This weekend I went to Szeged (pronounced Seged; an "s" followed by a "z" has the traditional sound of a single "s" in English, whereas in Hungarian a single "s" is pronounced "sh"). The purpose of going to Szeged was to hear a lecture given on a topic in geometry by a professor at the university there. About 34 of the people in BSM went, but most of us didn't go for the lecture; we went to see a different city. Szeged turned out to be quite an experience! It's amazing how much can happen in a 24 hour time span. What follows is a chronicle of my trip to Szeged.
The trip started out a little hectically because the train left at 1:53pm, which should have left me plenty of time to get to the train because I was done with classes at noon, except for the fact that I was group leader. At the time I agreed to take on the position as group leader all it entitled was to deliver a couple pieces of paper to the right people, but it turned into so much more! One of the pieces of paper I was responsible for was the list of everyone coming on the trip and their information for the hostel. That list was also Anna's, our student coordinator, way of keeping track of who had picked up their train tickets. By the time I was done with my classes, not everyone had picked up their tickets, so I had to race back to my flat grab my stuff, and then rush back to school to pick up the sheet, and race to the train station (which is one stop in the opposite direction of school from my flat). I was weaving through people and power walking like never before, but I made it and we all got on the train and made it to Szeged without any problems.
Upon our arrival to Szeged, we were met at the train station by two guys who attend the university there. They took us to the university where we immediately attended the lecture. It was poor planning to have us attend a lecture immediately after riding a train for the past two and a half hours. Half of our group fell asleep. I stayed awake, but the lecturer did not hold my attention the entire time. My mind wandered away from geometry and differentiation. After the lecture our guides walked us to our hostel where the problems began. Our guides served as translators since the people at the hostel didn't really speak English. A word to the wise, never go to a hostel with a large group of people! The big problem at the hostel was that they wanted the entire group to pay together and not individually. Trying to coordinate and organize payment for 34 people was an enormous production that left me yelling out instructions and being asked ridiculous questions that I couldn't possibly know the answer to. Another girl and I managed to set up a sort of payment counter in the lobby of the hostel. We sat behind a table and began making a list of everyone as they came up to put their share of money into the collective. The biggest problem was that we all had large denominations of money and most people needed change. We managed however to get everyone to pay and give out the right change. Then after standing by the office with ninety something thousand forints in my hands for another twenty minutes, I was finally able to pay for our rooms.The entire production took over an hour and a half, when it should have taken only ten or twenty minutes. Needless to say after that ordeal I could use a drink, which I was offered by many people who appreciated me taking charge and handling everything. Once I finished the business end of things, I had absolutely no time to settle in at the hostel because the gang was hungry and very very cranky! I had enough time to go to the bathroom before we immediately left in search of food. After failing to locate the place we were looking for and enduring extreme crabbiness from other members of the group, I finally spotted a low key pizza joint that we quickly hurried into. After some food, the average mood increased exponentially.
Getting food, however, was only one objective completed. The next on our list was alcohol. God forbid people live without alcohol, so off we went in search of a pub or bar. Let me just take this opportunity to say that navigating in a group is the least efficient activity ever! Invariably you get people saying they know where they are going, and then after walking around for fifteen minutes they finally admit that they really have no idea. That happened several times that night, so we ended up walking in circles forever. I didn't mind the walk though. It was a nice night and I enjoyed just seeing the city. What I didn't enjoy was the crankiness that had returned to certain members of the group. I found myself in a beautiful Hungarian town wishing I had never come.
On our search for a bar called Number 1 Pub, we found a place that was recommended to us called Blues Café. We eagerly went in and saw that it was fairly empty, so there was plenty of room for us. A waitress came up to us when we entered and we communicated to her that we wanted a place for six. She then responed, "Sorry, everything is reserved." That response caused us to look around once more at the practically empty establishment in total confusion, but we had no choice but to turn around and walk back out to the street. As expected, that turn of events didn't improve the attitude of the group.
