"It's Just a Little Farther"

What an adventure…

After my late night of writing, I decide to sleep in till 12:00. Laura appears at my door talking about going for a nice leisurely walk. I decide to join here, get ready, and head out. We head to the main square to take pictures, when we are greeted by tons of people and music. MagyarStar, the equivalent of American Idol, had come to Pecs in buses and was holding auditions right in the main square. There was a really good singer playing a guitar that we decided to watch, then headed around to the other side of the group.

After hearing a group of people sing a part to Womanizer (I don’t know what it is with Hungarians and Kate Perry), we take a few more pictures and happen to see our advisor walk through one of our pictures. We instantly start yelling at him and talk for a few minutes. He happens to mention that we should head up to see the TV Tower at the very top of the Mecsek Mountains, that it was a “straight shot.”

We decide to just walk to the top of the hill overlooking Pecs to get some pictures. On the way I stop at a stand in the wine festival and get some of this fried bread, equivalent to a funnel cake. It is a hollow cylinder that is cooked over a grill, then covered in either coconut, chocolate, cinnamon sugar, or plain cinnamon. After being cut in line by Hungarians (who are notorious for being really pushy in line), I finally get some with everything on it in separate sections. It was soooooooooo good. I have to bring this to America…seriously. My favorite was the coconut and chocolate, which I could eat for the rest of my life and would be happy.

We come to a fork in the road and decide to take the road on the left because it was more uphill and we thought we would get better pictures. At the top, Laura convinces me to take a journey to the TV Tower, since we had already made it up the first hill and had nothing else to do that Sunday, and that it was just a little farther. I reluctantly said fine.

We walk up some really steep hills, past absolutely beautiful houses with gorgeous gardens full of roses and decks overlooking all of Pecs. We continue walking all the way to the top of the main hill, look to the right, and realize we are on the wrong mountain. The TV tower is across the giant ravine on the other mountain. I wanted to just turn back because the TV Tower was still really far away, but Laura just kept saying, “oh, it’s just a little farther…we might as well go now since we are already halfway.” We were not already halfway. We had been walking for about an hour, and I thought we still had another 2 hours to go, plus the walk back. “Oh no, it’s just a little farther.”

I give in, since we really had nothing else to do that day and I was feeling in the mood for a hike; so we continue onward. We find a road crossing the valley, coming upon a campsite. We ask if anyone spoke English and everyone shook their heads. I just decide to say, “TV Tower?” and the woman pointed down one of the paths. I was still arguing with Laura (pretty much the whole time saying it was still a long way, but whatever), but we decide to go down the trail.

The main trail loops to the right, with a tiny trail continuing on upwards toward the top of the hill. We decide to take the mini trails…At first I thought they were just dried up streams or rivers, since they were not flat, had a ton of rocks and roots, and were not clear of trees/bushes. We walk for what seemed like a mile before we came upon a road crossing our path, with the trail continuing on the other side. Fortunately it was marked with a red triangle, so we knew that it must have been at least some kind of a path, just not a good one. I hardly ever get eaten by mosquitoes, but that was the worst time of my life. Whenever you stopped for just a split second, 10 would swarm you and start biting. It was as if they had never been near a human being before and I was their last and only hope.

Every 50 meters or so, we would come to a fork in the path, and would just have to make a best guess and go uphill in a direction we think would work, even thought the little triangles would be going down a different path. After walking for another mile or so, we finally see that we are getting much closer to the TV Tower, but the trail had also gotten more uphill and dangerous to walk on. After about 2.5 hours, we come to a turn in the path, clear the trees, and find ourselves at the base of the TV Tower. We were finally there!

And it was closed…

We thought at least, since it was Sunday and the main building was deserted. But fortunately, they were still taking people with tickets up an elevator to the skydeck. The wind was ferocious as we cleared the forest, making it cold. We tried just going straight into the elevator, but the guy asked for our tickets, so we just jumped off. We bought tickets, after being cut in line as usual, and proceeded to the elevator and went up.
The museum part was closed, but the skydeck and restaurant were not. We take a step out onto the skydeck and are immediately blown away by the cold, strong wind. We suck it up and walk out onto the 360-degree decks with plain, old railings and take in the most absolutely amazing views of Hungary. The mountain was over 500 meters taller than Pecs and the TV Tower was another 127 meters on top of that. Even though it was cloudy and hazy, you could see for miles (or kilometers), possibly even Croatia. It was spectacular. The southern side was Pecs, sooooooo far away, and the rolling hills spotted with farms, vineyards, lakes, and villages. The northern side was the Mecsek Mountains.

