Construction

I smell so bad the statues think it might be them

It is so unfair to judge a city when the weather is cold and rainy. Some of my best memories from cities I have been to were when the weather was nice and I would just sit on a bench watching people, enjoying the sun and relaxing. The weather in Pecs has been terribly cold, rainy, overcast and windy.

Pecs has been selected to be the 2010 cultural capital of Europe and as such is under heavy construction in 2009 at the time of my visit. The entire square is fenced off and being dug up as are all of the main streets that go to the many museums in town and as such the museums are closed. I headed to the cathedral because it is the only cultural spot that seemed open that was out of the rain and cold. As a “student” I had two choices, for 500 HUF I could go to the cathedral, crypt and treasury or for 600 HUF I could go to those three plus a stone exhibition and get a glass of wine from the winery. The exchange rate to USD is approximately 170HUF to 1USD, so of course I chose the second option and got some delicious church wine.

I also went to the nearby Cella Septichora, early Christian relics and a UNESCO World Heritage site. At Cella Septichora there are a bunch of old buildings and a few crypts that were unearthed and now are housed in a building. For some strange reason there is also a display of the fall of the iron curtain but rather than this display being confined to one area it is on all of the walls throughout. The best part of all of this was a touch screen where I got to play the game where you slide around tiles to complete a picture. One of the workers came over to me and told me that his best time in completing the puzzle was 1 minute and 23 seconds, he seemed very pleased with himself over this.

Despite the bad weather I decided to climb the hill that overlooks the city in hopes that it might clear up for a view. This was by far the largest, steepest and most difficult hill I have had to climb in any city. I was so hot climbing that I had my sweatshirt off and my jacket open and I was still sweating. I imagine I was ¾ of the way up when there was a lookout and I did lookout but it was so rainy and dark by then that I decided to head back to town and look for an umbrella to replace mine that was falling apart.

I went to the local mall and walked around and found an enormous grocery store that nearly resembled those in America with different departments. I was able to locate a reasonably priced umbrella and bought it. Once outside it was still raining and I opened the umbrella only to have it flip inside out and then have the handle fall off. I was able to get it turned right side out and get the handle back on but I don’t think this umbrella will last me very long.

Tomorrow I head to Bratislava by train, hopefully I can get on the correct train this time!

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11_11_09 Pecs small