Back in February, I tried working remotely for the first time. This means going to a different country and working over the WiFi. Given the pandemic, this has become popular in the last couple of years, and my company actually had an official policy about how it is to be done. So to try it, I headed to Budapest for a week, to coincide with my mother-in-law's birthday. I had a hotel for a week, but during the weekends I explored places where I haven't been before. One of these places is Székesfehérvár.
Székesfehérvár is a very long word, and for people that are not used to pronouncing Hungarian place names, it can be a challenge. It means "White Castle", and has been the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary. There are definitely plenty of artifacts pointing to this historical state.
I took the train from Budapest, and some time later, I found myself in Székesfehérvár. I made my way from the train station, and directed myself to the historical town centre. I started in Szent István tér, which is a square surrounded by majestic and palatial buildings, a statue of a man on a horse, and a good-looking church.
I then made my way to the Országalma, which translates as "country's apple" at least based on what I know about Hungarian, but is actually a cross-bearing orb. This is the symbol of the country, and is a prominent place in the historical town centre. From here, a pedestrian street cuts its way through the area, where interesting buildings can be found.
I took a meandering walk around town, seeing the palatial buildings all over the place. But since the weather was actually very agreeable for a February afternoon, I opted to stay outside instead of checking out small museums that were open. I also saw remnants of the historical Hungarian kingdom, which is actually remembered quite well here. There are maps outlining the old borders of Hungary, which is actually a political symbol nowadays I hear.
I checked out various little corners of the historical town centre, and then made my way to the medieval ruin garden. This is the location of the remains of the 11th-century church, founded by St. Stephen. This church existed until the 1600s. Hungarian monarchs were crowned here until 1527, and then the Ottomans came, so the coronation moved elsewhere. And then a fire destroyed it in 1601.
Eventually I slowly made my way to the train station, and returned back to Budapest. There is one other place I checked out during my week of remote working, so stay tuned.
