A Great Beginning to Our Last Weekend in Budapest!

Szia!
According to Professor Hanson, the weather during our trip has been remarkably nice so far; however, today was an exception. Although the continuous drizzle of rain provided a dreary atmosphere for this Friday, our spirits were not dampened. This morning’s math lecture focused on Euler’s Theorem (pronounced Oiler, not Ewe-ler), which deals with the phi-function (from yesterday) and congruences between integers. Without getting into the nitty-gritty details, it’s basically an awesome shortcut to finding out what the remainder is when you take (142^75) and divide it by 35 (the answer is 8, in case you’re wondering). 

After class, I (Chloe) went to lunch at Pizza King in Astoria and ate possibly the biggest, cheapest piece of pizza I have ever seen. I think it was chicken and onion, though I’m not sure; I’ve gotten good at pointing to things when I don’t have a clue how to ask for them in Hungarian.

I (Miranda) went with a group to Nagyi Palacsintazoja, a non-stop (24 hour) pancake restaurant that the group first discovered on our walking tour.

Nagyi Palacsintazoja, a college student's dream meal--cheap, delicious, and open 24 hours!

Most of us got two pancakes for lunch--one from the "salty" menu, containing meats and cheeses of sorts, and one from the "sweet menu", containing fruits and various chocolates and sugars.

Pictured: Half of a Ham and Mushroom pancake (right) and an untouched Banana and Nutella pancake (left), being saved for last. Banana and Nutella was a popular combination for our lunch group today!

After lunch, the entire class ventured to the Fine Arts Museum in Heroes’ Square. 

The Fine Arts Museum, in all its glory

While the museum itself is generally impressive, it was even more so today because of the special exhibition of Rembrandt paintings, along with paintings of his contemporaries. We weren’t allowed to take many pictures inside the museum, but when you’re looking at world-famous artworks, do you need to take pictures? 

While most rooms forbade cameraas, one room that did allow photos contained a work by Victor Vasarely, an artist our class was already familiar with from our visit to the Vasarely museum in Pécs.

I (Chloe) was very impressed with the collection of Greek vases the museum held, though the permanent portrait gallery was somewhat underwhelming, especially comparing it the the art museum I visited while in Vienna. The Rembrandt exhibit, however, was incredibly interesting. There were detailed description and explanations of the painting and metaphorical techniques used by the artists whose works were on display. Personally, my favorite portion was the portrait section; a family portrait was often used to depict not only the members of the household, but also their rank in society, profession, and personal attributes.

After the museum, small groups went their separate ways to begin their weekends. We (Chloe and Miranda) spent our nights differently, but both of us enjoyed our last Friday in Budapest!

Chloe: After dinner at a restaurant near Kalvin ter, a large group of us headed to Astoria to visit Szimpla, one of the famous ruin pubs of Budapest. Ruin pubs are exactly what they sound like, pubs set up in gutted houses. The actual pub was much bigger than I expect, utilizing the entire house in which it was built. The many rooms played different types of music and offered a variety of atmospheres. Our group claimed a spot in the back on a pile of carpets and spent the night talking, laughing, and sampling the traditional hot-spiced wine that Hungary is also famous for.

I (Miranda) went with Megan, Kali, Matt I, Jack, Colin S, and Ian to a restaurant called Zoldkapu, or the Green Gate. This restaurant is Professor Hanson's favorite, and with good reason! The food is authentic, the portions are huge, and the prices are very reasonable (considering that often times you get enough food to turn your leftovers into their own meal)!

Pictured are Ian, Jack, Miranda, and Colin S--veterans to the Green Gate restaurant

Here we have Matt I, Kali, and Megan, who were new to the Green Gate experience

Pictured here are two pieces of breaded pork and a "side" of spaghetti that could easily be its own meal at another restaurant, a typical portion size at the Green Gate.

After the Green Gate, five of us went on an exciting new adventure! Budapest is very fond of what are called "Escape Games", where a team gets locked into a room and has to find clues and solve riddles in order to escape within the time limit! Out of the many options in the city, we chose a game called The Wicklewood Heritage by Claustrophilia (which was far less terrifying than the name made it sound), a game that had lots of great reviews. After a strong start and a few bumps along the way, our team sucessfully escaped the room with a few seconds to go!

Waiting anxiously outside The Wicklewood Heritage.

A proud team of mathematicians (Matt I, Jack, Miranda, Colin S, and Ian) after succesfully escaping from The Wicklewood Heritage (mostly) unscathed!

After our successful teamwork and problem-solving in the escape game, our elated team decided to go across the street to the New York Café for dessert.

The New York Café, as featured in the January 8th blog post.

Pictured: New York cake selection, chocolate sponge cake with raspberry-blueberry and violet flavored ice cream, fruit and champagne sorbet, hot chocolate with pistachios, and an apple pie milkshake. Yum! 

The last remnants of the New York cake selection.

Five happy adventurers after a night of escapes and desserts

When we left the café, unfortunately most of the public transportation had already stopped for the night, but we were lucky enough to have Matt for directions and a big group for safety (in an already safe Budapest), so we took a night bus a few stops closer to the hotel and then walked the rest of the way while singing our favorite Journey and Disney songs to pass the time.

All in all, we had a great beginning to our last weekend in Budapest!

Szia!
Chloe and Miranda