If you’ve ever moved away from the town that birthed you – and of course you did, this is an Expat-focused magazine – , you will know how frenzied a visit home can get.
Visit mom and dad, have a drink with friends, meet every damn one you know or they’ll get mad, and before you know it, you’re exhausted and wish you never came.
I’m the same way. Whenever I visit my hometown (Pécs), I run around like a coked-up chinchilla and while I squeeze in the mandatory family and friendly visits, I rarely have the time to appreciate Pécs for the beautiful, romantic Mediterranean town that it is.
So I started thinking. What sights could one cram into one whirlwind visit? Here are a few musts (surely, there are more, but if you can only check out three things, I very PERSONALLY recommend these).
TV Tower
Let’s start at the top. The top of the mountain I mean. Standing 197 meters tall at top of the Misina peak of Mecsek, it is the tallest building in the country.
At 72 meters, there’s a café and at 80 meters, there’s an open terrace where you get to walk around and enjoy a spectacular view. In clear weather, you can see all kinds of mountains whose names I never know because I suck at geography, and you should look them up anyway. Do you have a fear of heights? Well, boohoo! Suck it up and enjoy the view. Or…
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The Wall of Locks
It is unclear to this day how the tradition started. One of many theories suggests that around 1971, students of a nearby high school started placing their school locker locks onto the fence (that never actually served as a fence, but more of a filler in an empty space), after their successful final exams.
Later, lovers started adding locks that had their names or initials engraved, as a way of expressing their commitment to one another. (Do I want to be mean here and wonder how many are still together? No. I hope they’re all still in love. Truly.)
These days it’s mostly tourists that add locks. Instead of buying a souvenir, I guess.
Because the lock craze only seems to grow, the fence and the adjacent wall had to be reinforced a few years ago, and additional installations were placed on Séta square so that people can satisfy their need to place locks in random places.
As a native of Pécs, for our first reunion, me and my high school friends added our old locker locks to the wall. So there, my memory shall forever live in a pile of rusting metal.
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The Horse
Well, the square on which the horse stands. This is the main square of Pécs, it has a bunch of touristy stuff, look them up.
Now, as for the horse. (Again, this is very personal, I have no historic interest in this poor creature.) It’s a statue of János Hunyadi, on his noble steed.
When I was going to high school, the statue was usually the meeting point for our shenanigans. I’m kidding, I was a frightfully boring teenager, sadly.
So, every now and again when me and my friends set up a time to meet, we always said “See you at 7, underneath the horse’s d*ck.” So a small section of a beautiful main square will forever live in my immature mind as merely the proximity of a metal manhood (horsehood?) of a statue. Does the statue actually feature the “horsehood”? I have no recollection. But if you happen upon this piece of art, do take a gander and feast your eyes on something potentially very inappropriate.
There you have it. Some of my personal favourite snippets of Pécs. Of course, it has a lot more to offer, which I also highly recommend but that’s what the internet’s for. Go, Google, go!