Sated in Hungary (Part 2: Wine)

Last week I wrote fondly of the tasty food of Hungary. This week I'm moving on to its equally impressive wine...

Wine Museums, Keszthely

The attractive town of Keszthely sits at the western end of Lake Balaton, Central Europe’s largest freshwater lake and the landlocked nation’s seaside.

It’s a pleasant holiday town, if somewhat sleepy when I visit out of season in mid-spring.

Despite its modest size, the town is home to two wine museums. The most imposing is situated in the brick-lined cellar of the Festetics Palace, a graceful 18th century structure in its own landscaped grounds.

The House of Balaton Wines exhibits some 1500 Hungarian vintages, with 30 or so available on rotation for tasting sessions.

Down the road in the basement of a more humble building, the three-star Hotel Bacchus, is the Bacchus Wine Museum. It’s a slow day so a waiter from the adjacent restaurant has to unlock the museum for me.

It turns out to unexpectedly interesting; in addition to covering the history and regions of Hungarian wine, it’s packed with old casks, winemaking implements such as curious doughnut-shaped ceramic bottles, and romantically dusty old wine.

[Believe it or not, as of December 2012 the following attraction has been transformed into a spy museum! I've retained the text as a historical record, and to give a sense of the cellar complex beneath Buda Castle.]

Royal Wine Museum, Budapest

Standing on the Szabadság Bridge at sunset, the first thing that strikes me about Budapest is its grandeur.

As the joint capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century, the Hungarian capital shared in the imperial trappings of Vienna, and it shows. The Danube is wide here, with soaring iron suspension bridges linking flat commercial Pest with hilly Buda.

The centrepiece of Buda is Buda Castle, a vast walled complex stretching for some 1.5 kilometres on a hilltop above the river. Buildings have come and gone within its walls over the centuries, and a set of rediscovered medieval wine cellars below demolished houses have recently been linked up to form the Royal Wine Museum [now closed, see explanatory note above].

The twisting and turning underground route is an atmospheric trek through cool sloping passageways, with folk music playing over speakers.

Along the way I learn about Hungarian champagne (who knew?) and encounter ancient wine apparatus including wooden goblets, then descend into much deeper cellars going back to the 13th century. There’s even the remains of a Jewish mikveh (bath) hidden down here.

At the end I sit outside in a pleasant shaded courtyard while a uniformed man pours a glass of apricot-flavoured palinka, the Hungarian spirit literally translated as "burning water". It packs a punch, but is not unpleasant.

The Valley of the Beautiful Women, Eger

To the east of Budapest in hilly wine-growing country most well known for the dessert wine tokay, Eger is a picturesque collection of old buildings including a prominent castle and a remnant minaret from the Turkish occupation.

Its local wine-related claim to fame is Bikavér, a full-bodied red which is said to have fortified the soldiers who resisted the first Turkish siege in 1552.

The best place to buy Bikavér is definitely the Valley of the Beautiful Women, just outside town. Both kitschy and rewarding, the valley is a collection of old wine cellars dug into a rocky horseshoe-shaped valley.

Visitors wander around, buying 100ml samples from random cellars and eating local dishes, before producing their own containers to buy larger take-away amounts of wine.

It’s an attractive way to spend an afternoon. In reasonably quick succession I try samples of Bikavér, then a nice dry rosé, then tokay.

The cellars vary greatly in appearance, from classy set-ups with uniformed staff to simple venues run by the vineyard owners. At my last cellar, I’m ushered in by an elderly lady to be met by a grizzled old man in track pants and a jumper, presenting a much-thumbed guestbook and welcoming us in German.

He’s a definite character, quickly filling glasses of tokay and slapping down a half-filled bottle of another wine, so we can pour our own samples. We can still see the original chisel marks on the bare walls of the cellar, and it’s cold within its depths.

Luckily, the tokay is warming our interiors quite nicely.

To read Part One (Food), click here.

Sated in Hungary (Part 1: Food)

A year ago I wrote about my visit to the Salami Museum of Szeged, Hungary; but it wasn’t the only culinary adventure I had on that 2010 trip through Hungary.

I love Hungarian cuisine, with its spicy paprika and flavoursome sauces, accompanied by excellent wine.

Here are five more ways to eat and drink your way across a Central European country that’s still waiting to be discovered by many travellers.

This week, food experiences (and next week, wine!):

Viennese-style Coffee Houses, Budapest

Another throwback to Budapest’s imperial glory days is its exceptional selection of classy art nouveau cafes.

They include Gerbeaud, in the centre of the Old Town and serving renowned sacher torte in an interior of chandeliers, mirrors, wood panelling, vintage wallpaper and marble floors.

Here I order a csokoládé kávé, a tall glass of coffee to which is added hot chocolate, amaretto and whipped cream.

No further proof is needed that I’ve passed beyond the Italian espresso-based coffee world and into Viennese decadence.

