Sárospatak

We had such a good time in Sarospatak this past weekend with our friends Dénes and Petra. Monday was a holiday, so we were able to get a lot in with the long weekend. We drove up to Patak on Friday night, and were hosted by Dénes's parents Eva and Dénes. We stayed in a guest house of the Reformed seminary, and enjoyed our delicious meals prepared by Eva. On Saturday we hiked through fields and vineyards outside of the village of Hercegkut to a geocache. The four of us were joined by Dénes's sister Fáni. After a late lunch we went to the Evinor Wine Cellars for a tour of the cellars and a fabulous tasting! That evening we ate at a beautiful restaurant in the castle.

On Sunday we worshiped at the Reformed church in Sárospatak, followed by a delicious Sunday dinner. In the afternoon we drove to Petra's home town of Karcsa, about 20 kilometers away. There we were able to get inside the Reformed church, a stone building nearly 1000 years old! Then we visited with Petra's sister and her family. Before supper Dénes Senior gave us a tour of the archives of the Sárospatak Reformed Seminary, where he is the director. We were privileged to see many Bibles and other books printed as early as 1526. Among them were original books by John Calvin, Martin Luther, and other reformers. We also saw the first Bible printed in the Hungarian language.

On Monday we went for another hike (geocache) outside of Sátoraljaújhely. The weather was quite blustery until we rounded the mountain and got into the sunshine. The Magyar Kalvaria is a series of monuments commemorating cities which Hungary "lost" after the Trianon Treaty. We found the geocache at the top of the mountain while basking in the sunshine. After returning to Sárospatak and eating lunch, we left for Budapest mid afternoon, stopping in Miskolc to drop off Dénes's mother at her mother's house.

We love being with Dénes and Petra, and really appreciated getting to know more of their families and backgrounds. Enjoy the pictures!



Petra, Fáni, Éva, Dénes Jr., Dénes Sr., Cindy, and Jack eating dinner at the Castle. (Notice the only ones showing their teeth...like Americans.)


View of the Reformed church steeple and stork's nest.


The Evinor Wine Cellar


They only have white grapes-white wines in the Tokaji region.


The vintner-a very knowledgeable and interesting host.


The church we toured in Karcsa dating back to 1000 A.D.


Ancient Hungarian noblemen (and their horses) burial grounds...dating prior to 1000 A.D.


Top of the Magyar Kalvaria monument where we did a geocache.