Jó éjszakát Budapestrol!
                 (Good night from Budapest!)

The students have all left the Professor's Guest House.   Most of them leaving at 4:30 this morning (Friday)!    Once again, I am the one lonely guest at the hotel.   It was a great month that went by way too quickly.   I hope you enjoyed following our activities!   

Szia!
  
Professor Hanson

 

Last "Free" Day in Budapest: Procrastination and Perambulation

Let us explain to you our predicament: it is the day before our final exam and it is also our last free day in Budapest. That meant we had to make some tough choices of what to do today and we were always going to make a dumb choice.

Professor Hanson gave us an optional class trip today to the House of Terror. Iris and I deliberated for a long while whether or not we would go, but eventually decided the need to study for our final outweighed the need to experience a few more bits of Budapest (or so we thought). After sitting in our favourite study-café for an hour, sipping at hot chocolate while staring mindlessly at the review problems, we decided to go for a walk. We had to find something to tell you all about!

First we went to the Szechenyi Chain Bridge. Last time we had seen this bridge was during the film about Istvan Szechenyi when there was a scene of the bridge collapsing during its construction, so we were pleased to find it fully functioning and able to bear the weight of no less than four St Olaf students on top of a steady stream of traffic.

Szechenyi Chain Bridge. Years since last collapse: 167

Once we were on the other side of the bridge, we headed up the river to find a few more landmarks. The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a collection of sixty pairs of iron cast shoes on the very edge of the river in memory of the Jews that were killed in World War II; they were forced to stand on the riverbank as they were shot so that the water would carry their bodies away. 

The Iron Boots memorial

Finally, we walked further onwards towards Margit-sziget (Margaret Island) which seemed to be a lovely recreational escape amidst a busy city. By this stage, our walk was nearing the three-hour mark and our hands were so cold we could barely move our fingers. What else could help warm our fingers and hearts but the steaming glory of chimney cakes! As a very brief side note, you should know that Lily has been on the hunt for these for days, coming up short with nothing but closed stores and cold leftovers on offer, so there were legitimate shrieks of joy when we saw the open stand and the steam coming out of the cakes. We ate them on the bus back to the Professor’s Guest House.

Kürtőskalács... tubular!

The rest of the evening was marked by the struggle between study and procrastination. In order to preserve the illusion that we have good study habits that lead us into our final exams with confidence, we will leave you with a parting remark to say that there was an attempt… Rest assured, if you are concerned about a student from any other blogging duo then I’m quite sure they had a spectacularly productive day.

Szia soon!

Iris and Lily

Szia once again!

This morning we were granted a reprieve from those deathly early 10 am classes, instead starting an entire 30 minutes later. To celebrate we got up 30 minutes later, ate breakfast 30 minutes later and took the metro roughly 30 minutes later.  Turning away from cryptography, today we looked into the famous Pythagorean triples, that is  those integers that together form a solution to Pythagoras’ famous equation, A^2 + B^2 =C^2 that tells the relationship of the three sides of a triangle.   We learned about the special type of Pythagorean triples known as primitive Pythagorean triples, and derived a clever way to find all primitive Pythagorean triples.

After class ended, a horrible realization dawned on us, it was our last number theory lecture. We would have no more of Bruce’s beautiful voice proclaiming to us the question’s on our mind: like what was 1057^7809 mod 53, and what was the greatest common divisor of 2051 and 7097. The cloudy sky turned greyer in our hearts.

Dazed, confused, bewildered — Holly flips her hair. "Is this truly the end?"  

After that we took a break for lunch which for some of us (Greg, Corey, Lily, Iris, and Colin D.) included a stop at a ramen place called Ramenka.  Iris remarked on how how many cuisines we have access to here—Budapest really is a big city. We found her insights acutely illuminating.  Realizing we would be late for our guest lecture at 1:30, we ran through the streets of Budapest, trotting up and down the escalators of the metro with gusto. Our group arrived at school unprofessionally, though not unfashionably, late.

