Make Money Through Adversity

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I am updating the Hungary chapter for the Frommer's Europe book. One small piece of the chapter discusses Esztergom, the capital of Hungary until King Bela IV moved it to Buda in the mid 13th century. The primary reason for visiting for the majority of tourists is to see the cathedral or capital of Hungarian Catholicism. 


I had been to this quaint little town a number of times to explore in general, and then later as research for various books I was working on at various times. However, this time, not only am I short on time, but the section is too paltry to warrant a visit. The next best thing was to get a student to make calls for me, navigating the Hungarian language where I cannot in order to get to the heart of the matter with brevity of time in mind. She did an excellent job, but one thing that seemed to be such a glaring mistake it rattled my attention after gaining it. 


The quest was to find out if bus numbers 1 and 6 still go from the train station to close to the cathedral and if they still charged 150 Huf and 180 Huf respectively. They are from two different companies, hence the difference in fees. The response returned to me was that all public transport in the city has ceased to exist as of July 2011. The only buses on the road now within the city are those that go from point A to the hypermarkets and return. There is no other transportation. 


I was incredulous; how could a city survive without any public transportation? This is nearly impossible. Oh heck, wait a minute, I have been out of the US for too long. Most towns and cities have no to very little public transportation. Duh!


Trusting this student was not a issue. I have known her for a time and trust her implicitly, but some things you just need to hear for yourself. I Googled, I searched, I read, I explored. Either there was nothing about public transport in the articles I found or for those that did refer to it, showed the last update as pre-2007.


Could I trust the tourism office when they cannot decide if they are TourInform or Budapestinfo Point? I called the national tourism number, taking a risk on honesty and integrity. Golly gee, I was informed that all public transport went out of business in July 2011 due to the economy. The only buses are those for grocery shopping.


Here is the deal. During tourism season for those not in the know, you can do one of two things. Sell cheap walking shoes at the train station or offer rides in a golf cart to and from the church. Let adversity pay off for a change.  Is it any wonder why King Bela IV looks so sad in this picture?

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Annie comments...

I promised to let this topic drop, but did not want to ignore Annie, so here it goes. I promised not to post any further comments on this topic though. Annie has left a new comment on your post "Last Word on Esztergom": It never fails to amaze me how quick Villy can detect every mention of Esztergom on the internet. Just write the word, and he turns up within hours :D Looks to me that your displeasure with Esztergom stems from the behaviour of that Michael guy, rather than the town itself. Esztergom is awesome, especially all those Gothic paintings I've seen there. :)

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Esztergom Video: Thanks to Villy

I thought we had finished with Esztergom, but Villy sent me this video that Villy made. It is an amazing piece, so I am sharing it here. "A small compilation of what my hometown has to offer. Esztergom (pop:31k, est: 972) lies on the right bank of the river Danube. It's the first capital of Hungary, the seat of the Constitutional Court, and the Roman Catholic Church of Hungary. Home to many monuments, priceless artifacts and museums."

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Last Word on Esztergom

Okay, Villy has taken me to task for not appreciating Esztergom and in all fairness I want to publish the last comment on the subject. Let me say this about Villy's comment. She or he is correct and did make me think if I were not a tourist or acting like one under a tight time schedule, I would most likely have found more to savor. It has also reminded me of times that I have had to defend a place that I loved from some ingrate who did not see it through my eyes. With that said, Thank YOU Villy. This is the end of the topic for published posts now. I do appreciate feedback - positive, negative as long as it is constructive. "Ok, ok! So you weren't impressed by the tallest building in Hungary, one of the biggest churches in Europe, the thickest walls of Central Europe, coronation jewels, treasury with the most decorative chalice in the world, relics and remains of numerous saints and kings of Hungary on display, one of the biggest codexes in the world (110 kg), the only surviving Renaissance building of Hungary, the third biggest Christian art museum of the world, including the biggest collection of medieval Italian paintings outside of Italy itself, the interactive Danube Museum named European Museum of the year a couple of years back, had no interest in the Mindszenty Museum, the former house of 20th century poet Mihály Babits, that has all the autographs of almost every influential poet, writer or journalist in the country, had no interest in a 1000 year old castle, with 500 year old frescoes, the only surviving Ottoman mosque this far along the Danube, the only major cave open to the public in Komárom-Esztergom county, brand new spa, the biggest ecclestial library and archive in the country. It's not well known, but the town even has an underwater museum in the Suburbs in a lake. You mentioned that you didn't attend the vine-show, you probably didn't stay until night to see the guitar festival (Al di Meola was playing on Sunday). So either you didn't know about the above or you were not interested in any of them. Just let me ask you this: What does a town with a 30k population have to offer where you come from? Look, I don't mean to be rude, I'm just pissed off, cause this is my town you're talking about, and it's not true that this is a one-horse town, and whenever I go somewhere new I look up a few places to see there, OR I go there not knowing sh*t, but I'm definitely not saying that the town had nothing to offer besides the one thing I actually visited. "

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Esztergom

In the name of research, only for the book, we went to Esztergom yesterday. Really, there was not a spark of desire to return there. Afterall, we had been there once seven years ago in the dead of winter, how much different could it be now? Michael Gans and his latest 'friend' joined us for the 1 1/2 hour train ride. How could I have forgotten the train took so long? On a positive note, the train was new and beautiful. From the station we took the bus to the cathedral, the highlight of the town and really the only reason for going. This is the seat of Hungarian Catholicism. As I gathered the data I needed, the others played tourist. It worked well. Strangely, Michael repeatedly stated how poor he was and how he could not afford a thing, but yet he was able to pay the way of his friend the entire trip. So it really worked my nerves when we went to a restaurant that Michael suggested, but when the bill came, I had already tallied our items on my phone's calculator using the menu for guidance. When the bill came, I gave it to Michael, along with our portion and told him how much additional I had included for a tip. He still perused the bill like an etomologist who just discovered a new variety of a pesky insect and wanted to know why his portion was so expensive. Well, it is because you gave your friend free reign to order whatever he wanted and you, dear had two diet cokes. After he did the math, he was still a bit disgruntled, but it passed. I cannot say the town is lovely. There are pockets that are, but for the most part, the cathedral is the draw. If you are not interested in this, then it is not worth the time/energy to go at all. Later, we decided to stop at the main square. They happened to be having their own wine festival, but we were wearing down and opted for a coffee instead. Again, we went through the same tired routine when the bill came. When he complained that he was too broke to pay our bill, I retorted that I understood that unless he were dating us, we would not get a thing from him. He is leaving on Tuesday, eventually to go to Victoria, Canada to pursue his fourth Masters degree. In some ways I will miss his company, but it will be a relief to my blood pressure. After almost twelve months, we still have not been invited to his place. Reciprocity does not seem to be in his vocabulary. Now that I let out that loud "MEOW", I feel much better.

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