Weekend Excursion: Szentendre-Visegrád-Esztergom

Sziastok!

Time flies by so quickly!  I can’t believe that I’ve already just completed my first exam.  As such, I think it is finally update time regarding the latest events…

This past weekend me and the rest of the BSCS gang went on an excursion with a few of our program staff—our suave program headmaster and history of philosophy professor (Gabor), the quiet BSCS secretary (Andrea), and finally our quite beautiful Hungarian coordinator and student herself (Luca…pronounced “Lutsa”).  Since Luca seems to also be our informal tour guide to Hungary she often invites her Hungarian friends to these little outings to help “baby-sit” us as one of them put it.  It seems all her friends happen to be pretty pretty as well as the same age as a few of us.  Anyways, this past weekend I believe it was her friend, Vivi, that happened to go along with us.

The trip began early Saturday morning in which we all hopped onto a bus to head towards Skanzen—an open air museum that functioned more like a park that preserved what life was like from the end of the 18^th to the beginning of the 20^th century in Hungary.  Though it seemed like a regular “touristy” type of place to go, it was still rather beautiful to not only explore, but to experience part of the vernacular architecture at that time as well as immerse oneself in the traditional village lifestyle of barns, kitchen gardens, and popular activities/food. 

The place featured “station” like rotations that one could visit, including everything from Northern Hungarian Villages, Market Towns in the Great Hungarian Plains, and Western-Transdubia.  In total, I believe the “museum” covered 60 hectares with 312 different buildings.

Me in front of a Windmill at Skazen

 On this little visit I happened to chill with the main group and then split off with two other members, Annette and Reid.  I decided these people would be best to hang out with at the time since I sensed that Reid was one of those awkward, quirky people I would enjoy hanging out with while Annette seemed to be the quiet, analytical, sarcastic type of person—quite a winning combination!

Anyways, as we were heading down this one path out from the woods, a harmonious mixture of laughter, music, and people’s voices soon filled my ears.  As my sight clued me in on what my ears had notified me of earlier, I saw that there were a bunch of people singing and dancing in traditional clothes.  I really wanted to take a picture of the “weird people” so I enthusiastically headed down there.  I was soon followed by Annette and Reid. 

The moment we arrived to check out the commotion we were soon greeted and handed these glasses of wine.  Actually it was more like these people were forcing us to drink this wine, so out of politeness we all conceded (a great philosophy by the way). They also “wanted” us to try these grapes along with the wine so we accepted them as well.  The grapes were rather tasty, while the wine was okay (I’m not really a fan of alcohol after taking Neuropharmacology). 

Me, Random Guy, Annette, Reid

Rather quickly we were then shuffled into the group of traditionally dressed people singing and dancing to an old guy’s voice with clarinet accompaniment.  With a feeling of excitement laced with hesitancy I soon lost my sense of the “cautious, removed observer” mindset that I often possess and got into the flow of childish laughter and joyous revelry.  The dancing was quite fun though rather difficult at times as my innate-pattern processing mental faculties were desperately trying to integrate the rhythm, timing, and the dance moves of my quite numerous nymph-like partners. 

About To Join In On Traditional Folk Dancing

Nevertheless, I think I held my own quite well as my high school band camp drills of subdividing counts as well as my few lessons in ballroom dancing were brought to the forefront of my cerebellum tuned motor skills.  I even happened to improvise and insert certain twirls into my partners’ moves to make things a little bit more fanciful.  However, this perceived grandeur might have all been contrived as I was pretty sure a few of my young partners were laughing at me since whenever they would speak Hungarian to correct my steps I could only respond with, “Nem értem”, which means “I don’t understand”…and if I were a little girl, I would giggle if someone responded with that phrase as well.

After this little stop we all headed back on the bus towards our official first destination, Szentendre (The “Sz” combination is like our regular “S” sound).  Szentendre is a small town that borders the river near the main capital I am currently staying at (Budapest).  It possesses a heavy Serbian influence as portrayed by the church buildings.  I would characterize it by its narrow cobblestone pathways as well as its numerous mini art galleries. 

Narrow Alley in Szentendre

It was here that Luca treated us all to a piece of cake at a traditional Szamos Confectionary.  I decided to try this plum cake with a semi-spherical half of a plum embedded into the middle of the triangular slice.  After munching down and fulfilling our sugary cravings the next stop was to visit the Royal Palace of Visegrád.

Plum Cake!

On the Bank of the River Danube

Visegrád is situated way north of the country right on the bank of the bend of the great Danube River.  We ended up visiting the Royal Summer Palace of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.  According to a quick Wikipedia search, King Matthias was an early Renaissance ruler and as such was a patron of the arts & sciences and was greatly responsible for adopting the Renaissance ideals from Italy and introducing them to Hungary (the first time Renaissance style appeared outside of Italy).  Being an avid fanboy of all that is Renaissance, I greatly enjoyed this part.

The Cool Underground of  the Summer Royal Palace

The Royal Palace was pretty interesting and I was quite intrigued by the gorgeous architecture and geometry of the place.  It seems as if the beauty of certain shapes and the shadows they cast were formed in the mind’s eye of the people in charge of designing the place and were captured and integrated into reality rather faithfully.  Though it has since fallen into ruins by the Ottoman Turk siege in 1544, excavation and reconstruction are continuing on today.  It is here that I took many pictures of my lovely comrades.

