By Borislav Petrović
In Search of Spa Tranquility ‒ Tiszakécske
A small caravan of artists and journalists, fleeing the weight of the clouds of political impressions that constantly loom over our heads and change the microclimate of consciousness, stumbled upon a smallish town of the neighbouring country. The force of internal frictions, which abundantly dissipates the energy of our people across the towns of Serbia, drove us onto a journey guided by a vital need for nature and spa tranquility.
Tiszakécske instantly injected the much-needed dose of healthy air and intoxicating peace that only the plain can offer. The Hungarian border was not a great obstacle against our enormous desire to set off to meet the greenery of nature and the thermal waters full of minerals in which the town on the Tisza abounds. In the southern part of Hungarian Pannonia, just a 60-minute drive from the Hungarian-Serbian border, lies this oasis of air and water. It is located between Kecskemét and Budapest, in a favourable geographical position, reachable both for the Hungarian and for the Serbian people. The green surroundings of the river Tisza visibly nestle this lowland beauty. The Art Press Caravan, because of the proximity of a river familiar to them, felt at home. We felt the charm of the Vojvodina plain and envied the Tisza, which knows no borders and vain appropriations. We can call it ours, the neighbours theirs; realistically it is international, and if we were to ask it and listen to its roar, we would know that in its essence and gentleness it is cosmopolitan. Like any water, it would penetrate as far as possible, regardless of its course and reach. In the river is truth. To the joy and refreshment of all people.
Passing through the back lanes of “Tiszagrad,” we felt a kind of pleasant nostalgia with which the centre of the place vibrates. This walk we called “winter in my lane.” It led us to the magical world of the sauna, the beach, the healing waters and the thermal pools.
Lashed by the sharp January wind, we did not at once realise that the water complex, which drew us with the warmth of the steam that removed the traces of winter from our shoulders, is located inside the newly built hotel “Barack.” It was a pleasant shock. We entered a modern five-star hotel that could, according to the needs of the season, change its garb, in an instant becoming an open-type facility, and returning, with the change of weather, to the previous impression. Despite its modern appearance, in the hotel a homely atmosphere dominates. As we heard that there are quite a few returnees, we noticed that they are no longer clients, but friends with the management and the service staff of “Barack.” Passing through the corridors, in the restaurants, cafés and pools, we watched, as in a dream, the calm and contented faces that strode and swam around us.
This hotel complex possesses a wondrously charging energy that emits a “Bensedin” peace. Why “Bensedin”? We saw that most guests, upon entering the hotel, bring layers of stressful quarrelsomeness. Some even curse under the influence of the accelerated city routine, the one that crumbles even the firmest. They come to the reception with angry grimaces, arguing with the kind staff. Staff who, with a smile, wish them welcome with mulled wine and a recommendation that, urgently, as soon as they settle in, they visit the open-air thermo-mineral pool. This sincere kindness of the receptionists cannot calm an enraged person “on the first ball,” but having nowhere else to go, most heed this unforced advice. And then comes, in pharmaceutical terms, the instant Bensedin effect. Namely, these very quarrellers and angry ones, after bathing and dinner, become suddenly pleasant.
The next morning, they amiably smile at the people they had insulted the previous day, and thereby become their mirror. They no longer differ from the service staff. Already during the afternoon of the second day of their stay in the hotel “Barack” they sincerely greet both those they know and those they do not. You get the impression that their favourite film is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
On the third day they shine as if they had scooped a jug of joy from the bottom of the well of this life harbour of peace called “Barack” ‒ Tiszakécske. Worries, heavy thoughts and problems cannot reach here. They were left in the cities from which we came, lying in wait for us around the doorstep from some corner. In Tiszakécske, problems of a city and personal nature have no reach.
A stay in the peach hotel (barack, translated into Serbian, means peach) gives you the possibility of returning to your essence, to what we truly are. Whether you want it or not, the masks fall from you. There is no false wrapping that protects our being in the conditions of the urban jungle. Here you can set it aside, you do not need it. It naturally falls away, it peels off. That “bareness” is pleasant. Your being finally breathes with full lungs. We recommend that you pack the invisible armour of heaviness into a suitcase that you will open only just before returning home, so as to be ready and truly armed.
Near the hotel “PEACH,” tourists have the possibility of getting to know the beauty of the town and the landmarks that adorn it. People have the chance to rent a bicycle at the hotel and thus make use of the cycling paths 15 km long. It is one of the nicer ways to tour the town in an atmosphere enriched with oxygen. You touch the ozone as the road carries you right alongside the magical shine of the forest, and further along the path on the other side, you almost touch the dam on the bank of the river Tisza.
