ice cream with anna

anna (the director/owner/ruler of the language school and so my boss!) grew up in a small town (Szikszó) about an hour from Nyíregyháza. she told me about an ice cream place that made handmade/homemade ice cream that was to die for and invited me to come with her to taste the goodness. so after working up an appetite swimming in caves, we drove to her hometown.

the place had a old-timey family-run type feeling so i liked it immediately.

it was busy the whole time we were there, not surprisingly

there were lots of ice cream flavors (not 31 or anything...) and lottttts of sweets.

mignon = delicious

cake display

we both had caramel and cream. the expectations were pretty high, but they were MET!

anna took me for a short visit at her aunt's house (to discuss a tablecloth, bring her ice cream, and give her some joint cream). then when we got in the car she turned in the wrong direction (i thought) and down some side street. she excused herself and said she just can't leave the town without getting some spring water from the well. we got out some bottles and headed to the pump.
i was tempted to think anna was weird, but when another kid showed up with bottles i thought maybe this really is the thing to do in these parts. in fact, the water was pretty good - natural minerals in there, ya know.
we had a nice drive home through the mountains and the plains and fields of corn and sunflowers
we even stopped in the wine region (at my request) to get a bottle of sweet winey goodness. a cute little wine shop full of the national favorites:

these barrels are typical of wine cellars in the wine region so a fitting display.

look at the cutey little gift baskets

we got back to town, dropped off some ice cream at the language school freezer (anna had to bring some back for her employees since they all knew she was going to the place), and went to her flat for a few minutes. we had a drink (more to come on that later) and she loaded me up with a variety of her summer batches of jam.
anna bought me some cakes but i wasn't paying attention and she got wayyy more than i thought. 2 bambis (chocolate cake with a layer of chocolate cream), 2 turo cakes (the translation is "cottage cheese" but i promise it's not disgusting like that sounds, think cream cheese), and 2 chocolate honey cakes (which taste like an upgraded s'mores because it has honey cake, cream, and chocolate frosting). omg, wow.

i had so much loot after this long day! i can't wait to get into it all :)

water from the spring, wine from tokaj, and
jams: orange, apricot, strawberry, raspberry, and blackberrya very enjoyable and memorable hungarian day. thank you so much, anna!