October 2015 - Pécs City Guide

Pécs City Guide OCT 2015 / Issue 07 / Free

INSIDE

Silver cranes, Ice rink renewed, Goose dishes, Eleven, TV-tower

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4 In Brief Ice rink revamped, Pécs in Top 10 value tourist gems worldwide

6 Feature Silver cranes

8 Drink&Dine Goose and wine, Eleven

12 To Do Music Harvest Festival, Get Your Gun, Sándor Dobány ceramics

14 Essentials Pécs TV tower

HI

, this is the 7th issue of Pécs City Guide magazine and I really hope that you’ll find the upcoming issues more and more easily since we update our list of distribution locations every month. New places come, others vanish but we try being very up-to-date. You can see the latest list including cultural institutions, cafés, restaurants, gyms, shops and more at the Pécs City Guide website.

Chestnut trees are beautiful in fall, that’s why we chose a picture of the iconic Sétatér for this issue’s cover photo. But be careful while hiking in the Mecsek Hills or just taking a walk under the trees in the city, falling chestnuts can be dangerous too.

In the October issue you can read about the renovation of Northern

Contents&Co Castle Wall Promenade and the ice skating rink in Uránváros. Hopefully the works don’t delay as much as in the case of Pécs Zoo: we told you in the September issue that it will open in the end of October.

This information isn’t accurate anymore: officials say now it will open in December only.

Our feature covers the story of Blanka Gajcsi, a jewellery designer working in Pécs, who started a crowd-funding campaign. You can help her to collect enough money to realize the dream of creating 1000 silver origami crane pendants.

Some of the money goes for charity, but see more on page 6.

The next magazine is coming in the second week of November. Until then every feedback or question is appreciated and feel free to contact me at info@pecscityguide.com.

Ervin Gűth, editor

Pécs City Guide / September 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 ISSN 08659133 Printed by Érdi Rózsa Nyomda, Érd

T he timele ss cla ssic s

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October 2015 Pécs City Guide

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In Brief

The hotel comparison site Trivago announced that Pécs made it to the Top 10 Best Value City Destinations for 2016. The 8th place isn’t bad at all, on the other hand there are a lot of services that need improvement.

Global hotel comparison website trivago.co.uk has revealed its Best Value Destination Index for 2016.

This index combines hotel price data with aggregated user reviews and ratings, resulting in a list of 100 destinations where the hotels are both affordable and highly rated.

The top 3 destinations are: Fenghuang (China), Mostar (Bosnia and

Herzegovina) ,Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria). The 4th is quite close to Pécs: Novi Sad (Serbia) can be a good 2-3 day trip at any season. In this lovely town cultural diversity plays a huge role: it has six official languages.

Pécs is the only Hungarian city making it to the Top 10, but Győr (43th) and Szeged (50th) played well too.

ONE MORE PARK RENOVATED

People ordered by court to community service are helping to renovate Northern Castle Wall Promenade. Work is coordinated by the NGO Gerillart Association, who have a lot of experience with such projects.

Northern Castle Wall Promenade (Északi Várfalsétány) is one of the hidden gems of Pécs. Located next to the basilica it can be accessed via Káptalan str. It used to be a great place for quite walks and several

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Pécs City Guide October 2015

family events took place here earlier. But in recent years almost nothing. This is going to be changed by spring 2016: Gerillart has plans for much more facilities to keep visitors here. Also new plants are coming.

ICE RINK REVAMPED

Photo: Benson Kua

PÉCS IN WORLD’S 10 BEST VALUE TOURIST GEMS

Finding winter sport opportunities in Pécs? Not an easy task. At least one of them is getting better: the ice skating rink in Uranváros is being renovated.

There were talks about the modernization of the ice skating rink for ages, but the final decision came last season. City officials realized that if they don’t do something the facility has to stay closed after the summer break. So, somehow they finally found HUF150 million and the works were initiated in the last week of September.

If everything goes like planned, the facility will be available in the first week of November. Visitors shouldn’t realize much developments since only the cooling system had to be exchanged. Other improvements will hopefully arrive in near future.

There were plans to make an ice skating rink next to the TV tower, but someone realized that this wouldn’t be a great idea. For some years a fake ice skating rink was operated in Zsolnay Cultural Quarter but currently we have no information whether the plastic and oil sliding track is coming back this year or not.

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October 2015 Pécs City Guide

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Feature

1000 CRANES 1000 WISHES

Pécs-based designer Blanka Gajcsi would like to make 1000 origami cranes out of silver. A part of the money collected in the crowd-funding camping will go to charity.

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Pécs City Guide October 2015

Making 1000 origami cranes out of silver is not an easy task. Some might say it’s quite a crazy commitment. But it could be a dream coming true for Blanka Gajcsi, who makes a living by creating exciting art of jewellery in her own studio in a basement in downtown Pécs.

The idea came to her when learning about the story of Sakado Sasaki. An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane. The catastrophe of Hiroshima caused Sakado to struggle with leukaemia until the age of 12. By this time, the time of her death she could only fold 644 origami cranes, but the rest were completed by loved ones and school friends. In 1943 the little girl was laid to rest with the 1000 cranes.

