I'm Going Down to the River

Our three days in Szeged were so eventful that it would be hard to describe them briefly, especially because there is so much to tell. This was the first time we went away by ourselves, which entailed that we had to and could decide what we wanted to do. The first day was especially jammed, we saw and did about as much as one would in a week. The truth is, I've become rather keen on sightseeing, and Szeged is indeed so beautiful and full of picturesque elements that we couldn't help taking photos of every second house or so. My boyfriend read three guidebooks, which turned out to be qouting each other without proper citation, so he was prepared with nice anecdotes. What I am especially proud of is that I quickly found my way around; thus, I felt at home by the end of the first day.
What you have to know about Szeged is that there was a flood in 1879, which lasted for 186 days, so practically the whole town was ruined. After that, the new town was designed by not more than a ruler and a compass set. The image was determined by Ödön Lechner; therefore, everything bears the traces of Secession. You can see houses with beautiful facades in all colours, heads of angels, small sculptures, spires, and all kinds of ornaments, which now house clothes shops and banks. How profound! On one of the facades we found the head of Béla IV, commemorating the foundation of the town in 1247. Just imagine waking up in the morning and looking out from your balcony with Béla's head next to you. Isn't that splendid? What I really liked in the town is that you can find monuments for practically everybody worth mentioning, from heroes to saints, politicians, painters, professors, through sportsmen. And not just people related to Szeged, but the pride of the country in general. We found a composition about may flies, too, which are called tiszavirág (Tisza + flower) in Hungarian.

Day 1:
We left Budapest with the 7:53 InterCity train from Nyugati railway station, and arrived in Szeged at 10:13 am (2 minutes early actually). We travelled through the Hungarian plains, which is sort of my natural habitat, and we also passed Kecskemét, the town where I was born. My boyfriend was reading on article on Solzenicyn and Siberian concentration camps, so I had all the time for watching the landscape. Despite having to wake up early I was filled with joy and excitement over our weekend, and the whole thing felt like going on honeymoon, except perhaps that they do not spend much time sightseeing, but I'm not sure. I wouldn't travel to the other end of the world just to stay in a hotel room and make love.
When we arrived at the station in Szeged, the sun was shining brightly. From there we took tram route 1, which took us into the heart of the town. From there we walked about fifteen minutes, though it's hard to tell as we were carrying our heavy bags. Our hotel was close to the Tisza, and close to the Pick factory, which makes the best Hungarian winter salami. The room was neat and comfortable, with soft and clean duvets, en suite bathroom, and a nice feel to it in general. There was a small fruit basket, a packet of Szegedi Paprika, two bottles of mineral water, and two tiny chocolates for us. Also we got tea when checking in.

We left the hotel at about 11 or 11:30 am, I'm not sure. We were fool enough to go out in just a sweater, and by the time we got back in the afternoon, we were almost freezing. We went on foot everywhere to save money. There weren't long distances, anyway. As I said, we visited so many places and did so many things on that first day, that it's hard to recall. On several occasions during the day I stopped, wondering if that was still the same day; it felt so long and wide and full. First we took a walk to the synagogue. It's not as famous and big as the one in Budapest or Plzen (which I had visited last summer), but it's beautiful all the same. The entry cost only a couple of hundred forints. It's a pity though that some of the benches were stained by water, and I guess the roof needs repairing. Also, there was freezing cold inside, colder than outside, in fact.

Then we walked to REÖK Palace, which is a cultural center built in the style of Secession, of course. The tickets were included in our hotel package, so we were bound to visit. In addition, there was an exhibition on John Lennon, which made it all the more interesting. Some of his early drawings were exhibited, and drawings and pictures about him, a few LP covers, platinum album plaques, and some creations of Yoko Ono. She also submitted his blood-stained glasses, which he was wearing when he was shot, which I found a bit morbid. In general, I liked the exhibition, though some of Lennon's drawings looked like Martian creatures.
Then we walked to the cathedral, which is the emblem of the city. We arrived there at about 1:30 pm. In the meantime we found Klauzál tér, which is one of the must-visit squares in Szeged because the two most popular confectioneries, Virág and A Cappella are located there, as well as Hatos Rétes, a nice little café, which sells strudels. We had lunch in Kerek Perec, a baker's, then we had one strudel each at Hatos Rétes.
The cathedral was built in the first half of the 20th century, but the bricks were taken from a church built in the 13th century, the tower of which was left as a memento. In the cathedral you can see the famous sculpture of Christ made by János Fadrusz. The interesting thing about it is that he asked someone to fasten him to a cross and take a photo, and he used that photo to help him depict the body appropriately. Around the cathedral there is a walk of famous Hungarians, where you can see sculptures of composers, scientists, historians, and other famous Hungarians, which were donated by collectors.
About 50 meters from the cathedral you can find the Serbian church, which is an orthodox church with a rococo iconostasis. This is one of the very few buildings that survived the flood of 1879, though the water left its traces there.
From the Serbian church we went to the wharf, and walked along the river to Móra Museum, which houses all kinds of exhibitions from pharmacy to history. Along the river we found plenty of sculptures, so we kept clicking with the camera (or rather my boyfriend was clicking and I was just pointing out things). What I liked most was the exhibition about the Hungarian revolution of 1848-1849. There was a military tent on display with an imitation saber, which you could take in your hand, and I really liked the feel of it. I'd been pondering the idea of enrolling at a fencing course, and this experience made me even more determined.
We walked on to Pick Museum, which is a museum about the production of Pick salami and Szegedi paprika powder. We arrived there at about 4 pm, but I'm not sure. Here we watched the exhibition, and got a packet of paprika powder, a postcard, and a salami sandwich each. The hotel package included a four-course dinner with a bottle of wine for two evenings as well, which we had in the Pick restaurant. Fortunately, we had a little time to rest in our room, which again fortunately was close to the restaurant (which was in the same building as the museum).
On the first evening we got a selection of Pick salamis and sausages for starter, followed by a delicious ragout soup. The main course we could choose from two options, but we both chose harcsapaprikás, a kind of stew from catfish, which again is a must in Szeged (or perhaps next to fish soup). By the time we got our main course we were anxious to leave because my boyfriend bought two tickets for West Side Story in the local theater, which started at 7 pm. Finally we had to take the dessert with us in a plastic box, which was chestnut puree, and did not look too inviting by the time we got back to our hotel room at 10. We ate it anyway.
The theater was our last program that day and I felt positively relieved when we got back to our room. I was full and dizzy from the wine, and had to hurry to the theater in high-heeled boots, so I arrived panting and sweating, and just about ready to throw up. But the play made it all good. We sat in the second row of a box on the first floor (American second). The theater was gorgeous inside with naked alabaster women, golden decoration, and reddish wallpaper imitating velvet. The musical was also fantastic. I guess Bernstein deserved most of the credit, for writing such wonderful music, but the actors were good, too, and we were both amazed by the choreography and the translation. Our favorite scene was a duet of the lovers. While they were singing, two dancers performed a beautiful modern ballet piece, and their gestures were so full of meaning and emotions that I felt like crying watching them. My boyfriend is not usually moved by musicals and dancing, so you can take it as a good sign if he likes any of it, and he did. Afterwards we started discussing that we should recommend the score to the conductor of the orchestra we play in. And I also suggested visiting some ballet performance in the future.

