London, Edinburgh, and more!

I have many exciting things to write about, so I apologize if this post gets long. First up, my trip to London and Edinburgh.

Brief recap: Last weekend I got Thanksgiving off, not because it is celebrated in Hungary, but because almost all the students in my program are American and would be upset to have class on Thanksgiving. Officially, last friday was a normal school day, however the professor of my one friday class wisely decided to reschedule because he recognized that most of the class had no intention of being in Hungary (myself included). That gave me a five day weekend (remember, I don't have class on monday) and I decided to make the most of it by visiting my friends studying in the UK.

I left shortly after my last class on Wednesday and arrived at my lodging in London (courtesy of Joseph Replogle) around 10:30pm. The really convenient thing for me is that all of the Pomona students studying in London are staying in the same apartment, so I got to visit them all simultaneously! After catching up with people, I went to bed because I wanted to get up early the next morning.

Here's why: When I was planning my trip to London, I was overwhelmed by the amount of things to see and do, especially considering that I only had two days! I didn't know how to decide, then I remembered: "London is the home of the West End!" So I resolved to see a show. Once I had decided that, I knew at once that I wanted to see War Horse. If you haven't heard of it, shame on you! (especially because Steven Spielberg is directing a screen adaptation of the novel opening soon) Anyway, just to bring you up to speed, War Horse opened in London in 2007 and was nominated for several Olivier (like the Tonys for the West End) awards, winning two. A new production was opened on Broadway last season and the show subsequently won five Tonys plus a special Tony for the puppets (more on that later).

Anyway, by the time I had decided this, the tickets were sold out for the performances while I was in London. However, I discovered that the theatre reserves some tickets to be sold the day of the performance. This is (finally) were the early rising comes in. I got up early to make sure I was the first in line for my ticket - and I was. It turns out, I probably could have caught another half hour of sleep and still been the first in line, but there was no way to know that beforehand. Either way, it was well worth it! War Horse is probably the best show I have ever seen. They did stuff on the stage that I did not think was possible, this is not only from a technical complexity standpoint, but also the characterization achieved and how cleanly the show was put together. Before I can discuss this in greater detail, I need to tell you a little bit about the show.

As the title suggests, War Horse is the story of a horse, Joey, that is raised in rural England and then sent off to fight in WWI, when calvary were still used (to no avail against the new machine guns). It is also the story of Joey's young owner Albert who can't stand the loss of his horse and goes to find him. For more details on the story, read the novel, watch the play (only convenient if you live in London or New York, sorry), or watch the movie that is soon to be released. So, the question is: "How do you tell a story about a horse onstage, in a realistic manner." The answer: puppets. However, these were no ordinary puppets. Each horse took three people to operate: one to operate the head, one to operate the front legs, and one to operate the hind legs. However, the movement was so realistic that I quickly forgot the puppeteers were there at all. Maybe that's the wrong choice of words - I didn't forgot they were there, but I didn't care. I was fully able to believe that it was a really horse on the stage. I am almost done raving about the show, I promise, but bear with me just a little longer.

The horses for me really epitomize the show: the perfect balance between realism and representationalism. By appearance, the horses were clearly not real, but their movements were uncanny. The stage was the same way, because the show moves quickly from one scene to the next, the set was minimal - just enough to represent the setting and signify necessary changes. Again, the show incorporated everything - sets, lights, actors, puppets, music, effects - that presented a clean, simple, and polished finish despite the enormous complexity of the underlying components. If you want to see more about the horse puppets, check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7u6N-cSWtY

It's a long video, so if you just want to see Joey, he comes out about 9 minutes in. In short, War Horse has a great story, great acting, and great visuals. It is a truly amazing show.

I should probably tell you about the rest of my trip too. After getting my ticket for the matinee performance of War Horse, I went and got another day of ticket for the evening performance of The 39 Steps, that's right, two shows in one day. The 39 Steps is a good ol' British comedy incorporating slapstick, witticism, gag humor, and all around farcery (i.e. about as far from War Horse as you can get). It was hilarious, but I would still recommend War Horse over The 39 Steps.

After getting that ticket, I had a few hours to kill, so I went to the British Museum - which is MASSIVE! I more or less just walked through the galleries, not stopping to read much, and it still took me close to 3 hours! Joseph said he has been there seven times and still hasn't seen everything! It is quite an incredible collection. After that was a quick lunch of bangers and mash before War Horse (so good!), then I went back to the apartment where all the Pomona students pooled together to cook Thanksgiving dinner. We (well, I should say "they," I didn't help with the cooking) substituted a chicken for the turkey, but it was still delicious and spent with friends - isn't that what's important? Then I ran off to The 39 Steps. After a tiring day of walking around and the dramatic performance of War Horse, the farcical humor of The 39 Steps was the perfect cap to a great Thanksgiving.

Friday I slept in a little later to recuperate before heading out for a full day of sightseeing. I started by heading down to Trafalgar Square and a brief visit to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. I walked down past a bunch of historic building (mainly former military offices) and past the horse gate (appropriate considering what I had seen the day before). I was even there around the changing of the guard, however from what I saw, the on duty guards and fresh guards just lined up and stared at each other for a while so I left. I walked down to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey and walked along the Thames for a little bit before returning to Trafalgar Square for the free 1pm concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields church. The concert on that day happened to be a phenomenal Russian pianist who played some Bach, Chopin, and Albeniz. It was quite good, and the pianist even gave an encore.

Next, I headed to the Imperial War Museum. The name kind of tells it all: lots of guns, tanks, trucks, boats, planes, missiles, a submarine or two, and basically anything that may have used during WWI or WWII. It also houses a Holocaust exhibit that I thought was very well done (and I actually can form a legit opinion because I have been to several such exhibitions and studied others through my Holocaust and Memory class). For something completely different, I headed back to Westminster Abbey for the Evensong. This was great for several reasons: I got to see the inside of the Abbey (without having to pay), I got to hear the choir in such a beautiful space, I quite enjoy comparing and contrasting different styles of worship, and I found the service moving. Afterwards I headed back to the apartment to hang out with friends for my last night in London.

Saturday I flew up to Edinburgh. On my way to Kaitlyn's (my host's) apartment, I learned that Scotland really is very, very windy. I had taken a bus from the airport into the city, and I was off that bus for around 10 seconds before a gust of wind came up and nearly knocked me over. Unfortunately I didn't get to Kaitlyn's apartment until about 3:30, by which time the sun was going down. No worries though, Kaitlyn still had something for us to do: go hang lights for the student theatre group she is a part of. Only I could manage to spend my first two hours in a new country hanging lights in a theatre. Oh well, I got to meet some cool people and it was fun (I mean, I hadn't worked in a theatre for like four months, something was wrong).

Kaitlyn had another suggestion for me after we were done hanging lights (this one a legit tourist activity).  She suggested I take a tour of Edinburgh's "Underground City." As my tour guide explained, the words "underground city" are misleading. More accurately, we toured a "subterranean system of tunnels, caves, and caverns," but that didn't fit on the brochure and somehow "Underground City" sells more tickets. It was an interesting tour, and the guide was quite enthusiastic, very knowledgeable, and entertaining. It was great way to learn about a part of Edinburgh's history that is often forgotten (and for much of the 20th century, completely hidden).

Since I had gotten in too late on Saturday to see very much, Sunday was the only day I had for the main tourist attractions. Kaitlyn and I started off the day by climbing up Arthur's Seat, which is a large hill to the south of the city and offers tremendous views of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth. If it was windy at the base of the hill, then it was downright tempestuous at the top! There is a rocky area at the top with two crops that go a little higher, and each had a short pillar type thing. During a lull in the wind, I climbed to the top of one to see what was on the pillar. It was a metal plate pointing out all the sights you could see. As I was looking at this, the wind picked up and pinned me against the pillar for a few minutes. Fortunately I had the foresight to be on the downwind side of the pillar and did not blown off the outcrop.

