Uni to Grammar School in a Week

Did you ever think of taking a gap year and it would become the longest gap, which you didn't have in mind ever?  Well I didn't.  You may think that I am a little nuts, but that's what happened.

I was working at a student bar at the College of St. Mark and St. John, an affilitation of the University of Exeter during the summer to earn a few pennies.  At that time, 1993, we had many students visiting us to take summer courses and enjoy the beauties of Plymouth.

Photo: Andy Forbes

Scenic photo of Plymouth sea front

Mr. Spontaneous

Many of my English friends considered my rather spontaneous.  I would say, 'that's not true, I'm completely reliable and predictable.' Well, one night, while working behind the bar, a group of Hungarian teachers trotted into the bar, laughing merrily, after having consumed much of the national spirit, Palinka. Which I must say is quite a formidable drink, but watch out, it kicks like a mule. Anyway, I got chatting to one of the teachers, asking her where the group was from. She said 'we're from Hungary'.  Well, I looked at her, trying not to look to confused, and said, 'nice'. ' Do you like Plymouth?'.  I am sure shew that I hadn't the foggiest where on earth Hungary was, but kept quiet about it.  I was very embarressed, because I love geography and was pretty good at it, but I wasn't familiar with this part of Europe, because I grew up in the Soviet period.  Bye the way don't ever say to a Hungarian that they are from Eastern Europe it's Central Europe. So the next night I am working another shift and the lady arrives again.  She starts talking to me, non stop, while in the other ear my boss is growling at me.  The asks me if I would like to go to Hungary and work foe a year.  I said 'When?'.  I was shocked,but intrigued. Afterall, I had only been abroad once, and that was Birmingham.  I just thought how interesting it would be to go to an unknown territory where most English people thought their capital city was Budapest, and the only food known was goulash

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Hungarian Gulyas (Goulash) MMMM!

Photo: Agi Volencsik 

So I said 'yes' to the shock and horror of my family and freinds. I just thought it sounded exotic.  Most English people take there holiday in Spain or Portugal or just somewhere close to home.  Whereas most gap year student will float of to India for ten 1 year of enlightenment. Then I suddenly thought where exactly in Hungary was I going?, what am I doing there? and most importantly, as I was a poor student how am I going to get there?  I asked  the question. She replied: "Eger, teach English and by bus, for free."  I was startled. "But I am not a teacher; I am studying PR and Media".  Of course. I didn't tell her that I didn't know where Eger was, but soon I was to learn that it was worth the move.

The Bus Trip

Now, the morning I left Plymouth to go away for a year to lands unknown was quite difficult.  My advice is to be prepared, especially if you are going far away, to a completely different culture, yourself nor your family have a clue what it's like and where it is.  One of the last thing my sister said was 'I hope you don't get shot by a Serbian'.  Which I understood why she said this, because Seberia and Croatia border Hungary.  I calmed by suggesting that bullets don't fly fo 600 miles. So we said our fairwells I got on the bus and travelled from Plymouth to London to my departure point.  No, bus, worried James, waited two hours.  The bus eventually arrived and I had a heart attack.  If you have a quick search on Google image, you,ll understand why.  It looked like something out of a Cliff Richards film. (He was a big Rock 'n Roll star from the fifties), but I think most people will heard of him from the news, by now. I had read, that from London to Eger takes 24 hours, which I thought it's okay I'll sleep. How wrong I was.  I was unaware that the teacher who had invited was leading a group of the most evil, undisciplined children I had ever met.  Between the ages 14 and 16 they did absolutely nothing niceand it turned we would be stopping at Brighton, Paris, Passau, Sopron Pécs, Budapest and our destination, Eger.  In each of these cities and towns we stopped for about 4 hours to look around.  In Brighton we went to the beach.  If you like pebbles and almost sitting vertically, it's ok.  I think you definitely more than that to enjoy the town. There were many restaurants along the seaside and hotels.  I have only seen on television that it has a very livelyy nightlife with lots of pubs and clubs to boogie the night away.

Crossing the Channel and Onward 

In those days, the tunnel, or Le Mans, as the French name it, didn't exist, so it was onto a ferry and a three hour crossing from Dover to Calais.  If you have 'sea legs' this is okay, but nowadays, I would totally reccommend paying the extra Euros going from the center of London to the center of Paris in about 1 hour.  It is so smooth, you don't feel the speed and you are only under  the channel for 20 minutes or forty by bus.  So if you want shorten your journey by 2/3 take the tunnel, but if you're in now hurry and want to visit a few other countries, take the ferry.  Me, personally, I like them both.

Paris

As I mentioned earlier,  I only got to spend a few hours in Paris, but I can safely say this is one of my favourite cities in Europe.  It is so romantic and artistic, the architecture, both classical and modern is breathtaking.  Of course there are all the famous landmarks; Notre Dame, Le Louvre and the famous art galleries with many beautiful paintings from great artists, but the most specatacular, of Thr Eiffel Tower.  Alhough very beautiful, it's very tall, so I just looked at it from below.  It still looks good from down there.  If you have a head for heights then go up, and think of all the movies that have been produced there and you will realise why.  I can't really give much more advice about Paris except, go with a partner.  The romantic coffees on terraces and walks through the boulevards would be lovely.

