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Published: August 21st 2016
Debrecen in one picture
When I google "Debrecen", the church statue and symbol are the first to pop upI was hysterically happy when we were finally going on this trip, since it was my first time going half around the world. When we arrived at Budapest airport, I had my first experience of jet lag. It felt like perpetual morning, which was really weird. Then we had to continue by bus for three hours to Debrecen, where the competition was held. I was excited to see endless fields of sunflowers, hay and other greenery. So endless that it became sort of hypnotizing.
We arrived at Debrecen in the afternoon. We were brought in to a dorm, which belonged to the University of Debrecen. After taking a well-earned shower, me and my boyfriend had a short tour around the University's complex. Since it was my first time in Europe, I thought it was AWESOME. (Though it later occurred to me that there are much, much more things that are much more awesome)
The next day we had breakfast at a local cafe. Everything about it was great - the food, the atmosphere, the place, the view, the coffee, even the flowers. I even went for seconds - really yummy chocolate croissant.
It was then time to go
University of Debrecen
By then I learned that "Egyetem" means University shopping - but me and my boyfie would rather go sightseeing. We kinda wandered around, clueless about where to go and what's good around the area, but eventually we made it back to Kossuth Square. It is the city center, where the Calvinist Church and other landmarks of Debrecen were also. Took a dozen pictures of the place, because it wasn't too crowded (Debrecen was never crowded, actually, apart from the times when other competition contestants flock together). Anyway, we still had to queue for taking pictures around the statue because there were other tourists apart from us.
Moving on, boyfie then suggested that we should try entering the church. To our delight the church was open for visitors at that time. We were told to buy tickets, 500 HUF for entrance to the ground floor or 600 HUF for extra access to the panorama view and other higher parts of the church. Well, we thought an extra 100 HUF wouldn't hurt, so we bought the 600 HUF tickets. And we were glad we did.
The interior of the church was huge, and it turned out to be where the opening ceremony of the competition would took place.
BEST CAFE EVER
Food, place, view, coffe, everything, wow. We didn't know it by then. Then we continued to the higher floors of the church, where we found a "showroom" (?) which looked like an attic. Inside was a kind of dome, perhaps an older part of the church. Then we proceeded to the roof of the church where we could see the SPECTACULAR panorama view of Debrecen. Then we imagined not buying the 600 HUF ticket. It would be a shame! There was a pair of binoculars there, which could be operated by putting in coins inside of it. Too bad we didn't have any coins with us back then with us, so we simply stuck to our cameras.
If I had to tell about the competition, it would be a very, very, very long story. So I'd rather speak about the other places and sights that we saw during our stay in Debrecen. Almost all of the venues were held at the Kolscey Centre. It's a huge and beautiful auditorium, and the acoustics were amazing. I've never experienced singing as a choir in a better place back in Indonesia, so it was cool. They sold snacks and other merchandise too, so I bought myself some Hungarian
Panorama view of Debrecen
From the roof of the Calvinist Church. It's just lovely honey cakes (yum!), snacks and chocolate. It didn't fail!
Traveling around Debrecen was really convenient, because there's a kind of a train system that has clear stops (more like a monorail?). Thanks to the competition we could travel for free, as long as we had our name tags that is. If not, I'm pretty sure people have to buy tickets outside of the train. At one time, me and boyfie and a lot of time to kill so we went to a park named Aquaticum. Basically, it's a large park open for public, and it has a big pool with a fountain in the middle. The best part? People can dip in the pool, walk on pavement-like platforms laid in the pool, and it's clean! It was summer when we visited Hungary, so you can tell that it's hot even in the afternoon. Boyfie insisted that we get our feet wet too, so we rolled our jeans (we regret we didn't wear shorts) and hand-carried our shoes with us as we walked around in the pool. It's fun! At first I thought that we were being childish, but it turned out that all ages were doing the same thing.
Aquaticum
Gee that fountain does squirt so high Carry on, then.
Another place in Debrecen, which I also found very beautiful, is a Catholic church called the Incarnation Parish Church. It was a 15-20 minute walk from our dorm, and to us Indonesians, we're not used to walking in such a hurried pace. Especially in our singing costumes. We went there to attend mass, and to sing as a part of the competition's program (Musica Sacra). The church wasn't too big, but when I entered, it felt very warm in a good way. The Crucifix was sort of, like, painted (?) on the wall. As the mass went on, we tried to keep up to get an idea what the priest was talking about. Of course that's because of the language barrier. I heard that Hungarian language is one of the most difficult to understand. But the people there are so kind, a gentleman even translated the homily of the priest for us in English.
Before leaving Debrecen, me and the choir had a photo session in front of the University. Well, when else could we pose fully costumed in such a nice place?
Because this is my first visit to a European city, Debrecen
The Auditorium of Kolcsey Centre
And this is our choir in action *yaay* had been a wonderful memory for me. It's (very) quiet, it's peaceful, and although it's not too big it still offered some wonderful places to explore.
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