Oh Happy Day

I began to explore a possible location for a Fulbright appointment on a very cold day in February in Minnesota. When I read about the blooming almond trees in Pecs in March, I thought "sign me up." Today it's very cold in Minnesota, and I'm having a fabulous day in spring-time Pecs!

I decided to take myself out to breakfast. As I walked down to Kiraly, I saw a sign of spring. The palm trees that had been wrapped in burlap are now in the spring air. And when I walked by the same place later in the day, I saw the first customers out having drinks on a sidewalk table.

When I got to Szechenyi Ter, I saw many, many workmen (and no workwomen!) busy on the final renovations needed. This is quite a labor intensive activity.

The final trim stones are being added. This involves putting in a stone and then attempting to tamp it down. Then the workman removes the stone and adjusts the gravel underneath to make the stone set at a more level manner. Once it all in place someone comes along with the tamp machine and rolls it all down. This job didn't look like much fun to me. The person doing this gets a very severe vibration into the arms.

I wanted to walk on streets north of the Ter, but that turned out to be a bad idea because the volume of construction going on right now. I headed out to explore a couple of other places and then headed to a cukrasza for a cappuncino. There I pulled out my Hungarian homework and got busy trying to do the challenging assignments. One is to recognize common words such as exit, entrance, and ambulance.

I already knew some of these because of seeing them frequently on the street. Because there are so many languages spoken in Europe, much is done too with graphics. So the photo shows how I learned vegetable.

And how I learned fruit.

Then I noticed that the door was open on the Gazi Kaszim Pasha Mosque/Church. This site began to be a church in the 13th century. When the Ottoman Empire took over Pecs, the church was destroyed, and the stones were used to build a mosque. When, 150 years later, the Hungarians got control of Pecs again, the mosque began to be renovated into a Catholic Church again.

The present building has two sides with an altar in the open space in the middle. The side facing the Ter is the mosque building and it is rectangle in shape. An addition was made on the back side that is in the shape of a half circle. Each side contrasts in many ways from the other.

Here is a  picture of the mosque side taken from the opposite side.

Windows are very interesting.

Each of the four corners of this side of the church has a stone statue.

On each side of the altar in this side of the church is a plaque with a verse from the Koran. Right now I can read one word of the Hungarian. In the third line, segitsegert is help, the noun version of this word.

Here is a view back to the circle side.

This side is decorated with many frescos. I first noticed the word, Csalad, a word I learned just this week. That word means family. "Who is Saint Family?" Oh dah! The holy family. So I learned a new meaning for the word Szent; it's not always saint.

I was glad to see this inside of this very interesting building. The woman acting as receptionist thanked me three times for stopping in.

When leaving I looked up towards the hill, and on this beautiful clear, sunny day I could see the church up in the hills.

Walking back to my flat I turned down into a couple of courtyards. In one I found this view of trees. What looks like a bunch of leaves or perhaps a big squirrel's nest is in fact a bunch of mistletoe. This is a parasite that lives in trees. I saw a lot of it, too, in the Ukraine. It will eventually kill the tree.

I finish today with a view from another courtyard I discovered for the first time. Everyone I look, Pecs is eye candy.

So on a day when Minnesotans are dealing with cold temperatures and too much snow along the streets, I enjoyed spring in Pecs.