Pecs 3

Not to be mean to those of you suffering some sort of crazy blizzard in MN, but it is spring here. This is the little white church atop a hill that overlooks town, and as you can see the fruit trees around it are in bloom. Very scenic. The church was built as a sort of "Thanks God!" in 1691 after the town was spared the plague.
And in this picture, taken on the way down the hill from the church, you can see the town wall separating the old and new town. I spent most of my time in the old town.
What did I do in Pecs besides take pictures? On Tuesday, Agi and I went to the Zsolnay porcelain museum - I was sceptical about the interest potential of a porcelain museum - but they made some truly spectacular pieces with bright colors (Lots of pinks), a variety of artistic styles, and a good amount of iridescence, so it was definitely worth the 2 dollar admission. Probably luckily, they had no Zsolnay green cats on sale at the store. We also went to the Csontváry museum. Csontváry is the "Hungarian van Gogh" complete with schizophrenia. His paintings were quite nice, though, and some of them are truly huge - probably 15 feet tall and 20 feet wide. Unfortunately, he really only painted in his signature style for less than 10 years before he deteriorated mentally.

After the museums, Agi and I had cake, and then she went to give her presentation. I bought a couple books by Hungarian authors at the Corvina store and went back to my hotel for a little while. I had dinner in a Croation/Serbian restaurant - roast deer with wild berries and croquettes. I ordered "cucumber salad" which turned out to be pickles - given the amount of pickles we eat at home, I should have known. That part of the restaurant at least was Hungarian. I also had a glass of red wine from Villany, nearby, which was quite tasty.

On Wednesday, I went to both branches of the Modern Hungarian Art Museum - 1850-1950 and 1950-Present, which was interesting. I also went to the Ferenc Martin museum, a sculptor and painter born in Pecs who's work I quite liked. Some what similar to Kandinsky, but with less going on in each piece. I also went to the bizzare Erzsebet Schaár museum and the Vasareli museum. And I climbed up the hill to the little white church.