Berlin Trip

The German Fulbright organization invited the Hungarian Fulbright professors and students to attend their conference in Berlin from March 15^th through the 18^th. Eleven of us from Hungary went. Because of our orientation in Budapest we know each other very well by now. This camaraderie is one of the best parts of our Fulbright experience, and we learned at the Berlin conference how unique our bond is. The German Fulbright program is so much bigger, and they don’t get together every month like we do in Hungary. As a result, the Fulbrighters don’t know one another. The number of people attending the conference was over 500. Our group stuck together for a lot of the sightseeing, and most of us flew together from Budapest to Berlin and back.

Our first sightseeing destination was the Reichstag, or the German parliament building. It has a huge glass dome attached to it that people climb up and look out over all of Berlin. Very impressive and beautiful. From there, we visited the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and a remnant of the Wall. So much of what we learned about Germany still references the times when it was divided. In fact, Berlin is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the falling of the wall and the collapse of communism. The effects of communism in both German and Hungary are still felt, but much more so in Hungary. Economically, Hungary is having a much harder time recovering. The difference is obvious when one visits both countries. Berlin is a thriving, vital, modern city. Very sophisticated in many ways. The shops, museums, buildings, infrastructure, and city districts are well-organized, smooth-running and clean. The buildings in Budapest are incredibly beautiful and have so much architectural detail, but most of them are marred with graffiti, and the city is dirtier. We do find the people in Hungary friendlier.

One high point in Berlin was the Pergamon Museum, one of the world’s greatest archeological museums. I confess to not being initially drawn to the idea of seeing artifacts from Greece and Rome, but when we walked into the first exhibit hall, my jaw dropped.

The museum has reconstructed the entire Hellenistic Pergamon Altar (170 BC). What this means is that you walk in and look up to see marble steps leading up to a temple with its original frieze. Another high point for me was Nebuchadnezzar’s gate (605 BC), or the Persian Gate of Ishtar that towers over you as you walk along it. This exceptional museum is just one of many on Berlin’s Museum Island along with the Berlin Cathedral and the German history museum.

Tom and I also visited the Holocaust Memorial and the museum underneath. The memorial above ground is inspired. When you walk between each stone monument, you are isolated, your vision is limited, and you can’t see others. Walking around the monuments is an experience. However, we noticed during the day many young people and school children playing hide and seek and jumping from one block to another. I wondered if the creators of the monument could have foreseen this evolution. There was no graffiti or defacement of the monument, just the human spirit refusing to be subdued.

Another highlight was Potsdam, which is outside Berlin and requires a long tram ride, but completely worth it. Berlin was cold and gray during our stay until the afternoon we visited Potsdam. The summer palace of Frederick the Great called Sanssouci is gorgeous. They call the many palaces and its surrounding grounds Berlin’s Versailles.

I enjoyed the palace more than Versailles because there were fewer tourists and we had a much more intimate experience with its beauty. The gardens were not yet in season, yet walking around the grounds was delightful.

We discovered this exquisite Chinese house built along the walk from one palace to another. Now a UNESCO world heritage site, the whole series of palaces was too large to see in one day, but we saw two major ones.

Not all of our time was spent in museums or historical places, believe me. You can’t absorb everything. Much of the fun of Berlin is the various neighborhoods and sections of town that have their own distinct character. My colleague and friend Mary Armstrong gave us some great tips on what to do in Berlin because she and Angelica spend every summer there. Her recommendations, which I printed out in hardcopy, became famous at the conference. Our friends kept asking us what Mary said to do. I could have sold her top five list for a few valuable euros! One of her top recommendations was to go the KaDeWe, the largest department store in continental Europe, and to go directly to the sixth floor where the food is. No pictures nor description will fulfill the grandiosity of this food bazaar. Whole wings are devoted to nothing but mustard or tea or chocolate. They have a champagne bar, a seafood bar, a pastry bar, a sushi bar, a steak bar, a bistro, you name it…. . I started hyperventilating and couldn’t sit down. There was too much territory to cover. Our friends got overwhelmed and had to quiet down with a scrumptious sandwich and pastry. I confess to eventually going into the smelly seafood area and acquiring a mango crawfish salad of which I was quite proud. I polished this off with a KaDeWe torte. To the server’s horror, I washed both down with my favorite—a coke light.

Our time in Berlin was incredibly rewarding. I came away with much respect for the German people and their country. Tom and I both felt as if we learned a lot. Nevertheless, I was very glad to get back to Hungary, our home a way from home, and a country that is fighting for its survival in this modern world.