After that, Kaitlyn had to go back to the theatre, so I went and strolled along the High Street (the center of the Old Town). I visited St. Giles Cathedral (which isn't really a cathedral because it is a Church of Scotland). St. Giles was built in many stages, so it has a very unique layout and each wing and each chapel has its own slightly different architectural style. Across from St. Giles there was a bagpiper playing, which made me chuckle. Then I went to the legendary Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle has a long history of trading hands, sometimes violently, other times through cunning. Unlike other castles I have visited, it was clear that much of the castle (especially the older parts) were built for the express purpose of battle - not to be an ornate palace of royalty. The oldest building in the castle is a chapel that dates back to the 12th century. Ironically, the largest canon in the castle, the Mons Meg, is positioned right next to this chapel. The Mons Meg is a very impressive canon: it used to fire a canon ball 20 inches in diameter, weighing about 400lbs, and on one occasion was recorded to have fired over 2 miles! I say "used to" because it ruptured while being fired a couple of hundred years ago. They keep it around because it still looks impressive. Moving on, in the royal apartments I learned that King James VI of Scotland, who later became James I of England, and I share not only a name, but also birthday!

By the time I was done at the castle, I only had about an hour and half before all the sights closed down at 5. I spent that hour and a half in the Scottish National Museum. Since I didn't have much time, I decided to focus on the exhibit presenting the history of Scotland. I still wasn't able to do that justice in the limited time I had. Afterwards I met Kaitlyn at the theatre before I headed back to St. Giles for an evening concert. The concert was performed by the Edinburgh Youth Chorus, so I was a bit wary, but it was pretty good. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Kaitlyn and briefly with Gary (another Pomona student), but he had a lot of homework to do.

Monday, I packed up and returned to Hungary. I know this is already a long post, but the title promised "and more." So here are the other exciting things:

1. Today as I was walking to class, it was snowing! It made me happy (first snow of the season here).

2. In my advanced Combinatorics/ Hypergraph Theory course, I proved a result that the professor had never seen before. This in and of itself is cool (for me anyways), but also he said that he would look into it to see if it is a new result and if I could do something with it (like publish it)! I guess it turns out that doing your homework the hard way can (sometimes) pay off!

3. Room draw just got done. In case you don't know, at Pomona, room draw is the process in which students are assigned a number (based on class) and then choose a room. Since I am abroad, I did not draw a room for this semester, but I chose a proxy to pick a room for me for next semester. As it turns out, I got a single in Norton, which was actually one of my top picks (surprising since I had a terrible room draw number).

Sorry about this post being a short novel, I guess I should write more frequently... oh well! Also, I will get pictures up on facebook ... eventually. I have a paper to write and (as always) problem sets to solve in the meantime.

The Brothers De Winkle.

Last weekend (as in more than a week ago, not yesterday and the day before). I met Nate in Krakow. We both took sleeper trains - him from Prague, and me from Budapest. Conveniently, our trains arrived at the same time, that is we ran into each other whilst exiting the train station. Then we walked to the hostel, showered and ate breakfast. We started our sightseeing with a trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. You may think it is just a big hole in the ground, but it is so much more. Over the centuries, especially those before electronic entertainment, the miners occupied their free time by carving statues out of salt, which now litter the mine. It turns out that raw rock salt is has strength similar to that of marble. The statues are amazing, especially considering they were made by amateurs. There are also rooms that have been carved out. The most impressive of these is St. Kinga's Chapel. This massive chapel was carved out by three miners over the course of 67 years and includes many reliefs carved out of salt (including a reproduction of da Vinci's "Last Supper").

Emerging from our subterranean adventure, we took a long bus ride back to the city center. After exploring the square, we found a cheap, but good "milk bar" for lunch. During the Communist era, "milk bars" were set up as government subsidized eateries to provide cheap food for the populace. Some have survived and still serve cheap food. We putzed around the old town for a while, returned to the hostel for Nate to clean up (he hadn't earlier), and then headed to a concert at the Academy of Music. It turned out to be a sort of student recital, but it was still very good, featuring works from a Polish composer. Afterwards we headed back to the main square and enjoyed a couple of drinks underneath the clock tower. I called it a fairly early night, but Nate decided to go out with a couple of Irish guys from the hostel.

The next morning, while I was waiting for Nate to recover, I decided to walk to the castle. It is a very nice castle - not as nice as Prague, but still impressive. It seemed that all the old, important buildings in Krakow (the castle included) were built of brick instead of stone (as they had been in every other city I have visited), which gave Krakow a much different feel than other cities. Nate was able to mobilize sometime before I got back to the hostel around 11. Then we made a trip to Auschwitz.

Really all I can say about Auschwitz is that it is a powerful experience. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, and I liked the style in which he led the tour. It would have been easy to be pulling on our heartstrings the entire time. Instead he simply presented the facts and let the site speak for itself - and trust me, it does that very well. Certainly this is not a fun experience, but still very much worth while.

After returning to Krakow and getting dinner, I had to hit the books. The next day, we decided to explore the Jewish quarter. Unfortunately Schindler's factory was closed, so we couldn't see that. Then we took a bus back to Budapest. Our bus left an hour late, but our driver must have been amazing because we still made it back on schedule. Nate spent that night in my apartment, but then spent the rest of his time staying in a hostel for two fold reasons. First, a hostel let him meet people and hang out with others while I was busy being studious. Second, the pragmatic reason that when two brothers occupy one room for several days, it does not usually end well for one or both of the brothers. We went to lunch on Tuesday, but then I didn't see him until Thursday.

My schedule allowed me to spend most of the day with Nate on Thursday. We went to lunch at a great local Hungarian restaurant recommended by my Hungarian instructor. Then we spent the afternoon at Széchenyi Baths. Both Nate and I needed an afternoon to relax soaking in the thermal baths of various temperatures and filled with different minerals. It was very, very relaxing, and an afternoon well spent (in my opinion). That evening, a friend, Joseph, from Pomona who is studying in London arrived, so he joined Nate and I for dinner and then we went wine tasting. Nate and I had a chuckle over the coincidence that we were being joined by someone with the same name as the missing De Winkle brother. Nate left on Friday - ending this chapter of the European adventures of (two of) the Brothers De Winkle.

However, Friday night I got to hang out with Joseph, and late that night, two more friends (John and Toby) from Pomona arrived in Budapest. Fortunately, John and Toby were staying with another Pomona student attending BSM this semester. I got hang out with them Saturday night, but unfortunately Joseph left Saturday afternoon. All in all, last week was a fun-filled week of hanging out with Nate and various friends from Pomona! It was also really nice to be in Budapest over the weekend for the first time in a month. I get to enjoy next weekend in Budapest as well before jetting off to the UK over Thanksgiving! In related news - how is it almost Thanksgiving?!? When did that happen?

In completely unrelated news, I am now legal to stay in Hungary for the rest of the semester - I got my residence permit today.

Istanbul!

So, it's high time I told you all about Istanbul. Again, sorry for the delay, but I've been busy.

Now, where to begin? Let's start at the beginning - the flight. I flew Turkish Airlines, and I highly recommend them if you ever get the opportunity. My flight left at 12:30pm and was only a couple of hours long, but they still served a full meal! And it was legitimately good food, not the usual barely edible airplane "food." So, that was exciting. After landing, figuring out the visa process, and waiting forever to get through customs, I had to wait for the rest of the BSM students - we planned our travel separately, so there was one other BSM student on my flight and 8 more on another, slightly later, flight. Also because we planned our travel separately, we were staying in different hostels. I was staying in the Sultanahmet (old city), but they were staying in Taksim (new city). However, we began the trip toward the city together on the metro. Eventually I had to part with them and get on a tram.