Another marvel is the New York Cafe, which began life in 1894 as a high baroque coffee temple with an abundance of gilded fittings and marble, Renaissance-style paintings, and rows of devilish faun statues holding lanterns on the external walls.

In communist times it transformed into a sporting goods store before being reopened as the relatively drab Hungaria, but in 2006 it was renovated back into its high style and its original name - which it derived from the insurance company which once owned the building.

Other grand Budapest coffee houses include the Centrál Kávéház, with high ceilings and excellent cakes; and Lukács, a fancy joint which was once the hangout for the communist-era secret police, whose headquarters stood nearby.

Cellarium, Pécs

In Hungary’s southwest near Croatia, Pécs enjoys a warm sub-Mediterranean microclimate which prompts the excellent wine grown in the nearby Villány region.

The city itself also has a Mediterranean look, with lots of sand-coloured stone and bright sunlight. The Turks ruled here for a century and a half from the 16th century, so there are old mosques and remains of Turkish baths among its sights.

The Cellárium restaurant is also worth a visit. Located eight metres underground, its tables are spread out through a network of catacombs that the locals allegedly once used to hold secret meetings under the noses of their Turkish rulers.

It’s a place with tons of atmosphere, and it’s easy to avoid the tourist hordes by tucking yourself away in one of the smaller side chambers with only a table or two.

The menu has plenty of examples of Hungarian cuisine, from the familiar goulash stews and soups to “prison officer rolls”.

I order these, to receive what looks like pieces of a pork schnitzel stuffed with smoked spare rib meat and horseradish, served on a bed of oven-baked potatoes.

It’s excellent, and the accompanying bottle of Villány red is even more attractive at 1,950 forint (less than $10).

Next week: I focus on Hungarian wine experiences, involving a palace, a castle and the Valley of the Beautiful Women… [click here to read Part Two]

Journey into Vampire Fiction: Eger, Hungary

This week's guest blogger is fantasy novelist Narrelle M Harris, author of the acclaimed vampire novel The Opposite of Life and the Melbourne Literary app for the iPhone and iPad.

For a lot of people, books lead to travel. But sometimes the reverse is true - travel leads to books.

My 2010 trip to Hungary led to me writing a short story inspired by Hungarian history, the country’s legendary association with vampires, and a little town called Eger.

Hungary has a history of association with vampires. Until after World War I, Transylvania (home of Vlad Dracul) was part of Hungary; the infamous Countess Bathory who bathed in the blood of virgins to maintain her youth was Hungarian; and 20th century horror film actor Bela Lugosi was a famous son of Hungary.

Hungary has also suffered under more immediate and real monsters than those contained within the legions of the undead. Its 20th century history is a litany of tyranny and oppression, as Hungary was allied to Nazi Germany in the Second World War and Hungarian Jews were murdered in their hundreds of thousands as a result.

The Soviet Union then liberated Hungary, exchanging one tyrant for another. The Terror House in Budapest contains a wall depicting victims of the secret police of the postwar communist regime. Another, perhaps darker, room depicts those who worked for the secret police.

The museum is a dark and disturbing memorial, the brightest part of which is its very existence: Hungary is now a place where those evil secrets are no longer buried. Hungary has emerged from that past and is shining a light on it, perhaps in the hope that it will never happen again.

As a writer, I wanted to create something that played with all of these elements of Hungary's story – both its recent history and its fantastical relationship with vampire lore.

Then I visited Eger. Eger is a beautiful town in eastern Hungary, famous for its Bull's Blood wine and its impressive castle. Eger fell to the Turkish invaders of the Ottoman Empire in 1596, nearly 50 years after the majority of Hungarian territory was conquered. Eger eventually defeated its Turkish overlords in 1687, around a decade ahead of the rest of the nation.

This defiant town's castle has been restored and tidied up above ground; but to me, one of its most interesting attractions was a dark, damp hole beneath it.

A tour led below the castle to tunnels hewn into rock, dripping water and inhabited by permeating cold. It was claustrophobic to squeeze through its narrow tunnels with two dozen strangers to stare at a cave behind bars: one of the castle's actual dungeons. A pile of mouldy hay and a few rats, as depicted in countless films, were the only touches missing.

Then, in the strange alchemy that happens in the minds of writers, a story was born.

A story about a vampire created in the Ottoman era, who doesn’t fit in the modern world; a family enslaved to his will for generations; a castle with a dank and terrible dungeon beneath rooms and stairs now made safe for tourists; and how the most surprising things can happen when you underestimate the courage of people who are fed up to the gills with evil bastards.

I don't know if the resulting story, Thrall, is one of those tales that will inspire someone to visit Hungary; I hope so. Either way, Hungary definitely inspired me, with its colour, tragedy, defiance and hope.

Narrelle M Harris's short story Thrall appears in her latest book Showtime, a short story collection published by Twelfth Planet Press - you can buy it online here.  Find out more about Narrelle's writing at www.narrellemharris.com.