Debrecen

Today I journeyed to Debrecen, about an hour to an hour and a half from here by train. Debrecen is the second largest city in Hungary and is on the Hungarian Great Plain. I went armed with a travel book and information I got off of the Internet.

Debrecen is a Protestant city and a university city. It was once known as the "Calvinist Rome". So, of course there is a large church to see there. It wasn't too exciting compared to many of the churches I have been in, however there is a large organ, so I got pictures for my two organ playing friends. Also, I decided to climb the clock tower. It wasn't as steep or narrow as some towers, but it was still scary enough for me. Great views of the city.

My main drive to go to Debrecen though was the De'ri Museum and this proved to be exactly what I was looking for. There was a great display of pottery from the region and from other regions as well that arrived here through trading. There was a very odd shaped plaque like ceramic collection that I asked about, but the woman who knew what they were spoke German, not English, and the gal who spoke English didn't really understand what they were used for, or didn't know how to explain it in English. Luckily, in another part of the museum there were more of these, but this time made of wood, and they had an English explanation! They were used with pasta dough to make snail like designs. They are flat, about 4-5" tall, with the top shaped like a fancy Asian style hair comb and the bottom, also like a comb, but filled in between the teeth.....sorry, that's the best I can do! Unfortunately, photos were not allowed, so I don't have a photo of these. I have searched on the Internet as well to no avail. I will ask about them tomorrow at school and see if I can get another name for them.

There was also a large area dedicated to displays from the different types of workers guilds. Fascinating. In addition to some of the standard: harness makers, leather workers, metal workers, wool weavers, etc., there were also guilds for button making, felting and embroidery, hat making, and (again, I don't know that name) the fancy embroidery-like embellishments that are put on clothing, often around the collar or down the front. (I'll see what I can do to figure out what this is called.) Anyway, each of these different guilds had their own design for wooden boxes/trunks to hold the tools of their trades.

Another fascinating gallery was one showing different common household furnishings for each of the rooms in the houses. Fancily painted baby cribs, wooden display racks for ceramics, kitchen tables, etc.

There were other wings to the museum which I really didn't care for as they were focused on Egyptian and Chinese antiquities -- it just seemed out of place.

After spending a few hours in the museum, I headed for more modern activities: shopping. There are two shopping malls in the center of town and I was able to shop for clothes and ended up with a pair of jeans and a new shirt. All in all a very successful but exhausting day.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/margie510