The tram lines in Istanbul are not dedicated, i.e. cars can drive on them, so the tram is also subject to the myriad traffic jams of Istanbul. As such, the tram ride was slow going. I finally made it to the correct tram stop, but had to ask around to find the hostel. The hostel was fairly standard in what it offered, but it was very nice and clean. When I arrived, one of the staff (I think it is run by a total of 3 guys - at least that is all I saw when I was there) showed me to my room and then showed me the rest of the hostel. I only mention this because here I noticed what I must assume is a cultural difference. When showing me things such as the bathrooms, the staff member did not just point them out, but went in, turned on the light and waited for me to acknowledge I had seen it. That was a bit strange (because we had to stop at every restroom), but this "tour" culminated on the rooftop terrace that afforded an excellent view of the Hagia Sophia!

After settling in, I went out to find some food and explore the Sultanahmet at night. The location of the hostel was phenomenal - the directions to get from my hostel to the Blue Mosque were literally: go out the door, turn right, walk about 50m, and you'll see it on the right. I have never seen so many minarets as when I was in Istanbul, there are mosques everywhere - and big mosques at that! In my wandering, I met a man from Cyprus who was also traveling alone. So, we ended walking together for a while. After exploring for a while, I decided to get some sleep.

The next morning I enjoyed breakfast on the rooftop terrace soaking up the view of the Hagia Sophia. Then I used facebook to chat with a couple of other BSM students. We decided to meet up at the Chora Church. This Byzantine church dates from the 5th century, but its main attraction are the mosaics and frescoes that date back to the 14th century - and they are breathtaking! The only issue is that the Chora church is far out from the city center, and hard to get to. Fortunately for me, the receptionist at my hostel was really nice and wrote down directions for me. These involved taking the tram to a bus depot (easy) and then taking a bus from there (not so easy). The bus depot was chaotic - to put it lightly. After a little searching, I found what I thought was the right bus, but the sign used abbreviations, so I couldn't be sure. Fortunately there was a man standing outside that spoke English, so I showed him the piece of paper with my directions and he confirmed it was the right bus.

In order to keep telling this story, I need to tell you how the public transit system works in Istanbul. There are two ways to pay: you can buy a small token called a jeton or you can use a prepaid Istanbulkart that you swipe. Since I hadn't bought an Istanbulkart yet, I was planning on paying with jeton. There are also private and public run buses. The public accept both forms of payment, but the private only accept the card. Of course, the bus I was trying to take was private and couldn't accept my jeton. Here is where I got lucky that the Turkish people are really nice. The man I met outside the bus had gone on ahead of me and spoken to the driver in Turkish to explain where I was going. When I tried to hand him my jeton, he waived "no" and pantomimed swiping a card (of course he was speaking in Turkish this entire time), so I was shook my head to tell him I didn't have an Istanbulkart. He responded by yelling something toward the back of the bus and a woman near the front handed me her card, and I paid her the equivalent of the fare. After this, the driver made gestures toward the door and the seat right behind him, which I interpreted to mean he would tell me when to get off.

The bus ride was no less chaotic than the bus depot had been. At each stop at least one person would yell a question to the driver who would either answer with a gesture inviting them on the bus or a clear "no." As the bus got more packed, I eventually gave up my seat to an elderly woman and ended up standing by the door. As we were approaching my stop, the driver slowed down and pointed down which street I should walk. Like I said, the Turkish people are really nice. At that point I just had to follow the signs to the Chora Church; however, in the struggle to get there, I arrived 25 minutes after the appointed rendezvous. I did not see Sean or Rachel, who I was planning on meeting, so two scenarios formed in my mind. Quite possibly they had gone in without me because I was so late (and I wouldn't have blamed them), or given my experience, it was also possible that they were not there yet. So I did the only sensible thing: I bought a bagel-esque ring of bread covered in sesame seeds and waited by the exit. Conveniently, one had to pass the exit to get to the entrance so I knew that I would either meet up with them when they emerged from the church in the first scenario and we could go on our way, or I could intercept them on their way to the entrance in the second scenario.

Since I already mentioned that the mosaics were stunningly beautiful, a smart reader will have surmised that the second scenario is what had happened (didn't know you would have to be using your detective skills, now did you). After viewing the church, we walked a little ways to the Theodosian walls. According to Wikipedia, the Theodosian walls were built during the early part of the 5th century, are 12 meters high, and 5 meters thick. They were open to climb up, so Sean and I went up. They afforded a great view of the city! Also while we were up there, we heard the call to prayer from the nearby mosques (yes that is meant to be plural). It was really cool to hear that while up on the wall. We eventually made our way back to the city center, pausing so I could buy an Istanbulkart.

It was mid-afternoon by this point, so we were getting quite hungry. We decided to check out a small restaurant across from the bus depot - and that was an excellent life decision. The food was cheap, amazing, and plentiful! It was sooooo good! After lunch we decided to check out the two bazaars - the Spice Bazaar (near where we were) and the Grand Bazaar (closer to the old town). We spent a lot of time wondering through what we thought were the bazaars until we realized that it was a national holiday in Turkey, so the bazaars were closed for the day and we were just walking through the street markets that surround the bazaars. These were still really cool, but we felt a bit foolish. In between seeing what we thought was the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar, we decided to get some Turkish delight and baklava. Both were, of course, delicious. When we finally realized our mistake outside of the Grand Bazaar, it was too late to do anything else touristy that day.

Sean and Rachel decided to move to my hostel because it was so close to everything and Taksim was at least 40 minutes away. In lieu of anything else to do, I went with them to get their stuff and explored Taksim a little bit. Taksim has a really cool, modern pedestrian thoroughfare with stores and restaurants that were beautifully lit up, and there were decorations hung over the street. These decorations included snowflakes, which we thought was a bit premature in October. Since we (well Sean and Rachel) were a little sick of eating kebab, we found an Italian restaurant for dinner. We called it an early night so we could get up early and see all the main tourist sights the next day.

Since I realize this post is already quite long, I will truncate the sightseeing portion. We saw the Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern (really big, underground water storage system dating from the 6th century), and Topkapi Palace (home of the Ottoman Sultans). We were going to see the Blue Mosque, but as we were standing in line they closed it down for the midday prayer. Everything was amazing and beautiful. After all of that, we decided to pop on over the Asian side for dinner. In case you were not aware, Istanbul is divide by the Bosphorus (a strait connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara). One side lies in Europe (this is the side with all the main tourist attractions) and on the other side lies in Asia. Since the sun went down around 5 and no sights were open past then, we thought it was a great opportunity to visit Asia. We had a good dinner of traditional Turkish food and wondered around for a while before ferrying back to Europe.

We started Monday off by going to the Blue Mosque (again, gorgeous) and then we went to the Grand Bazaar (for real this time!). We may have gotten a little lost in there - but we managed to find an exit (being math majors, our solution was to head in a single direction until we ran into a wall then follow that to an exit). Of course, we managed to emerge on the exact opposite side of the Grand Bazaar as where we started. Then it was lunch time, so we decided to go back to that amazing restaurant we had found after visiting the Chora Church. After that, Sean had to catch his flight back to Istanbul, but Rachel and I visited the Spice Bazaar (again, for real this time). We also explored the area around the Spice Bazaar and managed to stumble upon the main post office, which has been turned into a museum. We didn't go in, but it was an impressive building. We also worked our way over a park surrounding Topkapi Palace. Rachel wanted to head back to the hostel, so I explored the park by myself. Then I had to face the reality of homework and headed back to the hostel as well.

The next day started early so that I could make it to the airport for my flight back to Budapest. There is one last thing that I would be remiss if I didn't mention it: there are stray cats EVERYWHERE in Istanbul. I mean everywhere - there is even a cat that has taken up residence in the Hagia Sophia! Anyway, there is so much more I could say about Istanbul. It is such an amazing city! However, I feel like I have given you more than enough to ponder at this point. Also, I promise pictures are coming. I just have to write a post about Krakow and sort through all the photos. Fortunately, two of my classes are cancelled this week, so I should have the time to do so.

Freiburg.

