Hungary, Pécs and Pannonhalma

This winter break in Hungary, we want to see some more of Hungary of course. The first trip we plan is to Pecs. A middle size city in the south of thid country, with about 170.000 inhabitants. In 2010 Pecs is the cultural capital city of Europe. In a practical sense, they make lots of efforts to have everything ready on time.

As we have done before we plan for a city trip ending up doing more sightseeing. We drive through the area to see as much from the surrounding as possible.

This part of Hungary is very poor. Not for every one but especially for Gypsy’s. It’s a minority group nowadays and they have little or none possibilities to climb the ladder of success.

Gypsies

Most of the gypsy’s don’t have work or just some minor jobs. They live in small one room dwellings, mostly in squat houses. After a few month’s they leave the house behind in a totally worn out status to find another one.

The horses they use for daily tasks are not the healthiest ones. Skinny, obviously old, and not taken care off. Don’t want to think about that, it makes us sad.

"Funny"

You can’t blame them for all that, only the lowest paid jobs are for gypsies and not much opportunity’s for education. Every Hungarian is warning us about gypsy people. We don’t have any troubles with them.

The”funny” thing is: In the Netherlands, they warn us to be careful with Germans.

In Germany they tell us to be careful with Austrians and Hungarians.

One man in Austria told us specifically, not to pay much for a Hungarian stable because "they rip you off" and then he charged us 20 dollar for 2 night’s where we ourselves cleaned the manure and did pose for a club newsletter.

The first host in Hungary warned us for gypsies and Hungarians! Also for Bulgarians and Romanian people!

The world would be a much friendlier place when we not look at the neighbors with envy and fear but with an open eye and tolerance.

We did not see Pecs! Sorry, can’t tell you much about that.

Pannonhalma

We did see, however Pannonhalma with his famous Monastery. Beautifully build on a mountain with views over 30 miles. Build in a square with gymnasium educational boarding school. In the library, you can walk and read forever and let the world behind you. The bell tower, highest point of the monastery you can’t climb, pity. The view must be fantastic.

In a few weeks we also go to Budapest. We leave Pécs and Pannonhalma behind us and go for the capital city.

End of Hungary, Pécs and Pannonhalma back to Hospitality

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