Solo Sojourn

Servus! That's Hungarian for "hello". This past weekend marked my first journey outside Prague that was not part of the AIFS program. Also, none of my comrades were able to join me so rather than miss out on a spectacular event, I decided to rough it and went by my lonesome.

Being an ardent bagpipe enthusiast, I love watching bagpipe videos from all over the globe on youTube. Some months ago, I found a video of a Croatian gajde player whose background was decorated with a variety of strange masks. I found that they belong to an ancient Hungarian tradition celebrating the onset of Spring (as well as the more modern spin of the expulsion of the Ottoman Turks) whereby the young men in the town don woolen garments, masks, and cattle bells and walk through the town creating a ruckus in an effort to scare away Winter/Turks. The carnival, called Busójárás (pronounced "boo-sho-yah-rahsh) is held in Mohács, Hungary every year six days before Ash Wednesday. Like many of the similar carnivals held around this time of years, the tradition has roots in pagan rituals that have managed to survive only in Europe's backwaters.

The first leg of my journey involved catching a bus to Budapest. After a grueling 6-hour ride, I arrived at the bus station. A friendly local named Istvan directed me to take the subway to the city center where I would surely find something to eat, see and do. Surely enough, upon ascension to the city streets, a flurry of lights, people and traffic greeted me on this bustling Friday night. I got some snacks and a flask of Unicum (a traditional Hungarian herbal liquor that tastes a bit like Jagermeister) and proceeded to wander about. I was taking a picture of the National Bank when I was accosted by a group of drunken girls who kidnapped me and took me to a nearby club called Macskafogó Zenés Kricsmi (I don't know how to say it or what it means). 

I cut rug for a few hours before slipping off to the bus station to catch a few Zs. I dozed for a few hours before catching a bus to Mohács. While overhearing people's conversations, it occurred to me how alien and unique the Hungarian language is. It's not an Indo-European language but Finno-Ugric, which means that aside from its distant cousin Finnish and a handful of Ugric languages spoken only by a few thousand people in western Siberia, it has no relation to any other language. In addition to the Finnish tendency to endlessly agglutinate prefixes and suffixes to a root word in order to determine case, gender, etc., Hungarian uses vowel harmony so that how one would attach, say, "on" to a word would depend on the number and arrangement of vowels in the previous words. According to the British embassy, Japanese is the hardest language to learn but Hungarian is the hardest language to translate. Fortunately, virtually every young Hungarian (even out in the sticks of Mohács) knows passable English and is willing to help a foreigner out.

I arrived in Mohács around 10 AM. The town was setting up for the festivities so I explored and took pictures of the town. It was very cute and reminded me of a Central European version of Eugene, OR. The locals were friendly enough and I felt welcome there. I napped on the Danube riverbank until evening before strolling through the carnival, inhaling the smells and listening to the folk music pouring through the streets. I had a falafel sandwich for dinner before watching the various parades and dances happening around town. Most of the adults were tipsy by sundown so they swayed where they stood, loitering under the festooned lights and joking with friends. The atmosphere was very family-friendly even though scary-looking Busós were clanking about everywhere.

Around 9 I went back to the bus station to sleep because every hotel and hostel in the town was booked. Unfortunately, it was locked at night so I went back into town. Outside a cafe I spoke with some young Hungarian men selling T-shirts who offered to let me sleep in their hostel 20km outside of town. Grateful, I accepted and left with them after they packed up their shop for the evening. We had some delicious Hungarian wine (tekaji, which you can find in most wine bars here) and cheeses before going to bed. They drove me back to Mohács that morning and I caught a bus back to Budapest. I took some photos of the city during my layover before catching another bus back to Prague. All in all, it was an amazing experience and though I got sick upon my return (due to poor sleeping and eating habits, I wager), I was glad I went but I think I've had my share of traveling to foreign countries alone (for now). Sorry, that was a long one but I hope you enjoyed it. Szia!