As a quick reminder, I went to Freiburg to visit my friends John and Toby (whom I know from Pomona). As such, I spent much of my time in Freiburg just chilling and hanging out. Anyway, here is the trip in detail:

Saturday:

My train got in about 20 minutes late, then I had to figure out the tram system - I am sure the German mass transit system is very effective if you know how to use it, but if you are new in town, good luck! I finally made it to the tram stop and was met by John. Fortunately, he had just gotten there despite the fact I was 30-40 minutes later than expected. He thought I was going to call when I was there, but had just realized that I didn't have his number. So, I guess everything worked out in the end. After dropping my stuff off at his place, we went to go get supplies for dinner. John is part of a dinner rotation and it was his turn to cook, so I helped him make chili. Bearing in mind that neither of us had ever made chili before, it turned out really well! After dinner, we just hung out for a while.

Sunday:

Tourist time! We started the day decently early, and enjoyed eggs for breakfast, giving the copious fog time to burn off. Then we toured the Altstadt. After quick rounds there, we met up with Lou - who had been our taste tester the night before - and headed out to the Schauinsland, which is a mountain in the Black Forest near Freiburg (accessible by public transit). We were clearly not the only people with this idea, because the tram and bus were packed! Then it was a twenty minute cable car ride up to (near) the top of the mountain. A short hike took us up to the observation tower, which a afforded a tremendous view. Apparently you can see all the way to France and Switzerland from up there. Plus, the Black Forest is beautiful with its autumn foliage.

Several people on John and Toby's program quite enjoy football (English) - including Toby - so we met up at a pub to watch the Manchester United vs Manchester City game. The game was fun to watch, the stew was phenomenal, and the Hefeweizen was the best beer I have ever had. That is honestly not saying much because I only had my first beer a couple of months ago in Budapest and have not had many since. After that, we just relaxed in John's apartment, did homework, and watched a movie.

Monday:

Started nice and early, John had 9am class. I walked through the Münstermarkt, which is a market that forms in the square around the Münster (cathedral) every weekday. I also went in the Münster, which very much upholds the tradition of beautiful interiors in major European churches. It was foggy again, but I hiked up the Schlossberg (a large hill within walking distance, topped with an observation tower) hoping that the fog would burn off before I reached the top. It didn't, but all was not lost. It is quite a surreal experience to climb up into the fog, then hike through a forest permeated by that fog. When I made it to the top of the hill and then the top of the tower, the experience became truly awe-inspiring. I was still on the fog, so I couldn't see anything, which is exactly what made the experience so breathtaking. I was totally secluded - I could barely make out the tops of the trees when I looked down at them through the fog. I was all alone, seemingly on top of the world - it was as if I had completely removed myself from the earth. Sure, I could still hear the birds and the cars, but they seemed worlds away. Complete solitude - for some, that is a scary thought, but for me, it was amazing. I used the term "surreal" earlier, and I wish I could more accurately describe the feeling I had up there, but that is as close as I can come.

Maybe this sounds crazy, and it probably is, but I could have stayed up there for hours. Of course I had to leave eventually. Also, I was afraid someone would come along and ruin it, and perfect moments like that are so hard to come by. Sure enough, as I walking down the hill, I passed a family not far from the top and heading up. In the end, I didn't get the great view of the city I had initially sought, but I think I gained a much richer experience.

I descended the berg at a very relaxed pace. Then I paid the Johanneskirche (big fancy church) and the Altstadt another visit before I met up with John for bratwurst at the Münstermarkt, grabbed my stuff, bought a souvenir, and headed to the train station to begin the long trek back to Budapest.

Frankfurt am Main.

I flew into Frankfurt on Friday night, and I was hoping to do some sightseeing that night. Well, that didn't happen. My flight got in 30 minutes late, then getting to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) was much more difficult than it should have been. First, the ticket machine for the subway would not take my €20 bill, so I had to go buy an overpriced pack of gum in the terminal. After buying the ticket, I couldn't find a system map to figure out which train and which direction to get on. After finally figuring all that out, I had to wait 20 minutes for the train to actually depart. I didn't get to my hostel until around midnight, very frustrated and hungry at that point - needless to say, this was not a good first impression of Frankfurt. I dropped my stuff off in my room, got some food at the fast food joint right next to the hostel, and went to bed.

I got up early on Saturday to see the city. I walked along the river to the Altstadt (Old City). I somehow managed to avoid mobs of tourists, until I was in the Altstadt. This was a beautiful area, especially the Frankfurter Dom - a gorgeous cathedral made from red stone. Just in front of the Frankfurt Dom, there are ruins dating back to Roman times that were uncovered thanks to bombing during WWII. I was nt expecting that, but it was really interesting. Then I strolled up to the Alte Oper (Old Opera), passing the Paulskirche on the way. The Paulskirche is a very politically important church in Frankfurt - it was the seat of the Frankfurt Parliament, the first freely elected parliament in Germany. Unfortunately the Paulskirche was closed for the day. The Alte Oper is nestled in a lovely park, and the building itself is gorgeous - though I wasn't able to go in. Next I went to the Goethe-Haus, which is the restored 18th century house of Goethe (famous German poet). Not only was it interesting to see what houses were like in the 18th century, but the fact that it was Goethe's house made it even more interesting for me because many of the Schubert songs that I sing are settings of Goethe's work.

Then it was time to cross to the southern side of the river to get lunch at the restaurant that created the first Frankfurter sausage. I'm going to lie, it tasted a lot like a hot dog - a good hot dog, but still... However, the Spaetzle (German noodles) and the soup were phenominal. I also tried the Apfelwein (apple wine), which is very popular in Frankfurt. The name kind of says it all: it tastes like a mixture of apple juice and white wine. Honestly, I think it just dulled both flavors - I would have preferred either plain apple juice or white wine.

After lunch, I still had about an hour to kill, so I strolled along the Museumsufer (Museum Bank/Shore), which is along the southern bank of the river. There are a ton of museums here, but I didn't have time to go in any of them, just enjoyed the view from outside. I also relaxed by the river for a little while before getting my luggage and heading to the train station. My train to Freiburg left 20 minutes late, but at least I was fortunate enough to find a free seat.

Vienna.

I finally have time to write about my recent travel! Actually, most of this was written going to/from Freiburg, and I now have time to transcribe it to my blog.

Day one (Friday):

We arrived in the early evening and found our hostel, which was a fair ways outside the city center, despite being named Meininger, City Center. However, it was right next to the subway, making everything really accessible. Then we found some cheap food near the hostel. I am not sure if it was just because I was really hungry, but the €2 schnitzel sandwich I had was amazing. Then we went to see all the major sights in the city center lit up at night. These include the Stephansdom (big cathedral), the Peterskirche (baroque church), the Hofburg Palace (home of the Habsburg dynasty), the Rathausplatz (city hall square), and Parliament. There was a carnival going on in the Rathausplatz (complete with cheesy music), which seemed a little out of place among the Gothic architecture. After that, we called it a night.

Day two (Saturday):

We got breakfast at a bakery and then repeated the circuit we had made the previous night to see the buildings during the day and go inside. The interiors of the Stephansdom and Paulskirche are stunning, though for completely different reasons. The Stephansdom is a Gothic cathedral, so the interior was airy and austere. On the opposite end of things, the Baroque interior of the Peterskirche was opulent and gilded. You will probably not be surprised to learn that I prefer the former style. While in the Hofburg, we visited the Ancient Arms and Armor Museum and the Ancient Musical Instruments Museum (strangely enough, in the same building). Most of both these collection comes from the private collection of the Habsburg dynasty. We got bratwurst from a street stand for lunch and headed to the UN headquarters in Vienna. Unfortunately, this is closed on the weekend, so we headed to the Mozarthaus. The Mozarthaus (where Mozart lived for a while in Vienna) cost a fair amount of money; since we didn't have that much time to view it and had already spent money on the earlier museum, we decided not to go in.

