Week Long Vacation and Wine Festival

The annual Wine Festival in Szeged took place from May 17th to May 26th. It was also Whit Monday, so I decided to go on a vacation for the remaining four days of the week. I planned to go swimming every day, get a nice tan and drink a lot of wine. You know what they say about best laid plans...

The week before the forecast was not good. Showers and cold, but I stayed hopeful that it wouldn't come true. Well, apparently, when I really don't want them to be right, they are.

I left Budapest on Friday. In the morning I thought of only going in sandals, but in the end I packed a pair and went in my Adidas trainers. Best decision ever. By the time the train arrived to Szeged, it wasn't just raining there. It was a proper thunderstorm with lightning. So I grabbed a taxi home, at which point I realised I should have packed more cash, because I gave my last pieces to the taxi driver.

The following three days were nice though. On Saturday we went to Flabelos, then had a nice lunch at the festival. Beef cheeks in red wine and green pepper sauce, fries, pickles, and 2dl of Opomer from Ősi Gábor Winery, Villány. Mum ate fried sausage, and shared the fries. We enjoyed the food and the wine a lot. Afterwards we went for coffee to McCafé. I like going there because they have soy milk and coffein free coffee, and not charge extra for either. We also got a card where after three coffees you can get the fourth and fifth 50% off. I had a chocolate and coconut cold coffee, and we both are a slice of marzipan cake with it. I especially like that cake because it has some fruit jelly and poppy seed cream in it, making it not too sweet.

We went back to the festival and had a walk around. At the very end of it we found a great wine from the Dörgicse-Tihay Echo Winery. It's from 2009, a white wine, semi-sweet. I immediately knew we were going to get a bottle of it. We also had a nice chat with the woman selling it, and I friended her on Facebook.

We walked a bit more and decided to get a decilitre more of red wine, but that wasn't that good. We were getting a bit tipsy at that point.

We even went and got some ice cream at the Dóm pastry shop.

We got home stuffed, tired and a bit full of alcohol, so we both had a nap.

On Sunday we had lunch at home. In the afternoon we were seeing downtown a relative, Anikó from Budapest. Mum and I had coffee at McCafé again. I got the coffees, the same cold ones as the day before. Before me there was a guy, and he was offered the same ticket I had from the day before. I told him that he only needed three to get to the two 50% off, but he said he doesn't drink there often. He asked me if I wanted a punch on my ticket for his coffee, and since that got me right to the 50% off, I told him sure. So I got both coffees at a discount. Anikó only got water. We had a nice chat.

Afterwards she had somewhere to be, and we went to get my photo at the fountain. It's for a before and after picture.

Before

After

After that, we went to get some of the white wine from the day before. It was a very hot day, so we didn't feel like staying more. We stopped to buy some chimney cake on our way home. Then we meet some relatives on the street. I wasn't feeling well at that point. The sun was getting so much, so I had to stop mum talking about illnesses and told her that we need to get out of the sun, because I'm ready to faint or throw up. I wasn't feeling well even when we got home, so I ended up napping.

Monday it was lovely weather again, but not as hot as the day before. We had lunch at the festival again. I had a big piece of fish, that I could hardly finish. Mum had some liverwurst. We couldn't have wine with it, because the wine stalls were a bit far off, so we just had water. We had some of the Opomer afterwards. Coffee again at the usual place, and walking.

Tuesday the weather got worse, but we still managed to go swimming in the morning. We had very little cash on us, but we still ate at the Festival and had a little bit of wine.
However, the next three days the weather was so terrible, we were both in a lot of pain. We couldn't go. We mostly stayed in.
Though on Wednesday after lunch we felt better, and went to the Árkád mall. I finally got flat comfortable black sandals. I've been searching for some for a while. We had to take back some skirts to C&A, and exchanged them for some trousers and tops.

On Saturday we went to the Festival again. Mum and I had lunch at John Bull's. Choosing something was difficult, but with the help of the waiter we managed. They changed the side dish for me.

We drank some wine at the Festival, and had the usual coffee. There was a Starbucks tent at the Festival. They said they want to check if people want one in Szeged.

We went to the mall at the edge of the city to check if at Vögele they have some nice spring jackets, but they didn't have any. We had a look at a teddy bear exhibition they had there. I also got some colourful summer dresses. At first I got the L size, and I was about to pay, when I realised I lost some weight and maybe the M would fit better. So I went back, and it did. I also searched for a black bag of a specific size, but didn't find any. On our way home we stopped to get that bottle of wine.

I went back on Sunday to Budapest.