March 2015 / Pécs City Guide

Pécs City Guide March 2015 / Issue 02 / Free

INSIDE

See

LOVE LOCKS ESCAPE ROOMS CARBONFOOLS GROCERIES

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Pécs City Guide March 2015

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4 In Brief

Osijek Airport taking off, New park and a wakeboard track, ...and still standing

6 Feature

Live escape games in Pécs basements

8 Drink&Dine

Grocery shopping, Gastropolitan

12 To Do

Small sculptures, Carbonfools, Dj Bootsie

14 Essentials

Love padlocks in Pécs

HI

Contents&Co

, this is the second issue of Pécs City Guide magazine and we would like to thank you for all the feedback that we received.

Thank you for the many new likes on Facebook. Thank you for all the story ideas and recommended topics. We will work hard to cover as much of your requests as possible.

But we have to admit that 16 pages aren’t that much, therefore we have to work hard to make it more.

We’ll give our best.

In this issue, we visited all the three live escape games of Pécs and talked to the masterminds behind this new kind of game experience conquering the world. By the was, did you know that live escape games originate from Hungary?

The terrible reality of shops closed on Sundays is already upon us and this may be the right time to pick up some new grocery shopping habits. We give you tips how to that properly, but the first step is yours.

Like every year in Pécs, after its long winter dream cultural life starts again in March, and finally there are events to choose from.

We can “only” recommend an awesome exhibition, and several concerts. For more you really have to follow Pécs City Guide on Facebook, or even better: subscribe to our newsletter.

We will work hard to cover as much of your requests as possible.

And our last topic in this issue is the origin of love padlocks in Janus Pannonius street. There are several legends, none of them can be confirmed, but the most important thing is that the tradition lives on.

Every comment, recommendation is still highly appreciated. Contact us at info@pecscityguide.com.

The next issue is coming in the first week of April.

Ervin Gűth, editor

Pécs City Guide March 2015 The free, insert magazine of Dunántúli Napló in English.

Editor-in-chief/Publisher: László Póré Managing editor: Ervin Gűth Published by Mediaworks Regionális Kiadó Kft. Baranya Megyei Irodája Sales manager: Gyöngyi Nagy Phone: +36 72 505 060, +36 30 9971 006 E-mail: gyongyi.nagy@mediaworks.hu Printed by Print Média, Pécs ISSN 08659133

March 2015 Pécs City Guide

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In Brief

NEW RECREATIONAL PARK AND WAKEBOARD TRACK

...AND STILL STANDING

As part of the recultivation of an ash-dump in the ourtskirts of Pécs a sport and recreational park is being built around the lake in Tüskésrét. Volleyball and beach football fields will accompany a running track and outdoor fitness training facilities.

The power plant of Pécs discontinued coal fueling 10 years ago and by-products like ash were dumped the last time in 2004 in Tüskésrét.

An area of 72 football fields had to be recultivated. Now, everything is clean and safe. The last step of the renewal process is getting closer.

The recreational facility will have a 1.2 km long running track with LED street lights every 25 metres.

The wakeboard track will be 575 metres long, suitable for beginners and more experienced water skiers, too. There will be several beach volleyball, beach football fields, and outdoor fitness training facilities.

Changing-rooms, free parking and a cafe will be available. The company building the park says that citizens can enjoy the new facilities in late spring or early summer.

OSIJEK AIRPORT TAKES OFF

Only two years ago the Croatian airport – located 100 km from Pécs – was close to financial ruin but connecting to London and several domestic flights helped boosting its revenue.

Osijek Airport has registered its busiest post-war year on record in 2014 thanks to budget carrier Ryanair and Trade Air’s commuter domestic service.

This season’s cheap flights to London (Stansted) are taking off from Osijek on Mondays and Fridays

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Pécs City Guide March 2015

at pm 5.45, starting on March 30.

Flights to Germany and Austria are going to be announced soon.

Meanwhile there are talks about extending the possibilities of Pécs-Pogány Airport again. Local politicians say that about HUF5 billion could be spent on the airport.

The saga continues and it seems, this story will entertain us for several more years. Yes, it’s about the Magasház again.

