Spencer's Hungarian Happenings: Hollókő and Surrounding Forests

A few weekends ago I went to an orienteering competition with my host family in a village near Hollókő. We drove up on Friday evening and stayed in a hotel. Luca and I had our own room and we stayed up watching Harry Potter.

The next morning we drove the few minutes to the location of the competition. I wandered around while my host parents and sister ran in the competition. The forest was beautiful :)

I ended up following these lovely blue and white streamers almost all the way to the starting point. Along the way I ran into, or tried very hard not to, a lot of runners. Some asked me questions, others smiled and thanked me for getting out of their way, but none of them were rude; it was quite nice.

After my family finished competing we headed to the World Heritage Historical village of Hollókő. It consisted of traditional houses, a very old castle, and a few shops and cafes.

The castle was magnificent and had a view to rival many I have seen while I have been here. There really is something magical about all the fall colors.

While we were in the village we stopped for some coffee and Luca and I got a "snack" she used to get at festivals and such as a kid called törökméz, this translates to Turkish honey but I think tooth glue would be more appropriate. We must have looked so elegant chewing on that and picking it out of our teeth when we were done, oh well.

For those of you who haven't seen it I finally got a flag picture :) It was so windy I thought my flag might just carry me away.

Somewhere along the way I made the fatal mistake of leaving my camera alone with my sister and host dad.

After we left the village we went back to the hotel we were staying at for dinner. It was delicious.

Then, because I never order soup and my host mom thinks I will starve, I had dessert too. By the time I had finished the dinner above my family doubted my ability to consume my palacsinta. When I told them that I always have an empty corner for dessert, something I remember saying since I was a kid ... I think it must have come from dad, they laughed, a lot. It had since become a family joke :)

After dinner Luca and I went back to our room and tried to watch about three different movies, none of which would load due to wifi problems before the wifi went out all together and quit we quit and went to sleep.

The next morning we packed up and went to the second day of the competition. Luca did not compete because she had to study so we sat in the sun at the finish area and I relaxed while she studied. After my host parents had finished they took me to the forest with a map and taught me how to orienteer. I loved it! and they were so excited to show me; it was a great experience. They later asked me if I would like to compete in a beginner level at an upcoming competition; I have yet to find out when it is but I am very excited :)

On the way home we stopped for lunch and I got some more very tasty food ... followed by some more very tasty palacsinta. I hear that this specific type of palacsinta (yes it looks like a crepe) is generally set on fire when served, in this case it was not but maybe next time :) It was tasty anyhow.