Hungary III: Pécs - June 1999
Every now and then I would have to stop and study the map. I was getting use to the car (gears) and slightly bored with the driving. So I thought I would take a sort of short cut, away from the main road. After scrutinising the map to see that I would be going in roughly the same direction that is south-east, I found an appropriate road that would do. I soon found the turn off and followed the signs. I would be driving almost parallel to the other road and join up with it later. Therefore I didn’t suspect I would get lost. I didn’t but, I had, let’s say an ‘experience’, I don’t think I would like to repeat.
Not long after the turn off, the road turned into a semi dirt lane. Ten minutes on I entered a scattering of houses. On the map the houses were represented by little black oblongs attached to the road on both sides, few and far between.
One of the things one notices about Hungarian villages is the overhead power lines similar to telegraph wires, but a bit more dangerous. Also the country roads usually have a ditch either left or right of the non existent curb, with or without water. This means to get to the houses you have to cross a mini-bridge.
To begin with nobody was insight; I thought, all out on the fields, or siesta, or no idea at all. Then a few kids appeared standing on the roadside staring at the car as I went by. One would think nothing of it but the children were dark skinned, or either well tanned or just dirty urchins so I thought. Then a few adults came out of the houses to look, maybe cars are a rare appearance here so I thought as I hadn’t seen any since I turned off the main road. Okay just nosy, so what. But what was getting me a little on edge was that these people were just a dark skinned as the kids.
As I had more exemplars to scrutinize, I realised they were very dark in colour, it must have been the light I thought. Where had I landed? I drove on slightly quicker than was allowed, I just wanted to get away - the second time that day!
After about 100 meters there were more of them! Just standing there like Zombies, it may sound like I’m exaggerating here and looking back it I’m sure it was totally harmless, but at the time I was not liking it one little bit! Maybe I had been reading too much H.P. Lovecraft. Was I glad to have left the ‘village’ behind me, and after another 15 minutes I eventually turn back onto the main road again.
The Balaton is about half way to Pécs so I decided to take a look at it and have lunch. Lake Balaton is approx. 77 km long and 14 km at it’s widest. As this was tourist area I could get by with German even some of the road signs were readable. [Ed: This was the holiday area for East Germans at the time of the Soviet block]. I found a restaurant with a parking place that was visible from within. I didn’t want to leave the car unattended due to the computer and monitor sitting on the back seat.
The next lap to Pécs was not that eventful, the country roads had a surprisingly good surface. The down side they hadn’t bothered to smooth out the bumps. I had the feeling that they had just tarred the dirt road. As there was hardly any traffic between towns I could put my foot down, having the time of my life driving my personal helter-skelter as it wasn’t my car suspension going to pot!
There were two other road users that you needed to look out for. Horse & Cart and Unimogs. This was because they were usually very slow and would surprise you when on reaching the top of a hill and finding at a relative standstill one of the two looming up in front of you.
The horses looked like they had seen better years and to come to think about it the Unimogs didn’t look much better either.
Some of the vehicles where tilting at precarious angles with over and/or unbalanced loads. I got the impression they were being used as the diesel fuming work horse equivalent, until they choked their last fume.
I must admit it was a weird feeling driving around in the middle of Hungarian nowhere, hardly any traffic, sporadic slamming on the breaks for a hay or diesel devouring horse, and on top of this I couldn’t understand a word I heard (radio) or read (signs and map).
I found the clinic; it was in downtown Pécs. I was a little astonished at the condition of the building and the facilities. The place needed a complete renovation and was very run down. ‘Doctor I’ was waiting for me. The computer was installed and conductivity checked this time without the coffee. As with his father the good doctor had booked a hotel for me up in the hills behind the town. Pleasant place, next morning drove in direction of Budapest to complete the triangle.
I arrived at the airport, gave up the car and flew back to Cologne. I knew I would be coming back to retrieve the computers at the end of the study. I had no idea I would have to make a troubleshooting visit to Pécs in the near future.
Postscript: H wasn’t too happy with this trip at all. After finding out where the sites were going to be H got out an old atlas from my school days found Hungary and started to panic when she located Pécs. Due to the scale of the map (most of Eastern Europe was on a A3 size page) Pécs was ‘only’ 1 cm from what was then the Yugoslavian boarder.
One must remember it was the time of the Kosovo war and there had been NATO bombing going on since March. Some of the raids where flying out of Hungary directly over where I would be driving and staying.
