July 13

Guest Author: Sydnee shares about our day at Herend, Hungary
Being in the whole "camp" mode, we got an early start to the bus station. We stopped for breakfast which turned out to be rye bread. Tip... when in Hungary, go for the light brown bread, not the darker! We loaded a bus that had been around since probably 1940 and were off to Herend, Hungary. I was really anxious about the trip having my only information coming from the web site. We arrived to a town that appeared to house the "Chinette" manufactory, not the world renowned Herend china! At this point I was really nervous that I had dragged us 2 hours from the lake and another 3 from our ulimate destination, Budapest. However, when I saw the wooden sign, my fears were releived and we headed to the factory. It was really amazing! We saw first hand the casting, buidling, and painting of the china. The journey totally proved itself worthy. The guidebook lead us to believe that the prices were 50% less than the states, but that certainly was not the case, altough I now have a better understanding of the demanding high prices. The guide was describing one table setting that took 3 months to complete! Post factory tour, we ate at an authentic Hungarian restraunt where we were happy to have a chicken option. After lunch we headed to the bus station for Budapest. It started raining as it does here in the afternoons too, and we were pretty tired after a long day of travel. After much hostel hunting, we settled on yet another "zimmer."