After three years battling in the Hungarian courts, justice was finally served and I won my court case against DCE-Hungary in June over my former second hand bookstore, Treehugger Dan's. It has been a traumatic and frustrating experience, but ultimately worthwhile to pursue the case through the courts. It has also been a big kick in the behind to make some signifigant life decisions. One of the positive results was finding a job at Aggtelek National Park; another was making the move to the countryside. We are still slowly exploring our surroundings, so when we were looking for something to do to celebrate, we decided to check out the spa at Lillafüred close to Miskolc. We also celebrated my successful Basic Mushrooming Certification exam. The year-long course included over 70 hours of classroom lessons and field work, naturally all in Hungarian. I faced special challenges with the language, not having studied anything in 25 years, and only having had one oral exam in my life - the defence of my thesis. Hungarians regularly have to pass oral exams, but it is a rare hurdle for American students. The course included toxicology, tree identification (because of mycorrhiza), identification, mushroom biology, legislation, home-growing and preserving, and cooking. My classmates and teachers were all friendly, patient and supportive.

I had not been in Lillafüred in about 20 years. I was there first when I worked for the then-Miskolc-based Ecological Institute for Sustainable Development (now in Gömörszölős) when we were working on salamander habitat reconstruction with a group of Scottish Boy Scouts. I visited again a few years later when some friends and I went on a fantastic "Boy's Weekend" to Miskolc when we took the narrow gage forest railway up to the Hámori boating lake.

Parking was a problem, but we finally found free parking behind the Palota Hotel****. You have to turn left into the hotel and pass through the entrance arch. We took a nice walk through the Hanging Gardens down to the waterfall. Lillafüred is home to Hungary's highest waterfall (20m). The Hanging Gardens, even in autumn, make a nice serpentine walk down to the waterfall, which, while not Niagara, is still a beautiful sight. Solar-powered lit signs inform visitors in both Hungarian and English about the area. Down below along the roaring stream we spotted a toppled tree hanging across the gorge featuring a collection of oyster mushrooms of some sort. Oyster mushrooms were first cultivated in Germany as a subsistence measure during World War I. We continued walking downhill into the village past the entrance to the Anna Cave, but were unable to find anything open except a small shop and the Metallurgy Museum. With a cup of coffee in hand from the shop/post office, we wandered back along the peaceful Hámori séta following the stream. I was happy to note that the wooden bridges here are wheelchair accessible.

Back at the hotel, we had missed the spa discount, or so we thought. We had been informed that the cost was 3600 huf/2 persons before 1pm. Happily, it seems the spa staff interpret this more flexibly and we got the discount. We went in at about 12:30 and got the discount anyway. No need to bring towels, since each guest gets a towel and sheet. The Palota Hotel Wellness Centre was much larger than I expected, and thankfully very quiet as well.

We first took a walk through to see what was on offer. I would have been satisfied if there was only the Jacuzzi and 10m pool in the first room, but the wellness centre stretched to several areas. We first soaked in the big bubble pool at the far end before entering the sauna, and then the steam room. For safety, I would have put a higher guard rail around the heating element, but the metal bolts were covered by wooden caps to avoid accidental burns. There are 3 or 4 saunas (45-50 C) scattered throughout, and the one steam room (100 C). There are also 3 "plunge pools" (18 C) for sudden and drastic cooling off between turns in the sauna. There are also a couple rest areas with both double and single padded recliners. Almost at the last moment we discovered the lovely small outside area with a hidden sauna looking out onto a rock garden and another plunge pool.

On the way to Lillafüred, and a couple weeks before on our way to the Miskolc Zoo, I had spotted the Diosgyőri Sörház which appeared to be advertising microbrews. I convinced Kata to stop in for a second and we were nicely surprised. Although the ambiance is strictly "fapados," the woman behind the bar was very friendly and informative. The homebrew beer menu was also extremely extensive, including, but not limited to lychee, banana, unfiltered lager, wheat, bitter chocolate, cherry, black currant, quince, pineapple-lime, plum, pumpkin, and extra-strong. Prices range between 260-990 Huf/litre takeaway (plus the bottle if you forget your own). The beers are much better carbonated, and keep the fizziness much better than the other microbrews we have tried in the area. We bought some wheat (the most expensive), bitter chocolate and litchi beer. All were winners in our book, especially the bitter chocolate. Unfortunately, Gyertyános, the producer of these Hámori Beers, does not have a functioning webpage but they are located at Kiss Tábornok út 55, 3534 Miskolc (info@gyertyanos.hu).

This week we also dug up another two wheelbarrows of Jerusalem artichokes. There are still a lot in the ground, and we have been becoming desperate as to what to do with them. Luckily, Kata had a brainstorm and remembered the lovely older couple in Büdöskútpuszta that raise organic mangalica pigs. She called the Baris (bari.andras@freemail.hu, 06-70-456-8829) and they said they would be happy to take them off our hands and fatten their pigs on them! We will make the delivery of a few hundred kilos sometime this week. We also picked the sloes for our last big cooking project of the year, making sloe liquor. We still want to make supports for our raspberries, but just about the last thing we did before winter sets in is to spread compost on all the vegetable beds. There was just enough to go around.

The second planting of lettuces and red beets in September has paid off, and we are enjoying fresh salad every day even now in mid-November. What an amazing thing! In the evenings we have been settling in with some River Cottage episodes (thanks Balázs and Kata!) in Hungarian. Today we tried one of his inspired pizza recipes: pear, blue cheese and spinach (which we substituted with chicory). I do not like pears, but the pizza was great. Kata also baked a red beet-chocolate cake which also slipped by my adult dislike for beets (I loved them as a kid).