Kathryn’s Visit

Tom and I took our last train to Budapest on June 16^th in order to go pick up our rental car and Kathryn Rummel at the Budapest airport. It was our first trip to the airport since our own arrival on January 21^st. I was very excited to see our friend come through the sliding doors with suitcase in hand.

In her luggage were a swimsuit, hiking shorts, and sun hat of mine, all very important. I’m afraid that when she left on the 29^th, she was carrying more than this. She agreed to take one of our suitcases back for us. Tom put her in a taxi yesterday morning at five am. I am not a very good person; I slept. Both of us sending her off seemed excessive.

After Kathryn arrived in Hungary, Tom drove us to Pecs so we could show her our home and environs. She wanted to see the university and what our life was like. I arranged a lunch with three of my colleagues from Pecs for her to meet: Maria Kurdi, Gabi Voo, and Trudi Szamosi.

We showed her all the sights in one day so we had a busy day. First, the Basilica of St. Peter, a magnificent four-towered cathedral with the Bishop’s Palace next door.

We actually saw the bishop moving across the plaza; it was the one and only time I saw him.

We also went to the Csontvary Museum, my favorite along with the Zsolnay Porcelain Museum. One reason the Csontvary is so appealing is that it is so intimate—only five rooms of paintings in a beautiful 19^th century mansion. Born in 1853, Csontvary is an astonishingly original Hungarian painter, almost unknown in the west. One of my favorite paintings is a massive canvas that I tried to photograph called Baalbeck (1906).

Another unique work is called The Lonely Cedar (1907).

I think I forgot to mention that the day Kathryn arrived in Pecs it hailed. This is actually an understatement. None of us had seen a hailstorm like this. The hail was the size of tennis balls. We had just rented a car and parked it in a small spot in front of our apartment. It sat there for two hours before getting dinged. Now it has pits on the hood. It was difficult not to read too much into our friend’s arrival and her good luck. I watched the storm from our second story window. Hail cascaded down our little street followed by a stream of small green apples. I guess a whole tree must have lost its fruit. Weather continued to follow us into Croatia.

Pecs Transformed

The first week of June the sleepy little university-town of Pecs transformed overnight. Wooden sheds appeared on the leafy promenade in front of the cathedral where families lazily stroll. Tom and I witnessed the assembly of these small log huts. We are used to seeing signs, banners, and leaflets announcing events and not understanding anything, but this got our attention and we began to ask our Hungarian friends what was going on. The lack of specificity was amazing. All we could understand was that a festival was starting and would be going on all summer and that there would be lots of “noshing and drinking.”

Later we discovered it was a theater festival, a week-long presentation of plays from all over Hungary. One every night and then one production would be proclaimed a winner. We recognized Hamlet and The Crucible, but knew better than to attend a play in Hungarian. No problem, because music was also performed every night at various outdoor venues.

The main stage is set in front of St. Peter’s Basilica and all the shows are free. Down either side of the stage are the wooden sheds selling wine by the glass or bottle. Each “pince” or cellar is a vineyard from Villanyi. And we know how I like Villanyi; well now, I don’t even have to go to Villanyi. It came to me--and the rest of Pecs.

Below the wine sellers is the food. Another row of wooden sheds houses various outdoor kitchens selling traditional Hungarian-style barbeque: pig knuckles with horseradish, sausages, chicken skewers, and pork cutlets with onions. Picnic tables and benches are in front, and locals bring their families for a good, yet inexpensive meal where they also run into friends and neighbors.

This happening was just in time for my brother Bill and his girlfriend Denise’s visit. Bill likes a party and all we had to do was step outside of our apartment to the nearby park. Things got particularly lively at night. Music in the air, wine for the drinking, food for the munching, and people for the watching. We left Bill and Denise one night at midnight with a colleague-friend of mine Lazlo. One thing that particularly struck me was that no police are around. A couple of security men, not wearing guns, fit in with the crowd. No one is afraid of riots or mass public drunkenness and hysteria. Young people are out on the lawn, on the steps of the cathedral, on the park benches, or on the wall of the fountain. Yes, you can spot drunken people and you see young people passing a bottle around, but there is no sense of public hysteria or rage. What’s so amazing is that this happens every night.

I have to mention in closing this wonderful Hungarian dessert, similar to a Mexican churro, that is called kurtos-kalacs.

It is dough spun around a metal cylinder that is then placed near burning coals and rotated. After it is browned, they roll it in cinnamon or sugar for topping. Yum! Because it isn’t deep fried, it is bound to be healthy. Tom’s favorite along with 10 million Hungarians.

Eger

Because we went back to Budapest to see off John and Cindy, we decided to take advantage of our central location. We took the train up to Eger in the northern part of Hungary, a far piece from Pecs. It is about a three hour train ride from Budapest and a must see Hungarian town. Paul Swann, a Hungarian Fulbright friend who teaches at Temple, lives in Eger. He and I had been on the 9/11 panel together with Margaret.

Paul met us at the train station and showed us around this absolutely lovely place.

