Pécs

I just got back from a weekend trip to Pécs, a small city in southern Hungary. In 2010 it will be the European Capital of Culture, along with Istanbul. It's other claim to fame is having the largest building in Central Europe that is not in use. It is a 22-story building towering over part of the city, and all of it is vacant. I went with Chris, a fellow BSMer, who attends Yale back in the States. I learned lots of things about Yale and secret societies and such. We left Saturday morning, took the train, and that was quite a bit of fun in itself. I don't think I have ever been on a train before. The countryside was beautiful, and we ate in the dining car, which was kinda cool. We arrived at around noon, and the weather was blah. It was overcast and rainy all day. So we went to a bunch of museums: A basilica dating from the 11th century, Hungarian Modern Art Museum, the Ferenc Martyn Museum, the Csontvary Museum (this really cool Pécs born painter, very good), a church turned mosque turned back to church (it is of Turkish design, but is now a Catholic church, the holy water is in a little alcove which is filled with quotes from the Koran, it was great). We then went out to dinner at the fanciest restaurant in town. We heard the key in rural Hungary is to go to fancy places, you get an amazing meal for the price of a good meal. So I had apricot soup with whipped cream and almonds for starters, followed by roast pork with ham and fried onions in tarragon gravy, and a dessert of poppyseed cake with candied plums. It was outstanding, and it was all only $20, with drink (a local pilsner) and tip. The funny part was that this was a fancy establishment, and the were playing crappy old American pop music. They played that Dido song twice while we were there. We then went to a bar for Unicum (basically the national drink of Hungary, it is a very bitter digestif) and tried one of the darker local beers. Then we went to Murphy's Pub and had Guinness, and there was this ridiculous band playing. It consisted of a keyboardist playing the cheesiest pre-programmed synth noises and a girl singing. She sang "Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear?" twice. Then we tried a bar/club place, but it was tiny and full, so we moved on to a place the guide book called "the hippest place in town, where the In crowd goes." So we thought we'd try to be the In crowd. We got there about 10.30-11.00, and we were the first ones there. No one else showed up for awhile, so we just watched the fun lights and disco ball and wondered if this place paid the guidebook to say that just to get curious tourists. But 11.30 a DJ went on, and some people trickled in. By 12.30-1.00 it was packed with the most well dressed people I have seen here yet in Hungary. We felt pretty out of place and tired, so we retired.
Sunday morning we woke up early and climbed the hills behind the city. There is a huge TV-tower (the Soviets loved their TV-towers) on top of one of the hills, and we made that our destination. It was a gorgeous walk through the hills. I had forgotten how much I enjoy hiking, and it inspired me to go explore the Buda hills better. We got to the top and found out you can go up the tower for a couple hundred forint, so we did. It was amazing. The hill itself is 535 meters above the city, and the observation deck is another 75 meters straight up. You could see forever in every direction. It was astounding. Now I wish I had gone up the TV-tower in Berlin. Following this we went to see another Turkish mosque (the most complete Turkish mosque with a minaret in all of Hungary) and then went to a Serb-Croatian restaurant. I had a Lepenkeyés, which was a goose fat and purple onion sandwich on a toasted pita. It sounding like the most intriguing thing on the menu, and so I got it. It was actually quite delicious. I also got a side of "mixed vegetables," which consisted of peas, carrots, and potatoes smothered in cheese. Here I also tried the third Pécsi beer here. It was alright. For dessert I got chestnut puree with whipped cream. Delicious. Then we got on the train and came back!
I'll put up pictures of all this soon.