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Pictures >>> Budapest part 1

Pictures >>> Budapest part 2

On Wednesday I drove to Budapest and picked up Anja at the airport. Together we went to the city and got the opportunity to visit Nicolle there. She has got a flat right in the city centre and we could stay there, THANKS

In the evening we went to a nice restaurant and enjoyed Hungarian food. Later we met Noemi and David, I knew them from Veszprém. They showed us the terrific view over the lightened city from the Citadella (it is a castle on the top of the tallest hill).

Next day we started the tour in Budapest and went to the pedestrian area and visited the St. Stephan cathedral. It is the church of the founder of Hungary and you will find there a big marmoreal statue of him and even his (maybe original) right hand. For Lunch we met Mr. Barabacs, he is the representative of BEYER Limited in Hungary. With him we had a nice chat about the Hungarian history and the development of economy.

Because of the bad weather we decided to visit one of the swimming-pools with hot spring water (Budapest has got about 123 hot springs!). The swimming-pool is in old style, quite beautiful and you can chill out wonderful. After that we went to “Shakespeare”-restaurant, where you find figures “playing” some scenes of Shakespeare’s works.

The weather was better on Friday and we were able to visit the mountain with the castle. It is typical for Hungarian cities to build the castle on the hill to have better possibilities to fight against enemies. Unfortunately the castle was total damaged in II. World War, so you find the original facade, but in the inner view, it isn’t pompous like a palace anymore. Today there is a museum where you can observe paints of Hungarian painter. We also visited the most impressive church of Budapest, the church of Matthias. All of the walls are painted and in this church there were the last kings of Hungary crowned. You also can find there a duplicate of the kings’ crown in the altar. It was set up there in year 2000, on the occasion of 1,000-year-celebration of Hungary.

Also impressive is a visit of the caves. They are quite old and at least they were used as bunker and for the military intelligent agency. But after 1990 they decided to rebuild it, like it was original and now it is like an adventure for you. The last part is totally dark and there is just a cable to hold and find the exit…

On Saturday we visited the maybe most beautiful house of parliament you will find in the world. The building is the biggest in Hungary and has about 690 rooms. The architecture looks really impressive, but when you stay inside, it is just unbelievable. Almost every wand is painted and they used about 40 kilograms of gold. After the big entrance hall you enter the hall with dome where you can see the original crown and insignias of Hungary. After a walk through the lobby for members of parliament you can see the plenar hall.

At noon I went to a hairdresser and after that we walked around the beautiful Andrussy Street up to the Heroes’ square. On the evening we reached the Christmas market and I tried a very tasty kind of grilled cake. Dinner we had in a good restaurant, called “Fatal”. There you get such unbelievable portions that we were only satisfied 

The Jewish synagogue opens on Sunday, so we could visit one of the biggest and most beautiful synagogues in Europe. Finally we visited the Citadella where you can go to the bunker; there is an interesting photo exhibition about the 2^nd World War in Budapest. Before we left this nice city we went to the park of monuments where we gazed the big statues, which were standing on the squares of the capital up to 1990.

 

pictures >>> walk around Székesfehérvár

Veszprém is called „the city of Queens“ because a lot Queens were crowned by bishops here. 40 kilometres in Eastern direction you will find „the city of kings“, Székesfehérvár. King Stephan I. founded the Hungarian kingdom there in 1001 and it was the capital for more than 500 years up to the occupation of the Turkish army. I went there with Viola, a Hungarian student, because it is the town, where she went to school. So she could show me a lot of nice places. As you can see in pictures it is such a beautiful city with old buildings. You can see the former cathedral, where the kings were crowned and buried, but you just see some rest of walls. Outside the city centre you may find some “modern” buildings from socialism time and a very modern cinema centre of course.

By the way, for me it is unbelievable how the people can survive. Of course there are a lot of big shops already (like METRO, Media market, TESCO, McDonalds etc.) but the prices are almost as high as in Germany! Even though the average salary is about 300 up to 500 € each month!

On Monday my university building got a new elevator. It looks a little bit strange, the old building with décor of 1970 and this modern elevator. In the evening I went together with the students to a nice event. It was for economist students and quite serious at the very beginning. But after midnight they started dancing and it was a nice evening…

pictures >>> trip to Keszthely

Since Friday it is lousy cold already and we got a little bit snow. In the morning I drove together with Andi and Noemi to their hometown in the western part of Hungary, next to Balaton lake. The name of the city is Keszthely and it is the most famous tourist target in Hungary. Of course it is just in summer, so now it looks like a sleeping village. But because of the big amount of Germans everything is written also in German and most of the people know the language…

First we visited the lake, but it was a little bit foggy. After the we went to the baroque palace of Graf Fetectics. He was the founder of the first university in Hungary and was responsible for cultural and research developing of Hungary in the 18^th century.

