"Hungary" Hungary by tezzy

Before getting started, many thanks to the Õss and their relatives who are soooo kind as to put me at their houses and took me to various places that I cherish. Ildikó, whom I met through this www.virtualtourist.com site, was my all-time companion on this trip and I must show her my gargantuan gratitude for her tolerance and kindness. Without her could I not go anywhere, do anything in Hungary or even come to Hungary!

During my stay from end of March to early April, the weather was quite harsh and the temperature dipped to three degree celcious for the first couple days with a five-minute wall of snow one occasion. Then, it backed up to mild 22c as it was a couple of weeks before my arrival.

It's really difficult to get around the country without an English speaking Hungarian companion (köszönöm szépen, Ildi!). I could easily imagine buying a bottle of mineral water or a train ticket takes the time until cows come home.

In general, the Hungarians are very generous and orderly and welcome anyone with their enormous warmth. Every time I was invited to a house I was entertained by curious Hungarians on myself, Australia and/or Japan and elegantly served with alcohol (e.g., cognac, cherry and brandy) and sweets, lots of them!

*** My unique observations ***
@@People/Language/Life Style@@
- Greet to almost every neighbours passing by!
- Large Tesco and Metro supermarkets are here and there across the country.
- The Hungarian language is phonetic unlike English; syllables you see in a word is what you exactly pronounce.
- Almost every house has "spice" room, spájz, apparently derived from German equivalent of "speise" meaning "food", to store home-made pickled paprika, cabbages, cucumbers, etc.
- Adores dogs and cats.

@@Food & Beverage@@
- Carbonated water is very prevalent for diluting wines or drinking straight and its taste is a bit eerie. I recommend you drink up before all the fizz gets out.
- Butter seems to be only for sandwiching! Lard is abundantly used for greasing pans, giving shine to cakes on surface, and substitute for cooking oil.
- Allegedly tapped water has high content of calcium.
- Tend to have a relatively big lunch, normally starting off with a bowl of soup being topped with grated nutmeg on top just before served. Every meal seems to be climaxed by a Turkish-like tiny cup of coffee.
- Stick to their "own" glass for the day. Better not to ask for a new glass unless you broke it!

@@TV & Entertainment@@
- "Xena The Warrior Princess", "Hercules", "Mission Impossible", a Brazilian soap "Top model", newly started "Pop Star", "Beverly Hills 90210" a.k.a "Titans" on TV.
- Quiz shows seem to be loved overthere; the Hungarian versions of "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" (oh well, to be precise, "Who wants to be 40 million Forint richer?"), Legyen Ön is milliomos!, and "The Weakest Link", Nics Kegyelem ("No Mercy", more appropriate title, I think!). They are beefed up with local flavour (i.e., slightly different formats from Western counterparts) and broadcast in separate stations, and the former finishes right before the latter starts in the evening so that you can watch successively! How about that?
- Billiard (not snooker, but pool) can be played at some places, not pubs.
- The Hungarian version of Monopoly is quite dissimilar to the conventional Western one. You attempt to decorate/furnish house with a fridge, a TV, a vacuum, kitchen, etc. instead buy houses and then hotels.
- Ping Pong (table tennis) seems more popular than badminton...

@@Tradition & Culture@@
- Everyone is assigned fixed Name Day once a year by some sort of Family Registry Office when born and has a tiny calendar telling whose Name Day it is on every single day. To my surprise, some have two Name Days a year from which to decide one only. They NEVER switch around between them year by year and stick to the determined Name Day life-long.
- Legacy currency, Filler, used to be circulated in Hungary. 100 Filler was equivalent to 1 Forint and Forint was the successor of the former currency, Pengõ.
- A Hungarian tradition on Easter Monday is for boys to sprinkle water over girls.
- Poppy seed pasta eaten only on Easter Friday; paste smothered with grounded poppy seeds and literally "loads" of sugar with a touch of honey.

*** NAGYDOBSZA ***
Ildi's house is located at a small town called Nagydobsza, about 50km south-west to Pécs and 23km away from the Croatian border point of Terezino Polje to which we cycled one day just because I desired for a stamp on my passport! It's a really bizarre experience to me as my homelands so far, Japan and Australia, are all surrounded by seas so travelling to another country is literally "going overseas" not just walk over a border of two countries!

Every house seems to own a dog or two with a sign saying "Harapós Kutya (Dog may bite)" on the gate. Whenever strangers pass by the house they come up to right behind the gate to interrogate them by barking endlessly until they are out of property. Also, every second household seems to work at school or be the ones who actually do "work" (i.e., pupils).

I indeed visited the school, Általános Mûvelõdési Központ, Ildi and her mom work. EVERY pupil was very shocked by my surprise visit because they had never seen a non-Hungarian looking person before and stared at me until I was out of sight. Teachers cancelled usual classes just because of my presence and turned them to inquiry sessions as to where I came from and what I thought of Hungary besides questions on Japan, Australia and/or myself from pupils. This makes me feel like "cultural ambassador" so to speak.

One morning just before Easter break at gym I was sitting next to a bunch of teachers as judges of school performance competition which is held every year. Pupils from any grades get together and do whatever they'd like to show all the other pupils, teachers and people from the community; dancing, reading out poems or folklores, singing, fable play, etc. As far as I could see, there was any stand-up comedy or skit... The prizes are normally books and pens.

A nearby Protestant church strikes a bell at 6:00am, 12:00noon and 8:00pm for two minutes.

*** SZIGETVÁR ***
(March 30th, 2002)
This town situates between Nagydobsza and Pécs and is well known to its fort (and Penny Market to my knowledge!). Ildi and I spent half a day there to cruise around. As far as we know there is no public toilet, so hold it in until you get home!

*** SIKLÓS/HARKÁNY ***
(April 1st & 2nd, 2002)
I spent two days staying overnight at Ildi's uncle's house.

In Siklós I was fortunate enough to visit one of the regional wine makers with Ildi's uncle's family. Riesling is the major wine produced and I was told that none of the wine productions was big enough to export its produces. On the way back I was a bit tipsy after tasting lots of different Riesling straight from barrels kept in an underground chilly cellar slightly covered with white fungus. Apparently when white fungus conquers a cellar all over from ceiling to ground it's proof of excellent condition of the cellar.

For Harkány what's known to Europeans well is a public thermal bath, Harkányi Gyógyfürdö Rt. It's very popular amongst Germans (I wonder why they come all the way down to here...) and I saw lots of them. The ambience is somewhere in-between swimming pool and public bath (but the scale steeply tips towards swimming pool) in a sense that you can bath just like at home (can't wash any part of your body though) and test your aptitude in swimming by wading through water from one side of the pool to the other! 500 Ft gets you to do this harmonious, relaxing activity.

Here is the details;

Address: 7815 Harkány, Kossuth L. u. 5.
Tel: 72/480-251, 480-142
Fax: 72/480-435
E-mail: harkanyfurdo@matavnet.hu
Web site: http://www.harkanyfurdo.hu