Classes

Well I have finally settled down into the classes I will be taking the rest of the semester, and it is a pretty good schedule. I'm taking two Hungarian specialties, Number Theory and Combinatorics and then Galois Theory. For non-math classes I am taking Hungarian Language and Hungarian Art and Culture. Both should be interesting. we've already read two novels for Culture class, and watched a cool movie. My schedule is such: Monday I have Combinatorics from 12-2. Tuesday I have Galois Theory from 12-2 and Hungarian Language from 2-5. Wednesday I have Number Theory from 10-12, Galois from 12-2, and Hungarian Culture from 2-5. Thursday I have Combinatorics from 8-10 and Number Theory from 12-2. And no classes on Fridays, which will come in handy for traveling and staying sane and such.

This weekend I continued exploring Budapest. Took a walk along the river (it's getting warm and spring-like out, it's great) and went into the Central market Hall, which is awesome. It is a huge, 3-story market with everything you can imagine. Lots of fun. I also went and saw a movie at a little art-house theater here. It's called Nyugalom by Robert Älföldi, I don't know if it will come out in the States or not. Anyway, it was all filmed in Budapest, and that made it so much fun. I recognized lots of the streets, the bridges, everything, and it made me feel like Budapest was my city, sort-of. The movie itself was alright. On the book front, I have finished One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Anna Édes by Dezső Kosztolányi and I have started The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. I'm also trying to find Lanark by Alisdair Gray and anything by Borges.

Short Musical Interlude

I don't know why I torture myself, but I continue to read Pitchfork every day despite the fact that I can't listen to new music here. It's also frustrating because it seems like there is so much good pop out. All hook filled and catchy, the stuff that has been missing in indie music recently. Like MGMT, Vampire Weekend, etc. But anyway, thats not what this is about. This is about El Guincho. So anyone who reads and knows, is it as amazing as the review makes it sound? That is all. Also, feel free to keep me updated on any good stuff coming out, so I know what to find when I get back. That is all for now.
Thanks.

Pictures of Berlin!

Here they are! Kind of in reverse order of how I wanted to post them, but oh well, we'll start off with the weird one.

Here is a giant mural-ly thing of a man made out of men. The graffiti in Berlin was awesome.



This is the Berlin Wall, right side was West Berlin. And that is the Spree River there.



Here is the sign next to Checkpoint Charlie.



This was an awesome place. It appeared to be kind of an art collective, with galleries and such, and the artists lived in the apartment building sin the back there. There were giant sculptures made out of thick cast iron, and crazy indsutrial/electronic music playing.


This is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The middle was built in the late 19th century and destroyed during WWII. The right tower is newer and houses administrative stuff, the shorter one back to the left is the new church, picture below.


Here is the inside.


This is the Spree again, with the Bode Museum in front and the large tower appearing to come out of it is the Fernsehturm. It is a television tower, built right in the middle of downtown East Berlin to show the power of the USSR. But now it is just a nice landmark to orient yourself.


Here is the Reichstag. Built who knows when originally, it was destroyed multiple times, and rebuilt with the cool dome.


Here is the Brandenburger Tor, part of the Wall during those days, but originally built in 1788. And there is Carlye as well, wearing her scarf Mom, so you know she's getting use out of it.


That's all!

Pictures, but not of Berlin

They have been some calls for pictures of Berlin, but alas, I do not have my cable with me today, so those will have to wait. However, I will put up some other pictures to satisfy other possible curiosities. I tried to put up many more than this, but it kept failing. So here these are. Again, they look much bigger when clicked on and blown up.

This is the Parliament building, the third largest parliament building in the world. I was wrong earlier, the Reichstag is not bigger (I thought that was wrong when I saw the Reichstag and it was smaller). The largest is Romania's, then Argentina's. It is covered with gold flaking on the inside, but only above arm's reach so that no one can steal it. Anyway, here it is.


This is the view from Fisherman's Bastion of Margitsziget (Margaret Island). You can see the Water Tower in the middle of it.


These are the ruins of the 14th-century Franciscan convent on the island.

Berlin!

Back from Berlin, and it was quite a trip. Berlin is a very modern city, very clean, very pretty, lots of new buildings. It's gorgeous, and not at all like Budapest. It was marvelous to see Carlye, and in two weeks she will only be 3-hours away! She has a really nice apartment, in the nice part of West Berlin, and she's only 30 minutes from her school. Berlin's public transit is outstanding. They have 9 subway lines and 9 elevated lines, plus all the trams and buses and such. You can get anywhere in the city in 7 different ways. It's awesome.

