Saturday in Szentendre

Szia!

Today was the start of our first weekend in Budapest. However, we still had to get up at our normal time to be at the classroom by 10am because we had a guest speaker. Mark is a Hungarian journalist who lives in Serbia. He gave a presentation about the political history that has left many Hungarians outside the official borders of the country. After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dismantled according to the Treaty of Versailles. Once again, following World War II, Hungary was further divided with land being reassigned to Austria, Yugoslavia and Serbia. These divisions left many Hungarians outside the legal borders of their countries, and those people and their descendants make up Hungarian communities in the countries surrounding Hungary itself. Mark lives in one of those communities in Serbia and spoke about political and cultural divides that make it difficult for Ethnic Hungarians who feel out of place in the countries that they have been artificially assigned to.

After Mark's Presentation, we went to our usual Tram Stop at Szent Gellert Ter to go to the train station where we caught a train to a small town called Szentendre about 40 minutes from the center of Budapest. Szentendre seems to be more of a provincial, artsy, touristy town where we got to test out the few Hungarian phrases we learned this week such as "Még öt perc"(five more minutes) and "csapvíz kérem" (tap water, please).

The streets of Szentendre

We went to a couple of small museums which featured Hungarian artists. One had the works of Margit Kovacs on display. Her ceramic artwork was influenced by folk art and she gained notoriety outside of Hungary when wealthy Americans started commissioning her for unique household items.

Mese ("Tale"), 1950

Next we went to a tinier gallery with absolutely incredible pieces that can only be viewed by microscope. The following one, for instance, is inside the eye of a needle. 

After that, we were free to wander around Szentendre. We saw some ducks swimming in the Danube and walked past a lot of shops with beautiful clothes and leather goods. Finally we caught the train back to Budapest and watched the sun setting over the Hungarian countryside.

- Iris & Lily