She was still apprehensive even after we got a more detailed map and saw that the boarder was 38 km and the targets were way down south. When I stayed over night in Pécs I could hear some droning going on at night, which I was told in the morning was US planes ‘doing their rounds’.
[Ed: Continued here in Hungary IV Koeln-Pecs and back: ].
Not long after the turn off, the road turned into a semi dirt lane. Ten minutes on I entered a scattering of houses. On the map the houses were represented by little black oblongs attached to the road on both sides, few and far between.
One of the things one notices about Hungarian villages is the overhead power lines similar to telegraph wires, but a bit more dangerous. Also the country roads usually have a ditch either left or right of the non existent curb, with or without water. This means to get to the houses you have to cross a mini-bridge.To begin with nobody was insight; I thought, all out on the fields, or siesta, or no idea at all. Then a few kids appeared standing on the roadside staring at the car as I went by. One would think nothing of it but the children were dark skinned, or either well tanned or just dirty urchins so I thought. Then a few adults came out of the houses to look, maybe cars are a rare appearance here so I thought as I hadn’t seen any since I turned off the main road. Okay just nosy, so what. But what was getting me a little on edge was that these people were just a dark skinned as the kids.
As I had more exemplars to scrutinize, I realised they were very dark in colour, it must have been the light I thought. Where had I landed? I drove on slightly quicker than was allowed, I just wanted to get away - the second time that day!
After about 100 meters there were more of them! Just standing there like Zombies, it may sound like I’m exaggerating here and looking back it I’m sure it was totally harmless, but at the time I was not liking it one little bit! Maybe I had been reading too much H.P. Lovecraft. Was I glad to have left the ‘village’ behind me, and after another 15 minutes I eventually turn back onto the main road again.
The Balaton is about half way to Pécs so I decided to take a look at it and have lunch. Lake Balaton is approx. 77 km long and 14 km at it’s widest. As this was tourist area I could get by with German even some of the road signs were readable. [Ed: This was the holiday area for East Germans at the time of the Soviet block]. I found a restaurant with a parking place that was visible from within. I didn’t want to leave the car unattended due to the computer and monitor sitting on the back seat.
The next lap to Pécs was not that eventful, the country roads had a surprisingly good surface. The down side they hadn’t bothered to smooth out the bumps. I had the feeling that they had just tarred the dirt road. As there was hardly any traffic between towns I could put my foot down, having the time of my life driving my personal helter-skelter as it wasn’t my car suspension going to pot!
There were two other road users that you needed to look out for. Horse & Cart and Unimogs. This was because they were usually very slow and would surprise you when on reaching the top of a hill and finding at a relative standstill one of the two looming up in front of you.The horses looked like they had seen better years and to come to think about it the Unimogs didn’t look much better either.
Some of the vehicles where tilting at precarious angles with over and/or unbalanced loads. I got the impression they were being used as the diesel fuming work horse equivalent, until they choked their last fume.I must admit it was a weird feeling driving around in the middle of Hungarian nowhere, hardly any traffic, sporadic slamming on the breaks for a hay or diesel devouring horse, and on top of this I couldn’t understand a word I heard (radio) or read (signs and map).
I found the clinic; it was in downtown Pécs. I was a little astonished at the condition of the building and the facilities. The place needed a complete renovation and was very run down. ‘Doctor I’ was waiting for me. The computer was installed and conductivity checked this time without the coffee. As with his father the good doctor had booked a hotel for me up in the hills behind the town. Pleasant place, next morning drove in direction of Budapest to complete the triangle.
I arrived at the airport, gave up the car and flew back to Cologne. I knew I would be coming back to retrieve the computers at the end of the study. I had no idea I would have to make a troubleshooting visit to Pécs in the near future.
Postscript: H wasn’t too happy with this trip at all. After finding out where the sites were going to be H got out an old atlas from my school days found Hungary and started to panic when she located Pécs. Due to the scale of the map (most of Eastern Europe was on a A3 size page) Pécs was ‘only’ 1 cm from what was then the Yugoslavian boarder.One must remember it was the time of the Kosovo war and there had been NATO bombing going on since March. Some of the raids where flying out of Hungary directly over where I would be driving and staying.
She was still apprehensive even after we got a more detailed map and saw that the boarder was 38 km and the targets were way down south. When I stayed over night in Pécs I could hear some droning going on at night, which I was told in the morning was US planes ‘doing their rounds’.
[Ed: Continued here in Hungary IV Koeln-Pecs and back: ].
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