Authentic Hungarian Japanese ramen

Coming back to the school we were treated to a guest lecture by Csaba Szabo.  We reviewed such fascinating questions such as whether 153*171 is prime (…it’s not).  He then proceeded to lie to us for 62 minutes, the inestimable Eli being the only one catch on. All in all, Szabo was very entertaining speaker and even more enchanting swindler.

Heading back to the guest house, much of the group set out to finish the sixteenth and final problem set. It is astonishing to all that we have almost completed our course.

Poor Professor Hanson got emotional.   : (

For dinner many of us headed to our old friend Kazinczy ut, where Bors Gasztrobar and its scrumptious baguettes and soups lay.  As always, the soups proved to have interesting ingredients such as plum seeds, lime & butternut squash, and red wine.  Afterwards we searched for some Kürtőskalács, and then heartily consumed them.

Wikipedia took this picture for us :)

Looking forward, we have the day off tomorrow to study, though there is an optional visit to the torture museum. Then comes the final exam, the last dinner, and then a bright and early morning for some of us to catch the bus to the airport at 4:30 am. The end is nigh.

Szia!

Greg & Corey

Adventures in the City, Cryptography, and Climbing

Heló!

Monday morning brought about our second-to-last Number Theory class where we dove into the exciting topic of cryptography. The Caesar code and other variations of it involve assigning numbers to the letters of the alphabet, starting with A=00 and ending with Z=25. With the use of encoding and decoding functions these codes are both easy to make and easy to break, so better methods have been developed. According to Professor Hanson, “Back in the 70s, three guys, R, S, and A, devised a coding scheme where you could tell everyone how to encode messages, but it is ‘virtually’ impossible to decode messages from this information.” We are able to understand the complexity of this coding because of our newly found knowledge of number theory; however, this coding system relies on primes hundreds of digits long, numbers that are, unfortunately, beyond the capacities of our iPhones and TI-84 calculators.

This afternoon we had a lecture on Hungarian literature and insight into the Hungarian psyche by Laszio Arato. He shared two concerns of the Hungarian people: fear of extinction and sense of isolation—both of which define Hungarian personal lives as well as society. These themes also present themselves in Hungarian literature, a sampling of which we received today. Moreover, we learned that poetry, at least before the twentieth century, was the main form of Hungarian linguistic expression. Politics and poetry also went hand-in-hand, a compass for the nation. Arato closed his presentation with book recommendations, making us eager to revisit a local bookstore.

Before tackling our homework assignment, we along with Matt I, Jack, Ian, and Miranda took advantage of the beautiful afternoon by taking a stroll to the Donut Library (yes, Matt and Jack finally got their tastes). Kali, Megan, and Miranda then proceeded to burn off the calories by climbing the hill above Szent Gellért Tér. We made it to the top of the hill just as the sun was setting, allowing us to appreciate this beautiful city that we have called home for the month.

Our delectable donuts

One of the many spectacular views from the hill

Although our Monday was busy and fun, it was nothing compared to our last weekend in Budapest. Our Saturday started out bright and early, well actually, cloudy and early would be more accurate. What’s the best way to beat the rainy-day blues? For Megan, Miranda, and I (Kali) the answer was surely the largest mall in Central Europe: West End City Center. After taking the number four metro, a bus (to replace part of the number three metro, which was undergoing renovation this weekend), and (finally) the up-and-running section of the number three metro, we safely made it to our destination. West End City Center is home to 400+ stores, encompassing a whopping 186,000 square meters. For the sake of comparison, the Mall of America has 230,000 square meters of retail space, 520+ stores, and 12,287 parking spaces (in case you were wondering). We explored almost every square meter the mall had to offer, shopping in stores we had never heard of and window-shopping in the familiar H&M and GAP. Leaving with our stomachs full of food court cuisine and our hands full of shopping bags, we went back to the hotel to finish up our problem sets and unload our new finds.

