...in the eye of the beholder

Ok, in my last post I left out some important information about Eger. Eger is known for its wine, especially the fabled Bull's Blood. The cool thing about getting wine in Eger is that there is an area called the Valley of the Beautiful Women where there are about 50 wine cellars to choose from. They are all underground, carved out of rock and serve really good wine. On top of all of that the wine costs 40 to 80 cents. I tried four different reds, including the Bull's Blood, and there were all excellent. After four it was time to go walk back into the city, but on my way out of the wine area the sun hit me in the perfect way. It was the perfect intersection of the suns rays and the earth, so I sat on a bench, and watched a dog lay lazily by a statue of Dionysus.

I have a rule about foreign dogs, I don't touch them, fear of rabies and all that. But in this perfect moment of wine and sun I thought to myself if that dog comes over I will break my rule just this once. I don't know if the dog had a similar rule about foreign travellers, but if he did, he put it aside and wandered over. The dog and I sat there for about 15 minutes, and then the sun, although still nice, wasn't perfect, so I began to walk out of the valley, being left with one question. Was the name of this valley given in irony or is it after the effects of the wine that the women become so beautful? I think the general population of the valley that day, men and women looked pretty ordinary. The only really cute thing I saw was the dog!