We won’t dedicate an article to the Magashaz-problem in every issue of Pécs City Guide but a couple of days after the February issue (that you can find online at pecscityguide. com/magazine) came out, local papers delivered some breaking news: nothing has happened.

Actually, a lot has happened in court but the outcome is that the city scape won’t change anytime soon. We try to explain it as briefly and as clearly as possible. Last fall the city of Pécs acquired the property from La Torre Ltd. But at that time La Torre was already bankrupt and creditors filed a complaint at court. The court says now that the liquidator of La Torre didn’t have the right to sell Magasház, also the selling was not done in a proper way. This means demolition is on hold, but city officials say they are still determined to buy the property. Again.

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Feature

YOU ARE TRAPPED IN A STRANGE BASEMENT. WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT?

Room escape games became very popular in recent years. Thanks to straightforward gameplay, interesting and tricky tasks success came instantly.

There are uncountable playing rooms in Budapest, and you can choose from three venues in Pécs.

Paying to be locked up in a room?

It doesn’t sound fun at all. But more and more gamers think it otherwise. Especially, if you have a real chance to get out. This is the thrill that escape games in Pécs deliver, too.

FifIQa (Tímár str 16)

“It’s not about the money, it’s more like a hobby to me” says communications expert Ferenc Marton in a basement in Timár street, that used to be a small call center. He learned about escape games in 2012, when his employer organized a team building event in Budapest. “I loved it from the very first moment on.

You go into the room and you have to leave everything else outside. You have to search and focus on the given tasks and you forget about yourself and your worries. This is a real flow experience” says Ferenc. But not everybody playing live escape games builds his own room. “My initial thought was to make something similar in Pécs, too. But I hesitated and finally started planning, developing my games only in summer 2013.” Right now, they have three different quests: in two of them you have to get out of a room and there is one where you have to find the way inside. “My games don’t want to give you bad feelings, the thrill does not come from fear. You have to solve problems within a timeframe.

That’s more then enough.”

Szabadulj! (Ferencesek str 3)

Not every escape game developer has a trained mind like professional chess player and teacher József Jeszenszky. “We tried playing for the first time in Budapest and the feeling got us instantly. There have been weekends we played like 7-8 escape games,” says József. There are different topics, some of them put you in mystical settings, crime scenes or history related ambiante.

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Pécs City Guide March 2015

FifIQa

Szabadulj!

And there are also relaxed ones suitable for families and children.

“We saw the opportunity and wanted to create our own game,” says József who started Szabadulj! (Free yourself) already with the idea of a franchise.

Their first room is based heavily on the Saw movie series. You have to escape from the claws of a psycho killer. The door of the room

gets closed, and you hear the game master telling you: “Let’s play a little game.” You need to solve logical puzzles while your adrenaline level is rising steadily in the darkness. You only get help when it is absolutely necessary. The Tomb of the Mummy is a little more relaxed, but you have to use your logical skills again.

Their third game is under construction and will be available soon.

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Feature

Para Park

ParaPark (Váradi str 8)

Based originally on point and click video games ParaPark in Budapest was the first real escape game that started the craze in 2011. With more than 50 com-

panies running over 100 escape rooms, competition is now fierce.

Architect Roland Markal is a franchise partner who opened a ParaPark location not only in Pécs, but

more recently in Nürnberg, Germany too.

“Back in 2012, I’ve just quit my job and looked for something interesting to do. When playing for the first time I could forget about all my worries. But I knew that I have to do more with escape gaming, so I started one in Pécs”, says Roland.

ParaPark does not play with fear and horror, there is nothing scary about their games. (Being locked up in small room in a basement doesn’t count at all.) “Sure, we do play a lot with the ambiance eg. the clock is ticking faster and faster.

This is also reflected in the gameplay: teams are playing much faster in the last minutes.”

Being developed for several years ParaPark has the most refined gameplay for their six rooms from which two are available in Pécs.

Almost every minute is calculated and the game master does only interfere if the players get stuck.

About 70% of the teams can get out within the given time frame. “Language doesn’t play a big role in our games. That’s why ParaParks are opening worldwide: we have now franchise partners even in Australia, Chile and Norway.”

