March 11, 2011: March 15th Celebration; Journey to Sopron

March 11, 2011: Today's school day consisted of teaching only my first four classes because there was a school assembly to commemorate the March 15th Holiday. This holiday honors the day in 1848 that Hungarian university students, including the poet Petofi Sandor who was a student at the time, led a bloodless coup that eventually brought about independence of Hungary from the Hapsburgs. The significance of this holiday is that with persistence, relatively small nations such as Hungary can eventually succeed in obtaining independence even though it may take a long time. The following video clip was recorded at the school ceremony. The students put on a short skit about Petofi Sandor and his colleagues and it included dramatic recitations as well as singing.

Here's a picture of Hungarian flags adorning a shrine to Petofi Sandor at a school near Ujpest High School.

Shrine to Petofi Sandor

Because school let out a little early, I had ample time to return to my apartment to prepare for my four day weekend trip to Sopron and Györ, two beautiful cities in western Hungary. I went to Keleti Train Station and waited in a long line to purchase my ticket. When it was my turn to approach the ticket counter, the ticket lady, unlike most other ticket sellers I've encountered, insisted on my using Hungarian since she knew no English. This was a nice change because it forced me to listen and speak carefully. Unfortunately, the second class seats were sold out on the train so I had to purchase a first class ticket adding an extra 600 HUF to my ticket price (~$3) but that was a small price to pay for the start of a great trip. I met my CETP friend who arrived from Ujszasz and we boarded the train to Györ. Sitting in first class, I was able to complete grading a number of papers on the train so that I wouldn't have to return to that upon coming home. Meanwhile my friend sat in second class. In Györ my friend, Kent and I sat together in the second class train that goes to Sopron, the  so called "Faithful Town". Sopron was given this epithet because in 1921, the year after the Trianon Treaty was signed (The Trianon Treaty ceded 2/3 of the country of Hungary to its neighboring countries), the people of Sopron were given the opportunity to choose whether to be a part of Austria or Hungary; they chose Hungary and that is why there is a little jag of the boundary between the two countries that juts into Austria.

We arrived in Sopron just at dusk and easily found our way to the hotel and checked in. By then it was dinner time so we walked a short distance from the hotel to a nice looking English pub/cafe and had a tasty dinner.

English Pub in Sopron

Then, since we still had room for it, we went to a cake shop next door to the pub and had a cappuccino and pastry for dessert. This shop, too, had great ambiance.

Confectioner's Shop, Sopron

Then we took a short walk near the main square of Sopron to get a lay of the land. It looked like there would be a lot to see in our stay there.