Don't Ask Because We Won't Tell

If you think this going to be some gay rights in the US military, hit the back button now, because it isn't. This is about the Budapest Tourism office and their ability to be timely with information. 


The Hungarian House of Wines on Castle Hill provided a wonderful treat for those who like wine and have a capacity to drink fast. You paid something like $15.00 at the time and you were set free in the cellar to taste taste 60 Hungarian wines without supervision. This was so high on everyone's "Must Do" list, when it closed years ago, I am surprised there was no funeral march with a memorial service. Hope was everlasting with the signs that stated they were eventually relocating to the Pest side of the river, though the time frame was indefinite. With that information and making it my business to keep up-to-date on businesses, I periodically, but with utmost frequency would stop in at TourInform hoping for a good news of a rebirth. Nothing new, same old, same old, no the Hungarian House of Wines has not reopened.  


Interestingly, when I went to the museum this Sunday, I just happened to walk by the old House of Hungarian Wine only to be aghast that the door was open. I barreled through the door like a drunk in prohibition finding the last drop of alcohol in a Baptist Church. When I started to question the receptionist, she had to call reinforcements; she did not speak English. Strange for a place that heavily depends on tourists to have their front person be a non-English speaker. 


The entire staff came to greet me. I think I was the first non-employee they have seen on the premises in months. Months, you ask? Yes, months. This new House of Hungarian Wines had re-opened supposedly in August of 2010. I am dubious about this information, because I know for a fact that I have passed by this location multiple times in the last eleven months with the explicit purpose of paying homage to a treasured tourism site, though I did not ever partake personally. Certainly most or at least some of my parting glances had to have been during normal operation hours, yet there had never been any sign of life to spark my attention for further investigation. 


That be what it may, the new rendition of the wine house will certainly cause whines from those who have been privy to its former carnation. This House of Wine is much more expensive, you are kept on a short lease for tasting, and you have to choose from different prescribed plans of offerings. For what they are charging, there are many other less expensive as well as less restrictive opportunities around the city. Too bad! I wonder if they will be open by next July.

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Whine and Wine

Someone stole our butter. We started out having our breakfast of date scones, but Ron found our butter was missing. There was over a ½ pound left to the block; you would think they could have used part of it and left the rest, but then again if you are stealing there are no rational thoughts. While we were wrapped up in culinary concern, parts of the country were dealing with matter of far great importance. Thought they do not get hurricanes here, they did get hurricane-like winds   with torrential blasts of rain causing flash flooding. As they say, the Kiwi thing to do this time of year is go camping, but hundreds of families those that chose to do that had to be evacuated due to the weather. From what we heard others say, there have not been weather conditions like that in decades. Fortunately, it only lasted for hours and then it was gone.

By the time we were ready to make our way into the world outside the skies were clear with the rain seemingly behind us. We only had the morning to occupy ourselves having to be back at the hostel by 1pm for the wine tour pick-up. We have covered as much of Napier as humanly possible on foot, covering the downtown and regions further afield at least once, but many twice or more times already. For such a small city, it is densely packed with stores, bakeries, coffee shops, and restaurants for about five blocks in all directions.

Deciding to do a little shopping, all of a sudden, we were mixing and mingling amongst hordes of people puffing up the small town like too much yeast in a batch of bread dough. Where did they suddenly materialize from? The cruise ships were in port. When cruise ships stop here, which they do often in the season, all of these floaters find their land legs for a few hours of shopping. Depending on the cruise line, the passengers may have from 2 to 6 hours to come ashore to populate the stores like a bad case of roaches when the lights get turned on at night.

With their treading on Mother Earth, they can now say “Yes, I have been to New Zealand” without the qualifying the fact that all they witnessed were some shops. With our 3 days and we are out, I feel like we are playing tourism baseball. Instead of 3 strikes, our similar days stay is just giving us a sampler platter of the different cities. Though I must say, we do cover a tremendous amount of territory hitting the ground running. What we do not get to see is not due to lack of time, but lack of transportation. There are places and things that locals say are a “must see”, but they all require a car because they are where no public transports dares to go. Neither of us have a driver’s license any longer, so we can safely say we cannot rent a car. Safely I say, because they drive on the opposite side of the street than we do in North America and in Hungary. It is difficult enough trying to cross the street without causing an accident; driving would be treacherous for sure. 

