Day One In Pécs

You pronounce the name Pécs similar to the way you would say the word "peach" in English. We pronounced it wrong every which way before visiting the city this past weekend. We left Saturday for a trip to Pécs--we have a long weekend because of the March 15 holiday. (That will be in tomorrow's post)

We had been wanting to visit Pécs since we arrived in Hungary. In 2010 it was named the cultural capital of Europe. It is a beautiful city full of ancient ruins, churches, mosques, synagogues, museums, art and great places to eat. The only downside is that it is on the other side of the country. It was about 6 1/2 hour trip by train with about a one hour layover in Budapest. 

When we arrived in Pécs the sun was shining and we actually took off our winter coats for the first time in 5 months! Pécs is known to have a more mediterranean like climate since it is in the southern part of Hungary. 

The view from our hotel window.

Another view from our window.
We were a minutes walk from the city square.

The name of our hotel.

The first thing we did after dropping off our bags at the hotel was to get some gelato ice cream. I hadn't seen ice cream for sale since September...so you can imagine our excitement. We ate our ice cream and explored the city. 

City Square.

Mosque/ converted Church.

Eating ice cream!

A street band performing and a typical Hungarian youth near by. 

For dinner that night we found a Tex-Mex restaurant to eat at. Not that we don't love Hungarian food, but it is always nice to have a change of pace. Besides we were curious what kind of "Tex-Mex" this actually was--was it paprika sprinkled on potato chips or was it more authentic? We were not disappointed, we order fajita's and a strawberry frozen margarita. It was delicious...maybe not completely  like back home, but good enough to hold us over until then. 

Ben pointing to the Tex-Mex restaurant. 

Synagogue 

Ben and his favorite Hungarian, Kossuth.

We strolled around that night enjoying the sites of the buildings lit up. At 7:00 p.m. all the bells in the town went off. The music was wonderful to hear...however the next morning when they went off again at 7:00 a.m. the bells were less entertaining.  :) 

A beautiful theater.

The streets of Pécs.