My Pécs adventure

Hi AM,

I loved the hell out of Pécs! It was so beautiful. It was like a fairy tale. I could send you photos that I took of Pécs if you are interested. I stayed at a wonderful hotel too. It was only 35 USD, yet it was the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at. It was old, like Pécs.

I had trouble getting back. I saw a museum in the afternoon, then headed back to the train station. There was a huge rainstorm. I got soaked. I decided to go to the Burger King in the mall they have there, in order to dry out wait out the rain. This mall is very big, as big as Mammut. At about 14:15 I headed out to catch the 15:15 train back to Budapest. I used my GPS to find my way back. The damn thing led me to the middle of nowhere. I finally managed to find the train station, but I had missed the train. When I went in and looked at the video train schedule, which differed from the electronic ones they use at Budapest-Déli station, I became horribly confused because the departure times seemed to differ from that of the train schedule I had seen online. The ticket person didn’t speak English very well. I think she was expressing departure times using a 12 hour clock, probably to make it easier for me, because that is what Americans are used to, yet this just made things more confusing to me, as the train schedule used a 24 hour clock. I decided to go back to Burger King, as they have wifi there, which would allow me to recheck the train schedule. By the time I got back to the station it was 16:45. I looked at the train station schedule again on the video monitor. I finally realized that some of the cryptic groups of letters, like IND, were really abbreviations of Hungarian words, such as indul, and that departure and arrival times were posted on the exact same video monitor. This is what had really confused me. I was very wet and tired and hungry and disoriented at this point. I was willing to take any train that got me back to Budapest, no matter how long it took. The ticket person kept telling me departure times using a 12 hour clock. I was too tired and disoriented to convert the 12 hour clock into a 24 hour clock. I didn’t care. I just bought the ticket. Get me on the train. Any train. I stood confused on the platform. I tried to ask a few people who worked there for help, but they didn’t speak much English. A very nice fellow passenger, who didn’t speak a word of English, but who was also headed for Budapest-Déli helped me. I was able to understand a little of what he was saying to me, as I know a teeny bit of Hungarian. I understood enough. Some Americans say that Hungarians are not nice people. They don’t understand Hungarians. Hungarians are not chatty, but they are very nice! They are always there to help you in a pinch.

I got into Déli station around 22:00. It only took me 10 hours to get back! I don’t regret going. I had one of the greatest times of my life in Pécs.

Oh, and I also tried kürtős kalács for the first time in Pécs. Thank you for telling me about this. It was an outdoor kürtős kalács stand. Two for 600 HUF. It was very sweet, maybe a little too sweet, but it was good. All Hungarian confections and breads are good. I was in the castle district last night. There was an outdoor stand which sold kürtős kalács, among other Hungarian breads. She wanted 700 HUF for one. I felt as if she was trying to take advantage of naive tourists who do not know what reasonable prices for kürtős kalács are. I didn’t buy it.

Good luck with your new job! I am happy for you!