Day 2:

Our day started with a full English breakfast, or something of the sort. I only ate scrambled eggs and wiener sausages, but my boyfriend tried the whole menu. We took the 9 am bus to Ópusztaszer, where we visited the heritage park. The journey took about 40 minutes, plus 20 minutes walking. The big deal here is Feszty's panorama depicting the arrival of the conquering Hungarians. It was a grand experience but at the same time I was shocked by its cruelty. You can see charred remnants of dwellings and half-naked women about to be raped by our grand ancestors. At the same time you can see the magnificent Árpád looking at the land and the shaman performing some tribal rite, and this is supposed to make you identify and feel proud, and you cannot help it, despite the thought of all those raped women and burnt houses. I think I have a thing for all this nomadic and shamanic culture, but what I like in it is the mythology and not the military side of it.
Actually, I was rather worn out by our first day in Szeged, so I almost fell asleep several times, and finally collapsed in a chair while my boyfriend walked around and took photos of the descriptions he felt too tired to read on the spot. We watched a lot of exhibitions and also took a walk in the park. The open air facilities don't open until April, but even so we saw a lot. The other two exhibitions worth mentioning were the one about the excavation of the medieval monastery and the collection of wax people depicting the court of King Matthias.
We got back to Szeged around 4 pm, after a horrible journey with a group of misbehaved teenagers with their mobile music players turned up to the maximum. And the more striking thing is that there was a teacher with them who kept giggling and letting them ruin the journey for all the other passengers. Before going back to the hotel we took a walk to the prison and another church named after Saint Roch as both were close to the bus station. We walked to the hotel visiting Széchenyi tér, where there was a food and drink festival going on, but we just took photos of all the statues.
The dinner was just as good as the day before, though already I started to miss the place. For starters we had canapé with tatárbifsztek, followed by beef soup. For main course I chose the chicken with mushrooms and rosemary, and my boyfriend chose roasted pork slice (wiener schnitzel), but we halved both and shared them. For dessert we got pancake with apple sauce, which gave me a good idea of trying it at home.
After dinner we took a long walk in the town and tried to took some photos, but not all of them turned out well.

Day 3:

Our hotel package also included two tickets to Anna spa, so we spent most of the day indulging ourselves in the pools and various saunas. After that we took another walk in the town and took photos of anything we might have left out, for example the head of Béla IV, which became my favourite sculpture. We also went back to Hatos Rétes for lunch, and had a piece of cake each in A Cappella. You really must go and visit A Cappella because it is a two-storey dream of a confectionery come true. It took us long to select which cake to try because there were so many of them, all of them so new and good-looking. I chose one with sour cherry and some kind of cream because that's what I'm usually looking for in a cake.
Checking out didn't run as smoothly as we would have liked because the receptionist was a bit incompetent, and absolutely unwilling to let us go without a tip. As we paid for the bone back in November I didn't feel it righteous on her part, especially because she was the most incompetent (or the only incompetent) one among them. Anyway, we had given a tip to the waiters, and that I felt righteous. Finally we arrived at the train station about 5 minutes after our train had gone, so had almost an hour to spend there. All the seats were booked for the IC, so we travelled back in an ordinary waggon among students and elderly people complaining about students, the door rattling, and our bodies freezing even in our coat.

I think we have made the most out of our trip and I got to like Szeged a lot, so we are definitely going to visit again. I'd like to go in the summer, and perhaps attend a performance at the open-air festival. One of my old friends is studying there and we couldn't make it this time, so I'm hoping to visit her, too, and of course the confectionery.