On a Tour Through Hungary’s Outlaw Country

It’s called the puszta (great plain), a giant lowland that covers about 20,000 square miles. It’s the largest plain in Europe, and you can view its most interesting regions from a tour bus on a six-hour journey through the flat, treeless landscape.

Your puszta tour into eastern Hungary, organized by the government tourist bureau Ibusz, goes into an area of former outlaws, runaway serfs, clans of once-hostile Gypsies and roving packs of wolves.

The puszta is where the powerful plum brandy was created, and where you are likely to be served a jigger of the potent stuff when you lunch at a czarda (rustic restaurant).

At one tour stop you’ll see a rousing horse-racing demonstration by Hungary’s bareback riders, the czikos , who perform spectacularly in their soup-bowl turbans and flowing black pantaloons.

Cracking long whips, these Gypsy horsemen--the cowboys of the puszta-- stand astride two stallions, while controlling a team of five speeding horses with a set of reins.

The rider raises his whip and snaps it full length over the heads of the horses, which tear past at great speed. Many consider this the most dangerous horseback ride anywhere.

Another place the tour visits is Kalocsa, a two-street town that is on the map only for its famous “Painting Women.” These ladies made their mark in Hungary’s history by specializing in flowery murals and Kalocsa embroidery.

Upstairs in the Karoly Viski Museum is an array of overstuffed bolsters and quilts, at one time mandatory for a bride’s dowry.

Not only is the passion for floral motifs evident here, but it also appears at the Folk Art Museum. Even the walls of the Kalocsa railroad station are covered with this art form.

Straddling the Tisza River, which cuts the puszta into two equal parts, is the town of Szeged, where the goddess-worshiping Koros culture had its heyday about 4,000 years ago and where prosperity came after AD 1225, because of the royal salt monopoly.

When a devastating flood in March, 1879, washed away all but 300 homes, Szeged started over again. Today the town has 180,000 people and a downtown that has a pleasing, albeit eclectic, architectural style.

Szeged’s big tourist attraction, which dates to 1913, is its open-air theater festival during July and August. The annual event, featuring opera and drama, is held on a 600-square yard stage in Dom Square, which can hold an audience of 7,000.

Tours to this least-frequented region of Hungary can be booked in Budapest or Debrecen, the capital of the puszta about 150 miles east of Budapest.

West of the city is the Hortobagy, the most romantic region of the great plain. There birdlife and wildlife abound, including herds of wild horses. There the real character of the puszta has been preserved in tiny villages.

For more information on travel to Hungary, contact the Hungarian Travel Bureau, 1 Parker Plaza, Room 1104, Ft. Lee, N.J. 07024, (212) 582-7412 or (201) 592-8585.