Beyond Budapest -- Pécs and Eger

With my time as a Fulbright Hungary grantee coming to a close much too quickly, I have been busy trying to explore as many corners of Hungary as possible. One place I really wanted to go that I hadn't been yet was a city called Pécs, where one of my Fulbright friends, Tanya, lives. Tanya is an artist who works in ceramics as well as other media, and Pécs is a hub for ceramics. As a bit of a hobby-ceramicist myself, I really enjoyed getting to see the city that is home to the famous Zsolnay ceramics factory. The train ride down to Pécs was beautiful, and the city was pretty breathtaking as well.

Main square, where they happened to be having some kind of a biker convention -- hundreds and hundreds of motorcycles lined the streets and then all loudly zoomed by as we walked.

The picturesque grounds of the university, where Tanya works, next door to the Zsolnay factory.

Zsolnay is famous for roof tiles, among other products. These types of tiles can be seen all over Hungary, such as on the famous Mattias Church in Budapest, and are on seemingly every building in Pécs. So colorful!

Perfect spot for a selfie!

Here is Tanya with some of her work, preparing to set everything up for an exhibition.

In addition to visiting Pécs, several of my Fulbright friends also wanted to visit Eger, a small city famous for its red wine, known as Bull's Blood. If you are an avid reader of my blog, you might remember that I have, in fact, been to Eger before. However, I liked it so much that I tagged along and visited as well. This time, since I had seen the city before, there was no pressure to see all the sights and do all the things -- we arrived, and basically ate and drank until we left.

We started with a Turkish coffee in a traditional Turkish tent, then ate an amazing palacsinta (basically crepes) with chicken, cheese, and a creamy dill sauce, and then we walked out to the Szepasszonyvolgy ("Valley of Beautiful Women") and spent the afternoon tasting seven eight different types of wine. From there, we wobbled back to the bus and slept all the way back to Budapest. It was a lovely day trip, and I was so busy enjoying myself that I only took two photos all day:

Egészségére! (Cheers!)

There was a cat at the bus station, apparently this was the only other photo-worthy event of the day. 

17 days left until my grant officially ends :-( I'll miss this place and these people.