First Hungarian Haircut

Nobody was here to take a picture of my new do. Take my word for it. I looked like Darryl Hannah in Blade Runner—no hair movement, just a thatched roof. While Tom was in Rumania with Gyozo, his wife Andrea, a very delightful and kind woman, made an appointment for me with her hairdresser. This was the event I was most dreading. Andrea translated for me because no one at the shop knew English. Roberto had written out my color shades and numbers, all of which meant nothing to me. Something about highlights and lowlights. The shop was nice, the people friendly, and I had a very good experience. You just have to trust or hope. Andrea was more nervous than I was. I tried to tell her that she was not responsible for what happened. She has lovely long hair with blonde highlights so I had asked her where she got her hair done. I am extremely pleased with the color—very important. A young female assistant colored my hair and the owner, a Hungarian Roberto, cut it. I ended up extremely pleased. When I walked out of the shop, I wasn’t sure what happened because of the way that he styled it. A tennis ball size of mousse that I wanted to eat because it smelled like banana sorbet: applied. Then more product, a straightening iron, more product, then hairspray—thus Darryl Hannah. However, by the time I washed and styled my own hair and Tom got home, my hair looked like Hillary Clinton’s.

Human beings continue to amaze me. People everywhere want to please. They want to do a good job. They want to be good at what they do and they appreciate being told when they succeed. I know this is true for me. And this is what I see everyday in others: manicurists, teachers, business people, guides, etc.

Life without Tom or a Very Busy Week

Okay, let me be clear, the worse thing about having Tom gone is that I have to not only make the coffee, but also go downstairs and get it in the morning. Not the same. This week the rent was also due. The landlord Sandor came and collected it in cash. Tom, as everyone knows, handles the finances. I have been to the ATM once and he tends to pay for things. I know the currency, of course, but am not quick on the draw. I get my Fulbright money in cash in an envelope when the Fulbrighters get together every month. It’s not the brown paper bag I had envisioned. The night before Sandor came to collect the rent plus utilities, I sat on the couch and counted money for at least twenty minutes. I realized I didn’t have enough, so I went to the ATM machine a few blocks away. I came back and counted and realized I was confused by the number of zeroes. I didn’t have enough. I made a second trip to the ATM machine and got what I was sure was too much. I counted again. I woke up this morning and counted again. It’s funny how foreign currency seems like Monopoly money. Sandor came at 8:30am. He speaks no English. Cute, nice man. I sat at the table and counted the money for him. I put it in an envelope and he went off. Finances handled.

My other accomplishments for the week were cleaning house. Nothing too dramatic, mainly sweeping. Most Hungarians take off their shoes before entering a house. They leave slippers at the door for you to wear. I needed to sweep because of the wonderfully seedy Hungarian bread I eat every morning. Crunchies are underfoot because of the necessary sawing of bread in the morning. In addition, I bought train tickets, another task that Tom does. Again the woman at the university who sells the tickets speaks no English. Tom writes out exactly what we want. I was a little less successful, but she and I were able to work it out. On Saturday Tom and I take the train to Budapest to catch a plane for Berlin and then we fly back and take the train back to Pecs. Let’s hope I got the tickets right.

American Corner

Tom is on a road trip to Rumania this week. I stayed behind because I had to work. I have had quite the week. Besides my usual teaching schedule, I did an event for the American Corner here in Pecs. There are four American Corners in Hungary, all sponsored by the US Embassy. When Tom and I arrived, we paid a visit to the office, introduced ourselves, and offered our services. One program the American Corner sponsors is a Tuesday movie night. They show American movies in English with English subtitles. I brought 3:10 to Yuma, the 2007 Western with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, to Hungary because I wrote an article on it that is coming out next year, and I thought it would be something of interest I could talk about. The Pecs Director of the American Corner, Zsuzsanna Nagy added the movie to their program and asked me to lead a discussion afterwards. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleased with the turnout and the response. Some colleagues came, a small number of university students, high school students, and some random town folk. The discussion about masculinity and the western was interesting. We got a little bogged down in homoeroticism; isn’t that always the way it is? I was sorry Tom missed the evening. The next day when I met with Zsuzsanna, she asked me if I would be available to lead a discussion for the other movie nights. Transamerica (remember the transgender movie with Felicity Huffman) is the movie next week. I was relieved that I would be in Berlin and therefore had to decline

Because this is Women’s Issues month, Zsuzsanna (the English equivalent is Susan) asked me if I would write a short piece for the university newspaper on women’s issues in today’s society. Huge topic in less than 500 words. I sat down on Wednesday evening and wrote my piece. When it comes out, I may have no idea what I said because it could be in Hungarian.

