Field Trip to Szeged

During the first week of school, the Medieval Studies Department at my school took all of the students on a two-day field trip.

After a one-hour bus ride we arrived at our first stop, the town of Ocsa.

At Ocsa we toured this medieval church where we could see the remnants of a mural depicting St. Ladislav in battle. Ladislav was a warrior king of the late eleventh century. Apparently Hungary has a history of elevating ancient warriors and kings to saint status.

Then, back on the bus. Next stop: Kalocsa. Here we began a pattern that would continue for the next 24 hours. We visited ancient cathedrals, historic libraries and archives, and local museums in Kalocsa and likewise in other towns. Unfortunatey - you will have to forgive me - I no longer remember most of the details.


The Cathedral in Kalocsa, Hungary

Later that evening we arrived for the night in Szeged, Hungary. Unlike the other two smaller towns, I was surprised to see that Szeged was so big. I guess Budapest isn't the only city in Hungary. Szeged is like a mini-Budapest except cleaner and more colorful (or more "Mediterranean" as one of my professor's described it).

Our first night in Szeged we had dinner at a historic restaurant renowned for their "feeesh soup" as they say it. It actually was excellent. I'm just glad I didn't find out until after dinner that the "feeesh" in the soup was actually carp.

I ended up at a table with 2 Romanians and since the whole process of dinner took 3 hours I had a chance to get to know them a little. You should be proud of my restraint. I made polite conversation for over an hour before broaching the subject of vampires ever so delicately. Rest assured, neither my classmates were or knew any vampires (allegedly).

The following day, we visited several more churches, libraries, and small church museums. They all blurred together. However, we did visit a museum directed at the more recent past - the commmunist era:

Some of you may be curious how people in Eastern Europe remember communism. Not so fondly (not a big surprise huh?). The communism museum in Budapest is called the "House of Terror," while this one in Szeged had a similarly terrifying theme.

I found this museum to be the second most interesting stop of the day. The most interesting stop, to me, was at an archaeology museum in the small town of Hodmezovasarhely (I had to lookup the spelling on this one). After endless small church museums with gold trinkets from the various bishops of the past, this archaeology museum detailing the prehistory of the region really seemed so much more interesting. Perhaps that's a hint that I should continue to pursue the archaeological side of medieval history. Yes, I'm nearing 30 and still trying to figure our what I am going to do when I grow up. Oh well, I have until I am 35 to grow up (the age when I expect to receive my PHD and get a real job again).