Kaland: What I've Been Doing When I'm Not Doing School Work

While school has dominated my weekdays lately, I have still been doing things on my weekends, so I thought I would get you caught up on some of those trips. Some weekends, we stay around Békés, but we are busy! One weekend we went to a wedding and another we had a birthday party to go to. The wedding was OK - it was neat to see the things that were the same and the things that were different between American weddings and Hungarian weddings, but it was really strange being at a wedding where I didn't really know anyone. It was very, very nice of the bride and groom to allow me to come however. The Hungarian wedding had a live band during the wedding ceremony which played and sang several songs. And during the reception the wedding guests played games between courses. Although we didn't eat dinner until 10:30 at night, the games were an interesting diversion from how hungry we all were.

Two weeks ago I went to Subotica, Serbia with my landlord, his son and daughter (who is in my class!), and Nora. That is one of the bonuses to living in a small town - people invite you to lots of things! There is a huge market in Subotica where you can buy pretty much anything you want - as long as you don't care if it doesn't last you a long time! There were clothes (mainly Jersey Shore style so needless to say I didn't purchase any), shoes, accessories, purses, coats, perfume, and food. We ate lunch at a little stand in the market that gave you kind of like a big, thick tortilla and then you choose what meat and vegetables to put in it. You didn't roll it like a burrito though, you kind of folded it in half and then half again and then ate it. It was awkward as you can imagine. And it was the first time I was really conscious of the lack of an FDA because I am positive this place would not have passed a health inspection. But as they say, when in Serbia....

Inside one of the buildings of the market

The entrance to the market

This past weekend I got to go on another trip, this time with Fulbright Hungary. Fulbright organizes monthly get-togethers for us and this one happened to be a two day trip to Košice, Slovakia as well as Sárospatak, Hungary and the Tokaji wine region of Hungary. Most of our trips will be just one day and will involve something in Budapest, but this one was special. Košice is one of the Cultural Capitals of Europe this year and was really beautiful. It is the 2nd largest city in Slovakia, but at 250,000 people it really isn't huge. It is located in the middle of a valley in an area that used to be Hungary, but isn't anymore. There is a big cathedral in the city dedicated to St. Elizabeth who was a princess and after her husband's death, started a hospital and began serving the poor. Also in the town is the Golden Treasure of Košice. The treasure was found in 1935 by a construction worker who was renovating a building in the town. It consists of 2920 gold coins, three medals and a long gold chain. It is thought the treasure was buried sometime between 1679-1681 because the newest coin is from around that time. Some other coins date back to 1402 and 1404.

Košice

Some of the coins in The Golden Treasure

St. Elizabeth Cathedral in Košice

We then travelled back to Hungary to a town named Sárospatak. This town is known for the Castle of Sárospatak. Several famous and very rich people lived there and one of Hungary's many unsuccessful rebellion plots was hatched under its roof. The Castle is now on the back of the 500 forint bill. From Sárospatak, we went to a winery in the Tokaji region of Hungary which is famous for its delicious wines. This winery didn't let us down and we got to taste several different types of wine. Wine tasting worked a little different here than at home; instead of the miserly drink of wine you get at home, wine tasting here involved full glasses of each different kind! It was a really wonderful way to spend the afternoon - a beautiful fall day, friends, and good wine. Overall it was a fantastic weekend.