The Ancient Arms and Armor and Ancient Musical Instrument Museums are part of the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum, so our ticket also got us into that museum. So, we headed back to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. However, we were sidetracked by a companion protest to Occupy Wall Street. My companions decided to follow the protest into the Hofburg Palace courtyard, but I decided to go inside the Kunsthistorisches Museum. We only had a little bit of time because we wanted to get a nice dinner that night and go to a concert. So, I was only able to see the entryway and the temporary exhibit of ancient coins. The entryway to the museum is incredibly gorgeous, and it was really interesting to look at coins from various points in history and compare them with modern coins. We followed through with our plan and had a nice dinner. I got another schnitzel, this time a real Wiener Schnitzel, in the sense that it was veal. In case you are unaware, the reason I tended toward schnitzel while in Vienna is because Wiener (English: Viennese) Schnitzel originates in Vienna. Then we went to an organ concert in the Peterskirche. It was a good concert - not the best organ playing I have ever heard, but the setting was very beautiful - after which we hung out for a while at a nearby pub.

Day three (Sunday):

Two of my companions, Cory and Ashley, and I decided to attend mass at the Stephansdom. We was a beautiful service, even though we couldn't understand most of it (them even less than me, because I could pick out a few words). We left after about an hour in the intermittent flow of tourists. Then we headed to the Schönbrunn Palace - the summer residence of the Habsburgs. The palace is aptly named - its name translates as "beautiful fountain" - the palace is very beautiful indeed. Being poor, cheap study abroad students, we decided not to pay for entrance into the palace but just explored the grounds, which are well worth exploring. We were able to stroll for several hours enjoying the tree lined avenues and various fountains. Then I departed from Cory and Ashley to head to the opera!

The Vienna State Opera was at one point the pinnacle of opera world, and is still among the top opera houses in the world, and I got to see Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) which is one of Mozart's most famous operas. It was AMAZING! Everything about it - the singing, the acting, the sets, the lighting, etc. - were very, very well done. There was an added bonus: I was hoping to catch a performance of the Vienna Boys Choir, but that was cost prohibitive. However, there are three youths in Die Zauberflöte, who were played by three boys from the Vienna Boys Choir. So in a way, I did get to see a performance of the Vienna Boys Choir. After the opera I met up with Cory and Ashley to explore the Karlsplatz, which is a park with a beautiful church, the Musikverein (concert hall), and other impressive buildings around it. Then we called it an early night.

Day four (Monday):

We started the day by checking out of the hostel and going to the Wittgensteinhaus (the house of a famous mathematician - we are math students after all). Unfortunately, the Wittgensteinhaus has been turned into an art gallery, so that was a little bit of a bust. Then we went back to the UN and this time got a guided tour. It was interesting to step onto international soil and learn about the UN. As someone who would typically consider himself politically apathetic, I was surprised how much interest I actually had in the UN. Our tour guide was Austrian, but spoke flawless English (which I am pretty sure she learned from a Scott, because she had a perfect Scottish accent). After that we went back to the Hofburg to get souvenirs and back to the Karlsplatz to relax for a little bit before heading back to Budapest.

I really enjoyed Vienna. It is such a beautiful city, but it is sooo expensive. I was prepared for food to be expensive, but I did not expect everything (museums, etc.) to cost so much. I really want to go back to Vienna when I actually have the money to burn on museums and lots of concerts (and of course more opera)!

Preparations.

Sorry I haven't written anything lately, but I haven't been doing much. Just the usual - you know, class, homework, sleep, repeat. Well, I guess that's not quite true, I have been doing a lot of planning - for weekend trips. Even though I tried to avoid this particular scenario, I will be traveling some place different for each of the next four weekends. I will try to write a post about each, but I am going to be really crammed for time - I'll still have to do homework and study for mid-terms and all that. Anyway, I thought I would at least let you know where I will be going. If you have been to any of the places that I am traveling, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions for what to do, where to eat, etc.

Here goes: Tomorrow I am heading to Vienna. Right now, I have only two definite plans. I am going to visit Schönbrunn Palace and I already have a ticket to see Mozart's Die Zauberflöte performed at the Vienna State Opera! I am soooo excited for the opera - it's going to be amazing! The following weekend I head to Germany. Two of my friends from Pomona, John and Toby, are studying in Freiburg, so I am going to visit them. However, I am flying into Frankfurt am Main (the Frankfurt that everyone has heard of and has the ginormous airport). Because my flight gets in fairly late (10ish pm) I am staying the night in Frankfurt and exploring a little bit before taking a train to Freiburg on Saturday afternoon.

The weekend after that, BSM has a long weekend (even longer than my normal weekend with no Monday classes) because we get Tuesday, Nov. 1 off (it's a national holiday in Hungary). So, I am taking that opportunity to travel to Istanbul! There's a slightly funny story how this came about, but as it happened, I am planning on meeting up with John (same guy mentioned above who is studying in Freiburg) for the weekend. That reminds me, I still need to book that hostile... Back to the point: to round out these great adventures, I will be spending the first weekend of November in Krakow. Nate, my oldest brother, is using my studying abroad as an excuse to travel Europe. So, we are meeting up in Krakow for the weekend, and then he is visiting me in Budapest for a few days. Then a little bit of R&R (though not too much because the weekend after Krakow, John and Toby are visiting Budapest...)

Well, if I am too busy to write another post anytime soon, at least now you know why.

In other news, fall finally hit. It appears Budapest has a case of Sudden Onset Autumn Syndrome, because the weather went from highs in the 70s to highs in the 50s overnight. Fortunately, many years in Michigan have prepared me for such radical temperature shifts. I am actually quite enjoying the cooler weather.

PS When getting ready for my trip this weekend, I saw that I hadn't uploaded my pictures from the zoo yet, so I am going to do that now if you want to check them out.

Another fun weekend.

I had some fun adventures last weekend, but unfortunately errands and homework have prevented me from sharing thus far. Also, an abundance of homework means that I will keep this post short, i.e. I will use a list because who needs transitions?

Fun activity number 1: The ballet. I am not a huge fan of ballet, but two of my music professors recommended I see A Midsummer Night's Dream because the music is wonderful. So, last Friday I took their suggestion. The one snag (which I didn't know going in) was this production was a modern reinterpretation that added some electronic music into the mix. The suggestion was good: I loved the classical music. The electronic music, eh, not so much. However, it was a wonderful experience - you can't go wrong with Shakespeare and Mendelssohn - and I actually enjoyed watching the ballet. The character of Puck was phenomenal and really fun to watch.

#2: The zoo. Saturday afternoon, several BSM students went to the zoo in the city park. It is a very nice zoo, and one of the oldest in the world. Plus, we were able to get cheap student tickets. The zoo has lots of baby animals, which are adorable. I really wanted to see the baby tigers, but they were not out when we went to the exhibit.

#3: A birthday celebration. One of my flatmates had his birthday yesterday. So, we went out and celebrated on Sunday. We ate at a nice Indian restaurant, which was delicious. Then afterwards, we had to go to a bar, because he turned 21. Side note: it is slightly anti-climmatic to turn 21 in a country where the drinking age is 18 - oh well, we still had a good time.

That's the succinct version of my weekend. I don't have anything planned for this coming weekend, but I am going to a classical concert tomorrow. On the program is Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer - which I love, so I am super excited!

Chocolate, good food, good weather, and opera - what more could I want?

Last Saturday was a good day: I got to sleep in and relax in the morning, then the afternoon was filled with the Chocolate Festival! That's right an entire festival dedicated to my favorite confection - it was amazing. Plus, it was in one of the castle courtyards, so while enjoying some fine chocolate, I got to enjoy the beautiful weather and a lovely view of the city. Some of the booths were even giving out free samples! And at this point the day was just gearing up.

