"Vacation over?" I think not

Sometimes in life it pays to be spontaneous, especially when it comes to traveling. Although I could have spent two glorious weeks in Milan, in the end I opted to go out an explore Europe, since I've still got quite a few countries left to add to my collection. Sad to say I have visited more countries than states at this point in my life, although that will have to be dealt with later. At any rate this time I packed my one backpack (amazingly enough everything fit), and headed off to visit a good friend of mine in Pecs, Hungary.

Turns out for a snow addict like me this is a good time to visit Hungary, where the landscapes are all covered in a light layer of fresh powder. Admittedly I didn't know much about the history behind where I was going, or much about the culture for that matter. Fortunately I had my guide, Kitti, an authentic Hungarian, and fellow travel addict. We spent a lot of time discussing all the places we had been since last we had met two years ago, and where we wanted to go...turns out this type of person is universal, I suppose, found in every country.

Kitti cleared up a little of the mysterious, well rather to me, history of the country. All I could honestly remember about the country was from a French history class I took in Nancy, where we learned about the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Yes, there's that hazy recollection about Maria Theresa, the mother of infamous Marie Antoinette, and also one of the most powerful women in Europe in the 18th century. Of course Hungary has changed hands many times, which is not surprising considered how it is conveniently located in the middle of the continent without any pesky mountains or oceans in the way. What I never realized was that the Turks established themselves there for a while, and there are even some mosques left as little reminders of what used to be.

Even though it was freezing, we still managed to get outside and wander around in the cold. Pecs is a tiny city, rather charming with a nice downtown complete with cute cobblestone streets. There was plenty of unique architecture to check out. The best was the colored tiles on some of the roofs, that were so bright in some ways that you spend a lot of your time focusing on them, as if they were moon rocks or some other brightly shining object. Maybe they inspired Mr. Rubik, the Hungarian who invented his famous cube? There was definitely a lot to see, and Kitti told me happily that Pecs was elected as one of the three "cultural capitols" of the EU this year. I remember two years ago when Luxembourg had been elected, how many cultural events were hosted there. It's a neat idea, to try to inspire people to visit a new place, and help the city grow. Almost like the Olympics, without the sports.

After a few days in Pecs, Kitti took me back to her home town of Komlo, to visit her family and see where she's from. The nice part of visiting cold places is the food is usually very delicious, and warm, and Hungary is no exception. Kitti's mom prepared a feast for us when we got to her house, and despite the language barrier, I think I was able to get across the sentiment of "Yum, this is delicious!"

The thing about visiting towns like Komlo is that you get a taste for a country, while avoiding the tourists. We wandered around the woods, explored the lakes, looked at the town, and for me it felt really authentic, really unique. The best part was discovering my friend's roots, to meet her family, and see how she grew up. I asked her if she could ever see herself settling down in Komlo, and the response was a resounding, "Never." I guess the need for something bigger, and more exciting can be international too. We walked back to her house and made chocolate chip cookies to go with our fish stew and mushrooms, enjoying each others' food and culture while laughing over a game of cards.