After that I joined Andi to her home village, called Kehidakustány (just try to pronounce it J). It was like a journey into past. Her father has got a farm with animals, corn and fruits. Everything except the new hall and some machines looked quite old. I imagine that it looked like Germany 40 years ago. We even met Andi’s Grandmother. She is 80 years old and told us something about her work. She is drying paprika and she invited us for cake.

Andi’s mother prepared “Prökölt” (gulash) already, it was so tasty. In the afternoon we went to a special swimming-pool with healthy water of hot springs.

In the evening there was a concert of Rockband “Republic”. Even though I couldn’t understand anything, it was such a nice music.

On my way back I passed the lake again and climbed to castle Szigligeti where I have had a terrific view over the lake!

By the way, my colleagues told me, the Hungarians are driving their cars crazy and it could be dangerous to go there by car. Since I am here, I don’t think so, it is just calm, if you know Chinese or Russian traffic already J

pictures >>> walk around Veszprém

Since Wednesday I am absolutely sure: Veszprém is not a boring city! But first read, what happened last week…

On Monday I tried to cook my first time in Hungary. It was ok; I cooked noodles and Italian sauce with salad. On Tuesday I joined some students to sports lesson and we played floorball. It just remembered me to the time when I played Ice-hockey, ten years ago.

The first part of results of my workout I had to present on Wednesday. The teacher was satisfied and we had had an interesting discussion about the differences between German and Hungarian managers. Thanks to Esther and Peter (Hungarian students) who support me for my workout.

In the evening we went to the disco “Mythos”, it was such great! About 150 students were celebrating, the music was good and the prices quite low. When I left the disco at 3 a.m. it was still full, so I guess not everybody was back at university at 8 o’clock next morning ;-)

Because I have had a successful week and finished my second presentation tonight, I will have a day off tomorrow and will go to balaton lake, because up to now I just know Veszprém. The Sightseeing-Highlights of this nice city you will find in picture gallery.

Btw. since Monday I am learning some words in Hungarian language. Honestly it is not as difficult I assumed, because if you know some rules how to pronounce it, you can read it. Of course they have got grammar rules and more difficult words, but for survive it should be enough to know the most important things.

Viszlat! [See you!]

Finally I got my own accommodation and have a nice room including separate bathroom and internet access, now J It is a building just for students and except my colleague Ingo from Darmstadt, there are only Hungarians living…

Friday started with a visit of porcelain manufacture in Herend together with a group of students and professor Kovacz. It was quite interesting to see, how they are producing the nice porcelain and especially the difficult painting was incredible. In the afternoon Bastian presented me the city of Veszprem with all the sightseeing highlights. We visit the hill with the castle and the old town. After one hour by feet it was over and we had seen everything…

In the evening I enjoyed to unpack all my stuff and when I just finished three students surprised me, when they presented me a welcome drink. After that we went out for party together. Before we have had the party in a bar, we visited a friend of them and drunk this special Hungarian schnapps. By the way, here are such a lot of Hungarians able to speak German, so it is no problem for me to communicate.

On Saturday I picked up my colleague from railway station and we went to the big shopping mall TESCO to buy useful things. In the evening I was invited to go to the ball, where the students were celebrating the start of university. It was a great evening and for me it was quite interesting to see, how the Hungarians are celebrating J

In spite of less sleep I went to church in the morning at 9 a.m. and visited the beautiful cathedral. It is not so big of course, but they renovated it not long ago. After one day of working for my diploma we have had the dinner together with other ERASMUS-students. Bastian cooked Hungarian soup and it was such tasty…

>> pictures from my room and the porcelain manufacture

My start in Hungary was more problematic than I expected. After three days I still don’t have an accommodation… So, I don’t have to sleep in the car, but at the moment I have to overnight in the living-room in a house together with 4 other guys. Because of this place I still couldn’t unpack my stuff! Let’s see, they promised me to find an own room during weekend.

With my workplace is it much better. I have got my own office and yesterday I spent half of an day to setup my computer, but now I have got Internet and can check my Emails, as well.

I also started the work for my diploma already. First I have to read a lot of things and I hope to start my analyzing of the survey on weekend. My target is to find out how the behaviour of bosses in German-Hungarian companies is.

In total there are 12 students from foreign countries in Veszprem at present. 6 from Germany, 3 from Greece, 2 from Italy and one guy from Finland. Together with all the Hungarian students its sounds quite interesting Last night we visited the girls from Greece and were invited for dinner.

By the way for Germans it is not so hard to survive in Hungary, because a lot of the people are able to speak German J But English is also possible…

>> Here you will find my first impressions of Veszprem in pictures

After one week travelling around Germany (Hannover, Goettingen, Muenchen and Vienna) I am finally in Hungary. In Veszprém (about 120 km south-west of Budapest) I am going to write my diploma (last workout). It should need about 3 months and I have to analyze a survey about the behaviour of german CEOs in hungarian companies.

My reports and pictures about my stay in Veszprém you will find in my diary during the next weeks.