Thursday night Carlye and I went out to dinner at a little German place near her apartment, then just hung out and caught up.
Friday we went in to the city. We saw the Reichstag (one of only two Parliament buildings larger than Budapest's), walked through the Tiergarten (at the center of which is a statue that looks a lot like the one in Heroes Square here), through Brandenburg Tor, along the Unter den Linden, to the Gendarmenmarkt ( a beautiful square with a museum in the middle, flanked by two symmetrical churches on either side) and Checkpoint Charlie. We went to a huge, fancy chocolate shop with replicas of the Reichstag, the Titanic, a volcano and Brandenburg Tor in chocolate. We went out to dinner at an East African restaurant (which, true to German form, was not at all spicy), and then went to the Sony Center. It is a huge open square, in between a couple glass buildings, all covered by an expansive glass roof which glows purple and blue alternately. It looks like the future, as Carlye put it. Plus, the Berlin Film Festival was going on, so there were red carpets around, and cameras, and all sorts of glamour and glitz. We saw The Darjeeling Limited at a movie theater in the Sony Center and then rode the train home.
Saturday we went to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a beautiful old building at the convergence of six big streets, which was partially destroyed during WWII. It was left like it was, and a chapel was built next door. The new chapel was built entirely out of small one foot glass cubes, and when you are on the inside, the sun shines through them, and the place glows blue. It's fantastic. We walked down one of the fancier shopping streets (there were three H & M's on this street) and went into the KaDeWe. KaDeWe is one of the largest department stores in Europe, and one of the fanciest, and it has long been a symbol of what West Berlin had that East Berlin didn't. We just stopped in to see it, but it was pretty crazy. 7 floors, with everything you can think of inside. We then went to a cool bookstore, and went home for a bite to eat. Then we went out to Sanatorium 23, a "Mega-Cool" bar, as the guide said. It was on Karl Marx Allee, and was decorated with hospital beds and other such things. It was very fun, with good weissbeir and chips and salsa.
Sunday we woke up early to go to St. Hedwig's Cathedral for mass. It was the first Catholic church in Berlin, built in 1925!! It was one of the only Catholic churches in Berlin, and it was pretty small, despite being the Cathedral. Outside of it is a memorial to the book burnings in 1936, at least I think that is the year. It consists of a 2-foot square piece of glass in the ground. Upon looking through that, you see a vast empty cavern below you, the walls of which are filled with empty bookshelves, capable of holding some 80,000 volumes. We then went out to breakfast at a cafe across from Carlye's school. It was a breakfast brunch, and it was delicious!!!! Then we went out to see the longest remaining stretch of the wall. That was pretty moving, but it was more interesting to me to see where it used to be in other parts. Throughout the city, wherever the wall was, they bricks set into the sidewalks or streets so you can see where it was. After taking a nap, we walked around the Charlottenburg Palace and it's expansive grounds. Finally, we went out for Kaffee & Kuchen at Carlye's favorite cafe. They had no Kuchen left, but we had some cider and tea, and talked for hours.
This morning I came back to Budapest, and while Berlin was amazing, I can honestly say I am happy to be back here, since it sorta feels like home.

Sticking the Pig, Riots and a New Couch

Pigsticking was radically different from how I had hoped it would be, but not that different from how I had thought it might be. By that I mean it was much more touristy than I had hoped. I was under the impression we were going to a small town, but we went to this place called a Tanya, which was a Hungarian tourist trap kinda thing. Very odd. Apparently pigsticking is illegal already, and so it can only be done in 'heritage' places. So this Tanya is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but it didn't feel like it. There was a little petting zoo type place, mini-golf in the summer, and even a place for weddings. But it was actually quite fun, despite this.
We arrived at 9:30 in the morning, and were greeted with shots of palinka. Palinka is a honey-apricot brandy sort of liquor. So we had two shots of that, then watched the pig die, it's hair was burnt off, and then they cleaned the skin. While watching this, we got mulled wine. Then we went inside for breakfast, and had more mulled wine. The breakfast was interesting. They fried pigs blood and pig fat together, until it turns into little black lumps, and we were served this, and then more pigs blood is mixed with eggs and onions. This and bread rolls was breakfast. We went on a walk to see the animals, and played around with the electric fence, and then came back to watch the pig's head come off. We got more mulled wine to celebrate this. After this, we stood around and watched the pig be dismembered. I was not as bothered by this as I thought I would be. We were served mulled wine throughout. we then had a three course lunch. First we were served soup made with noodles and the spine of the pig. Next was the entree, which was blood sausage, liver sausage, and simple sausage with paprika potatoes. Dessert was a Hungarian style custard pie with marmalade topping. It was alright, but after hearing all of the things that went into the foods, I couldn't bring myself to get that excited about the foods.
The best part about the trip were our Hungarian tour guides, who were just having a lot of fun with us the whole time. They told us everything was "traditional Transylvanian." For instance, the fire pit was "traditional Transylvanian fire pit" though it was obviously just a normal fire pit. But it was fun. On the way back they taught us some Hungarian songs, and then we made one up for the day that was set to the tune of the American national anthem.