Preston & Curtis Strolling Together Underneath the Grapevines

Ben Contemplating The Meaning of Life

Curtis, Lauren, & Andrea Leaning by the Central Fountain

Inner Sanctuary of the Summer Royal Palace

From here we then headed out to our much anticipated “camping” part of the trip, but as expected, our experience was much more pampered than that and we stayed the night in cabins in the woods instead.  As the sun was burning its artsy ember-like, deep red of sunset, a bunch of us decided to play some Frisbee in the meadows—in general a very carefree and blissful experience.  Some of us decided to play with the dog, while others frolicked between stalks of knee-high dried grass atop a sloping hill.

Frolicking in the Meadows

As the darkness settled in around us, we all migrated to a campfire where some of us sung rap songs, and others passed around various traditional Hungarian alcohols (Unicum tends to be very cinnamon like).  Those of the astute nature noticed the rather clear non-light polluted sky full of stars and bordered by the shadows of the tree line.  A few roasted sausages & vegetables on sticks, while others thought it was an appropriate time to intellectual spar about ideas found in Sociology versus Neuroscience.  Which camp do you think I found myself in?

The next day we all got up to begin our early morning trek up a pathway that meanders through the forest to the top of the large hill.  Here we found ourselves at Upper Visegrád Castle; a castle that sat upon a large hill overlooking the Danube.  I found this funny because “Visegrád” in Slavic origin means “upper castle”, so the name prescribed literally reads, “Upper Upper Castle Castle”. 

Upper Castle at Visegrád

Anyways, I found out that the place is laid out in a very peculiar triangular fashion with three main towers at its corners.  A quick Wikipedia search tells me it served as safekeeping of the Hungarian royal insignia between the 14^th century and 1526.  Pretty cool.

Tower at Visegrád Castle

The view up here was quite the sight to behold and I often found individuals from our group just relaxing and staring out at the scenery below.  One was even found whistling an American national tune (he never knew I was observing him from behind) which I found quite funny though reminiscently inspiring of the country I come from.  The dichotomy between a capitalistic, “free” country (at least in origins) and that of one previously under communist rule was brought to conscious forefront and the irony of the situation of whistling a tune of freedom in a country that was of not was amusing & beautiful to me at the same time.

The View Down Beneath Visegrád Castle

We soon headed to our next destination of Esztergom to visit the…wait for it…Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and Saint Adalbert.  It is here we find the seat of the Catholic Church in Hungary as well as the tallest building in Hungary and what I believe (and just checked!) to be the 18^th biggest church in the world.

Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and Saint Adalbert

Before going into and exploring the Church we were allowed to roam the city on our own, relax, and just enjoy the place at our own pace for the time being.  After heading out to find some food and admiring some pretty cool European motorcycles a few of us decided to climb up near some ruins, find a few benches underneath a tree, strip down in the rising heat, and take a nap.  Yeah, I said it right.  A few of us just took it off and decided to take what one of us has popularly dubbed, a “disco nap”.  One even climbed a tree to take a nap (my cool roommate).  I could only guess what Hungarian people thought of us Americans at the time.

Afterwards we went into the Basilica to explore and eventually climb up a series of tightly spiraled, shoulder width, stone stairways.  These stairs seems to go on forever and if you were counting the steps to verify the number proclaimed at the entrance (something I did) you would get quite sick rather easily.  It also doesn’t help to think of claustrophobic thoughts at the time as well.  

Don't Blink!  (for those of you who get the reference)

Andrea Inside the Basilica

The Beautiful Ceiling Inside the Basilica

Lauren Beneath the Spiral Steps

After a series of dizzying, trancelike stairs, we finally arrived at the very top of the basilica and the surrounding view was quite dreamlike.  Across the river you could easily view the neighboring country of Slovakia (a hint to the rather small size of Hungary).  Everywhere else, you could view the beautiful city of Esztergom.  One of my fellow BSCS student even remarked that she would have loved to take a zip-line from up here down to our initial place of departure…what an experience that would be.

On Top of the Basilica's Main Dome

After climbing down those darn stairs again, we made our way to the bank of the Danube in quite a rush as we didn’t want to miss our boat.  Yup!  We were taking a cruise on the Danube River back to Budapest.  Unfortunately, most of our ride consisted of riding in the confines of the boat, having to look out of the windows to experience the sights, but most of us took the opportunity to recharge out batteries and take a quick “disco nap” on the ride back.  Near the end of the ride though, a few of us decided to head out on the deck and enjoy the sight of our new home…Budapest.

Sleeping on the Boat Ride Back 

Danube River

The End of Our First Weekend Excursion

Anyways, I would like to conclude this piece by announcing my motto for this study abroad experience:

To best excel learning and a gain in knowledge, a proportional amount of feeling uncomfortable has to be experienced.  As such, I am committed to putting myself in uncomfortable situations.  I hope this is exemplified in the above post and to a much greater depth in my future posts as well. 

Viszontlátáshra!  <--- My favorite sounding Hungarian word so far as it has an “elvish”-like quality to it…

(I’ll also try my best to keep my posts shorter from now on…)