Pécs

October 30^th-31^st, 2026 

I was a little concerned the night before about my transportation to Pécs (pronounced “peh-sh”, or something close to that) as the only option was to take a bus but printed on the ticket was that my journey would start at a bus stop, not at the bus station.  Looking on Google, it stated that it was “permanently closed”.  I checked with the young woman at the hotel, and she didn’t think it was an issue.  She’s also the one who corrected my pronunciation of my destination as at first I was saying “Pecks”, as an English speaker naturally would.

 

I debated on taking an Uber to the bus stop, but looking on Google Maps, a bus that ran right by my hotel went directly there.  I checked out of the hotel and hung out at the bus stop, and right on time, the bus showed up.  I had hoped to just buy a ticket from the bus driver, and it is recommended to have correct change, which I didn’t have.  The ticket was 650 forints, so I presented a 1000-forint bill and a 50-forint coin, figuring it would be easy for him to give me two 200-forint coins back.  Well, that was wishful thinking.  He didn’t seem to have the change in the compartment on the dashboard, so he pulled out a wallet from his pants and as he tried to find the correct coinage, he dropped some on the floor.  I felt bad as the bus was being held up just for me.  Then I noticed a contactless ticket dispenser and a local woman who could tell I was a foreigner helped me out.  I bought my ticket, and the bus was on its way.

 

We crossed the bridge to the historic downtown centre where I’d walked around the day before.  I had noticed on Google Maps that the bus would make a turn or two before heading to my bus stop, but I should have clued in when it made a few more turns and everyone on the bus had gotten off, apart from one or two who hopped on at the last stop.  Then the bus started to drive back over the bridge towards my hotel!  Damn.  What’s going on?  I got off the bus right by where I had started, twenty minutes after I had hopped on it.

 

As the bus pulled away, I noticed that it was not the right number.  Huh.  I didn’t notice another bus on the schedule at the bus stop at the start of the trip, and this one showed up exactly when the one I was supposed to get on should have been there.

 

It was a good thing I’d decided to leave early, but now I only had 25 minutes to get to that bus stop across town.  Okay, it’s Uber time.  I opened the app, and since it’s been a while since I used it, I had to put in my billing address…this just added a bit to my stress.  Luckily, a car showed up within five minutes, and I made it to the bus stop with still 12 minutes to spare.

 

It was a regular bus stop that looked like it should have just been for local city buses, but there were some schedules listed on a lamppost and I saw my bus number for Pécs, which gave me more confidence that I was at the right spot.  The bus was supposed to arrive at 11:40 am, but as it passed noon, I started to have my doubts.  I began to look on my phone about trains to Budapest as I was flying from there to Belgrade in a few days and I thought maybe I’d just have to skip out on visiting Pécs.  Of course, while I had my head buried in my phone was when the bus finally did show up.  Whew.

 

Two and a half hours later, the bus pulled into Pécs, and I had a twenty-minute walk to the apartment that I had found on Booking.com.  As has been the norm with most of my accommodations I’ve stayed at in eastern Europe, I didn’t actually meet the owner or manager of the place but had instructions of a code to get in the main door and then another code for a lockbox for the key to the place.  It was a modern looking building compared to the neighbouring structures and wow; the apartment was super nice, modern and very clean.

Getting close to Pécs.

Walking to my accommodation.

The building where I'm staying for the next couple of nights.

Look at my crib!

The view from the hallway in my building.  There's the TV Tower in the distance that I planned on visiting.

I decided to go for a wander around the nearby historic centre.

There were some nice buildings for sure.

I do like pedestrian only streets, although the odd guy on an electric scooter or bike whizzed by.

Compared to Szeged which had a cathedral and synagogue, Pécs had the trifecta, adding a mosque to that list.  It was located in the main Széchenyi Square, but I wasn’t bothered to go inside.

The National Theatre of Pécs.

Since I hadn’t had any lunch, I found a place to sit down, enjoy a snack of some French fries and a few beers until about 5 pm.  Grabbing some Pad Thai to go for later in the evening, I returned to my lovely apartment to chill out and watch a movie on my big TV.

The next day, my main item on my list was to take a local bus up to the Pécs TV Tower.  I first had a massive breakfast at a bagel restaurant and then walked to Széchenyi Square again, passed by the mosque and made my way to the Basilica of Pécs. 

A different view of the square from yesterday.

This building had an interesting entrance...

...with some buff half-dudes guarding it.

Can you guess what those are?

 Yup, locks that couples in love have attached to some metal railing.

And just 50 metres away, yet more.

One dating back to 1995 there.

Like the mosque, I didn’t bother going inside but snapped some photos of it before walking to the nearby Barbican, a restored circular fortress dating back centuries.  During the Mongol invasion of 1241–1242, Pécs was devastated and burned to the ground.  In the aftermath, the city was heavily fortified with strong stone walls, and the Barbican is one of those remaining pieces.

Getting closer...

It's a little different than other cathedrals/basilicas I've seen on this trip with four towers.

This is looking back the other way.  They must have steeple envy.

A model of the complex, with the Barbican in the bottom left.

The Barbican.

I hopped on a local bus for a 25-minute ride up a 535 peak of the Mecsek mountain range.  Perched up on a nearby small mountain, the TV Tower is the tallest building in Hungary, measuring 197 metres.  There are an observation deck and a café, but they are only situated at a height of 80 and 72 meters respectively.

It sure isn't the prettiest tower, with a very early 1970s Communist look.

Unfortunately, it was grey day with relatively low clouds that were threatening to drop rain, and it was windy and chilly, but I’m still glad I made the effort to visit the tower that was built from 1968 to 1973.

Looking towards Pécs.

Checking out the view.

The observation deck.

Almost every metal post around the perimeter of the viewing deck looked like they'd been shored up or fixed.  Hmm...didn't instill confidence in this 50+ year old tower!

Looking in the opposite direction from Pécs.

There were a few little drawings around the viewing deck that I'm sure the staff of the tower didn't put up.  Seems like they'd been there a while.  This one made me chuckle (I'm guessing that its moniker was added later by some cheeky person).

The green roof in the middle of the picture is the basilica.

Cheers!

The bus passed by this little park.  I liked the Rubik's Cube statue, which is actually two-dimensional but looks 3D.  Ernő Rubik, the inventor of the cube, is Hungarian. 

A smaller mosque I walked by back in town.

A little Sultan dude by the mosque.

Returning to town, I decided that I didn’t need to stay in “tourist mode” and instead found a pub for a few beers while I watched the second half of scintillating football match between Brighton and Manchester City, did some blogging and returned to my place for another movie.  I have to remember from time to time that it doesn’t always have to be go, go, go while Wandergliding.