John: We left Subotica, Serbia heading north to Hungary on an antiquated self-propelled one-coach train that barely made more than 20kms per hour on the ancient tracks. Crossing the border we changed to a newer Hungarian self-propelled one-coach train and sped into Szeged, another town known for its Art Nouveau architecture.
Sun-Ling: For a city we had never heard of Szeged took us by surprise in the number of monumental buildings, the size of the university, the expanses of squares, not to mention the one and only reason we came here in the first place, the resplendent Art Nouveau buildings. Why go to ___ (fill in the blank), when you can come to Szeged?! There is even a thermal spa right in the city center. Last, but not the least, a mechanical clock that performs twice a day.
Never mind thatover half of the businesses were closed for Saturday PM and Sunday,
tourist office included; our obligatory visit to the Hare Kristina
vegetarian restaurant was a disaster; we have virtually zero
comprehension in Hungarian, reading included; locals don't appear to be
interested in English either. We were impressed nonetheless.
Our train...That's the engineer pointing out to me that I'm about to be run over by a speedy IC (InterCity) train pulling into the Subotica station. ;-)Sun-Ling: For a city we had never heard of Szeged took us by surprise in the number of monumental buildings, the size of the university, the expanses of squares, not to mention the one and only reason we came here in the first place, the resplendent Art Nouveau buildings. Why go to ___ (fill in the blank), when you can come to Szeged?! There is even a thermal spa right in the city center. Last, but not the least, a mechanical clock that performs twice a day.
These small trains are pretty cool as not only can you see the engineer driving the train you can see out the front as well.
Parked at the border... The spiffy Hungarian train at front right with the Serbian train to the back left. However, passengers cannot see out the front of the Hungarian train as there is a wall behind the engineer.
Various Art Nouveau in Szeged.
Sun-Ling's fav building. Several times she just sat and gazed at it.
The Baths.
Sun-Ling's fav building at night.
Szeged has an Art Nouveau Jewish Synagogue. John was required to wear a yarmulke. Sun-Ling thought it was about time that he, not she, was the one who had to put on headgear or vestments to visit a place of worship.
The synagogue dome .
Stained glass windows in the synagogue.
More Art Nouveau.
The Water Tower.
The worst veggie burger I've ever eaten (from the local Hare Krishna restaurant); still pretty good;-)
But I was rewarded with a very tasty lángos - a Hungarian specialty. They don't have fried dough like this at the NC State Fair!
Tulips are blooming all over town; City Hall and National Theatre.
The Butterfly - a memorial to the 1956 revolution.
And they have a huge square with a huge church that faces a mechanical musical clock.
And more photos here.
