A postcard from Miskolctapolca

The tourist gem of Northeastern Hungary is certainly not Miskolc and its surroundings, which have seen better days. Tokaj-Hegyalja makes a go of Zemplén Mountains, the vicinity of Bükk Mountains is taken advantage of rather by the other side, Eger - rustic villages, the wine regions encircled by the historian and baroque environment started fundamentally with a handicap. The past with industrial listed buildings, which used to work to the advantage of the urbanising city, became a burden after the political transformation. Even tourists heading for the forest mainly just passed through it in the shadow of furnaces and panelized homes. Miskolc has still been in a quest for its place as a tourist destination, but there are encouraging developments. Great festivals and venues of gastro revolution mark changes in the steel city. At the same time the encounter of the industrial revolution and mountains would transfer tourism of Miskolc to near the city, on the slope of Bükk. It gave birth to the aristocratic Hotel Palota, as the prestigious investment of the Horthy Era dominating Lillafüred and the response of the Kádár Era, Miskolctapolca. Both of them suffered a lot in the last decades but Tapolca still did more.  The bath closed for a long time, happiness was retailed on the cheap in remaining buffets, real estates were unsellable.

All this has been different today, the new bathing complex has begun to work, the typical Hungarian cube houses of the 70s and summer cottages of capitalist realism with prevailing cupolas in rotation have been perked up, parking slots outside the smaller guest-houses are full, the number of overnight stays is continuously increasing. A suburb of villas definitely begins to take form in the eclectic mix of architecture with proper glance at taste transformation of the last decades, from the middle-class’s restraint via wrought-iron gates with arms to postmodern concrete-glass minimalism. But in the centre the keynote is created by the universe of the former SZOT resort, it is impossible to evade the shadow of the legendary, haunted Hotel Juno. Of course there is alien thule, mystery, even a feeling wisp of light, but experienced time travel adventurers can easily find the attractive enervation of melancholy and the dangerous euphoria of elation in revival alike. Anyway, the central park is calm and evocative, you can go for a good walk while you are pondering, but if you long for gastro experience, you would rather go to eating establishments called Végállomás or Dűlő in Miskolc. In the place of the former bath, which was quite degraded by its retirement age, something was built at the same time. At first blush it is difficult to identify, unravel therefore it must be looked round carefully. Greyness and the world of concrete which after proper observation start to be explained by several proper arched shapes and, in consequence, the name: Ellipsium. As soon as you realize it must be a bathing complex, you will be falling in love with it as it radically steps out of the universe of the recited aqua, thermal, wellness, spa spells ad nauseam.

But the next most listed boast is not in the centre, but as the plushest establishment in Hungary can be approached on an asphalt red sign and it has been realised on the landscape protection area, in the place of the former car campsite, right above the youth camp called Junior Bungalow, which is lacquered with secondary freshness recalling also the 80s. This is the Avalon Park and Resort & Spa. Every building is made of wood, larch by Finnish Honka technology. Organically insulating and breathing loghouses, natural ingredients and the high-tech combination, so of the incredibly precise uniformity of logs, which were cut out by laser, assembled like LEGO, is difficult to believe that is not plastic imitation but real wood. The perfection seeming illusion is supported by scent marketing on the spot, the natural, fresh, spicy presence of “Avalon Fragrance”, that was developed by an Italian Master to substitute the sense of wood losing gum. And the neatly determined counterpoint of the structure and warmth of wooden beams is the interior usage of metal, glass and grey. But the genius loci hides in the tiny street of the Finnish village consisting of fifteen houses. The two-storey, upstairs downstairs 42-square-meter houses with double beds but their capacity can be enlarged into four and the floors can be open into one for gatherings. The encounter of the rustic atmosphere and the 21st century: even the walls of the washbasin are made of logs but everything can be controlled by touch screens, the large tv can be rotated by 180 degrees between the sleeper sofa and the bed.

At the same time the Avalon Park itself is a public attraction (it is free for overnight guests of course). Of course there is a 2500-square-meter Maya play park for kids, but the essence is a go-kart track, which beyond being maybe the most modern in the continent, has standard raceway asphalt, a length of 560 m, and electric powered cars. The engine sound of V8 is produced entirely convincingly by loudspeakers from the little Tesla racekarts which speed at even sixty. Even if you are not a fan of motor racing, you can be fascinated by the sight, then if you even take a seat in the kart, you can feel like Fittipaldi thanks for the energetic electric engines. It is grating, smoking, Fittipaldi is getting out of his machine with trembling knees while he is having a look at his lap time with racing pulse. If you even overnight here, you can simply call the electronic minibus by the internal phone, if you want wearing a bathrobe to reach outside the sauna seance in the sauna house in winter. “Real Thailand” – said once a guest – “Welcome to Tapolca, this is us”, answered the chauffeur.