Blanka learned folding origami cranes several years ago with a mission in mind. Her goal is now to collect enough money with the help of online crowd-funding on Kickstarter to make the cranes.

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Feature

Each crane, that you can wear as a pendant will cost AUD150 that is about HUF30,000. There are several other options to back the project.

If the project goes live the money will help Szemem Fénye Foundation also. The NGO operates a hospice house for sick children since 2010, one of a kind in the Pécs re-

gion. They would like to introduce new services and an even bigger facility, but they have collected only a small part of money needed.

So by backing the campaign you do not only get a hand-crafted silver crane pendant but can do some charity too. You can take part in the crowd-funding campaign and

make an order until Nov 13. The project will only start if Blanka can collect all the money needed that is a huge sum. If the 1000 cranes=1000 cranes project gets funded, kick-starters will get their pendant in a month. That means a silver crane could be an ideal Christmas present too.

29TH OCTOBER

THURSDAY 7.00PM

KODÁLY CENTRE

REQUIEM MEMORIAL CONCERT KLÁRA KOLONITS – soprano ANDREA MELÁTH – mezzo-soprano OTTOKÁR KLEIN – tenor KOLOS KOVÁTS – basso HUNGARIAN NATIONAL CHOIR HUNGARIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Conductor: MÁTYÁS ANTAL

www.pfz.hu • 72/500-300

October 2015 Pécs City Guide

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Drink&Dine

SEASON OF

THE GOOSE No, it’s not Christmas yet but goose dishes are already on season from late October. And these geese are accompanied by new wines since first Portugiesers and rosés from vintage 2015 are ready.

Goose breast with apple, red cabbage and oven roasted potatoes

Bread and dripping with onions

Pan seared fois gras

Where can you get one of those?

In Pécs and Villány a lot of restaurants and wineries will host events.

Some special offers will be available even until the end of November. In Villány the wineries Agancsos, Bock, Günzer, Maul have events on Nov 6-7 for sure, but even more are going to be announced. In Pécs Kalamáris and Balkán Bisztró are going to salute to the tradition for sure. See their Facebook page for more or wait for the listing at pecscityguide.com.

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Pécs City Guide October 2015

In recent years an old, and almost forgotten tradition has a real revival in Hungary: more and more people are celebrating Saint Martin’s Day with goose dishes.

November 11 is a feast day since medieval ages. It’s a commemoration of St. Martin of Tours, born in the 4th century in the Roman province Pannonia, more precisely what is present-day western Hungary. The goose became a symbol of the saint because of the legend that when trying to avoid being ordained bishop he had hidden in a goose pen, where he was betrayed by the cackling. Maybe it’s a little bit morbid but surely it’s not an accident that St. Martin’s feast day falls in November, when geese are ready for killing. The holiday originated in France and quickly spread to Germany, and Eastern Europe. It is usually a celebration of a successful harvests too.

And what are typical goose dishes in Hungary to celebrate with? All kind of roasts are on the menu, like roasted whole goose, or just legs.

In the more expensive segment we find fois gras (goose liver) prepared in different ways. Patés and pan seared liver are on the menus of more exclusive restaurants. One of the cheapest goose dishes is bread and dripping (zsíroskenyér in Hungarian). This is made with several types of fats but goose is the best, it is not an accident that it’s the most expensive lard of them all.

In Hungary and especially in Villány goose dishes are accompanied by the first wines from the latest vintage. The first wine used to be made from the Portugieser variety that is usually a very fruity wine with mild acidity. It is also the most popular wine of Villány, almost every winery has it in it’s product line.

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October 2015 PĂŠcs City Guide

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Drink&Dine

MARKET HALL PLANS FINAL

ELEVEN IS EVEN MORE THAN THE ULTIMATE WINE BAR

Did you realize that the latest gastronomic hub of Pécs is Jókai square? And since summer, the most Mediterranean square in town has the most wine savvy venue too, that is Eleven wine & tapas.

As the name points out Eleven wine & tapas has two things in focus. Food and wine. I really don’t bother to figure out which comes first but I’m sure that together they are more than just adding them up.

Anyway, let’s talk about the wine first. I’m very thankful that great wine cards are not scarce in town anymore, but I think there is no other venue where you can taste a new wine almost every day. Actually four days a week since Eleven operates only from Wednesday till Saturday. And this is not the only unusual characteristic of the bar. And when I say bar, I don’t really mean bar, since Eleven is a little bit less and also a little bit more.

The prices vary a lot eg. you can taste wines from Hungarian small

wineries from starting HUF350/dl.

International wineries are usually a little bit more expensive with prices starting above HUF500/dl.

There are always at least 18 bottles open, but their range is even bigger if you are willing to buy a bottle.

For the food: Eleven has a daily offer, that is the only warm meal available. Sure, Spanish ham, cheese, olives and olive oil is always on the menu card, but daily offers are even more interesting. Everything has a touch of the Mediterranean, and you just have to follow them on Facebook to keep track of their always changing offers.

