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!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, September 12, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
"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.
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.
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