Dinner and a trip to the baths rounded out our Saturday, but the real fun was spotting Miklos Laczkovich (the mathematician who visited our class last week) while riding the number 49 tram on our way back to the room.

Unfortunately unable to watch the Pro Bowl, our Sunday began with a tour of the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world: the Dohany Synagogue. We along with Matt I, Jack, Colin S, Ian, and Miranda learned about the history of Hungarian Jews and were impressed by the beauty of the numerous memorials as well as the synagogue itself. Our synagogue visit was followed by lunch with a waiter who was a big fan of the Miami H/heat (not entirely sure if he meant the basketball team or the weather, question mark). Later we checked out Memories of Hungary, a souvenir shop offering everything from your typical magnets and key chains to hand-painted mugs. We also all enjoyed delicious and beautiful creations from Gelato Rosa.

A peek inside the Dohany Synagogue

Our bouquet of gelato

The highlight of our weekend, without a doubt, was when we (Kali, Megan, Jack, and Miranda) saw the production of Onegin at the Hungarian State Opera House. Everything was gorgeous: the venue, the costumes, the music, and of course, the story that unfolded before our eyes.

Aliya Tanykpayeva as Tatyana en pointe
http://blog.ibs-b.hu/2012/11/19/anyegin-onegin-hungarian-state-opera/

Viszlát!

-Kali and Megan

A Lazy Sunday

Szia! 

Today was Sunday, and throughout the Professor's Guesthouse, you could feel the "Sunday" mood. Out the window, snowflakes fell slowly, melting into gleaming puddles on the sidewalks and streets. The air felt quiet. Neither of us--Holly and Maria--could tell you if a soul was awake at a decent hour this morning, but we can tell you that when we moseyed into the breakfast room at a respectable 11:00 am, the room was quiet save for a few classmates and Professor Hanson. 

After finishing up homework, our classmates roamed their separate ways to cafes and coffee shops to enjoy breakfast or lunch, depending on whether or not eggs and croissants at 1:00 pm counts as "breakfast". For Holly and Maria, the Budapest culinary scene proved its mettle yet again, this time in the form of a sweet cafe in the northern part of the city. Our coffee, tea, and bacon-egg scrambles hit the spot on this lazy Sunday afternoon.

Delicious half-eaten breakfast! (devoured before we could snap a picture)

We finished our last bites of brunch--okay, fine, afternoon snack--and beelined to a newly discovered guilty pleasure: the Donut Library. To Jack and Matt: return soon, because you'll want to keep going back! With their selection of cream filled and cake donuts as well as coffee and a small selection of novels, the aptly named sweet shop serves up an exceptional donut. We each devoured two.

Gloomy Budapest road

Unsurprisingly, the day continued in a similarly relaxing fashion. We meandered back to the hotel intending to nap, only to find that many of our classmates had the same idea. After a snooze, classmates headed separate ways for dinner. We decided on a favorite soup restaurant, Bors Gaztrobar, for some unique and comforting soups as well as some famous Bors Dogs, which are tricked-out hot dogs that have yet to disappoint.

The night ended for many of us with a dip in the famous Budapest baths. The snow continued to lazily fall, mixing with the steam from the baths and creating an ambience that allowed only for relaxation. After floating around the pools and taking quick side trips to the sauna, our two-hour trip was put to an end by a cheerful Hungarian song that signaled the baths closing hour. In our sleepy and relaxed state, our metro ride home was quiet and we all quickly dispersed upon arriving back at the hotel.

View from the Citadella on a morning run we did NOT take on Sunday, but a beautiful view nonetheless!

After a whirlwind three weeks, it was rejuvenating to savor well-deserved relaxation on this quiet day. Tomorrow, it's back to the books at 10:00 am, as we begin our final week of number theory. It's hard to believe we're almost done! 

