Day Trips to Miskolc

We had to make a trip to pick up Kata's repaired phone from Vodafone this week. It kept switching itself off and a part had to be replaced. We took the bus for a change to avoid the snow and parking hassle. The bus drops you off in the centre it is an easy walk from Buza tér to the walking streets. The woman at Vodafon was extremely friendly and helpful, unlike the majority of my previous experiences at any and all of the big three mobile operators in Hungary. We also picked up some more of our favourite chestnut beer at Kotyolda for my colleague Barna's son who helped Kata with a flat tire last week. When we were last in Miskolc before the holidays we had wanted to get a döner kebab, but the place was full and the wait at least 30 minutes. This time we had better luck at Döner King. At first very disappointed not to have my gyros in pita bread; it soon became apparent why it was in a giant toast instead. The kebabs are enormous! These things, for 790 Huf are easily double the size of one in Budapest and for a fraction of the price.

A few weeks later we went back into the city again to catch a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by a theatre company from Romania's National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest. I saw a production of this in 1989 by the Royal Shakespeare Company when I was a student in Edinburgh. I think it was my first real theatre experience outside of seeing Peter Pan (with Sandy Duncan) and The Nutcracker with my parents as a kid. As could be expected, it was an excellent performance. And as a student, I got in for a quid! I really should have taken more advantage of the opportunity then, but since moving to Hungary, I have been a regular theatre goer. The Bucharest troupe came to Miskolc as part of a week of performances by international theatre groups, including ones from The Netherlands and Poland as well. We chose this show because our friend Jeroen spent a lot of time in Romania researching his doctoral work and we invited him and Lennard along. The language barrier was solved by way of two screens displaying subtitles above the stage. About half-way through the play I realised that both Hungarian and English subtitles were being displayed. I found this doubly distracting because I was already having trouble following the action on stage as I was trying to read the subtitles high above. I finally made the strategic decision to ignore the subtitles and just watch the play. I do not know how they could have crossed the language barrier differently, but it was distracting from an otherwise very nice production by talented and energetic actors and actresses.

After the play we picked up some chestnut beer from across the street, and then had some dinner at the Impresszo Restaurant. The staff were nice and attentive, however, my salad with walnut dressing and grilled goat cheese was greasy (salad) and cold (cheese). Kata enjoyed her quesadilla and Jeroen said his Jokai bean stew was good. In retrospect, I should have stuck with my original choice and gone with the Greek salad like Lennard.