Eleven is not the cheapest place in town but the pricetag comes with the guarentee that everything is always flawless.

Like a wine festival every day

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Pécs City Guide October 2015

Three billion forints could be spent on a new market hall. The winner of the tender for the plans of the new building will be made public in the second half of October.

According to the plan of the city’s chief architect and the architects’ committee the new market hall will be a neighbour of the old one, that will be demolished as soon as the new one starts operation.

The key concept is that the new facility should be much more than a market hall, with other related services, too.

The 5 Best* Breakfasts

1. Next Step Cofffe (Kórház sqr)

2. Ízes Magyar Csemege (Széchenyi sqr 2)

3. Juice&Co (Jókai sqr 1)

4. Maci Lángosozó (Szigeti str 51)

5. Market Hall (Bajcsy-Zs. str 25) *Editor’s opinion, based on price, quality, and reliability.

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October 2015 PĂŠcs City Guide

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To Do

SÁNDOR DOBÁNY CERAMICS MUSIC HARVEST FESTIVAL

Local artist Sándor Dobány began his career as a plaster model designer at the Zsolnay Factory in Pécs in 1969 at the age of 15. Working closely with old Zsolnay ceramics was a defining experience in his career. While at the factory, he studied painting and sculpture.

He is an expert with porcelain and plaster, and has numerous architectural ceramic commissions to

his credit. His architectural ceramic work can be seen in his native Hungary, Scotland and Greece.

As a porcelain designer, he has created eccentric and functional objects, including tea sets and vases painted with highly detailed surreal imagery.

Until Nov 8, Pécs Gallery (Széchenyi sqr). Tue-Sun 10am-6pm. Entrance: HUF250/500.

GET YOUR GUN (DK)

The Danish post-rock band has started their European fall tour in the UK, and the guys are now heading to Pécs. Brothers Andreas and Simon Westmark along with Søren Nørgaard formed the trio and their debut album titled The Worrying Kind came out in 2014.

Get Your Gun’s sound is not a forced practice of style, but something that originates from the moment the band was formed. A blend between the weight and aggressive nature of stoner-rock, the Nordic

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Pécs City Guide October 2015

melancholy, and the darkest tales of country- and folk music.

The result is a constant duality between authority and fragility, where the complexity of simplicity is given the pride of place and where it is cut to the bone, until it hurts the most. It is the sound of an individual balancing on a knife’s edge between resignation and strength of will.

Oct 28, 9pm. Pécsi Est Cafe (Rákóczi str 46) Free entrance. More info: getyourgun.dk

Classical music festivals in Pécs aren’t very common, but for sure is that every fall Music Harvest Festival is brought to the city by Filharmonia Hungary. Which is the only cultural entity in town that organizes events countrywide.

This time the tagline of the festival is North in the South since 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of both: Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and Danish composer Carl Nielsen.

Performers include Hungary’s no. 1 orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra that is accompanied by Sophie Klußman (pictured above). Their concert on Oct 18 starts the festival with Strauss, Britten and Sibelius at Kodály Centre.

Another highlight will be the accordion battle between Bjarke Mogensen and Mihály Demeniv who compete on Oct 24 at ANK Cultural Centre in Kertváros.

The festival is much more than a series of music events: exhibitions, readings, exciting performances, and also food tastings are on the programme. Several events are free but others cost between HUF500-7000 Oct 18-25; Various locations. More: zeneszuret.hu/en

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Essentials

ON AIR The TV tower above Pécs is as much a symbol of the city as the Eiffel tower for Paris, or the CN tower for Toronto. Or the Berlin TV tower. Hungary’s tallest building is also a tourist magnet.

It’s not hard to guess that the main purpose of the tower was to have a reliable broadcasting system for television and radio signals in the region. The top of the Mecsek Hills, the Misina seemed to be quite suitable for that and it was built on a place where an observation tower has helped hikers to see Pécs from above already since 1908. The works started in 1968 and the TV tower with its height of 197 m is the tallest building in Hungary since its completion in 1973.

That said, there are some taller ones but those are not suitable for accommodating people, and are therefore competing in another league.

It became an instant tourist attraction ever since thanks to the beautiful view in each direction. Not only the city and the Croatian Papuk mountain in the South but the unspoiled forests in the North are charming. And of course the characteristic signs of mining are also worth a few minutes. Not because of their beauty.

The three storeys, starting at 70 m above ground, accommodate a restaurant and bar, an open observation level and facilities for broadcasting. Though people aren’t working there anymore, since everything is computerized and operated remotely.

In the first half of the 2000s the restaurant and bar was a trendy party venue. The last big event took place in 2009, when during a three-day sci-fi festival international electronic music artists filled the observation level with up-tempo beats.

There are talks about completely renovating its vicinity but in first place a much needed new lighting system will come in a couple of months.

The tallest building in Hungary

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Pécs City Guide October 2015

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Every season, riding season

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