March 2015 Pécs City Guide

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Drink&Dine

THE NOT SO OBVIOUS GUIDE TO DO YOUR GROCERY SHOPPING Sure, the easiest way to getting grocery shopping done is walking to a grocery chain and buy everything you need at one place. But there are several reasons why you could do something else. A bigger selection of local veggies, local dairy products or the atmosphere of markets are quite tempting. But there is even more.

CITY MARKETS

The biggest of Pécs’s three main markets is Market Hall, closed only on Sundays. It’s not a welcoming building but it has a fair enough selection of local (and not that local) vegetables, but mainly merchants sell goods. In season, more farmers are offering own products. Besides fruits and vegetables typical in Hungary you can find even bok choy or artichokes sometimes. It’s worth to try local dairy products, and cage free eggs are much better than those you can buy in supermarkets. Home made jams, honey, meat products are mostly quite okay, but buying fish here isn’t a good idea. The best selection of foreign cheese is a key factor to choose Market Hall: look for a small booth next to the group of butcher booths.

The much smaller Hajnóczy str market also accommodates mainly merchants except on Saturdays when some local farmers choose it to sell their goods here instead of Market Hall.

Although locals visit Vásártér because it has the best flea market in the region, produce is also available here.

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Pécs City Guide March 2015

FARMERS’ MARKETS

Farmers’ markets have a great revival in Hungary and Pécs has some options to choose from too.

The first farmers-only market Tüke Piac gained success instantly. Every month local (and not that local) farmers come together at Kossuth tér and you can find hand made cheese, honey, cage free/organic eggs, sausages, bacon, pickled vegetables etc.

The farmers market at Búza tér is growing steadily but it will open only in April again. You will find even more vegetables and local foods than at Tüke Piac.

KEMENCÉS

There are an infinite number of bakeries in Pécs, but there is only one right now where no food preservatives, flavour enhancers etc. are used and everything is baked in a wood-fired oven. Kemencés started a couple of weeks ago as a standalone shop, they used to deliver to other shops, and restaurants. The biggest problem with the bakery is it’s size: it seems they can’t make enough breads to fit the demand, and if you really want to give them a try you have to get there on time.

ÍZES MAGYAR CSEMEGE

The name of the shop translates to English: Tasty Hungarian Delicacy.

That is also an absolutely true statement for the inventory of the shop.

You can find different types of local cheeses, jams, vegetable spreads, home made peanut butters, good quality dairy products, sausages, hams and bacons. You can also find specialities like wild game sausages, sesame spread etc. Their latest upgrade is a wall of bottled craft beer, definitely worth a try. Or more.

Market Hall (Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca 25), Mon-Fri 5am-5pm Sat 5amnoon.

Hajnóczy str market Mon-Fri 6am1pm, Sat 6am-noon.

Vásártér Móra Ferenc str, Sun 5am2pm.

Tüke Piac at Kossuth sqr Every second Friday of each month (March 13, Apr 10, May 8) 9am-5pm.

Farmers Market at Búza tér every Saturday starting in April from 9am-noon.

Kemencés Dr. Majorossy Imre str 17; Tue-Fri 9am-6pm, Sat 9am-1pm. Ízes Magyar Csemege Széchenyi sqr 2 Mon-Fri 7am-6pm.

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March 2015 Pécs City Guide

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Drink&Dine

WILD GARLIC SEASON ON MECSEK HILLS

GASTROPOLITAN IS AN EXCELLENT BUTCHER SHOP, AND MORE We won’t cover butcher shops on a regular basis, but Gastropolitan is so much more, that we can’t help, and we must write about this little gem.

Usually we wouldn’t expect nothing gastronomically ground-breaking, relevant or even interesting to happen in Uránváros. But we have to acknowledge that times do change and there is one shop already worth putting on our usual shopping route and buy food in lesser known areas of Pécs.

Gastropolitan opened in December 2014, but the owner is not a beginner in the business. He is a wholesaler and a merchant with good connections in the world of quality products. He delivers to several restaurants in Hungary and Germany. How do we know that? Our first encounter with him took about 1,5 hours – despite the fact that we didn’t tell him that we were asking questions for a particular reason. Like testing the shop and writing an article if everything is all right. Actually, everything is even better than just all right.

