MaNDAHungarian National Digital Archive

It is said that confessing your love and swearing feel the best in the mother tongue, but there are situations, when there would be a demand for them in a foreign language as well. When it comes to language learning, many people still think of memorising grammatical rules. Fortunately, nowadays you can easily make yourselves understood with the aid of your smart devices. What is more, the era when you can use a speech-to-speech translator such as the universal translator of the Star Trek universe is not far away either.

The mysterious landscapes of the Harz Mountains have inspired many tales and horror stories, including the stories of the Grimm brothers and the Walpurgis Night set in Goethe’s Faust. The characteristic wooden beamed houses of the countryside create a truly fairytale-like milieu. In addition to fairytales, the cities around the Harz also have a rich and intricate historical past.

Tusnádfürdő is a famous climatic thermal bath, yet many people know it because of the Bálványos Summer Free University, which has been held here since 1997. The bath was established in the middle of the 1800s, it was named the Pearl of Transylvania at the beginning of its flourishing, in the 1860s. Miraculous healings are associated with its name; the best known and most characteristic of which is the story of a shepherd boy grazing animals. Legend has it that a shepherd boy looking for his cattle wandering the marsh, was wading through the area and found that the sulphuric mud had a beneficial effect on his ulcerated feet. As usual, the beneficial effects of the springs that burst here were first enjoyed only by the locals, but by the turn of the century, Tusnádfürdő became a real thriving spa. In our latest article, its bathing culture comes to life.

This week we are goint to take readers to the north-western corner of Germany, to Lower Saxony, to the land of former Hanseatic cities, timber-framed houses, and wind farms. Its old towns, castles and forests that saw many battles almost take us back to medieval times.

The 52nd International Eucharistic Congress, which starts this week, will be held in Budapest this year, but this is not the first time that the historical event is held in our capital. In our selection this week, we recall the first Hungarian Congress of 1938, and also bring to life a little of the history of the event. Where was the first pilgrimage held? Which city's withdrawal helped Budapest win the organizing of the event? In our latest article, you can get answers to these questions, among other things.