Touring on 3 hours of sleep

Entries below discuss the International Week sponsored by the University of Pecs Faculty of Health Sciences. You may note I arrived back from the dinner in Villany at 0:40. At 4:20 I was walking down Janos Ut on the way to the train station. Yes, there isn't much time between 0:40 and 4:20, and I didn't sleep much on the train either. Much to my surprise the 5:23 train was quite crowded and there wasn't room to stretch out and relax. I wandered to the dining car for the first time in my trips to have some coffee and bread, since I hadn't taken the time to eat breakfast at home. The train arrived at Budapest-Keleti right on time. I quickly secured a 24 hour transit pass and then took the Metro one stop and hopped on the 4/6 tram to get to the Fulbright office. Much to my surprise I was the second person to arrive, having come the furtherest distance of anyone that morning!

We took a bus to Eger. Our first stop was the Eszterhazy University. The first thing we saw was the historic library. Hey, it's not even 24 hours since I've been in the Kilmo Library. This one captured our attention, however, for the architechture.

It is decorated with amazing tromp o'loil painting. Above is a picture of one of the window settings.

The ceiling is equally amazing. One feels as if there is a painted dome overhead. However, there is actually one milimeter difference between the wooden ledge and the ceiling. Hard to believe this could true.

We wandered on to admire another room. This room has had a restoration process during the past couple of years, and is now used primarily as a conference/meeting room.

Then we began to climb stairs to the camera obscura. I had no idea what we were headed for, nor did I have any idea how many steps it was going to be. Just let me say, 200 may be a short estimate -- and remember I'm doing this on 3 hours of sleep!

At last we arrived at room that held old astronomy instruments.

Then we climbed a few more steps and got to terrace that provided magnificent views of Eger. The top picture shows a view of the Eger fort. The large building with the steel roof in the lower picture is the brand-new swimming pool. In the distance one can see the Matra Mountains. You all might know this is also a wine area.

Then a few more steps and finally we were in the room with the camera obscura. This is mirror that extends out of the dome of the building. What the mirror gathers is reflected onto a lens which projects an image down on a white table -- only we were totally in the dark, so the "white table" went away and all we saw were the images from outside.

This is an image of the dome of the nearby cathedral obviously captured off the "white table" by my camera lens. Below is the picture I took of the same building from outside.

From here we traveled to the Valley of Beautiful Women for lunch. It is indeed a beautiful valley, and of course we were al beautiful women!

After lunch we parked by the County Hall so we could enter the courtyard and see the gates. This art form is a particular feature of Eger.

Then we went to the fort, and walked and up and down stairs again. The fort was very interesting, particularly since we had learned more about the battles fought there while driving to Eger.

We ended our day in Eger by walking past the minaret. This is the northern most minaret in Europe. It is 97 steps to the top, a climb that didn't interest a one of us!

It was very, very quiet on the trip back to Budapest. I was invited to dinner, but declined saying I was going to grab a sandwich and then crash.

Both the International Week and the trip to Eger were great experiences. It was worth giving up almost a whole night of sleep to be able to participate in both of these events. However, to be honest, it took me about three days to get over it. Clearly I'm not 25 any more!