Debrecen

Yesterday afternoon we (Daniel, Gaye, Derek and I) headed into the nearby town of Debrecen to check out the sights. Debrecen is Hungary's second largest town, but only about 200,000 people live there (plus a lot of part time university students). Whenever Daniel and I have visited Debrecen previously, we've always just gone straight to the big, modern shopping mall and the KFC outlet in its foodcourt, so it was a pleasant change to be able to take in some of the more touristly areas. 

After some initial confusion involving the inadvertent discovery of a totally awesome watertower-like thingy, and a harrowing drive down a pedestrian only mall, we eventually found ourselves in Kossuth tér. This square is in the very centre of town and was rather picturesque on such a lovely almost-Summer day. 

We walked around for a little while, ate some delicious ice cream, then made our way to the square's focal point, the Great Reformed Church (also known as the Great Calvinist Church or Nagytemplom in Hungarian). While I'm not terribly into churches, this one is quite historic so it's worth a mention. From what I understand, it served briefly as Hungary's parliament during 1848-49 and still displays the exact chair from which Kossuth Lajos declared Hungary's independence.

Inside the church, our little party of four split up. Derek and I decided to head up to the bell tower, while Gaye and Daniel checked out the museum in the other tower. Personally, I think that the bell tower was the more exciting choice. Derek and I climbed many, many, many narrow wooden steps and eventually came to a massive bell. But far from being over, the little wooden steps just kept on going. Up and up and up and up we climbed. Eventually we reached the top of the tower (a little less than 61 metres high) and were rewarded with a fantastic view of Kossuth tér and the city of Debrecen.

Going down the steps was a little less fun and a little more scary, but thankfully I survived the experience unscathed. Derek took it all in stride and didn't seem phased at all by the steep and seemingly neverending descent.

Daniel and I definitely plan on checking out some more of Debrecen's sights next time we're in town for a KFC fix.

- Amanda