Yesterday and today there were riots at Parliament, so there were riot police out, and barriers set up, and lots of chanting and singing. Apparently the country is liberalizing its health care system, and the conservatives are upset, so they are protesting. So that's kind of fun.

I have found the National Foreign Language Library, and it's pretty cool. They have a fairly good selection of novels in English, plus the New York Times, Time and the New Yorker, which are nice to read.

I have a couch in my room now! We moved it from the kitchen into my room, and now my room feels smaller, but much cozier and I can lounge someplace other than my bed.

Tomorrow I leave for Berlin, so I won't post until next Monday probably, but hopefully with some pictures of Berlin.

Castle Hill

Here are some pictures of Castle Hill finally.

Here is a typical street in the Castle Hill district.


This is Fisherman's Bastion, I have many good pictures of this, so I'll try to put them up later. It is a beautiful structure.


Here is Matthias Church. It is unfortunately undergoing renovations, so half of it is covered in tarps and scaffolding, but here is an uncovered corner.


A wall surrounds the Castle Hill District, and the northern side of the district has only one break in the wall. It is a giant gate, and this picture is taken from the top of it, looking out on the Buda hills.

Vaci Utca, Subways and Vajdahunyad Castle

Well the latter half of the week held no grand excitements, but it's nice to settle into a bit of a routine here. I finally bought a transit pass, so I have been riding the subways a lot, and just getting off wherever to wander about. The yellow line ends down near the river at Vörösmarty tér, and I have gone down there twice in the past couple of days. Vaci Utca (street) is down there, and the whole neighborhood consists mainly of carless streets filled with shops. One of these is called Fashion Street, and is filled with high end designer clothes stores, with cheap American ones mixed in. There are an excessive amount of shoe stores around the city, and the same holds down there, with two Reebok stores.
Friday, Sam and I went to Városliget (City Park), and visited Vajdahunyad Castle, which was pretty cool. It is an odd mixture of styles, with a moat around it, and a drawbridge with a giant iron gate. There was a big flea market happening, so there were stalls peddling all sorts of things around the bridge and inside the castle. That night, we went out for palacsintas, which are pancake/crepe like things. We had chicken curry ones, chili con carne, Milky Way, chocolate pudding, mushroom, apple and peach ones. All were very good.
This morning we went to see my landlady. She lives over in the Buda Hills, and walking up to her place was gorgeous. Her street is a beautiful tree-lined street with an amazing view of the city. It's like an older San Francisco, Jon said, and I think I would be inclined to agree with him, though I have never been to San Francisco.
This afternoon I didn't feel so well, so I read. And read. And read. I ended up reading over 3/4 of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It's amazing. It is about Prague during the Soviet era, and it's fun to see the comparisons to here. Plus he mentions Budapest a couple times, and Imre Nagy too. So if you read this Tom, thanks for the recommendation, though I think you are biased towards it because it is about a doctor named Tomas. This book is especially satisfying because the last two books were disappointments. I have read Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima and Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov already while here, and both are authors I have read before, and these didn't hold up to their best stuff. I have also been reading William Blake's poetry, which is quite good. Up next I have One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, Paradise Lost by John Milton and The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner. So if anyone has any recommendations, let me know and I will seek them out. Tomorrow I am (hopefully) going to a pigsticking in the countryside. It is basically the slaughtering of a pig, and a giant celebration. It is an ancient Hungarian tradition (and apparently partly the cause of the downfall of the Soviet Union in Hungary), but it will be outlawed once Hungary is officially in the EU. It should be quite interesting, and it will be nice to see another part of Hungary. A good article on the subject can be found here: http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no173/9.htm.
Thats all for now.

Note on the Pictures

Just so you know, you can click on any of the pictures, and they blow up very nicely. So with the picture below of the view from Gellert, it is much easier to see things if you click on it.

Gellert Hill

Gellért Hill is the highest point within Budapest, 235 meters above the river. It is on the Buda side of the river, to the south of Castle Hill. It has incredible views of the city and everywhere.

We went up the back side of the hill, and this was one of the paths on the way up.


This is a view from the top looking north. On the left side is Buda, the right is Pest. The bridge in view is the Chain Bridge again, and directly to the left of that is the Buda Castle, with the teal roof. On the right you can just make out Parliament, with the maroon roof.


