Debrecen, Day 1
This weekend we went to Debrecen, the second largest city in Hungary. This city is much smaller than Budapest though! There was a school psychology conference on Thursday and Friday, but I could only attend the Friday session due to classes and other commitments. We took the train Thursday night and stayed in a cute apartment in one of the big apartment blocks left over from the Soviet time. On Friday I went to the conference in the morning. There were three sessions and I was very thankful that the conference organizers set up one of the university students to translate for me. It is so difficult not being able to speak the language! The conference was nice and I was very glad I got to attend.
After the conference I met up with JonPaul and the kids and we did some sightseeing. We first went to the botanical gardens at the university, which was a little bit of a letdown. I expected very few flowers, but the grounds were very soft and it was difficult to keep footing when walking, and I was wearing my work shoes.
There were several greenhouses that looked neat, but although they said they were open all the doors were locked. The kids particularly liked this giant plant that looks like an aloe plant to me, but of course I am probably wrong. I know nothing about plants! Some of the greenhouses were half buried so only the roof was above ground.
Right beside the gardens is the Agora Science Adventure Center, a hands-on science center. It isn’t too large, but the kids really liked it. There was a display of robots that were most likely the winners from local schools. Willow’s favorite thing was a spinning disc that demonstrates centrifugal force. All the kids loved this but it made me dizzy just watching them! There was also a mirror maze, which was fun. A tug-of-war example showed how even someone who is smaller and not as strong can win when you add a pully system. There were also bikes set up to a race car track that demonstrates electric energy created by motion. When you peddled the bike the car moved, and the faster you peddled the faster the car went. Ronin also tried a bunch of the puzzles but got frustrated after a while!
From here we walked through campus of the University of Debrecen to this water tower. It was in the middle of a small park and had a bar at the bottom floor. In the middle column there is a climbing wall! We only walked up to the bottom of the climbing wall part; it cost money to go to the top and we didn’t realize this until we got up there and found the gate locked.
Across the street from the water tower was a small climbing area for kids. We spent about 40 minutes here letting the kids climb. To get back to our place we walked through Nagyerdei park, which was pretty with lakes and walking paths. There was a bigger playground here, and we would have stopped but it was getting cold.
In the park were several statues the kids could climb on. Of course we needed pictures of each! There was also a statue of a bunch of geese flying in a V formation. The kids wanted to fly with the geese too. We also walked by the main building of the university, which was probably one of the most beautiful university building I have seen. I have heard the inside is just as nice, but we didn’t go inside. From here we went to a restaurant with one of the Fulbright students, Maya. It was nice to get to meet with someone, and the kids immediately took to Maya and thought she was super cool.