We found out that we had gone completely around where we were supposed to go when we started our lovely hike. We thought we had traveled so far on our runs around the city, but realized how short it seemed compared to the hike we took to get up to the tower…no joke. This was when Laura realized, “yeah, that was a lot farther than I expected.” The clouds begin to roll in under us (yes under us, that is how far up we were) and we see rain beginning to fall of course. It turned into a monsoon as the wind was blowing the cold rain into the deck. Once we heard thunder, we thought we should get off the giant metal tower and decide to go check out the restaurant and see if we were going to be allowed to get in with how we were dressed.

We stand outside the 360-degree restaurant, looking in to determine if we could get in or not, and everyone starts staring at us. Everyone was wearing collared shirts and just nice clothes, and you had us in our workout clothes all sweaty and gross. We came all that way and were probably never coming back, so we run in and sit at a table by the window. Of course no one in the place speaks English, so our waitress was already frustrated when we start motioning for a menu that no one else was ordering from; everyone was just getting drinks and ice cream.

I order the vegetable risotto, which was fabulous, while taking in the incredible views of Pecs. Fortunately, after we finished eating we see the rain begin to clear up, so we decide to head back up to the skydeck to take in the last view before we left on our journey back. We plan out our route carefully from above and head down.

The bus would not be coming for another 1.5 hours, so we head back into the woods to trek down the mountain…and since their was a torrential rainstorm, all the trails were muddy, slippery, and even more dangerous going down than up. After sliding halfway down the mountain with some very amazing saves from falling, Laura falls very gracefully into the mud. I cannot stop because the mosquitoes have gotten even more vicious, but make sure she is ok. The only good part to the rain was that it made everything sparkle brilliantly in the forest. We continue onward and finally come to the campsite and decide to follow the main road down the mountain.

It takes us on the correct side of the mountain to Pecs, but since we knew where we were finally going, we stop to take pictures on the hill overlooking the city. After breaking into people’s yard to get better pictures, off-roading into some fields with prickly plants, and Kujo ramming a gate we were passing by trying to eat us, we head back own the mountain to the city of Pecs.

After about an hour from the TV Tower, we come to the very first fork in the road where we decided to take a left. Yes, only an hour later (it took us two to get up the mountain, and we were going even slower down the trails because of the rain), we find out that the correct path to take was on the right. Oh well, it made for a great adventure and story.

Since I was starving again, I go to the bakery at the end of the street and get some more snacks for half off (so everything was $0.10 instead of $0.20. I use a lot more Hungarian I learned, to which the woman smiled and said my Hungarian was becoming “super.” She never smiled any other time I went in, but this time she gave me a huge smile. I came back to the apartments where everyone was sleeping and uploaded pictures and waited for my parents to get back home so I could wish my dad a happy father’s day. I finally fell asleep at 11 for our first official day of work the next day when we would be placed on our projects and meet with our clients.
It was an unplanned adventure, but that is what makes it the best. I have always said the best part to any trip is to get lost, but I still would have liked to at least plan out the route we were supposed to take. I like to get lost when there are other people around, like a train station or city in Japan, but not in the mountains of Hungary. I just loved how when we would tell Hungarian students that we hiked up to the TV Tower, they immediately so, “oh my, I would never do that” and were still confused as to how we actually walked/hiked up there. Oh well, it was amazing. Everyone else in our group is jealous and wants to go up. Most want to take the bus, but there is one other that we might hike again with, but take the correct road at the fork…just remember to go right.

A Gelato Saturday

After the late night on Friday, everyone decided to sleep in. I woke up around 12:30 and waited for people to get up. I just ate a banana and got ready to go for a run with Laura. Friday, I took my iPod thinking I would need the music to pump me up and a water bottle. This time, I decided to forego the iPod since the views of the city would keep me going (and plus it is not like we are actually doing any hard running anyways), and instead took my camera that I didn’t take on Friday.

I wanted to take pictures of the things we see on our run, but didn’t realize that we would be looking disgusting in the pictures; you will see in a later post. On our way back I stop for gelato at one of the 1,438,754 gelato stands in Pecs. There is a stand about every 20 feet; every store and restaurant has one out front with about 20 flavors each…but I’m not complaining. I got the Coconut Dream one because it just felt so much like a tropical type of day, and only for like $0.50!

