the smell

Szerencs stinks. Some of the smells are good, but most are disgusting. And it's not a Hungarywide problem, oh no, I have been informed that Szerencs stands out as a smelly Hungarian town. Joy.

The first smell you would whiff, smell 1 if you will, when coming into the town is the only good smell. Szerencs train station is right next to the Nestle factory, which makes Nescafe powder and Nesquick powder. So stepping off the train you are met with smell 1, the wonderful aroma of coffee and chocolate. Its heavenly - the station is quaint, the smell is delicious - anyone would think they are in a Hungarian paradise.

Walk down the road you are hit with smell 2. Smell 2 comes from the factory next door to the Nestle factory (Szerencs has a lack of entertainment facilities, amenities and infrastructure but has an abundance of industrial plants) is the sugar factory. Hungarian sugar factories, this one loving managed by a load of Germans, make sugar from sugar beets. Sugar beets are roots that need to ferment and cook to make the sugar. Unfortunately for Szerencs, this process produces a smell somewhere between manure, wet paper and rotting fruit. It's the same smell as when you open up your long-dead Grandma's cupboard and find some nine-month old potatoes sitting in there. So every day this grim monster pumps out smoke that smells like dead Nan's cupboard.

So as you walk through the centre, smell 2 sticks with you for a half a mile or so, and that's fine because smell 2 is not the worst smell in Szerencs. That particular crown is reserved for smell 3. 

Smell 3 is the drains. Szerencs has a problem removing its sewage, instead of moving quickly to some sort of treatment plant, it kind of sits and ferments right under the houses. Smell 3 is the worst of all the smells because it is literally s*it. Wake up in the morning, step outside, take a breath and....it's s*it. Walk back inside, lift up the unused toilet and...it's s*it. Maybe take a shower which, thanks to the rising smell coming from the drains, smells like...s*it. The only time smell 3 isn't lingering is when the wind is blowing in the right direction smell 2 prevails, or for the few metres in front of the Nestle factory, smell 1. But 90% of the time it's all about smell 3.

Sometimes there is a bit of smell variety in my day. There is a smell 4, which is burning garbage, which comes around at least once a week. Smell number 5 or gypsy B.O., which I whiff now and again, can usually be overpowered by smell 6 a.k.a. old person. 

My school too has it's own magical smell, number 7, which is a heady mix of teenage boy stink and cheap deodorant. That one is particularly potent round the locker rooms. I tried to do a lesson on 'hygene - how to smell good in English' for my 9th grade class but they didn't listen the stinky little b*stards. Actually I have a whole raft of informative vocabulary lessons lined up to help my teenage boys. 'Buying a razor in England and shaving your fuzzy lip', 'ask for clothes that fit' and 'explaining greyish stains on the front of your trousers'.

That's about it. 7 smells that define my life right now, and only one of them is a nice.