We continued wandering around in circles and after much more time, we finally found the No. 1 Pub. As it turns out, we had walked right past it already and hadn't even noticed it. Go figure. Excited to have finally found the pub we had been looking for, we clambered down the stairs. A similar scene presented itself to us as in the Blues Café. A waiter approached us and we again expressed want of a table for six. We got the same answer as in the other bar, "Sorry, we're all reserved." Who knew you had to make reservations for a bar? We angrily left and continued our nightly roaming. At this point I was ready to find my way back to the hostel by myself just to escape the foul moods of the people I was with.
In desperate want of a good beer, I was dragged to a place
called Non-Stop Dairy that had a cow for a mascot and apparently served dairy products. This odd place had an outside concession stand sort of set up that served cheap beer in plastic cups and was surrounded by a bunch of picnic tables. I found it hilarious how much it reminded me of Wisconsin: cows and cheap beer. After the dairy place, we found a café with tables outside near a square we had walked through several times that night in our misguided wanderings, and sat down to have something to drink that was far more complicated than just filling a cup with beer from the tap. Because of my organizational efforts I didn't have to pay for my drinks, which definitely made my evening a little better.After drinks at the street side café, we ended up running into some other BSMers and decided to go to a club called Genius. That is finally where things turned around. They had a deal on gin and tonics, and one of the guys in the program bought me one. They also had a dance floor, which is where we spent most of our time. Originally, we all had some inhibitions about letting loose and dancing, but after seeing some of the guys look completely ridiculous while getting their groove on, I left my self consciousness behind and let the beat take me. It was a blast! We danced to Michael Jackson, Grease, Shakira, techno, and much more. I even did the cha-cha with one of the guys. I don't think I've ever danced like that in my life (at least not in the presence of others).
Eventually, we had all danced as much as we could, and realized it was time to call it a night. We headed back to the hostel where I got up the nerve to take a shower. Originally, I was just going to wait until we got back to Budapest the next day to shower because the co-ed bathroom didn't have shower curtains, so in taking a shower you were exposed for all to see. I am not the sort of person who is comfortable in such situations, but I also don't like to be sweaty. I hadn't intended on dancing, so my non-showering plan was sufficient in the beginning. After getting sweaty on the dance floor I really wanted to shower. So, as soon as I got back I jumped in the shower and managed to just be wrapping the sheet I was using for a towel around myself as Franky walked in to take his shower. Whew, that was a close one! I have never before had a shower that gave me such a carefree feeling, thinking back on it makes me smile.
The rest of the night was not noteworthy. The next morning we woke up, and Claire, Silviya, and I went to a coffee/pastry shop next door to get some coffee while the guys wer
e still sleeping. I successfully ordered a cup of coffee completely in Hungarian!! I didn't say anything particularly complicated, but I also didn't use a single word of English. The guys still weren't up when we got back, so we went off in search, on my suggestion, of a better bakery that we had come across the night before. We easily found it in the daylight, and I proceeded to get one of my favorite things that I've tried here thus far, sajtos pogásca (shy-toash pogawcha). The translation is something like cheesy poofs, but I consider them more of a cheese biscuit/scone. They are wonderful!
In the next couple of hours we met up with the guys and then went exploring. I wasn't very taken with Szeged the previous night, but in the daylight I really began to like it. I might go back again before the semester is over to explore more. I was only able to see Dóm Church, the country's second largest synagogue, the Deutch Palace, and Heroes Gate. Some of the members of the gang wanted to get back to Budapest as soon as possible, so we left on an earlier train than I would have liked. All in all, despite the, what seemed like endless, wandering and grumpy company, I enjoyed my trip to Szeged. If anyone travels to Budapest I recommend taking a trip to Szeged. It can easily be visited as a day trip, though plan on taking a train early in the morning, and then return late in the evening.For those of you who persevered through this very long account, thank you. Stay tuned for the next installment of Coffee Potting in Budapest!
You are the take charge kind of girl....
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