At 1pm on the dot, Hamish from Prinsley’s Tours picked us up for an afternoon of wine. The whines would not begin until the headaches appeared at the end of the day. There were three in the van already, a mother, son, and daughter-in-law. All three were locals, but none had ever done the wineries before. Son and daughter-in-law are living in Australia, but came home for the holidays and gifted this tour to mums for Christmas. They were quite lovely mates for this tour, keeping it refreshingly small besides.

The first winery was originally owned by the Marion order of priests and brothers. They still have a financial hand in the winery, but not the operations. The grounds are splendid rolling hills, one of which serves as an amphitheater for summer concerts. Each year, they have a dedicated wine label specifically for that concert that attendees can purchase as a remembrance. Quite clever marketing! One interesting fact here. They allow the sheep to run through the vineyards to eat the lower leaves from the vines. This allows the lower grapes to get sufficient sunlight, yet the sheep will not eat the grapes. At that stage of development, the grapes are too acidic, so the sheep do not like the taste.

Here we tasted 6 different wines: 4 white, 2 red. I am always impressed with the intriguing ways that they describe wines. This one has a vanilla tone with a hint of caramel, while there is a fleeting taste of wild raspberries and a touch of oak. Really? Come on. To me, it tastes like fermented grapes, end of story; they all burn the back of my throat. Having quit smoking, I can say that I do taste differences more distinctly now that I did in the past, but please don’t try telling me you can get grapes to taste like Heinz 57 varieties. Oh, this white has a nutty flavor characterized by its grapefruit undertone with shades of turnip and a long tongue that is reminiscent of bangers and mash.

To me all of these asinine descriptors are all marketing. It reminds me of when I was a child. I received a letter in the mail claiming my entry had won the contest I had entered through the breakfast cereal promotion. From the pictures and vivacious wording on the cereal boxes, I was certain that I had won a ’59 Chevy convertible in candy apple red. Wow, what a gift this would be for my parents. They had never known what it was like to have a vehicle that was not previously owned by hordes of others first. On the day of delivery, a mailman arrived at the door for a signature proof of delivery. Had I not been 5 years old, this should have been a red flag. Mailmen do not deliver cars. My reward, my dream, my excitement, my gift, fit in the palm of my juvenile palm. The length of the car was shorter than the distance from my wrist to the tip of my middle finger. From that moment, I became an advocate for truth in advertising.

After the first winery, the others were small by comparison, close to boutique sized. By the third winery, we had had sampled about sixteen different wines. What I wanted to ask, but after sixteen samples of wine the question was only a passing thought “If you only bottle 200 cases of this wine, shouldn’t you be saving it and not giving it to us for sampling?” If I only had 200 of anything to show for a year’s work, you can bet your bottom dollar I am not going to be giving out any samples to a group of people who just want a go at it.

At the end of the third winery, we had a cheeseboard, which we paid an addition supplement. For the five of us, the cheese was quite stingy. There were four varieties all of them quite tasty, but not generous chunks. If each of us coughed up the extra $NZ 10.00, that cheeseboard was a $NZ50 commodity, but like my red Chevy, it did not come close to expectations.

One of the highlights of this particular tour was going up to a look-out summit. Hamish was not sure if this would be possible or not due to the winds. The roads are like a serpentine snake winding around this mountain and barely two lanes for bidirectional traffic. High winds make it especially dangerous without guardrails on the road as you climb the mountain in either direction. As luck would have it, we were able to make it. The elevation is 1,200 feet at the top with a vista that is magnificent. You will find pictures in the photo blog under today’s date. This once flat land was pushed up into its current position by earthquakes. Another testament to the power of Mother Earth.

