Goldilocks Pizza and Surly Youth

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31-08-08 Pecs - Goldilocks Pizza and Surly Youth

We arrived in Pecs at about 4pm after a pretty leisurely 5 hour trip from Timosoara. We were mainly traveling though low river valleys, and excellent farm land. You notice the improved standard of living in the rural areas in comparison to Romania pretty much as soon as you cross the boarder. I had my first experience of getting blocked from getting on a motorway on ramp - guess what - it was a Brittish driver, I decided to give him some pointers on road rules. I think he was too busy staring at his GPS to notice. We followed a group of 15 motorbikes for the last part of the trip - good fun. Interesting with the waving etiquette across central and eastern Europe - all riders wave to everyone, especially Harley riders (except scooters of course).

We are staying at the Diana Hotel in Pecs - noted as two star but it is really very good. It is across from a Jewish Temple, their car park in the back of the temple behind a large steel gate and barbed wire so the bike is definitely spoiled tonight.

Pecs is quite a large city (Pop 150K ) but has quite a compact old town in the centre. The old town is very well preserved. There are a lot of museums and art galleries here. There are roman ruins, which are kept under glass underground as part of the museum, people drive there cars over the glass to get access to St Peters Basilica nearby - weird.

The town seemed split into to parts - surly 16-17 year old teenagers, drinking in the parks, and everyone else in the shopping / restaurant streets. The teenagers seemed to pick their moments to walk into the camera shots as a form of rebellion. It actually helps the shot in most instances, so we weren’t too bothered. Or maybe we mistook these actions as a deep seated need to become models.

We found the perfect pizza, excellent wood fired oven, and just the right amount of topping, accompanied with Szlaty local dry lager - excellent. We finished this off with cakes again - hard to loose weight when there are so many good cafes around, we are really going to miss these cafes.

Still heading west today - to Croatia and Plitvice National Park for some walking and camping, then onwards to the beach!

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Photos

Pecs
Part of old Town wall

Pecs
Part of old town wall

Pecs
Central main square with the Mosque Church

Pecs
Art Museum

Pecs
St Peters Basilica

Pecs
Fontain with rebellious teenagers

Pecs
Pedestrian street with restaurants and cafes

Comments

[Roger]

Have no idea if this will work - home on my own .The trip sounds great and the photos brilliant (Should be I guess - but they look terrific.)Take care and enjoy the trip. Benj.