Stay tuned because Tom and I both have committed to talks for the American Corner. Tom will be speaking to the Business School on the economic crisis from a personal perspective, and I will be talking to high school students in Pecs. I have suggested a talk on African-American writers during the Harlem Renaissance. The teachers want a snazzy power point presentation. We will see.

Romania – A Quick Trip

I had the opportunity to ride along with a friend to Romania last week. He had meetings in Bucharest and I went along for the ride. It was going to be about 40 hours in the car and one day looking around Bucharest on my own. As most of you know, my schedule is rather flexible so I jumped at the chance. We left on a bright and clear Monday morning and headed east to Szeged and the border. My friend, Gyozo, and I engaged in easy and interesting conversation. He had grown up while the Communists regime was still in power here in Hungary but his family made travel a very high priority. Every summer, he and his parents would travel to a different part of Europe and his knowledge of the different countries, their histories, their national parks and their geography is amazing. He prepared me for a vast difference in the development of Romania compared with the development of Hungary. I must admit, that before our trip here, I considered most of these countries of the former Eastern European area to be about the same. Boy, was I ever wrong!

The 25 years of Ceausescu regime and the 15 or so of his predecessor really took a toll on the country. In village after village, there were rows of the most atrocious looking cement slab buildings that were built during the 60’s and 70’s. They have had little or no attention to upkeep and they had to have been really ugly to start with.

This building was across from our hotel and thankfully being torn down.

While we were on the road, we saw many horse drawn carts, three funeral processions and tons of “Gypsy Houses.” I learned that many of these houses are unoccupied. The owners work abroad and send money home regularly to be used to built the most ostentatious exterior on the house possible. The family will likely live elsewhere but will be able to show their wealth by the scale of the family home.

These are a little dark but I hope you get a sense of the elaborate and ornate style.

We stopped for the night in Sibiu which was the Cultural Capitol of Europe in 2007. The center of the city has been beautifully restored with a huge town square, churches and government buildings. It was cold and rainy – a little sleet and snow and generally miserable out. We found a nice little restaurant and I sampled some Romanian beer which was very good. Since Gyozo was from this part of the world, I assumed that he would know what to order and what the other patrons were talking about. However, Romanian is completely different from Hungarian and he and I were in the same boat when ordering our food, reading the menu or listening to other conversations. Luckily, most people knew some English so we could both communicate with them.

The next day we traveled through the Karpathian mountains, through Brasov (near Dracula’s castle) and on into Bucharest. We had lots more rain and when we hit the outer areas of the city, traffic stopped dead. It took us about 2 hours to travel 10 kilometers. I have been in traffic jams, even really bad ones, but nothing like this. No accidents, no nothing, just too many cars for the road space available. Gyozo delivered some samples to one customer and then we found our hotel.

Carol and I are going to hire a driver and car for a trip in Romania over Spring break and I was able to meet the guide and have him give me a short driving tour of the city. So much of the city was destroyed by Ceausescu and he then put up buildings for his own use. The large boulevards and grand buildings are striking but the cost to the Romanian people was so great that the potential beauty is diminished in my opinion. Again, row after row of these atrocious cement apartment buildings detract from the overall impression of the city.

On Thursday morning, we set out for home. Our intention was to drive a slightly different route so that I could see more of the country and to stop overnight about 2/3 of the way home. We were both anxious to get home and Gyozo claimed he was not tired so we continued driving, arriving home about 1 AM.

After this trip, I am now shocked that I once thought of Romania and Hungary as “about the same.” Hungary is far, far ahead of Romania in roads, economy, infrastructure and overall development. Once again, I am shocked at how little I know of this part of the world – but I’m learning.

March 1st Feels Like Spring

Last Tuesday I trudged to my 9am lecture class in the snow; today, Sunday, March 1^st, the sun shines in a bright blue sky and all of Pecs is outdoors. The air feels like it must be in the 50’s after days in the low 30’s. I put my calf-length, heavy boots up and hope never to don them again. I wonder if I am being too optimistic. I think I scared Tom when I told him that the blankets were coming off the bed and the heat was being lowered. We may not have shared this information yet, but to help out our one lone, thin blanket, we have supplemented. For example, one person in particular is using my pashima shawl for additional bedding along with an accumulation of towels. No way to photograph this pastiche of bedding. So this explains why we were ecstatic to walk outside today without our heavy coats. Tom wore only a turtleneck and loved sitting outside facing the sun at last.