By 5:30pm we were back at the hostel, all graped up and nowhere to go we went to the Irish pub for a beer, saving the one bottle of wine we bought today for a more sober occasion when we would appreciate it. Back at the hostel, Ron cooked up chicken cutlets stuffed with apricot and cheese. Before you get too impressed, we bought them frozen already prepared. If no one has done it yet, I think it would be a fun idea to put together a hostel cookbook. I have seen some of these young people create quite imaginative and incredibly delicious smelling dishes from what looks like the minimalist amount of ingredients. Necessity is the Mother of Invention.

The wineries we toured are:
Mission
Moana Park
Ngatarawa – Liked the Pinot Gris the best
Black Barn


To reach Hamish's company, it is Prinsy's Rural Experience and Wine Tours of Hawkes Bay. You can reach their website here.
They are also bookable at the iSite office or any accommodation.

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Last Tour of This Trip

When the alarm went off at 7:15 this morning, this tour thing did not sound as appealing as it did yesterday. Because of the multi-male bathrooms, we are able to get all bathing needs done simultaneously. Ron is always quicker with his glasses than I am with my contacts, so he was up in the kitchen fixing breakfast by the time I was ready.

The shuttle bus was prompt at 8:40 like they told us. It held 22 persons and we were told it would be full. Still, the seating was comfortable for a day's adventure. The day started out hot and continued to get warmer as the day went on. The shuttle was cool, but not well enough to battle the heat.

The driver/guide was a great commentator, starting as soon as we had collected everyone, pointing out different things along the way. I kept saying, remember this, remember that, but after the second winery, it was all down hill from there.

How many people can say they have seen the World's Largest Rocking Horse, or even care to admit they did? This was our first stop after a colorful history of Adelaide and North Adelaide, a separate city. There is a toy manufacturing company that is really out in the boonies. Having difficulty drawing crowds, they followed the example of other businesses that constructed giant things to attract attention. So along with a giant lobster at some restaurant that we did not visit, they had this rocking horse constructed of cement and steel. Since 911, the insurance for letting people climb to the top was so expensive, it put the company out of business. The people who bought the business started charging people $2.00 to climb up to the top to help defray the costs of insurance.

Along side of the toy company, but also owned by them is an animal sanctuary, where they keep birds that have been hurt, kangaroos, wallabies, peacocks, and some type of geese. As you walk through the toy store to get to the gates of the animal kingdom, there are bags of sawdust for sale, but labeled “genuine rocking horse manure”. Getting into the petting zoo is free.

They had some gorgeous birds, but we were warned as much as they like to be petted, they also like to bite finger off. Further in, there was a peacock strutting around, but partially molting. He came right up to us. Behind him was a peahen with chicks. Neither of us had ever seen peacock chicks before. The gray geese with yellow markings came up to us too, until they realized our hands were empty. Then we were shunned as cheap pariahs who would not spring for the $2.00 bag of food.

Three kangaroos were huddled together, one was lying on the ground. When I was busy scratching the one eating, she totally ignored my advances, but the one lying down burst into the air, looked totally startled and then hopped away. We both thought this was hysterical behavior, but then realized he had just made a major poop, missing my sandaled foot by an inch. He was on the run.

Back on the bus, the driver sent around a list of the seven entrées we had available to choose from and then making it more difficult, there were four different desserts. When we made our first wine stop, he called it in.

Our first winery stop was the Wolf Blass Winery, started by a German man who immigrated with a degree in oenology already in hand as well as years of experience. When he arrived here, they were only creating three types of wine and would not take his ideas seriously. He settled into creating the wines they wanted for years, but then took his VW Beetle and drove around the country offering his expertise as a consultant. Finally, he returned to this area, bought some land and started his own winery making wine his way. After winning a number of international wine awards three and four years in a row, people here started to take notice. The visitors center is modern with a entry sculpture of eagle wings that weighs fifty tons. In the center of the courtyard is another eagle statue. The land was originally named something with eagle in the Aboriginal language and the flag of Germany has an eagle on it.