That evening I had planned a trip to the opera, so I was meeting some of the guys early for a fancy dinner. We ate an upscale Hungarian restaurant just a few minutes walk from the Opera. Then it was time for the main event: Don Pasquale (composed by Gaetano Donizetti). We got fairly cheap seats, so we were in the nosebleeds, but we could still see pretty well. The Hungarian State Opera House is absolutely gorgeous, inside and out. We entered in the main entrance, but were informed that we had to use the side entrance to reach the balcony (guess we didn't pay enough to use the grand staircase). The opera itself was very good as well. It was a comic opera, so it was light-hearted and fun. Unfortunately, the supertitles were in Hungarian, but I had looked up the story beforehand so I knew what was going on. I was really impressed by the bass, who played the title character.

Through the marvels of facebook, I got a fair number of people to come along, a good number of whom had never seen an opera, so I feel I have done my duty as a lover of classical music. I also think that many of them even somewhat enjoyed it (at least so they said to my face). Anyway, I am looking forward to going back and enjoying more opera, because tickets are cheap! So, that was my great day on Saturday, and unfortunately I had to pay for it by holing up in my room sick yesterday. I'm feeling better now though, so that's good.

If you're interested, I have settled on most of my schedule. I will be taking Introduction to Abstract Algebra (hereafter Intro to Algebra or just Algebra), Combinatorics 2: Hypergraph Theory, Differential Geometry (from the "Subjects you didn't know could be differentiable" category), intermediate Hungarian language, and a cultural elective (haven't decided which one yet, I have to figure out which one is least bad - this may be a pessimistic view of things, but seems to be well-founded). And all of these classes fit into Tuesday-Friday, meaning I have Mondays free! That will be a great boon to weekend travels!

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Prague: The rest of the story.

I suppose I owe you the rest of the story. Day two in Prague started at a much more reasonable hour. After enjoying a wonderful continental breakfast, we broke into a couple of groups and headed out from the hostel around 9:30am. I "led" the group that wanted to go to the castle (since I only had a glimpse the first day). Some of the group hadn't seen the John Lennon wall on day 1, so we stopped by there first and stumbled upon a beautiful little church nearby that we looked into briefly. Then it was off to the castle.

The tram let us off near the gorgeous Royal Gardens, so we started by touring those. In addition to boasting great views of the main part of the castle, we saw the Summer Palace, Game House, Orangery (greenhouse), and many fountains. The route we initially took led us away from one of the main fountains, so we circled back around - and it is a good thing we did, because we happened to pass a falconry exhibit. Not only could you view beautiful birds like peregrine falcons, a golden eagle, and several owls, you could even pay to hold one of the birds (hence my new facebook profile picture). I held the golden eagle, who is named Alexandra. It was a tremendous experience to hold such a powerful and magnificent bird. We preceded to the main castle to see what other wonders lie in store. We saw most of the castle, and went into the back of the nave of the St. Vitus Cathedral, but didn't have a ticket to go all the way around the church. Since we had plans to meet the rest of the group at 1 for lunch, our visit to the castle was cut short.

Lunch was near the Jewish Quarter, so afterwards we decided to explore the synagogues. All of the major buildings in the Jewish Quarter have been turned into a single museum, so we bought a pass that let us tour four synagogues, the cemetery, and the Ceremonial Hall. I was a bit skeptical at first, but the Old Jewish Cemetery was actually really cool to see, because of its history: The cemetery was expanded several times, but eventually not even that was enough, so they put another layer of dirt over the already existing graves. This was done 2-3 times, so the cemetery actually has layers of graves. Each time they put down a new layer though, they brought up the tombstones from the previous layer(s), so gravestones are basically stacked on top of each other. It is estimated there are over 12,000 gravestones in the cemetery, with the earliest dating back to the 1400s and all dating before 1800.

Surprisingly, the cemetery was not the most somber of the places we visited. The Pinkas Synagogue has been turned into a Holocaust memorial. The names of the 80,000 Bohemian and Moravian Jews that were murdered by the Nazis are written on the walls of the synagogue. In case that wasn't enough to put a damper on your mood, upstairs are pictures drawn by Jewish children at Terezin, a transit camp were children waited before they were sent east to extermination camps. Like I said above, this experience was very somber, but especially a couple days before we remembered the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it was a good reminder to never forget the atrocities of the past and to never let them happen again. Though we had to take some time to process all that, our tour of the Jewish Quarter ended on a high note with the Spanish Synagogue - which was absolutely breath-taking. I am not going to even try to describe it, because anything I could say would fall so far short. Near the entrance, I saw a poster stating that the Spanish Synagogue is the most beautiful synagogue in Europe, and I do not doubt that for an instant.

Next it was time for another concert at the St. Nicholas Church. This time a different BSMer accompanied me. This concert was an organ and voice recital, and it was really good (added bonus, I wasn't nodding off this time). You really can't go wrong with a well executed rendition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Then we met up with the group again for dinner at a hip restaurant in a cellar. Again, the food was great - we did very well food-wise while in Prague (thanks to the use of a couple of guidebooks).

After dinner we went down to the river to see the city lit up. We also saw a few more sights (the National Museum and Prague State Opera House chief among them). Since most of the group was still recovering from the lack of sleep on the trip up to Prague, we called it another early night (by college student standards).

Then all we had left was Saturday morning. After another wonderful breakfast at the hostel, we checked out, left our bags in the luggage room, and headed out to make the most of our last little bit of time in Prague. Two other students and I wanted to see inside the castle buildings, so we headed there. We started by touring through all of the St. Vitus Cathedral, which was stunning and full of wonderfully crafted statues, shrines, sepulchers, and you-name-it-they-probably-had-two-of-it Catholic religious items. Unfortunately, my camera decided to run out of battery about a quarter of the way through the cathedral (this made me very upset - though I couldn't stay that way because I was surrounded by such beautiful artifacts and architecture). Next up was the Old Royal Palace. Not quite as impressive as the cathedral, but I could probably get used to living there. It also offered great views of the city. After the Palace was St. George's Basilica, which dates back to the 10th century. Being 500 years older than the cathedral, this was much more austere, but it was still really inspiring to stand in a building that has seen the turning of two millennia.

Next, we decided to get our cardio for the day, so we climbed the bell tower of the cathedral. This involved climbing 287 steps to ascend 96.65m (that's basically a football field put vertically). Fortunately, we received a little encouragement on the way. Outside in the courtyard, the band of the Palace Guard and Prague Police Department was giving a concert, and when we were about halfway up, they started playing the James Bond theme. There is something undeniably awesome about climbing a stone spiral staircase to James Bond music. We had a good laugh about it. Accompaniment aside, the view justified the climb. The tower boasts 360 degree, unobstructed views of Prague (and the surrounding area, because, well, you can see pretty far from all the way up there). Once we (reluctantly) climbed back down, we finished our tour by visiting a lane of houses and the dungeons. We met up with others for lunch, picked up our baggage from the hostel, and get on the train back to Budapest.

My trip to Prague was amazing! Things went very smoothly (generally), and it was a very successful trip (especially considering that this was the first time any of us going had organized something like this). The only (small) complaint I have is the weather. It was drizzling on and off the first two days we were there, but at least it was a lot cooler than Budapest. So, all-in-all a really minor complaint. However, taking such an awesome trip right before classes started means I was not quite mentally prepared for them - oops! Well, time to get back to homework.

Prague: Day One

Where to begin? Prague was amazing! I guess I will start at the beginning (for it's a very good place to start). We (myself and ten other BSM students) took an overnight train train to Prague that left at 8pm last Wednesday and got in during the wee hours of the morning (4am). We preceded to walk a long ways to our hostel to find out when it opened (which it didn't until 7). Fortunately we were traveling lightly and decided to make the most of our time, so we took public transit back into the city and headed toward the Charles Bridge. Since we were there at 6 in the morning or so, we had the bridge all to ourselves, which was awesome. After enjoying the view, we went in search of an ATM to withdraw money and then findvsome breakfast. Unfortunately, nothing opened until 7, so we were stuck wondering for a while.

