Friday, June 17, 2011

A Walking Tour of Gyula

Welcome to our cute little town. We'd like to give you a personal tour and share the places that have been the most important to us these past two and a half years.




We'll start off at our apartment. We moved here the June after we arrived in Hungary and it's been wonderful. It has a European feel and we even have a gardener! But that's because we live in a pre-school. It's owned by the Catholic Church (I used to teach and Ryan now teaches at the Catholic high school) and we hear the children sing and laugh all day. Not to mention the giant metal soup pots being dragged outside at 7 am every morning.
 








Turning right out of our grounds we reach our good friends Gyöngyi and Péter's apartment. It's the second from the top. We spend a lot of time with them, mostly eating, playing Dutch Blitz and now awing over our babies. It' so wonderful to have such good friends so close.











Right next to Gyöngyi and Péter's place is our church. We started attending here shortly after we arrived in Hungary because the pastor works at the same high school and he reached out to us and made us feel at home. He and the members of the church have been a huge blessing to us and we have really enjoyed being apart of the congregation.










What would we do without Hambugerbár? These American style hamburgers (not weirdo European ones) have been our connection to home. Ryan's favorite is the Magyaros (Hungarian) which has a beef patty, salami, bacon, hot peppers and sometimes ham.



















Turning right is my former, and Ryan's current, school. I still can't believe I got to work in a building that looks like this. I greatly enjoyed working here and had great coworkers and enough good students to make it fun. Ryan started working here after I went on maternity leave so we could stay in our apartment.           






Straight down aways from the school is the farmer's market.Our knowledge of root vegetables has greatly expanded and we now know what eggs are supposed to look like.












Heading back past Hamburgerbár is the main traffic circle which when walking leads to downtown. There's fountains and flowers everywhere and enough benches to make it feel like the town's back yard.










Upon entering the walking street is our favorite café. It's in an old bridge keeper's building and they have amazing hot chocolate.











We're looking down the rest of the walking street. Though most of the shops aren't very interesting, it's a nice place to walk or people watch.









Now we're in the heart of downtown. We like to sit here and watch people walk by as we eat ice cream.


This is where we buy our ice cream, the Kézműves Cukrászda (Handmade Confectionery). Seriously amazing. 






We'll keep walking past the confectionery and now we're at the castle. That's right. Our town has a castle. And a special one, too. It's the only standing brick castle in Central Europe. Right across the street is the spa/water park. 






Once we're back in downtown we'll go behind the church to the Százéves Cukrászda (The 100 Year Old Confectionery, though it's actually 170 years old). It's the older sister of the place we get ice cream. Get ready for the best cake you'll ever eat in the most elegant setting you could ever want to eat cake in. My favorite is the Kézműves Krémes, which is two inches of custardy whipped cream between two thin layers of crisp pastry. 






Taking a bit of a detour we're at the hospital where Audrey was born. The longer side of the building is the labor and delivery area and around the corner is where I stayed after she was born. When I went back to take this picture I got nostalgic for my pregnant days.








That ends our walking tour of Gyula. We hope this tour helps you understand why leaving this town will be so difficult. Gyula holds so many wonderful experiences and special memories not just because of these places but also because of the amazing Hungarian people who accepted us into their community and let us call this place home.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for showing us where you lived, I am sorry that I did not have the chance to see all the places that you love. I hope that you guys get to go back some day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I must say, I am a bit sad that I will not be going back to Gyula, Hungary anytime soon. I so enjoyed my time with you there and doing all the walking and eating...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so very much for the wonderful tour! Gyula looks like a wonderful little (?) place to spend a few years of your life. I also love how much of your tour includes food. :)

    ReplyDelete