Return to Budapest: Day 1
At midday on Thursday I got on a plane to Detroit. And then a plane to JFK. And then a plane to Budapest. Other than inexplicable screw-ups and incompetence on the DTW-JFK leg, this mostly worked out. I got a bit of sleep on the JFK-BUD leg, and had a decent conversation with my seatmate, a physics studunt traveling with a group of colleagues for a 6-week study at the Eotvos. And so at 11 AM local I emerged only slightly wobbly into the Hungarian sun and took a shuttle to my hotel.
I'm staying at the Golden Park Hotel, right across the street from the Keleti pályaudvar. It is convenient and extremely reasonably priced; on the other hand the room is tiny and a bit dingy (on long-term aspects like painting and worn carpeting; the linens and suchlike are clean). It's not like I'll be entertaining guests, so that's all fine.
Immediately after my check-in there was a Budapest Semesters in Mathematics luncheon, so I made my way over to the facility in Bethlen tér, about 3 blocks away. Several old familiar faces were there, as well as some of the new crowd of young BSMes, and we talked about the changes in the city and swapped stories. After the lunch there was somewhat more of the same, with Paul Humke sharing photos and context for BSM's many years of ups and downs: Communism, tuition hikes, the panics-of-the-year like BSE and the Balkan War, as well as a couple of entertaining stories from BSM office staff, professors,and students about our delightful blundering (one brave soul, whose name should best be withheld here, stood up and told a story about his first night in Budapest, and how he and his roommate met some Czech girls on Váci utca, and, yeah, at this point we all knew where that story was going).
Afterwards there was a little bit of free time, and since I needed a plug adapter and a clock, I figured on hitting the streets up to the Nyugati pályaudvar, which was close to our next destination. and finding them at the mall there (I'd been given a recommendation for a store, a sort of Hungarian Best Buy). The city is much as it ever was, and it's nice to see that the map in my head remains mostly accurate: down Rákóczi to the Nagykörút, up and aroiund past Oktagon. The face of the city hasn't changed much, and it's still a boulevard of little specialty shops, bars, and dining ranging from the ubiquitous hole-in-the-wall gyro places and kinai büfe to fine cuisine both Hungarian and otherwise. English still hasn't made extraordinary inroads here, so it was a bit of a test of my Hungarian just to get a feel for everything around. A couple of streets have become pedestrian-only areas, and they've added an amphitheater behind Nyugati, so things must be looking up. Also, they've installed posts every 5 feet along the street on several of the side streets, which seems to have somewhat reduced the popularity of parking on the sidewalk. I never actually did get the clock, although I did find a (not very good) plug adapter.
At this point it was time for dinner, on a Duna riverboat. The cruise was pleasant, with good company, decent food, and some fine sights along the riverbank: it was still light enough to get acceptable photos of Parliament and the Várhegy, but that iconic night-time shot of the Lanchíd didn't come out at all (several drinks, a rocking boat, and a tourist camera do not add up to an ideal situation for night-time shooting).
By this point it was quite late, but we still went out briefly to a nice pub buried behind Nyugati with a lively jazz band and half-liters of Sopron Démon. When I wasn't looking, Hungary started producing acceptable dark beer, and Dréher no longer has the stranglehold on the industry it had.
We swapped more stories, both of Hungary and life since, and staggered back homewards: most of our crew was lsying their head near Blaha Lujza, and a few others out near Keleti like me, so we had a nice group headed back, and caught what seemed like it must've been the last #6 tram home.
And that brings us to today. I'm fresh and ready to go, and we're meeting up for an architectural tour at 9AM. There's a window labeled "RÉTES" around the corner from the hotel, so time to go scare up a pastry and a coffee. More news and pics as I get them.\
I'm staying at the Golden Park Hotel, right across the street from the Keleti pályaudvar. It is convenient and extremely reasonably priced; on the other hand the room is tiny and a bit dingy (on long-term aspects like painting and worn carpeting; the linens and suchlike are clean). It's not like I'll be entertaining guests, so that's all fine.
Immediately after my check-in there was a Budapest Semesters in Mathematics luncheon, so I made my way over to the facility in Bethlen tér, about 3 blocks away. Several old familiar faces were there, as well as some of the new crowd of young BSMes, and we talked about the changes in the city and swapped stories. After the lunch there was somewhat more of the same, with Paul Humke sharing photos and context for BSM's many years of ups and downs: Communism, tuition hikes, the panics-of-the-year like BSE and the Balkan War, as well as a couple of entertaining stories from BSM office staff, professors,and students about our delightful blundering (one brave soul, whose name should best be withheld here, stood up and told a story about his first night in Budapest, and how he and his roommate met some Czech girls on Váci utca, and, yeah, at this point we all knew where that story was going).
Afterwards there was a little bit of free time, and since I needed a plug adapter and a clock, I figured on hitting the streets up to the Nyugati pályaudvar, which was close to our next destination. and finding them at the mall there (I'd been given a recommendation for a store, a sort of Hungarian Best Buy). The city is much as it ever was, and it's nice to see that the map in my head remains mostly accurate: down Rákóczi to the Nagykörút, up and aroiund past Oktagon. The face of the city hasn't changed much, and it's still a boulevard of little specialty shops, bars, and dining ranging from the ubiquitous hole-in-the-wall gyro places and kinai büfe to fine cuisine both Hungarian and otherwise. English still hasn't made extraordinary inroads here, so it was a bit of a test of my Hungarian just to get a feel for everything around. A couple of streets have become pedestrian-only areas, and they've added an amphitheater behind Nyugati, so things must be looking up. Also, they've installed posts every 5 feet along the street on several of the side streets, which seems to have somewhat reduced the popularity of parking on the sidewalk. I never actually did get the clock, although I did find a (not very good) plug adapter.
At this point it was time for dinner, on a Duna riverboat. The cruise was pleasant, with good company, decent food, and some fine sights along the riverbank: it was still light enough to get acceptable photos of Parliament and the Várhegy, but that iconic night-time shot of the Lanchíd didn't come out at all (several drinks, a rocking boat, and a tourist camera do not add up to an ideal situation for night-time shooting).
By this point it was quite late, but we still went out briefly to a nice pub buried behind Nyugati with a lively jazz band and half-liters of Sopron Démon. When I wasn't looking, Hungary started producing acceptable dark beer, and Dréher no longer has the stranglehold on the industry it had.
We swapped more stories, both of Hungary and life since, and staggered back homewards: most of our crew was lsying their head near Blaha Lujza, and a few others out near Keleti like me, so we had a nice group headed back, and caught what seemed like it must've been the last #6 tram home.
And that brings us to today. I'm fresh and ready to go, and we're meeting up for an architectural tour at 9AM. There's a window labeled "RÉTES" around the corner from the hotel, so time to go scare up a pastry and a coffee. More news and pics as I get them.\