On our Sunday spring outing we first stopped for an omelet and latte (sounds European doesn’t it?). We went to the Hungarian Museum of Modern Art that is housed in a beautiful old home that belonged to a doctor. It is not a large museum, just the right scale to take in.

It has modern sculpture on the lawn where we bench-sat for a while. I hope our photos do the place and day justice. By the way, all the photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Inside the museum, student artists left canvases up where they are copying an original work. They are surprisingly good.

We finally visited the four-spired cathedral that we pass, admire, and photograph so often, the Basilica of St. Peter. It is spectacular, both inside and out. Right now it is scaffolded, we think, for cleaning. With Pecs being chosen as the Cultural Center of Europe next year, cleaning up monuments may be part of the plans. The foundation of the church goes back to the 11^th century, but the church has been restored in what I read is neo-Romanesque. Inside is very ornate, in a stunning display of artistry. Sunday Mass was getting ready to start. Hungarian matrons with their felt hats coiffed with a single feather entered along with a few men wearing suits. It was nice to see dress in keeping with the décor and tradition. One day we will go take pictures of the interior.

We also went to the church in the main square called Szechenyi Ter. This square is the center of town and the church dominates it. Although it is the parish church, it is called the Mosque Church because the building originally was a mosque and dates back to the Turkish occupation of Hungary.

We did go in and saw the interesting combination of Islamic and Catholic elements. The outside has a green copper dome. When you emerge from the church that is elevated above the square, the whole view of Pec’s skyline as well as the immediate architectural gems surrounding the square appears. This view captures the essence of Pecs.

The Spa at Harkany

Today we decided to go to Harkany for a soak in the well know thermal pools. The entire town is built around a water complex complete with outdoor pools, indoor pools, cabanas, swings with awnings and a huge water slide. I'm sure in summer this is a happening place, but today it was extremely quiet when we arrived. The bus schedules remain a bit of a mystery. I check the schedule on line and I think I know what bus to take to get to our destination in the shortest amount of time. We get to the terminal on time and I am able to find the proper platform for the destination we are looking for. However, on both of our trips by bus out of town, I thought we were taking the express bus but nooooooo – we stop many, many times and it takes considerable longer than what I anticipate. We always get to our proper destination – so it’s just part of the journey. Luckily, both times, our return trip has been via express bus. One day I’ll figure it out – in the meantime – oh well.

On to the spa. We found the spa complex which was enormous. The outer areas were deserted and closed up tight for the winter months. We found the main building that houses the dressing rooms, two hot pools, a couple of snack bars and areas for massages and other medical treatments. There were more people here including some who had staked out the prime lounging areas. The water was nice and warm and you could swim/walk through a curtain to the outside. It turned out to be a beautiful day and we enjoyed joining the locals in “taking the waters.”

[We didn’t take any pictures because it was such a comfortable place for local Hungarians, who clearly love soaking in natural thermal springs and believe they cure all ills. They visit with one another, sleep, and eat packed lunches or drink beer. Tom and I both commented that we felt down right skinny and probably ate extra for dinner that night. The pools themselves are lovely. The outdoor one has steam rising and the water itself is wonderfully warm and embracing. Some men were playing chess on a water proof board.]

It is not really clear when you enter the building exactly what the protocol is. This was one of the very few places we have encountered where the clerk seemed rather proud of the fact that she spoke no English and was somewhat reluctant to try to communicate. It turns out that after you pay the entry fee, you go into a really small cubicle that has a small square opening into a large room where your belongings are stored. You reach through, get a heavy hanger that has a bag attached, close the window, and change into your swim suit. When you are ready, you open the window, hand the clerk your hanger, get a claim ticket and proceed to the pools. All sorts of people were walking around in their swim suits, talking, eating, napping and enjoying their day.

It turns out that there is another area where you can rent a small room to change in and keep a key for the day. We also noticed lots of folks with plastic containers on lanyards around their necks. We could not figure that out until we wanted to buy some snacks and had no money with us. So – we learn. It was a very good experience and we plan to partake in the Szechenyi baths in Budapest, but we probably won’t return to Harkany. We are glad we did it, but don’t see the need to do it again.