Zsámbék, Páty & Wine Festival

This past weekend, one of the Local Committees (LCs) in Budapest organized an outing for the interns in Budapest. In the past couple of days, a number of new interns arrived as it was the start of the summer season. Most of these individuals will be leaving at the end of the summer.

Our first stop was Zsámbék, a village located about an hour outside of Budapest by bus. We were here to visit a church ruin. The church was originally built by the French, invaded by the Mongolians, ruled by the Hungarians, invaded by the Turkish and then owned by a Hungarian family before being destroyed in an Earthquake. Pretty crazy for just a small town! Read more about it on here.

Church Zsambek

Because there were so many of us, the property managers gave us a mini tour of the church, sharing stories and further information about the church.

The church was on a slight hill which presented a view of the valley and village below. It was nice to see the green and fields.

Wine Fest-16

Following our visit to Zsámbék, we hopped back on the bus en route to the city of Páty, where there was a wine festival being held. We stumbled upon a community house that was offering food and drink for a donation. They had this delicious soup with meat, mushrooms, carrots and other random veggies in it. Apparently, it has Mongolian roots, but they couldn’t provide me with a name. There was plenty of wine being passed around, all of which were made locally. I also tried a drink made from elder flowers. The flowerheads were reduced with sugar to produce a sweet syrup which is mixed with water before drinking. It was really good! My roommate managed to find a bottle of the syrup in a supermarket too.

Wine Fest-21 Wine Fest-24

After eating our fill, we headed into the forest where the festival was being held. The idea was, you could go from wine cellar to wine cellar tasting the different types of wine they had to offer.

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It was a great day to get out of the city for a bit and see something new. I met so many new people in the span of one day. I’m really enjoying the fact that there are so many interns here in the city. It means there is never a dull day!