TRips with Lara - Part 2: TR meeting

>> CIKK MAGYARUL <<

We had our annual Tomb Raider meeting in October, which is the 27th bigger meetup in our website’s history. Alongside gaming, there was more than enough time that we dedicated to some real-life exploration. We visited several locations at the Danube Bend, which is located in the northern part of Hungary: we explored the Visegrád Citadel, went on an adventure at the Rám canyon and visited the city of Esztergom.

These gatherings are being organized since the year 2000, there are barely any gatherings around the world with such a long history, the Hungarian Tomb Raider community is proud to have such an enduring team of people through all these years. Anybody’s free to join us of course, newcomers are always happily welcomed. 😊 Let us show you where the Tomb Raider fever brought us this year!

On October 20 we set out all across the country as Tomb Raider fans, to meet in Dunabogdány and go on our own adventure together in good spirit and with the company of Little Lara. On the way to the pension we found out that the area of the Danube Bend is a gorgeous place. There’s a huge variety of opportunities there, of which we picked some interesting activities for ourselves.

Day 1

The first day was the ’tutorial’, after cooking up some paprika potato sausage stew, a traditional Hungarian meal, we explored our Croft Manor. We started off with some gaming: in the evening we played Nicobass’s TR2 demo and a classic, very challenging custom level that makes the player go crazy called Run Lara Run. It wasn’t an easy one to complete, that’s for sure, on the other hand, it offered some high level entertainment for everyone watching instead of playing.

Day 2

The next day we set off to Visegrád, we went up the mountain in the very dense fog and we explored the citadel, where we could just persuade Lara not to take any treasures of historical value, we put ourselves in the stocks and would have admired the beautiful view of the Danube Bend, if it wasn’t all blocked off by thick layers of fog. But we enjoyed the mysterious and special atmosphere it created around the citadel; it looked even more special with the thick fog moving around in front of us that covered the fortress.

Laras having fun in the company of the local ’residents’

Our team split into two here, the bigger half went to Dömös to go to the Rám canyon. The view of mountains covered in fog welcomed us near the small harbor.

The foggy, gloomy weather didn’t motivate us less, we started our 8 km long trip along a stream of water, through the woods. The way got narrower after a while, we had to use our Tomb Raider knowledge in several places, which meant we had to do some tricky jumps, balance on beams and rocks and so on. There was a bit of a ’traffic jam’ at narrow parts of the canyon, especially at the waterfall where everyone stops for a photo, and so did we:

Further on the cliffs got higher and higher and finally we got to the point where we climbed up on ladders next to some smaller waterfalls. After some climbing we reached the top, where we had some well-deserved rest and then walked down through the Lukács trench. We even found a secret hidden in a tree hollow. 😊
We spent the rest of the day having fun with lots of joking and laughing around.

Day 3

Our next destination was the city of Esztergom, where we travelled to Slovakia for a short while by a small train, and then we explored the basilica in Esztergom. (Lara had to resist the temptation in the crypts once again.)

The day ended with another unforgettable round of Activity and long conversations.

Day 4

The last day is always about saying goodbye, we went home feeling both happy and sad – sad, because we had to part ways again, and happy, because it happened. Let’s hope we meet again soon!