Holly and Maria

Wanderings

Szia everyone,

Today marks the final Saturday that we’ll all be spending in Budapest, so Jack and I (Matt) decided to explore the city a bit this morning. In fairness, we were just looking for some lunch before going to the laundromat, but sometimes that turns into an adventure of its own. I suppose we already sort of knew, but it turned out that we’d always gone the same direction whenever we left the hotel and headed for Pest instead of looking for things in Buda, so we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we’ve been staying only two blocks away from a cluster of restaurants and shops we never knew existed. After searching for a bit, we found a Chinese restaurant that looked promising and settled in for a quick but tasty lunch.

We promise, it looked really good.

As we left and headed back towards the main road in the area, it became apparent that we had forgotten to keep track of quite how many turns we had made, too busy checking out all of the interesting shops and figuring out what we wanted to come back to. We quickly found our way to a familiar tram stop, though, and rode that back to a stop just a block or two from the laundromat. On the last leg of our trip, though, we made our most important discovery of the morning: The Donut Library.

Beautiful.

We decided that we were a bit too full to stop in today, but rest assured that we’ll find our way back in the next few days.

Later this afternoon, the two of us set out again, this time accompanied by Colin and Ian. We headed off to Andrássy út, one of the most famous streets in the city, and took a walk along part of it. We started about half way up and walked up towards Hero’s Square and City Park, checking out the shops and restaurants along the way. We even found a new branch of St. Olaf’s favorite cafe.

 

Who knew you could get Pause pizza all the way over here?

  Unfortunately, it was raining mildly the whole time, but not enough to ruin the walk by any means.

Colin, Ian and Matt. Not pictured: Jack (he was taking the picture), Jack's umbrella (it's in Northfield).

Pretty, but probably even better in May

  

   

Eventually we came to the park, and first walked around Vajdahunyad vára, a castle that was originally constructed for show, but which was such a success that it was made a permanent structure. None of the architecture is original, but instead pulls bits and pieces from other famous structures around Hungary and puts them together to create a unique design all its own.

    We took a walk through the proper park then, and even though it’s a little grey this time of year, it’s still a nice slice of nature in the middle of the city. Plus, it has a rad skate park. Not that any of us could have done anything with it, but still neat.

  

Everything someone needs. Maybe not us, but someone.

    At that point, we needed to head back to the hotel if we were going to get dinner before our later plans, but even on the way back we made another discovery when we passed by the Széchenyi Baths, which sounded like a rather nice change of pace from being somewhat cold and soggy if there had been more time.

Széchenyi Baths

 

After that, I (Jack) went with Colin and Miranda to the Fővárosi Nagycirkusz, the local circus. It turned out to be a great indoor activity for a rainy night. 
 

According to my Hungarian, this means "something something-Circus"

It was full of interesting acts; many were acrobats, some were animals, and one was an especially amusing clown. We went with the cheapest tickets possible, but we ended up next to the live band, which we considered a win. The memories of the event will stick with us for a long time, as will the circus’s smell whenever we wear the same clothes we wore tonight. I’ll post a selection of pictures from the event at the end of the post.

I returned to the hotel to spend the rest of my night finishing up homework, which I found out this afternoon was due tomorrow, not Monday. Some star students finished their problem sets up yesterday, and I’m sure others will put the finishing touches on theirs tomorrow, but the one bit of math I know we all did today was adding up the days we have left here. I think all of us got the same answer: not enough. (Also, six.) After spending the amount of time here that we have, it’s started to feel like a home, and I don’t mean that entirely in a cheesy, end-of-a-Disney-movie sort of way. In a more practical sense, we’ve been settling into daily routines: going to class during the day, doing schoolwork at nights, taking the metro from place to place, doing laundry (I took care of a load today–my clean sock levels were getting perilously low.) It feels less like we’re visiting Budapest, and more like we’re living in it. I suspect that this familiarity with the city is going to make it especially hard to leave when the time comes.

Then again, I still call the local currency “Florints” rather than “Forints”, so maybe I should dial back the sentimentality a couple of notches and get to the circus pictures. All photos below are courtesy of Miranda!

Szia!
-Jack and Matt I

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