As we entered the butcher shop our first big surprise was to see fresh cuts of lamb and selected cuts of beef. These are common in other countries but Hungarian

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butcher shops usually have fresh chicken, pork and cheaper cuts of beef only. That’s why we were quite happy to see goods like fresh lamb ribs and shanks or dry aged T-bone steaks. Of course besides the usual stuff like chicken breast. But even the usual stuff is of top quality and without a huge price tag. And you have a choice: you can buy chicken from France that’s a little bit more expensive or good quality chicken from Hungary for a little bit less.

Besides fresh cuts there are several other products worth to mention e.g. the biggest selection of bacon and ham in Pécs. Or free range eggs. Or very good Hungarian noodles. Or oils and spices. Quality cheese. Their plan is to produce several goods (like unique sausages, smoked beef tongue) right in the shop. If you are lucky you can even taste foie gras made on location.

Another great thing about Gastropolitan is that everybody can find something appropriate every time and they can get you almost everything you wish for.

GASTROPOLITAN Alpári Gyula str 2; Open: Tue-Fr 7am-5pm, Sat 7am-1pm.

The appearance of wild garlic in huge quantities is a sure sign that spring is finally here. Mecsek Hills have a lot of wild garlic fields from March until May. You are allowed to harvest 2 kg at a time but that’s much, much more than enough. If you don’t want to get them in the forest yourself you can buy them in bunches at city markets too. It can be used for a wide range of foods: you could make noodles or cakes, but making pesto and using it later is also a good idea. There is one thing you shouldn’t do with it: don’t let it rot in your fridge since its smell is terrible.

The 5 Best* Gyros/Döner 1. Casablanca (Irgalmasok str 22)

2. Duna Döner (Széchenyi sqr 8)

3. Oázis

(Király street 17)

4. Jam Döner & Pizza (Ferencesek str 10)

5. Repeta

(Nagy Lajos Király str 10) *Editor’s opinion, based on price, quality, and reliability.

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TASTE MODERN HUNGARIAN BISTRO CUISINE

Constant quality, competent staff, creative, regularly renewed menu and an impressive wine card made Jókai Bisztró one of the best restaurants in just a couple of years.

Stylish design welcomes you in Jókai Bisztró, and fortunately more and more people recognise that the downtown restaurant opens an easily accessible new gate to the world of gastronomy.

We consider our kitchen a little market with the wonderful produces of Baranya county – says Roland Illés, the young chef of Jókai Bisztró. - We try to use a wide range of local products and produc-

es of our own estate. We strive to reflect seasonality and regional specialities on our menu, and we aim to respond constantly to the actual market availability and seasonal offers.

Wine also plays a significant role in the operation of Jókai Bisztró and that is apparent at first sight. The offers of Hungary’s well known wine regions and most popular wineries are also

supplemented by rarities and exclusive items. High quality coffee drinks made with the greatest attention to details, cocktails, and unique soft drinks make Jókai Bisztró a good choice any time of the day.

JÓKAI BISZTRÓ info@jokaibisztro.hu | Jókai sqr 6 | +36 20 3607337 | OPEN: MoSu 11am-midnight.

March 2015 Pécs City Guide

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To Do

HUNGARIAN SMALL SCULPTURES

CARBONFOOLS, PASSED, SAVERNE Although The Carbonfools is considered to be the main act of the evening, Saverne and Passed shouldn’t be called just side dishes neither. All three young Hungarian groups are incorporating the latest international trends into their music, but remain unique.

The Carbonfools‘ latest LP titled Carbonbliss was released in December 2014, and merges the dark world of film noir, the psyhedelic sixties, rock, techno, disco, afro and some rambling mood. This interesting mixture is topped with the persuasive voice of singer Balázs Fehér, who is proficient at taming the audience.

Saverne identify themselfes as a glitch hop / electro / dubstep / dnb band, but all and also none of these genres can be true for their individual songs. Fact is, that the group is fairly new, but worth to have on your watchlist.

Passed became internet famous with Mesmerize last year, and 2015 brought them even more success.

Sisters Dorottya and Fanni Nizalowski with Levente Szabó were finalists in the national round of Eurovision 2015. They didn’t win but their fanbase grew instantly.

