Chris Fritze
  • Home
  • Journeys & Challenges
  • Blog
  • Charity
  • Chris
    • About
    • Contact
    • In the media
    • Partners & Supporters
    • Cycling the world kit list
    • Support Me
    • Previous Charities
    • ?
  • Home
  • Journeys & Challenges
  • Blog
  • Charity
  • Chris
    • About
    • Contact
    • In the media
    • Partners & Supporters
    • Cycling the world kit list
    • Support Me
    • Previous Charities
    • ?

Crossing 'flat' Hungary

13/10/2019

0 Comments

 
Location: Pecs
Km on the clock: 2,136

My stay in Budapest went by really fast. Although I was pretty tired and exhausted from my 135 kilometers ride alongside the Danube from Slovakia into Hungary, I managed to join a free walking tour. I learned a few fun things about Hungary on this 1.5 hours tour.
  1. There's a Michael Jackson Memorial in Budapest. You should think it's a life-sized statue, but no, it's just a random tree plastered with lots of pictures of him. He stayed at the Kempinski Hotel when came to play a concert in Budapest in the early 1990's. Since then many Hungarians are huge fans. So they wanted the government to build a memorial. However, the Hungarian law doesn't allow to build a memorial for people that are alive. Thus the people helped themselves by putting pictures on this tree just across the hotel.
  2. The first McDonalds's in Hungary was opened in Budapest in 1988. The people didn't know what kind of food place McDonald's is. The only thing they knew was that there'll be a new western restaurant. Their expectation was that it'll be a nice and fancy restaurant because that was their image of the western world. So they dressed up nicely for the grand opening, like they would go to the opera. Well, I'm not sure if their expectations were met that day. Just paint your own picture of how they must have felt when they got served soggy burgers and oily fries. :D
  3. The translation of the Hungarian word and national dish goulash is cowboy.
I had the pleasure to meet with Marie from Neue Zeitung - Ungarisches Wochenblatt for an interview the next day. We talked about my first weeks experiences of my cycling the world journey and the reasons of why I'm actually doing it. Here's the link to the full interview (written in German). Again, thank you Marie for the opportunity to meet with you and thank you Neue Zeitung for publishing my story and thus supporting my fundraising campaign.
Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Chris Fritze (@fritzechris) am Sep 26, 2019 um 12:27 PDT



At the end of the interview I asked Marie for recommendations of things to do and places to visit in Hungary. One of her recommendations was to visit the city Pecs. German settlers arrived there in the late 17th century and still today Germans are the largest minority in Pecs. This was something that sounded interesting to me since I didn't even know that there was a German minority in Hungary. So I set off in direction Pecs with the hope to find some notes of German culture in Hungary.

Since Hungary is mainly a flat country it was a rather easy ride to Pecs. I cycled via Siofok at Lake Balaton and went further down south from there. Aside of the road were countless of mirabelles trees. The fruits weren't 100 percent ripe yet but already eatable and always a welcome snack in between.
Pecs is located in the southwest of the country near the border to Croatia. The closer I got to Pecs the steeper were some sections of the road. At some point the road had even a slope of 12 percent and before entering Pecs there was a longerish uphill section. A few days earlier someone said to me "The whole country is flat". Well, I'm sure this person hasn't been in this area before. Going into the city was a fun downhill ride though.

Just outside of Pecs I found the first note of German culture in this area. It wasn't anything significant. The word 'Deutsch' was written in big letters above a window on the facade of a house. Left and right of the window were paintings of huge beer mugs.

Unfortunately I couldn't find anything significant 'German' in Pecs itself. I even asked at my hostel and some locals if they knew anything about the German minority and if there are places that I could visit to learn something about it. But they couldn't help me either. They even seemed that they didn't even have a clue what I was talking about. I'm sure there are places to visit but since I stayed there for only two days I used the time to explore the city.

Pecs is Hungary's fifth largest city and is the home of the country's oldest university - founded in 1367. The old town is a beautiful, calm, non-touristy place. There are many little museums for literally anything - arts, mining, agriculture, etc. Most significant is definitely the Mosque of Pasha Quasim at the old town's main square. Even there were barely any tourists. It kind of felt like I was the only tourist in town.
Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Chris Fritze (@fritzechris) am Okt 11, 2019 um 3:03 PDT

My original plan was to go to Serbia after cycling through Hungary. But since I didn't plan to go to the southwestern part of the country, I decided to take the 'shortcut' via Croatia. So I left Pecs after two days and pedaled in direction Republika Hrvatska.

If you enjoy reading this blog then please support my fundraising campaign to equip two school class rooms in Darfur, Sudan. Thank you!
 
And if you enjoy reading it a lot and you want be part of the creative process of future blogs and other content, then you can buy me a coffee on here. ;) Cheers!
 
Click here if you want to take a look at my equipment.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Author

    Click here to find out more about Chris.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017

    Categories

    All
    Albania
    Announcements
    Armenia
    Austria
    Backpacking
    Bicycle Touring
    Croatia
    Cycling The World
    Czech Republic
    Georgia
    Germany
    Greece
    Hungary
    Iran
    Kosovo
    Laos
    Montenegro
    North Macedonia
    North-Macedonia
    Oman
    On The Road
    Preparations
    Running
    Serbia
    Slovakia
    Turkey
    UAE
    Vietnam

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.