If you are lucky, or have a guide, you can come upon healing water drawn from a depth of over 1300 m. As the water temperature reaches 52 degrees, it is no wonder that there is also a water park nearby. The water of this region influences increased fertility. Two pools of mineral water (from 36 to 38 degrees Celsius) are also open, which alleviates rheumatism. Muscle inflammations recede faster than usual. Twenty minutes in the pool influences a faster recovery after surgical procedures. By drinking the mineral water, you gradually regulate stomach acid. The open-air pools, from which heat and steam emanated, were a paradisiacal pleasure in the middle of winter. They removed every trace of the cold that circled around us. The boiling water of health created a mystical shield between people and the icy wind, which on the plain creates a gigantic air vortex. The gastronomic delicacies of traditional Hungarian cuisine, with a wide choice of dishes from beyond this region, give a note of nostalgic exoticism. If before lunch you taste the charms of an anti-stress massage and season them with a visit to the steam bath, it would be a real wonder if you did not return home with poultices of spiritual lightness and reborn. That is the freshness that, for at least a few days, keeps you in layers within the harshly fast and imposed metropolitan pace of life.
The Art Press Caravan reluctantly left the realm of peace and rest that reigns in the hotel “Barack.” Guided by its cultural mission, so as to justify its name ‒ Art Press Caravan ‒ the road led us to the town of Palinka. Palinka is an extraordinary cultural centre near Tiszakécske. Namely, to enter Palinka at all, you are obliged to buy railway tickets for the time machine that awaits you. You take them in an improvised railway waiting room from a man who works in this cultural centre dressed as a railwayman from the thirties of the 20th century. And the journey through time can begin! To our question of when the railway on the site of today’s Palinka was active, we received a surprising answer: “Trains never went along this route. However, although there was no railway line here, we knew that trains awaken the deepest nostalgia and memories of some bygone times. The symbol of the train and the railway clearly revives the way of life of 100 years ago.”
During these revelations we imperceptibly entered the once-famous “Red Hotel.” When we entered the spacious hotel reception salon, we caught sight of a well-preserved wooden piano. One of the prominent members of the Art Press Caravan, Sanja Domazet, could not resist the moment. She sat down at the piano and joined her fingers with the keys of the wooden piano. We were surprised at how acoustic the salon of the former hotel is. The sounds of a symphony that were the fruit of the magic of Sanja’s fingers and the keys of the old piano created an atmosphere of rhapsody. The Serbian ambassador of culture to UNESCO, with her musical skill, opened the gates of time for us. By some miracle she joined the then and the now. Surreal was the scene in which Sanja showed the power of the old piano. Such a clear sound can be produced only by quality wood, of which this eternal piano is made. The wooden material protected the piano from decay, giving it the natural freshness that only wood can bestow. Today pianos are made of metal, and so they decay faster. Only a piano of healthy wood can come alive and gift us an acoustics we had not even dreamed of. Sanja did her part. The ode to joy she played for us turned waking life into a dream. Everything was in keeping with her name ‒ we “dreamed” (Sanja(li)) reality in Palinka.
From the hotel we entered the tailor’s shop of the past. Navy and black striped suits from the era of the Chicago thirties dominated. The tailor’s shop irresistibly recalled to us figures from the time of Prohibition, who spread the fame of the narrow-striped suits all the way to the present time. A photography shop and a grocery store seasoned the experience of travelling through the town of Palinka, emitting a fine energy of warmth and comfort. In the air of these shops remained a testimony to the life and commercial exchange of an era.
A special magic awaited us when we descended the stairs into a cellar tavern with round wooden tables and a bar. A skilfully made human figure of a bohemian, stumbling by the stairs, brought to life the image of a nightlife that had long since passed. We thought the surprises were over, but just then, at the bar, another life-size human figure appeared. It was a charming waiter with a moustache from the beginning of the 20th century, whose right hand poured alcohol into smallish wooden glasses. A surreal sight. They led us into the secret chamber of the cellar tavern. In it, alcohol was made. From stills connected to pumps, various alcoholic drinks were produced. Since the production and serving of alcohol were forbidden by law, people came in secret to these hidden places of “sin.” Guided by the hunter’s quest for “forbidden fruit,” various wizards and bohemians wove some corner of paradise of their own in the musty tavern full of smoke. It recalls taverns that had “that something,” some call of excitement of their own that irresistibly drew many adventurers of that era. It is incredible how much the appearance and spirit of the tavern from the Prohibition period recalls the cellar tavern from the heart of Zemun, the present-day “Zlatno burence.” The correspondence is striking, and they are separated by a “minor” time gap of a mere hundred years or so.
In the unexpected, the beauty of true life manifests itself. Through the tavern spirit, the Art Press Caravan found a kind of time twin in the tavern cellars of the town of Palinka and the tavern “Zlatno burence” in the town of Zemun.
Pleasantly imbued with this atmosphere, the Art Press Caravan concluded its time adventure, which this unusual and original cultural centre gifted them. The return to Serbia, as during previous journeys, passed in a merry atmosphere. Armed with fresh impressions and discoveries, we spread the spirit of this atmosphere all around us.