March 13, 9pm, E78 (Zsolnay Cultural Quarter); Free.

The art of sculpting has a long tradition in Pécs, but exhibitions acclaimed nationally and internationally have been missing for some years. This could change again since the I. Statuette Quadriennale seems to be a very good attempt to bring together the best Hungarian small sculptures made in recent years.

Actually it”s the most interesting exhibition this year and a must.

260 Hungarian artists sent in 600 works and the best 185 can be seen at Papnövelde street.

Feb 28–May 25; Tue-Sun: 10am-4pm; Modern Hungarian Gallery (Papnövelde str 5); HUF300/600.

IT’S JAZZ! The upcoming session of Dessert – a music event series by the Philharmonia Hungary – stars three unique artists: Szabolcs Balásy (piano), Horváth Krisztián (bassguitar) és Bágyi Balázs (percussion).

All three are vibrant and interesting personalities on their own, therefore this temporary (?) cooperation is a must for real jazz lovers. They are not only experts of jazz but the trio’s members have a strong classical music backround and are playing in several bands and even choirs.

Szabolcs Balásy is a music teacher by profession and sings in the very successful acapella group Vivat Bacchus. Krisztián Horváth plays bass in bands like No More Blues and Pécsi Art Jazz Trio, and wrote several rock operas. Balázs Bágyi, besides his work as a musician, is the chairman of the Hungarian Jazz Alliance.

March 29, 4pm; Palatinus Hotel (Király str 18); HUF1000.

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Pécs City Guide March 2015

DJ BOOTSIE (LIVE + DJ SET) DJ Bootsie brings you his latest LP titled In Solem Verti that debuted this month. His live performances focus on elements of hip-hop and jazz using his turntable more as an expressive musical instrument than an effect device.

Dj Bootsie and his accompaninmet, saxophone player János Vázsonyi and percussionist Tibor Lázár

embrace electronic and acoustic instruments and dissolve into an organic sound image. After the concert his dj set will complete the evening.

The dj already gained much on popularity with songs featured on US TV series like CSI: Miami.

Marc 26; 8pm; Nappali Bár ( Király str 23-25); HUF200.

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March 2015 PĂŠcs City Guide

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Essentials

LOCK DOWN YOUR LOVE Paris, New York, Cracow, Vienna, Florence and Cologne have picked up the tradition of putting love padlocks on bridges and fences in the early 2000s. While several cities try to regulate or even to ban putting padlocks on public fixtures, in Pécs you are encouraged to do so.

The idea behind love padlocks remains almost the same all around the world, but the actual practice varies from place to place. Sometimes love locks are placed by newly-wed couples on their wedding day to secure their love for a lifetime.

And sometimes, the locks are put on bridges by fresh couples to bring luck to their relationship.

In Pécs there are several legends about the origins of the tradition, but tracing it back is a hard task. To make it even harder there is no real agreement on the purpose of the tradition. The only fact that we know for sure is that love locks started to appear in the early 1970s on a fence in Janus Pannonius street.

One of the legends says that students from a close dormitory put the first padlocks on the fence as soon as they graduated because there was no need for their pad-

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Pécs City Guide March 2015

lock that kept their wardrobe secure. Another legend tells that lovers began to clamp padlocks to the wrought-iron fence to send secret messages to each other. In 2012 even an elderly lady claimed that she has started the craze by putting the first padlock on the fence.

She said in an interview that she didn’t put it there because of her commitment to her husband but because she fell in love with Pécs when they visited the city for the first time. Today, these stories are quite irrelevant: couples do put the padlocks there to show their commitment to each other.

Tourists and citizens love the attraction but in 2007 a civic organization worked hard to ban love

locks in Pécs, too. They argued that it is bad for the city’s scenery and called it vandalism. But it was too late the tradition was much stronger than a civic group. Another civic group helped to renovate the orig-

There is no real agreement on the purpose of the tradition inal fence and its surrounding and it was made even bigger in 2010.

But that wasn’t enough, local government’s latest addition to the legend is a new installation 50 metres away, that was handed over to citizens in 2013. It’s not as popular as the original locations but people started to put love padlock there too.

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March 2015 PĂŠcs City Guide

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