Paris By Night

Photo: Dreis Buytaert

Entering Hungary

I am not really going to mention much about Passau because nothing exciting really happened there, except one of the older boys stole a bottle of Jack Daniel's from one of the small shops and was caught because he dropped and smashed it.  The shopkeeper was a bit peeved because the Austrians and Hungarians don't egt on too well.  I will tell you about that in a later post. So we entered Hungary and on the border, which now is very pretty and was then but a delapidated. began my first Hungarian culture shock.  It was summer and temperatures can get up to 50 celsies that's 122 in Faranheit.  It was less but hot enough for there to be no grass.  We then pulled over into a eat place, that's all I can call it.  You went up to a hut and went to the window and ordered food which you received in 5 seconds. Don't worry it's not the same now, but that will be in a later post when I learn about the country's real cuisine.  I will describe Sopron later when I visit it for more than an hour.

Arriving in Eger

I will also write about Budapest later because we just dropped some kids off in the city center and continued on to Eger.  If you are travelling to Eger the train is the best.  Back then it took about three hourd to go 130 kms on trains which had holes for toilets and travelled about 60 KM/H.  Nowadays, it takes about 2 by train or 1 hour 30 by car.  Better roads and rails. So we arrived in Eger and I couldn't see anything because it was dark.  I found my accomadation was a flat built in the Communist era from concrete. I had been travelling for four days and hadn't slept because the kids were awake all night and asleep all day and I was the opposite awake all day and kept awake all night. The moral is don't travel with a lot of teenagers on a bus. Next post will be about my first experiences in EGER. 

Sorry for not being up-to-date, but I have been in hospital for a week, but I am back to continue.  

First Days

Well I didn't see much as I arrived in the dark and the first thing I noticed was the howling and barking of dogs.  It seems that the Hungarians were and are big fans of dogs.  So you better get used to it at night.

Photo: Private photographer

I was welcomed to a 1950's flat within an apartnent block.  It was quite cramped as my host had a 11 year old boy.  Seems she had more on her mind than just a guest teacher.  The next day was my first day teaching and I was petrified.  I decided that I would just do introductions, considering there were 40 students in my class it took up the 45 minutes teaching session,  I did feel that I was just a bit of fun for the students as they didn't really pay much attention.  Then they stared asking me brammatical questions.  Don;t forget I was not a teacher, so I went home and did my homreork,  As I was 23 at the time, some of the older students invited me out to local wine cellars and much to my surprise very tasty.  The atmodphere and beautiful sound of the Cymbolum really set thr rvrning for a night of fun and joy.

Photo: Unknown street players

First Impressions

Eger is a very beautiful city, full of Baroque monumnets including the 2nd biggest Basilica in Europe  If you want a slow leasurely gay smong hidtorical plsces to visit this is the place to visit..

Eger Basilica

Photo: PL Davis

Asisdes from this glorious building you have the castle and its cattacombes.  The castle was such a stronghold that it fought off more than 80000 Turks with only a handful of Huns keeping it protected.

Photo: Private

Wow what a life change

Well, this was certainly a change in my life; I went from BMW to Audi to this:

Photos by James Presley

I heard there was a U2 song where they left 2 Trabant's in the streets of Berlin and whoever found them could keep them.

First Wine Tasting

In Ny first week I was invited to go to the :"Szép Asszonyvőlgy" (The Valley of the Beautiful Women")  Sounds good until you drink the wine and everything becomes suddenly beautiful.  There are more than 50 wine cellars to visit plus tradirional dancing and singing.  You can also join in outdoor BBQ's and traditional Hungarian folk music.  The wine is all top quality, but I recommend cellars 23 and 18 for some of that good old fashion tradition accompanied by the wonderful wine available.  

There is a drink which goes by the name 'Palinka' which is a kind of white brandy and comes in many flavours.  It used to have a bad name because a lot of 'moonshine' was produced, but nowadays it has become more exquisite and is drank as an aperetif rather than totty.

One thing I don't recommend is the Hungarian beer, the main one's are Dreher, Arany Aszok and Borsodi all drinkable but nothing compared to Czech or German beer. There is a restaurant on the main square 'Dobo Istvan Ter' which is called HBH and they have a micro brewery, which is where you can probably get the best beer from.

 Photo: HBH Staff

If you prefer to do something other than drink there are plenty of nice walks around the city.  For example there is the Minaret, dating back to the Ottoman Empire period when the Turks took over this part of the world.  The minaret is the most northerly found in Europe and if you fancy the 32m climb on its spiral staircase you'll get a lovely view of the town.

Other buildings of interest include the basilica abd the castle as well as the Eszterhazy Karoly University of applied sciences.  Living in Eger was a fantastic experience and I still go back from time to time.  The town has a population of about 70,000 but you feel like you know everyone in no time.  It is within commuting distance to Slovakia, Budapest and even close to the Ukraine.  There are many small mountains around including Eged which is an artists paradise.  Close by is Eger - Szolak well-known for its thermal spas with fresh heated water coming naturally from the ground.

One visit I used to enjoy if I wanted to get away out in the wild for the weekend was a place called Szilvasvarad.  There are just a lot of marked nature trails throughout the woods and mountain passes.  You may be able to still find my  name scratched on a stone near the rail station.

All in all, I think if you want a relaxing holiday, enjoy beautiful Baroque architecture and just feel care-free for a week, Eger is the place to go,  I lived there for 5 years and never got bored.

Eger by Night

Photo: Erzsebet Sulyok

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