I will probably gain 80 pounds by the time I get back to the US because all food is soooo much cheaper over here and living right next door to two bakeries doesn't help either. An average $8-10 meal in the US costs about $4-6 here, with huge sweet bread things about $0.50 each…unless we go about an hour before they close when they start having everything 75% off and buy the place out. I have found out that I am seriously addicted to carbs. When I don’t have any in my apartment I start craving bread, granola bars, etc…and can’t stop thinking about them. I need help.

After getting back and taking showers, everyone decided to go to a famous restaurant called Tex-Mex that is closed for the month of July. The only problem was that we are a group of 20 and it is a smaller place and placing reservations would be difficult. Of course some people were starving and wanted to go right then and others wanted to wait for another hour. We decide to split up into two groups and I went right then.

Laura and I tried finding out where it was located on our jog earlier in the day but couldn’t figure it out with all the looping streets and alleyways, but we found it all right then. We get in and the guy immediately starts talking to us in fluent English, so we became much more excited/relaxed since we were already tired of getting frustrated looks when people found out we did not understand Hungarian.

They serve…you guessed it…Tex-Mex cuisine. For some reason I had a huge daiquiri/smoothie craving for the week before, and it didn’t help that one of the groups presented the idea the day before of serving smoothies since Hungarians did not know what they were. I ordered a virgin pina colada, which satisfied it perfectly (again on my tropical kick). We got really good chips and salsa and I had amazing vegetable enchiladas. Of course we come to Hungary and within the first couple days we have already eaten at places called Arizona Ranch and Tex-Mex. But both were excellent.

As we were finishing up our meal, the other group joined us (there was plenty of room), so we sat and had a good time for a while. Then we head back, hitting up the same gelato stand that I visited earlier (with the same girl still working) and I get the tiramisu.

Laura, Lauren, and I all head up to the winfestival to listen to music and people watch. Everyone said Saturday is the night everyone goes out and let me tell you, that was by far understating it. I felt like all of Pecs was at the wine festival. We go up and down the aisles looking at the arts and crafts everyone had, some gorgeous jewelry, and all the delicious smelling food. We find a spot in the square to listen to music and relax there for a while.

We decide to get a closer look at the band playing (apparently a famous local Hungarian folk band) and try taking a couple pictures of ourselves when a young couple spots us and decides to help out. They take a picture, then continue to take more, and we had no idea how to tell them to stop, so we just kind of thanked them, grabbed the camera, and bolted off. We decide to walk up to the cultural gardens to see them at night and Laura grabs a cup of coffee that was pretty much all foam. Pecs in the day is beautiful and takes on a whole new vision at night with the twinkly lights everywhere, peaceful and relaxed atmosphere, and music playing somewhere off in the distance.

We walk back to the apartments, not really feeling in the mood to go back out and spend another long night, but I end up getting a second wind and eventually end up waiting for everyone to go out. Two hours after we were supposed to leave, everyone heads back out. We find out places were charging an entrance fee and I did not feel like paying, so I just headed back and decided to write, catch up on emails, and upload pictures. Low-and-behold the sun starts rising…it is 4:30 am…and I am so wide awake and do not feel like stopping writing. I figure I needed sleep and just try to fall asleep after another spectacular day in Pecs, Hungary.

I was tired as I was writing this as it has been raining all day today, but it is funny at how each day is filled with small adventures throughout the day that turn into an incredible day at that. Exploring all the places on our run that day again helped me continue to fall in love with the city and find out more about it, and the relaxed atmosphere of the nights helped deepen the sense appreciation for getting to be here.

The End of the First Week and Beginning of the First Weekend

So I finally got adjusted to the time difference, because I woke up to my alarm at 7:30 am. I got ready to go to class/work and headed out. Some people stopped at places to get breakfast, but a couple of us that did not went on our way and ended up getting to the building right on time (so everyone else was late), and it was only the second day…We just felt like it took us a lot longer than it had the day before.

We listened to a lecture on managing in an international environment and how to deal with different cultures and personalities. The professor reminded Laura and I of our cluster-marketing professor, but the Hungarian version. We took another MBTI test and of course I got the same thing as always, ENTP (Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perception) and took a quiz on Hungarian culture while the Hungarian students took a quiz on the American culture. I learned a few things that I have been doing are considered really awkward to Hungarians. I found out that sitting on the floor (which I always do) would draw skeptical looks because “only gypsies sit on the floor”). I also found out why every time I say I want ‘one’ of something by holding up my index finger, I always get two. They count with their thumbs first, so by holding up your index finger, you are saying you want two (your thumb + your index finger). We also found out that men are never supposed to let women enter pubs first (because they used to be dangerous and men would always go in to protect them), that shopkeepers are by nature mean and rude, that chewing gum in public is considered extremely rude, that the number 56 in Hungarian culture is avoided because of the Revolution, and that you are never supposed to call anyone by their first names or have them call you by your fist name in professional environments.

