Hungary has already past and I'm already starting to worry that I won't get in everything I want to see.  Who's up for a return trip to Budapest with me, in the near future???