Our great summer in Pécs, Hungary
Our names are Petra Bánová and Jakub Androvič. We are medical students in Jessenius
faculty of medicine in Martin, Slovakia. We were in Pécs together, so this report will be something
like a summary of our impressions and memories of 2 weeks in Pécs.
We would like to tell you all the story from the beginning. It was February 2013, when we
decided to go abroad to do our summer practice of internal medicine. Randomly one of us found
brand new information about this exchange programme on the website of Jessenius medical faculty.
We didn´t hesitate and we started to write our curriculum and fill in an application form. In a day or
two we were asked to come to the international relations office where the interview took place. It
was a pleasant conversation in English with international relations officer and the jury. Next day we
were informed that we had been successful and we would stay for 2 weeks in a beautiful historical
city in the south of Hungary – Pécs. We did everything to reach this internship, we underwent all
vaccinations and medical examinations that we had been asked. After that we had just to wait until
August comes.
It was the 1st of August, 2:30 am, when our trip started. We took train from Vrútky to Košice,
then intercity train from Košice to Budapest and finally another intercity train with arrival in Pécs at
12:40 pm. All the journey took more than 10 hours. We were truly happy when we got off from train
and met our contact person at the platform of Pécs´s railway station. The girl who picked us up was
Nóra. She helped us a lot, she showed us the dormitory house, she brought us meal tickets which we
could use in the canteen in Council hospital, and she bought for us seasonal bus tickets. The food was
provided like a lunch and big package of 2 baguettes, 1 yoghurt and a small bottle of water. We have
to say that all contact persons were so nice to us, thanks Nóra, Melanie and Adorján we spent
unforgettable 14 days in the south of Hungary.
As we mentioned we stayed at the dormitory house for medical student. The room was too
small, on the ground floor, without fridge but the kitchen on the corridor was very near. On one hand
the room wasn´t so comfortable, but on the other hand we appreciated we were placed with all
exchange and Erasmus students together in one dormitory house. We became friends with many
foreign people. The Wi-fi connection was really good and we didn´t have any problem with the
Internet.
The first day in the evening we wanted to see this gorgeous town, we were wandering in the
city centre and the hot weather provoked us into having a draught beer on one terrace in Király
Street. We both came to an agreement that we have never been to such a marvellous town. Since
then, we walked every evening in this old part of Pécs and we had many romantic moments for the
rest of our stay.
The second day was Friday, 2 August 2013. Melanie, who was one of our contact persons,
picked us up and showed us the gastroenterology department where we had been accepted before.
The gastroenterology department in Council hospital was about 20 minutes walking from our hostel
or 7 minutes travelling by bus. We met our mentor, which was Dr. Pakodi Ferenc, the
gastroenterologist. He introduced us to Dr. Szilárd Gódi and Dr. Anita Illés. They cared about us all
the time at the part of department, where the endoscopies were performed. The same day we were
asked to go to the occupational health doctor to undergo a short medical examination.
Unfortunatelly our contact person has already left and we didn´t have any interpreter. We were
waiting for more than one hour for this five minutes' talk without any interpreter. The weekend we
spent with some exchange and Erasmus people at the swimming pool and lake Orfu.
The new week we started with our first day on the gastroenterology. We were positively
surprised when we saw such a modern and well-equipped department. Every day we could see
something new, something we haven´t seen before and something interesting. All doctors, especially
Dr. Gódi and Dr. Illés were very nice to us, they explained us everything even though we didn´t ask
anything and we are thankful for that. Having a medical conversation during endoscopies they
performed, they also checked our knowledge from anatomy, histology, pathology, farmacology and
internal medicine. We wish we could work some other time in such a modern department like
gastroenterology in Pécs surely is.
Concerning to social programme that our CPs prepared for us, we chose Balaton trip and
wine tasting in Villány. We didn´t participate in trip to Budapest because our stay was over. On the
terrace of the dormitory house that many parties took place, the most interesting was the national
dinner where everybody of August people prepared typical national food or drink.
To conclude, we are glad to say that we could spend amazing two weeks (1-15 August 2013)
in Pécs. We wish we could come back to Pécs in the future. We would like to say thanks to Medical
faculty of University of Pécs and Jessenius faculty of medicine in Martin, Commenius University in
Bratislava and their cooperation, all doctors and nurses of gastroenterology department in Council
hospital in Pécs, all Hungarian medical students who were our CPs and cared about us and everybody
who made us such a pleasant summer in the south of Hungary.
The city centre of Pécs
The canteen in Council hospital
We both in scrubs