I love the Rock Suli! But it may be difficult to explain this place; you kinda need to experience it yourself. It seems to function through a network of alternative, hip volunteers. A few days after arriving in Debrecen, I was at the American Corner, and was invited to come to a mysterious place for a mysterious reason. Maybe "ambiguous reason" is more fitting. In any case, I followed a group of people I just met, past the place I'm staying, and down a dark alley. Then through a really dark field, and approached an almost entirely invisible warehouse, shrouded in the black of a new moon evening. I joked about how they brought me there to rob me. One of them was Tomas, a last-year med student, who said: "based on your age and appearance, you have good genes, so we brought you here to harvest your organs. Hahaha."
We entered a warehouse obviously decorated through years of youthful artistic expression, in layers, by the hip alternative crowd who hangs out there. The walls were strewn with posters of past events (see above, and below) and new events at the Rock Suli and around town. Overlapping drum kit rhythms reverberated through the walls as aspiring rock star drummers practiced under expert instruction. I found a small turkish darabuka and played a little, subconsciously probably trying to demonstrate my worthiness to be in such a cool place. No one seemed very impressed; I am a bit out of practice! I'm hoping to find a drum in Budapest but I don't live in detached quarters anymore so my neighbours may not approve. Maybe I can play at the Rock Suli!
A witty lad there named Gergely gave a tour of the place in fluent English. I quickly learned that this cultural house did much more than rock education and concerts. They have a wool work room where they create felt! They model the old Hungarian traditional art.
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| A beautiful solid felt ball! |
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| Cozy hand made wool hats; not woven, but worked, um, whatever they do to make felt... |
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| Ancient Hungarian pottery work, perhaps? A kiln in the back. And, haha, speaker boxes for the table! |
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| a collapsible yurt frame, demonstrated by Gergely |
The yurt work was the most impressive. Using the tools the ancient Hungarians would have had, they cut these trees, steamed and bent them, attached them somehow with pig leather, and it expands and collapses, accordion style! So this was the perfect accommodation frame for the nomadic Hungarian tribes. If I recall correctly, they then stretch a felt cover over the frame. Awesome!
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| Attila, Tomas, me, Dori, and Kent on the Rock Suli tour |
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| Rock Suli: Rock, school, and a whole lot more! |
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