Once we had some food in our bellies, we headed back to the hostel to drop off our bags. Of course it was still too early to check in, but they let us in to the luggage room. Then, we headed to the Old Town Square. Here we saw many beautiful sights, like the Old Town Hall (with the astronomical clock), the St. Nicholas Church, the Church of Our Lady before Tyn, and we briefly explored the Jewish quarter. On our way there, we passed a market (definitely aimed at tourists), and had a good chuckle over some of the shirts they were selling (such as one saying "Czech me out!"). We watched the Astronomical Clock strike 11am, which is a big deal because it is the oldest working astronomical clock in the world (dating back to the 15th century) and also has magnificently sculpted moving figures of the Apostles that date back to the 18th century. The hour is also accompanied by a fanfare played by a bugler in the top of the tower wearing medieval garb.

Then it was time for an early lunch, after which we headed back to the hostel to check in (yes, this does make the third trip there within about 8 hours). I was in a room with 7 other BSM students. We did really well with selecting the hostel (well, we got lucky because we chose the cheapest option with high ratings on the website we used to search). Our room was really nice and the beds were quite comfortable. Plus, for only about $20 a night each, we got free wi-fi, a very good free breakfast, a private bathroom, a kitchen (which we didn't use), and small sun room (perhaps the term "nook" is more appropriate). Now the group split up: some wanted to stay and nap, but others decided to head out and explore some more (I was in the latter group). Since we had a couple of huge Beatles fans in the group, our first stop was the John Lennon wall - which is essentially a graffiti tribute to John Lennon. It changes frequently, so different tributes overlap and make a beautiful collage of lyrics, pictures, and song titles. We left our own tribute (in pen because that was all we had) that said: "sqaure root(-1) all the people -BSM 2011." Hooray for math jokes (the square root of -1 is "i").

Once the Beatles fans had their fill, we explored Old Town a little more and eventually made our way up to the Castle. We were only there long enough to enjoy a fantastic view of the city and watch the changing of the guard before another student and I left to attend a concert in the St. Nicholas Church. The concert featured oboe, harpsichord, and organ. It was very good, but we had difficulty staying awake (something about only getting an hour or so of fitful sleep the night before). This was especially difficult during the oboe and the harpsichord, the organ did a better job of keeping us up.

One of the BSM students has a friend who studied abroad in Prague, so we took her recommendation for dinner. However, the place is very popular and was very busy, so they couldn't seat the 8 of us that had come. A couple of BSMers were willing to break off, and we eventually got 6 of us seated. The suggestion was a very good one. I even tried rabbit for the first time. Surprisingly, it did NOT taste like chicken. Instead, it tasted a lot like turkey, but it was very good. Since we had a late dinner and all of us were tired, we headed back to the hostel once again to call it a night. After almost no sleep the previous night and walking around all day, we all slept really well.

It now occurs to me that this post is fairly long already, and I have only covered the first day. So, I think I will call that good for now and blog about the rest of the trip later. Besides, I have to get ready for my first math class in Budapest!

A Combinatorics Lecture, and a Dinner Cruise on the Danube.

Yesterday was a good day. It started with language school (which ended today!), and then most of the BSM students walked to the Renyi Institute to hear a lecture in combinatorics given by Béla Bollobás, who is a very brilliant Hungarian mathematician. He is a professor at Cambridge, as well as a member of the Royal Society of London, and has proven numerous results. He is considered at the top of three fields in mathematics: functional analysis, graph theory, and combinatorics. In summary, I was learning from a giant of mathematics. All that being said, I found the lecture a bit scatter-brained (being a genius doesn't make one a good lecture), but overall very interesting and enjoyable (fortunately I had some background in the area and could follow - other students were not so fortunate).

After the lecture, we were invited to go on a dinner cruise on the Danube - which was especially beautiful because we got to see the city both during the light hours and lit up at night. It was fun to relax with other BSM students and enjoy the beauty of Budapest all around us. Check facebook for pictures from this trip.

That is all.

PS I leave for Prague tomorrow night!

"A Weekend in the Country...

... how amusing, how delightfully droll." That's right, starting out with another lyric from a musical, this one from A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim. Yesterday, I went on a trip with ca. 35 other BSM students to Szentendre, a small town in the countryside about 12 miles north of Budapest. The main purpose of this trip was to visit Skanzen, which is an open-air ethnographic museum. Skanzen has taken homes and buildings dating from the 18th to 20th centuries and arranged them into villages representing what typical villages would look like in a given region at a given point in history. In addition to its permanent exhibits, Skanzen was hosting its annual Wine Festival this weekend. This is a similar to a harvest festival, because it celebrates the beginning of the grape harvest. Skanzen invites winegrowers from around the country to show off their wines, and has exhibits on viticulture and demonstrations of traditional dances and folk arts.

After entering the museum most of our group decided to take the train to the festival (yes this museum is large enough to justify its own train), but three other students and I decided to walk. All-in-all a good decision, because we got to enjoy the fresh air of the countryside and also we passed through a small village representative of villages in the north-eastern part of Hungary - which was cool to see. Plus, we were walking up to the train depot as the rest of the group was getting off (the train takes a very roundabout route). The festival was held in two of the villages that are adjacent to each other. Many of the museum workers were wearing traditional Hungarian garb, which gave me the sense of a Renaissance Fair. There were several games set up, including stilts, which, of course, some of the guys had to try (with minimal success - much to the amusement of the rest of the group).

Included in the folk art booths were a cheese stand and a honey stand. I tried a smoked cheese that was absolutely amazing - I did not think you could impart so much smoky flavor into a piece of cheese. The honey was also amazing, and I am not a huge fan of honey - then again I have never literally eaten the honeycomb (I don't think it gets any fresher than that). All of the other things you would suspect were present as well: bracelets, wood carvings, woven items, etc. After enjoying the honey, we went wine tasting (when in Rome...).

When our visit to the Skanzen was over, we went back to the city center. Now we begin a brief historical tangent about Szentendre. The town has been inhabited since the time of the Romans. During the middle ages, the town became a Serb community, and thus the architecture is different than many other towns in Hungary. In recent years, the town has developed into an artistic community because of its proximity to Budapest, picturesque views of the Danube and surrounding hills, and the laid-back atmosphere. The city center dates back several hundred years and is full of small, winding streets and alleyways. Szentendre also has a nice beach along the Danube and I saw a lot of sporting on the river (canoes, kayaks, and speed boats enjoying the nice weather). We had a couple of hours to explore the town and then we took a boat down the Danube back to Budapest, which was a relaxing cap to a fun trip.

I apologize that it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but there hasn't been much to say. I have been studying Hungarian for the most part. However, do check back next weekend, because I will be in Prague Thursday through Saturday. Also, if you want to see pictures from yesterday's trip, as well as August 20 and other exploring that I have neglected to post, you can look on facebook.

Magyar

In case you are unaware, the Hungarian word for "Hungarian" is "magyar." I started Hungarian language school yesterday, and boy is it a difficult language. My primary issue is that the letter sounds are so different from English. For instance, consider the following examples:

Hungarian letter - equivalent English pronunciation
s - sh
sz - s
c - ts
cs - ch

And there are more! Also, each vowel has a short and long form (indicated by a forward leaning accent mark) and "o" and "u" also can have umlauts (both short and long). Fortunately studying German has helped me a lot with the umlauts. Still, it is a bit over whelming with so many differences, but I am slowly getting the hang of it and hopefully it will soon start clicking. The nice thing is I get plenty of practice. I find myself walking down the street and practicing my Hungarian by pronouncing the names of streets, restaurants, and stores. I had to smile when I was in the store today and I was able to understand my total when the cashier said it in Hungarian and I was able to politely say "thank you" in Hungarian.

The language school doesn't give much homework, so we (the students) are pretty free in the evening. Last night we got together to celebrate someone's birthday. It was fun to just hang out (previously we have only gotten together to explore the city). Slowly but surely I am learning people's names and where they are from/ where they go to school. Funny story about that: One of the girls in my section of the language school (there are four sections) is from Grand Rapids! When we figured this out, there was lots of excitement, plus a little bit of "small-world syndrome" (at least for my part).