Eger is a romantic spot. It has a large green park with a fountain in the center, the second largest basilica in Hungary, charming pedestrian streets lined with baroque houses and all of this is dominated by an imposing, historically significant castle. Hungarians tell us that every school child in Hungary comes to see this castle at some point because of its historical relevance. In 1556, 2000 Hungarians fought off 100,000 Turks and won. It is their version of the Battle of the Alamo. Although it was a rainy day, we found the castle fascinating.

We ended our day at the Valley of the Beautiful Women. Outside of town, this wine venue is completely unique. Paul led us on a 20 minute walk into the countryside. In a valley between green hills is horseshoe of wine cellars with outdoor tables. Eger is known for its red wine called Bull’s Blood because of its rich red color. I got a glass for about a dollar. One could do major damage here. We had great conversation, visited with one of his colleagues who came to see us, and inevitably were serenaded by gypsy fiddlers.

This morning, before our six hour train ride back to Pecs, we had the opportunity to see the “camera obscura” in town. It blew our minds. It was built in 1776 and is incredible. After climbing up many stairs (8 or 10 floors) we were led into a small room at the top of the Lyceum. The dark room has the original smooth white table that can be raised or lowered by turning it (like a piano stool). With all of the lights out, our guide opened the periscope mirror which allowed a digital quality image of the town to be projected on the table. He could rotate the mirror 360 degrees and vary the angle for a complete view of the town. We were mesmerized and awed by this device. The image quality was amazing – however there are no zoom capabilities – people are safe from prying eyes in their apartments. He told us, however, that on a clear day they can read license plates on cars.

What a great trip to Eger and we are now on the last hour of our long trek back home to Pecs. Boy – will we ever be glad to get to our second home.

Good Company

While I have been finishing up school, Tom and I have had much company. Dale, Greg, Sue and Joanne came during my last lecture class. Dale and Sue came to the class, took a picture, and left. Dale was in a frantic search for Hungarian soccer jerseys to take back and had two hours. He missed my best 50 minutes on postmodernism.

A week later Richard, Tom’s brother from Richmond, came to see us. He flew from Rome to Budapest and then took the train to Pecs that same day. We picked him up at the train station at 4:30. We hadn’t seen him in almost two years so it was strange to see him get off a train in Pecs. He stayed at the old grand hotel in the city center. The Hotel Palatinus has seen better days, but the location is fabulous. They have remodeled about five rooms and we had one reserved for him. It was air-conditioned, had a kingsize bed, and a flat screen tv—all missing from our apartment. By the time he left, he knew his way around Pecs, befriended Bolas, the nicest guy and best waiter in Pecs, at Enoteca Corso, and drank his share of great Villanyi wine.

Richard, Tom, and I all took the train to Budapest to see the sights and we did it up BIG.

We got tickets to the opera, stayed at a fabulous hotel with real sheets, and took taxies. Richard doesn’t like public transportation. We saw lots and he had a great time. We were very happy that he made the trip.

At the same time that we took Richard back to Budapest, we picked up John and Cindy. We were so glad that they got to meet Tom’s brother.

The day that John and Cindy flew in was the day that the Fulbright group took the final farewell Danube cruise, and John and Cindy got to join us. They not only got to see Budapest by boat but got to meet all of our Fulbright friends. It meant so much to share these special people with our two good friends from home.

By the time we took John and Cindy to Villanyi to sample the wines, all the waiters knew who were and what we wanted to drink. I didn’t know whether to feel flattered or ashamed.

John and Cindy also loved Enoteca Corso and Bolas, so we went there twice. It has the best food in Pecs: duck, foie gras, rabbit, deer, goose liver, veal, lamb, trout and catfish. The entire trip John and Cindy said that they couldn’t believe how good the food was in Hungary.


No one comes here and expects to eat well. There are days when I say that I can’t possibly eat any more fabulous bread, cheese, and meat.

End of school

There seems to be no definite end to school. Classes finished four weeks ago. My seminars turned in papers in the following weeks. I let a few of the students revise their research papers because there were several problems with using sources. Some of the problem is not having easy internet access to sources or a sufficient library. Some students after getting sources and listing them in a Works Cited didn’t cite them in their paper. I didn’t see any point in failing them out right on the paper, so I gave chances to revise. The final deadline for grades seems to float; I am still not sure of the final, final deadline. Exams last six weeks.

For my lecture class I gave the exam three times. This is standard practice for lecture classes because the students have to pass these classes and are given a limit number of times to take the class. The day of the first exam about fifteen students simply signed their names on the exam and left. They came to take it again the second or third time. Of course, I changed the exam each time. On the last day of the exam I had students walk in to take it whom I had never seen. One young woman told me that she lives and works in Budapest and came to take the exam because it was her last opportunity to pass it. She passed.

There is much about the system I still don’t understand. I was often perplexed. Like all systems not everything works. The Hungarian universities are trying to adjust to the new EU guidelines; so much is in a state of flux. Again like people everywhere many think the old system is preferable and that much is being lost. Most of the changes are not under their control. Both students and professors try to function and make their way through the complicated morass.