Here we tasted seven wines. Since I am not much of a wine drinker, I taste and then spill the rest. Not today, however. I was threatened that if I were tempted to spill the rest into the bucket provided, I would be harmed if I did not spill it into Ron's glass instead. Just out of spite, I drank them all, whether I cared for them or not and generally, it was a not.

Our lunch was the next stop at a town called Nuriootpa, a German settlement and there we ate at the Vine Inn. Due to the size of our group, we were allocated three tables. Each table was given a plate of German appetizers, pickles, sauerkraut, and smoked meats sliced. We had access to a large salad bar, but once they started bringing out the lunches, most of us avoided the salad bar. I had chosen chicken parmigiana, which was a huge portion, served on a bed of French fries, or chips as they call them. There was no way I could do this justice and partake of the salad bar too. When I was finished, bursting was my main concern, so I went for a quick walk around the building. At my setting when I returned was my dessert, cheesecake with blueberries. It was not the solid NY type cheesecake, but rather a creamy fluffier type, so I was able to shovel it in, but not without reservations of popping my belly button. Ron had a fish called barramundi, a local fish. His portion was as large as mine. We were having a chat with the others at the table. I mentioned that I was disappointed in that we did not see any kangaroos on Kangaroo Island. One of the men turned to me and said, “Well, you better avoid the Virgin Islands in that case.” Though it is an old joke, it struck me funny, considering he was Australian.

As we waddled back to the bus, we made our way to the Vinecrest Winery. This was a boutique winery run by the 5^th generation of wine makers, located in the Barossa Valley. Our driver had warned us that the first winery after lunch was difficult and he was right on the money with that statement. Here they offered six samples. I settled for four, before calling Uncle and quitting. When liquor is concerned, I am a cheap date.

With not enough time to stop for photos, we did quickly stop at the Menglers Hill Lookout, which has a wonderful panorama over the entire Barossa Valley. Onward, we went to the Barossa Vines Winery, another boutique winery offering us six samples of their offerings. When we left here, our guide was telling us that they were closing the tasting center since they have another winery also. The financial crisis that has impacted the world has really hit the wine industry severely, so many are trying to cut costs wherever possible.

South Australia, of which Adelaide is the capital, is the driest state in Australia. They are on severe water rationing, since they have been under the needed rainfall for nine years. They had been using water from the Charles River, until it was found that the other states who were using it also has created a danger to the river, but lowering it to the point of harming the entire eco-system.

The last stop was the Kies Family Winery. They offered six different tastings, but by this point, I threw in the towel completely. They had a coffee shop, so I sprung for a coffee and aspirin instead. Ron, the trooper that he is did not want any winery to feel under appreciated, so he soldiered onward.

Finally, we had one stop left, but not another winery. It was the whispering wall. What it actually is is a dam that at one point in time was the largest dam in the world, but no longer. Due to its construction, if you stand on one end and speak in a normal voice, a person 140 meters away can hear you like you are standing next to them. Ron stood on the one side, while I walked to the other. While others were in line ahead of me, I could hear the people speaking to them as clear as a bell. When I spoke to Ron, I did not get an answer. Trying a second time, there still were no results. I thought it figured since he never answers his mobile phone at home either.

One thing that the guide did tell us about that I do remember is that they have a Oban bus track here. It is the only one in the world, outside of Germany. A specially equipped bus can drive the city streets, but when it gets to this specific track, a special part comes down from the wheel and the bus is driven automatically without the assistance of the driver. We would like to try this tomorrow.

The Tour Down Under, a major cycling event is having its pre-event tonight. Lance Armstrong is here to make his comeback debut. Cycle clubs from all over the world are here to compete. It seems that this was Adelaide's dream ten years ago to increase tourism. They worked out with the cycle clubs in Europe to host this event, which is a win-win. The weather here is warm to hot this time of year, it gives the cyclists the training in a competition they need before the European season starts, and the city gets flooded with tourists. They expect 500,000 tourists alone for this event.

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