YOU GOTTA LOVE GYOR

(90 wines tasted thru the end of this post)

You name the tribe, culture, or army, and at one time or another it inhabited Gyor.  Since the 5^th century BC, this included the Celts, Roman merchants, and later the Roman army which gave up and left in the 4^th century because of constant attacks from tribal groups.

Next came the Slavs, Lombards, and Avars.  About the year 900, the Hungarians arrived. Things went swimmingly well until the Ottomans decided to invade Hungary.   As the Turkish army made its way to Gyor, the Hungarian commander decided there was no way to fend it off so he borrowed a page from a crafty government official in Sopron.  He burned the town down.  (Gyor, BTW, means burnt castle.)  Seems a little Draconian to me, but history is what it is.

The town was rebuilt and included another castle.  The Austro-Hungarian army whipped the Turks and sent them packing in 1598.  The Turks must have had a memory longer than an elephant’s, because in 1683 they came marching back only to be defeated in the battle of Vienna.  After that they went home and stayed there.

Napoleon’s army showed up in 1809 and defeated the Hungary/Austria army.  He ordered some of the castle walls to be blown up.  (I gather from the history of Sopron and Gyor that Hungary hasn’t had much luck with castles.)

After Nappy left, town officials figured a castle without walls wasn’t of much use, so they tore up the ramparts as well.  The town began to build out from there.

Gyor’s troubles were not over.  During the 1950’s and 1960’s, only big blocks of flats were built (by you know who), and the magnificent old buildings were left to fall into disrepair.  Finally, beginning in the 1970’s, many of the old buildings were restored, while those beyond repair were rebuilt.

Thank you, whoever you were, for the restoration and rebuilding.  If I thought Sopron was a lovely city, Gyor easily surpasses it.

I am here for the weekend only.  It is the harvest festival, and I am sitting practically at ground zero.  The music stage for jazz and Hungarian style music is only a four minute walk away.  The stage down by the Duna, which hosts a lot of folk dancing, is only about a ten minute walk.

The hot humid days of the past three weeks have given way to temperatures in the 70’s with low humidity.  A two hour Sunday afternoon stroll through the historic center city is just about enough to make the whole trip worthwhile.

Another reason for my good mood is my lodging for the weekend.  It is an entire apartment with twelve foot ceilings.  There is even a piano! Take a look at the photos below.

Now, follow me through the streets and take a look at some of the sights on my Sunday afternoon stroll.

By the way, one of those pieces of strudel followed me home.

Just look at the delicate artwork made from fresh flowers and dried leaves.

 

And for the last picture.  Hey honey I found a great fixer upper.  What do you think?

After my stroll, it was time to research on my netbook how to buy a train ticket from Gyor to Villany which is in southwest Hungary and probably the most important of the 22 wine regions.

After working that out I left my palatial digs to go to dinner at Matroz, TripAdvisor’s third ranked restaurant in Gyor.  While we are on TripAdvisor, I’ll tell you about my lunch yesterday. 

I ate lunch at La Mareda which is ranked number one on TripAdvisor.  Sadly, my chicken breast was dry.  The first wine, an Irsai  Oliver, had little bouquet and a tart finish.  The two glasses of Tamas Csillig left me with an acid stomach that lingered for two hours after lunch.  A twenty dollar lunch at the TripAdvisor number one rated restaurant:  who posted the reviews?  The waiters’ relatives?

Tonight at Matroz, it was not gourmet fare but very good.  I drank a deciliter of Pannonhalmi rose.  It was tasty, so I doubled the volume for my next glass.  The wine cost about a third per deciliter of what the acid bath at La Mareda cost.  Go figure.

Now for the wine surprise of the evening.  A number of fellow diners had two water glasses of what looked like white wine in front of them.  When it came time to pay my bill, I asked the waiter for a deciliter of the white wine many of the diners were drinking.  He explained that it was a wine spritzer.  I ordered a glass and found it very refreshing, much like a weak champagne, bubbles and all.