The (Mis)Adventures of Matt Lyon

So the last night we were in town, I went out with some of the students and some of their friends. We went to the bar I'd met them at the night before and I basically stood at the bar for 10 minutes getting a couple of beers in me quick. One social courtesy that I've let go of over here is alcohol etiquette. No one cares if you have a beer or two at lunch. Its no problem to drink with 16 year olds. Which I did a lot of that night. And they drank me under the table. After catching up, they took me to a music club that actually played some of the best music I've encountered going to a random bar. A good mix of American rock classics and Hungarian hits. Some of the tunes spun included "Smells like Teen Spirit", "Intergalactic Planetary", "Killing In the Name Of", and "Du Hast". Rockin time to drink til you slobber and dance til you fall down. I bought some Hungarian cigarettes and Lord almighty what horrible creations those things are. Even when its 2 in the morning you take one drag and stuff it out. Foul junk. But smoked a joint with a couple of the kids and had to fend off one of the girls who was drunk and drunk. Sorry boys, this stud is nailed! Meeeeowwww!

I remember walking home and thinking and coming to some sort of conclusion about some meandering that I had and wanting to remember it and saying it out loud so that I could conjure it up the next day. But alas, I need to be bugged 24/7-for the Scrapbook!

I woke up at 6.30 and hastily and clumsily packed my bag and made my way to the car. David and Lenka were waiting for me. I told David the day before that I would drive the first 4 hours to Budapest, but he took one whiff of me and knew he'd be driving the whole way. I immediately passed out in the backseat and woke up 2 seconds later in Budapest. After watching David drive around in circles for a half hour, he finally dropped me off at Keleti Pu Train Station where I took a train to Eger. It was a bit of a rough ride. One of those feelings of feeling sick from the alcohol, expounded by the fact that youre traveling on your own in a foreign country with no idea where you're going and where you will sleep that night. But as I slept off the last remenants of the Grosser my outlook began to improve. I got off the train in Eger, not really noticing anything special. I was immediately approached by a little old lady named Kami, I think. She offered me a room in her house for 3000 Forints (12 USD)a night. I was hoping and half-expecting this to happen. I immediately accepted and we headed in the direction of her flat. Along the way she practiced her English by telling me about her son (who of course I remind her of) who is in University and will grow up to do great things, no doubt in her mind. As we are walking, I'm looking for signs that tell me I've come to town worth coming to. My guide for this trip was an Eastern Europe Lonely Planet from 1990 that I picked up in the Book Nook for 50 cents. The place seemed like nothing special.

We arrived at her flat and she told me the school adjacent was the one she was principal of for 30 years after teaching there for the 10 years previous. Wow. She knows this square kilometer better than anybody else, I bet. She showed me to my room and I was so pleasantly surprised to see it. Such a nice guest room with two beds, a television, a few couches and bathroom connecting to the main hallway. She sat me down and went over some tourist brochures, train and bus schedules, and a small history book of the town. After seeing some of the pictures, I was eager to go out and explore. I paid her for the first night and showered up and left to venture into the city.

Equipped with a small map and one of the brochures, I tried to make my way to the center. Seeing a signpost with numerous directional arrows, I stopped to read it. I was picked up by a middle aged Brit who was friendly enough to show me into town. He was more about talking about himself than anything and apparently had come here to have some dental work done. (Is there no limit to what the Brits do to keep up their oral hygiene?) When we made our way to the square, he "left me to it" and I was on my own once again. My first impressions of the historical center of Eger were great. It actually reminded me of Destin, Florida for some reason. Very clean, kept up for tourists--but not over-crowded, and with a vibrancy and real connection to the past that was palpable. I decided the first thing I should do was to visit the Minaret to get a bird's-eye view of the town. So I walked past three Christian churches to make my way to this remarkable structure. Being completely ignorant of the history of Eger, I paid my 50 cents worth of Forints to scale the very tall and slender Muslim offering to God. The enclosed spiral staircase were about as steep and narrow as to make Houdini claustrophobic. I had a sweeping thought of what would happen if this thing were to come crashing down with me halfway up, stuck inside. But the feeling passed and I finished climbing the 97 steps for an absolutely incredible view of the town. To come from the train station and then to the apartment (both of which are outside the historical center)and have no real idea what is around you, and then to climb a 400 year old minaret (which is the northernmost Muslim monument in Europe) and see the entire town spread out before you, fills you with such humility and excitement that any tiredness I felt was instantly whisked away and replaced with a sense of immediacy for discovering. The town is breathtaking. I came to learn that the Castle was the stage for one of the most epic defences in all of Europe. It was here in 1552 that less than 2100 Egerians fought off the Turkish army 80,000 strong! Imagine that!! 2100 townspeople-men, women, and children--not soldiers--kept 80,000 Turkish military men at bay. Unbelievable!

But anyway, I got a good feel of the surroundings and slowly made my way back down to the Earth. The invigoration I felt gave me itchy feet and I spent the rest of the daylight hours being amazed at every turn. Beautiful little cobblestoned streets, not unlike Prague, but felt much more authentic. I even found a skate park nestled under a beautiful Eastern Orthodox church. The perfect weather and surroundings led me to take everything in and fully enjoy my existential being, while still feeling connected to the people and the place.

I stopped in the most beautiful Baroque Church I HAVE EVER SEEN and was treated to candy of the eyes and ears as Mass was just finishing up and a children's choir serendaded me as I strained my neck trying to force me senses to soak up much more than they are used to in the hope that my consciousness would also be expanded. After leaving St. Anthony's, I ventured over to St. Stephen's Basillica and was absolutely blown away!!! You know when you're in the mountains or the beach or Rome or Washington DC or some great place of natural or architechtural beauty? The first impression is usually really nice, but you become accustomed to seeing things that aren't normally in your everday experience. You start to expect to see beauty. Well, St. Stephen's is, of course, surrounded by beauty. But the beauty pales in comparison. The layout of this place is on such a grand scale that when you see it, its like one of those effects in movies where the camera simulaneously zooms in and moves away from you. That's what your mind is doing as you try to grasp the beauty and sheer scale of St. Stephen's all at once. A great experience. The church is still so far away from the street that its like climbing up the Lincoln Memorial. You have a lot to do and a lot to comprehend before you are even close to it. Once inside, its the familiar open-mouthed, glazed-over, no-fucking-way look that I've grown so accustomed to over here.

I made my way past the open-air Turkish Baths and back to the flat. I watched some news coverage of an African election race and fell asleep. In the morning I woke up, showered, and made my way to the bus station to hop a bus to Aggtelek. Of course I was so out of it that I didn't realize it was the end of daylight savings time, but no matter. I had an extra hour to kill. A pleasant 2 hour bus ride through the Hungarian countryside and I was magically in Aggtelek. Aggtelek is part of a system of huge underground caverns that spans something like 20 kilometers into Slovakia. In the spring when the waters are a'plenty, you can take a boat trip in one of the underground lakes. It was great to go from a place that has been inhabited since the Stone Age to a place that IS the Stone Age! A nice little tour, although too many tourists talking and flashing their cameras for my liking. In one of the rooms they stage live concerts sometimes. But that day we were only treated to a recording and a light show. Starin' at Stalactites changing colors to the tune of Flight of the Bumblebee is a bit too cheese for me, but memorable nonetheless.

After I took the tour, I had about two hours to kill until the bus back to Eger. So I walked to the nearest busstop and the adjoining village and went to look for a restaurant or store. Nothing doing. There was a nice