I think that is all for now. I have been doing some exploring, but it has mainly been around my apartment - looking for restaurants, ATMs, etc. I am planning on visiting some bigger sights this weekend, or maybe sooner. Either way, keep an eye on facebook for more pictures soon.

August 20

In case you missed my previous post: Yesterday, August 20, was Hungarian National Day. A celebration of the formation of the Hungary state, August 20 actually corresponds to the canonization of Hungary's first king, St. Stephen. Essentially, its the Hungarian 4th of July - except it is much more of a city-wide shindig than any 4th of July celebration I have gone to. The banks of the Danube were lined with tents selling food and drinks - the most important of which is the Hungarian birthday cake. A different recipe is selected every year and it is a huge deal to Hungarians to get a slice. Of course, being outsiders, we didn't care to wait in a super long line for a piece of cake.

I should probably explain whom "we" refers to at this point. During the afternoon, my roommates and I met up with a few other BSM students on the western bank of the Danube to watch a boat race and air show. After that, we walked along the river passing the food stands and eventually we met up with another group of BSM students bringing the total up to 14. After finding a nice shady park to relax in and getting to know each other a little bit, we worked our way up to the Castle. In the courtyard was the Festival of Folk Arts. More tents - this time with folk art, including baskets, blankets, clothing, etc. Also there was a whip and sword fighting demonstration going on.

After the castle, we worked our way back to the western side of the river and found a restaurant that could seat all of us. We capped of the evening by walking to the edge of the river to watch a fantastic fireworks display. It was a lot of fun. I got to see a lot of new parts of the city and meet a lot of BSM students. I plan on going back to the castle when it is not so busy and explore it more - I'll keep you updated on that. Plus, I will meet a lot of the BSM students tomorrow when the language school starts (and finally learn how to at least pronounce the signs I see all over the place and hopefully start to be able to read them). I am all for having adventures in the grocery store, but it will also be nice to know for sure what I am buying.

Day one, exploring; day two, relaxing

After blogging yesterday I went exploring and eventually found a decently priced restaurant with English on its menu. The restaurant was a little more touristy than I had hoped, but that is what you get for needing an English menu - and heading toward the tourist-filled city center. If you looked at my photos on facebook, you will have noticed that during my exploring, I came across the Ferenc (Franz) Liszt Academy of Music, the Hungarian State Opera House, and St. Stephen's Basilica. I hope to return to all three. The former two for concerts/performances at some point, and the latter because it is stunningly gorgeous, but I couldn't get many pictures because outside they were setting up a stage on the front steps and inside they were holding a mass that I didn't wish to disturb with flash. The inside is just spectacular - marble and gold are everywhere, and wonderfully arranged. I can't wait to go back.

Finally, on the way back I stopped by the supermarket - note that a "supermarket" in Budapest is about the size of a corner grocery store in America or smaller. Shopping is also an adventure when you can't read the labels. You just have to look at the pictures, guess, and hope for the best. Groceries are fairly cheap in Budapest, which is nice.

As the title of this post suggests, I have spent most of today relaxing. I had to be around this afternoon to let my flatmates into the apartment, so that killed most of the day. Then I took them around to where the school is and where the train station is and we spent some time chatting and getting to know each over. Christophe is from Seattle and goes to school at Carleton College; and Mike is from New York and goes to school at McDaniel College in Maryland. Mike had no luck on his journey to Budapest. Air France has a bad reputation, and his story is one reason why: His flight from NY to Paris was delayed by a couple of hours, so he missed his connection to Budapest. Fortunately there was another flight just a few hours later. However, the airline proceeded to leave his luggage in Paris. So, for now all he has is his laptop bag. Tired from their long journey, both Mike and Christophe went to bed before 8pm. I don't blame them - I went to sleep around 9 last night.

One last item. I just realized that I have posted three days in a row. Please do not suspect that this blog will be written daily. Right now, there are lots of interesting things to tell you about, and I have the time to do so. However, once classes start up, I will have less time to write and my days will be more routine. At that point, I will probably make the blog more of a weekly thing.

Thanks for reading!

It begins.

I am sitting safe and sound in my apartment in Budapest. The flights were fairly well uneventful, which makes me happy - a little late out of Grand Rapids (big surprise... NOT!), landed early in Frankfurt, and just a few minutes late into Budapest. After going through customs, which consisted entirely of the officer waving me through, I was met by a student guide from BSM, who got us a cab to go to my apartment. A word to the wise, definitely look both ways before crossing the street in Budapest - Hungarian drivers are... let's go with "aggressive." I am no expert on Hungarian traffic regulations, but I'm pretty sure a few of our cab driver's maneuvers were less than legal.

Anyway, moving on to the apartment. The landlord is a really nice guy, who also works as a deejay. However, he doesn't speak English very well, so that will be interesting. The rooms in the apartment are quite spacious, except for the kitchen, which is fine, but the eating area is cramped. I will be sharing the apartment with two other BSM students who I will meet tomorrow when they arrive. Since I was the first one here, naturally I got my choice of rooms. :) My apartment is also only a five minute walk from the school - which should be really convenient. The building is a bit older, but that is the price you pay for the larger size.

I will get pictures up on facebook later, but right now I am hungry - which means I either have to find a restaurant or supermarket and hope they speak English. Sounds like an adventure! Oh, and I am told I arrived just in time because Saturday is Hungarian National Day (similar to the Fourth of July - except this year is Hungary's 1011th birthday) which means lots of celebration and fireworks. That should be fun. Now I am off to find food.

Today is THE DAY!

"This is the moment, this is the time, when the momentum and the moment, are in rhyme!" Kudos to whomever can name the musical from which that quote originates. One more, and massive kudos to anyone who catches this reference: "There will always be a valley, always mountains one must scale... Never hold back your step for a moment. Never doubt that your courage will grow. Hold your head even higher and into the fire we go!" These quotes come to mind because they are sung just before each character takes a huge, life-altering step into the unknown - which is where I feel I am right now.

As I prepare to fly out in a couple of hours, I am reminded of a personal anecdote: We have to go two years back to my first day at Pomona. We (the incoming freshmen) had moved in on Sunday, and now we were starting our Monday with placement exams. As I was walking to my first exam, I hear the bell tower from a church just off campus playing one of my favorite hymns: "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing!" That was one of the moments in my life when I felt God speaking directly to me, because that was the message I needed to hear, and one I am clinging to now. Sure I was ready and excited to move across the country to start school, but I was still scared. And sure, I am ready and excited to study abroad in a country where I know no one and don't speak the primary language, but I am also scared. However, I know that wherever I am, God is with me, he is my mighty fortress, and he will always speak my language. That is an awesome thought indeed!

I have just a few matters of business to address: First, at this point you should consider my cell phone off until I return - remember you can still reach me through e-mail, facebook, and Skype. Second, if you wish to check on my flight statuses, the flight number are: LH9411 (Grand Rapids to Chicago), LH431 (Chicago to Frankfurt), and LH1336 (Frankfurt to Budapest).

Thank you for reading this. Hopefully I will update within a few days. And I promise next time, I won't be so preachy.

PS If you care, the first song quoted was "This Is the Moment" from Jekyll and Hyde and the second song was "Into the Fire" from The Scarlet Pimpernel. Oddly enough, and completely unintentionally, the songs share the same composer.

First Post!

Welcome to my blog!

I leave for Budapest just two weeks from today (and of course I have started packing...). I hope to update this blog regularly when I am abroad so that everyone can keep up with my comings and goings. While I am abroad, my phone will not be active, but never fear, you can still get ahold of me. I will still be available through e-mail (bjdw2009@mymail.pomona.edu), Facebook, and Skype.

I am really excited to experience life outside the US. In addition to exploring Budapest, I plan on exploring other cities throughout Europe. Cities currently on my list to visit are Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg, and I would gladly take recommendations and suggestions (cities to see, hostels, restaurants, etc).

I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures abroad!