Class started at 10 am like it normally would today. The riveting lecture concerned a new multiplicative function, phi, and Professor Hanson taught us how to solve problems and write proofs concerning this function. After the lecture, we had lunch, where everyone separated to find somewhere to eat.  Popular lunch destinations included the cafeteria at McDaniel College, a local bakery and sandwich shop called Lipoti, and an authentic Hungarian restaurant known as KFC. After the relaxing long lunch break we met back in the classroom for a guest speaker. The guest speaker, Gergely Fazekas, spoke to us about Hungarian history through the eyes of his family, mainly his grandparents. One of his grandmothers had her business taken by the communist regime, and was forced to work in a factory instead of making her living doing what she loved. Gergely’s other grandmother was an avid communist supporter in the early years of communism in Hungary, much like many Hungarians after World War II who were ready to embrace any system that was radically different from Nazism. She followed the communist party of Hungary until the revolutions. It was very interesting to hear about how two people had such wildly different thoughts and experiences with the communist regime in Hungary. After giving his speech on Hungary’s history, he played three folk songs for us. Gergely is a music history teacher, so he chose songs that he enjoyed and that had some cultural significance, like classic folk songs from the Hungarian countryside and a piano piece by the famous composer Bela Bartok. After playing the songs for us and telling us about them, he gave us suggestions for where to go in Budapest. He suggested a few different places so naturally, after a few hours in the evening to relax, do homework, and eat dinner, we checked them out.

We first went to A38, a cargo ship that has been turned into a concert hall. The band playing was a Beatles cover band, so they played only Beatles songs. They were extremely good, and sounded very similar to the actual Beatles.  It was funny to hear the band address the crowd in Hungarian and then seconds later start a song with perfect English accents. The ship itself was very cool. There were two decks set up to play music, one on top and one inside of the ship. There was an area to sit away from where the stage and crowd is, but close enough to easily hear the music. Some of the six of us that went stayed in the crowd, while others sat in the lounge, chatting and listening to the music.

 A38

 The band playing in A38.

After the concert we headed to a ruin pub. The pub was built in a Jewish residential district that had been abandoned during World War II, so its interior had an atmosphere unlike anything we see in the U.S. The pub was huge, and had assortments of electronics, cars, and other random objects being used as decoration. It was a unique experience, and we were amazed at how lively it was. We stayed until midnight, when we realized that the tram that would take us all the way home was no longer running. We opted to take a different tram about halfway back and then walk the rest of the way home, completing another eventful day in Budapest. Szia!

-Aditya, Colin D., and Jonny