After the lecture, my group members and I met up to discuss the final details on the presentation for later that day on our mini case. After just meeting really quickly, I leave to walk back to the apartment to get in a quick nap (about ten minutes), then wake back up to get lunch. After running into everyone else coming back from meeting with their groups, we all head out to lunch at the deli by our apartments, Aranycipo, where I get just a simple sandwich. Then we head out to the Cultural Gardens where our presentations would take place. Our advisor really likes us to have meetings outside the classroom, in the city, because it helps us get to see more of the city that many students (even some of the Hungarian students) have never realized the place was there.

The cultural gardens are at the top of a hill on the northern wall to the city. There are multiple levels with many tables and umbrellas and artwork everywhere from iron sculptures to a globe of plastic bottles. They had the World Cup playing, which everyone wanted to watch, but instead all sat in a different section to give our presentations. Some groups recommended 13 Kiraly be turned into a hotel, hostel, spa/roman bathhouse (Laura’s group, since I know her parents are reading this), department store, or restaurant/café. Our presentation was simple and straightforward; I talked about the upstairs portion being turned into the event space. 
All the groups did well and it was a good project to break the ice for everyone and see how we can all work together. The Americans were definitely the most pushy, but I tried to make sure that our Hungarian teammate had the most say, especially since she knew the most about the building, area, market, etc. I felt we did well because of it and did not have to work as hard on the project.

After the presentations, some people headed out to the main square to watch the Americans play in the World Cup, some headed to a Hungarian student’s place to watch it, and some headed back to the apartments. Laura and I decide to go on a run to not only get some good exercise in, but we figured that would also be the best way to explore the city.

That run has got to be the most amazing, gorgeous, interesting way to see the city, as we run up the hills surrounding the wall to the city, then through the city center and the many different alleyways. I will explain everything we typically see on our run in a separate post, because there is just too much and too many pictures. Our runs just usually consist of jogging for 2 minutes, then stopping to look at the view, checking out a building, looking at statues and artwork, looking at shops and houses, or exploring historical sites. It is hardly considered exercise; it is more of a jog from place to place to place with meandering thrown in ever few steps. It then turns into a 2-3 hour adventure; so by the time we get back and take showers, it is time for dinner.

Since some of the group ate McDonald’s at 4 after class, Laura and I head to the bakery right by our place, then to the Elephant Café by the main square and are on our own the first time we try to eat at a restaurant. We did not know whether we should sit ourselves or wait to be seated, so we wait but see no one around. We decide to sit ourselves at a table overlooking the square, and a waiter comes out and begins the usual Hungarian babble. We order drinks, then explore the menu and decide to order pizzas. I was craving a Margherita pizza which was huge and fantastic. I thought since we were so close to Italy, the pizza would be perfect…and it was. We then fall into the usual trap most foreigners find themselves in when in Hungary. We want the bill, but the waiter is never bringing it to us and I forgot how to ask for it. We wait for a little bit, then I finally get his attention to ask. We then cannot figure out if he picks up the money for us, or if we have to go inside to pay for it. Again, we wait for him to come out, pay, and then leave to go back to the apartments.

Laura and I then Skype with Emily and her kitty to find out how everything is going back home and get ready for a night out in Pecs. We had a few Hungarian students over (and other American students visiting Hungary) and then head out to some dance clubs. We went to Soho Dance Club, Edge Café, and Cyrano, where we met some really nice Canadians. Everywhere was fun but got too packed as the night went on, so we came back, helped a friend find a taxi, and fell asleep at 4/4:30.

Every day just keeps getting better and better. I wish I wrote this on the day of so I could show my excitement even more from that day, but it just gets outdone by the next day every time…I just cannot believe how perfect this city is. Every time you turn a corner or walk a few more steps, something new reveals itself, a view changes slightly, a new sign of the brightness and beauty of the world reveals itself, and you open your eyes just a little more each time. I just can’t help but pause at times and just breathe in knowing this has got to be the best time ever, which is usually trumped by the next hour. Rain could only fall and make everything glisten, noise could only help you hear new things going on, and confusion simply helps you learn more about life. Nothing has been disheartening (yet), but I would find it hard to be the focus of for long, because new wonders of this city appear with only the slight tilt of the head.