This is on the river side of the hill, looking up. In the summer, there is a waterfall in the center there.


This is the Liberty Statue, erected by the Soviets to commemorate their victory in World War II. Behind it is the Citadel, built by the Hapsburgs. It was used as defense by the retreating Nazi's, and later by the Soviets to crush the '56 revolution. The whole building is pockmarked from bullet holes.


In the lower right of the above picture is this guy, beating the crap out of a gryphon.


Here is both the gryphon statue and the Liberty Statue.

Szent István Bazilika

Here are some pictures of Szent István Bazilika (Saint Stephen). I went here last Saturday, and I plan to go next Sunday for mass.

This is the view from the large square in front of it.



This is the dome.



From the middle looking towards the altar.


This is the view from Castle Hill, in the foreground is the Széchenyi lánchíd (Széchenyi Chain Bridge).


I tried to get some other pictures in the interior, but it was too dark, so this is all I have for now.

Math and Orchestra

Monday night I went to the Royal Palace of the Arts and saw the Pittsburghi Szimfonikus Zenekar (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) at Bela Bartok Hall. It was only 200 Ft., which is about $1.25. For that price, we were 4 floors above the stage, and standing only. But it was still quite outstanding. They played Beethoven's Egmont Overture, and his Piano Concerto No. 4, then Brahms Symphony No. 3. For their encore, they played a couple of Brahms' Hungarian Dances, and the crowd went wild. It was a lot of fun. Yesterday's classes went well, I liked them better than Monday's, and today I get a taste of Number Theory for the first time, so that should be exciting! Anyway, said class is starting right about now, so I will write more later.

My Apartment

Well I can finally put up some pictures, though not that many, as it takes a long time even to upload one.

Here are some of my apartment.

This is the view from the street.


This is the courtyard, my door is the one in the bottom left.


This is the entrance hallway. Notice the stove is in the hallway.


This is my room, I have an abundance of chairs. The ceilings are about 15 ft. tall.


This is the view from my window.


This is the school.


Well, for now that is all the pictures I think.

This weekend I went on all sorts of adventures. I will put up pictures later, but a short summary. Saturday I went to St. Stephen's Basilica and Castle Hill with Sam. Both are beautiful. Castle Hill is the old part of town. Saturday night Sam's friend Tessa came to visit him. She also went to Bemidji, and now is studying sustainable development at a university in Denmark. We went out to eat traditional Hungarian food at a pretty cool restaurant. I got gulyas soup, and prok medallions 'Budapest style,' which consisted of pork, potatoes, onions and paprika. Finally I got Gundel pancakes, a world famous Hungarian dessert apparently. The soup and entree were delicious, but the dessert was not so much. Sunday we went to Gellert Hill, which is the highest part of town, and has amazing views of the city. We then went to Castle Hill again and finally Margaret Island. Margaret Island is a huge city park, with many 13th century ruins and a cool Japanese garden.

Today I had classes for the first time. This morning we had classical algebra, which everyone has to attend, and the teacher is quite a character. He bounced all over the stage, would bounce his chalk off the blackboard and catch it, and twice called kids 'losers.' He also asked us what we get when one mulitplies by 1. Nobody answered for a couple seconds, and he said, "You know, it's like the song in the Led Zeppelin movie, it remains the same." Functional Analysis was next, and that was way over my head. Supposedly I had the prerequisites, but I had no idea what was going on, so I know one class I won't be taking. The teacher also at one point described a simple looking but poorly constructed proof as such: "It is like a poem, it looks neat, but it means nothing." Combinatorics was good, though by this time I was getting tired (I had 8 straight hours of math today). Finally, I had Mathematical Physics, but the professor changed the course to Quantum Logic, so it is a lot less physics and a lot of logic, which I don't like as much. But that is that.

That is all for today, I do believe, but soon I will put more pictures from my adventures.

Classes, Parties, and such

Well the last post misfired, so here is the same one, but with some content.

We had our orientation today, so I got to meet more people, and I am very excited for classes. I met a kid who goes to Bemidji, and he vaguely recognizes Paul's name, so that is kind of fun.
Tonight a girl in the program had a birthday party, and that was also pretty fun. I met and talked with lots of kids, including a number of Hungarians, and they liked the fact that I had good things to say about Budapest. They speak English very well, in my opinion, but they always say they are no good, and cite the movie 'Scenario' which has a number of Hungarians who have terrible Hungarian accents., apparently. Three Hungarians brought that movie up to me on separate occasions. Kinda funny. After the party, everyone flooded to a nightclub, but it was very crowded, so I walked back here. Tomorrow or Monday/this week I will put pictures up.

Classes, Parties, and such