Odds and Ends

Our second to last Friday in Budapest is also the kick-off to our second free weekend. Tonight, some of us are going to see Cosi fan tutte at the Hungarian State Opera House. One of the statistics that Andras Nagy threw at us yesterday was that ticket sales suggest that around half of all Hungarians are going to some sort of live performance (theater, opera, concert) at least once a year. The Opera House, too, is known for being a really pretty building, designed by the same architect that designed several other famous buildings in Budapest. Those of us not attending the opera either left for Vienna this afternoon or went out to dinner as a sort of “leftovers” group (we, not the food, were the leftovers).

Today we had two sessions of class, and we know that you would all be fascinated by full coverage of every mathematical minute, but unfortunately that's not what we have in mind. It occurred to us that there are a lot of small things about Budapest that we've commented on to each other, but have never made it to the blog, so we thought we might mention some of these things to you.

First of all, we've said next to nothing about our school. We have class at McDaniel College, which is in the Jewish district on the Pest side and where the St. Olaf Budapest Semester in Mathematics is also hosted.

The Holocaust Memorial in front of our school.

The building our class is in used to be a Jewish school when it was first built. Then, during WWII, it was a safe house for Jews who were waiting on visas that they had been promised by other countries. Now it belongs to McDaniel College. McDaniel College is actually an American school, with its main branch in Westminster, Maryland. Erika, our language teacher, said that the Budapest branch draws a lot of students from Hungary but also nearby countries, because students spend two years in Budapest and then two years in the US, and then graduate with an American degree.

The main fashion trends we've noticed are a strict adherence to neutrals in outerwear – occasionally with a bright scarf, but more often than not, scarves, hats, and gloves are neutral too. Also, we've noticed that it seems to be a trend for women, around 30 and up, to dye their hair red. True red, the kind that almost looks purple-y when it's on someone's head.

You may have gathered that our hotel is on the top floor of a dorm building. Each room has a little kitchen area, a bathroom, the main room, and up on a loft, the beds. For the most part, we've been the only group in the hotel, so we leave our doors open a lot. We also rely a lot on the breakfast room, which is very nice with white linens and lots of little tables. Breakfast every morning is provided by the hotel, a true continental breakfast.

The prevalence of smoking is something that has been alluded to before. It's hard to say if really more people smoke or if it's just that we're in a city, so there are just more people. Nevertheless, we do see a lot of smoking. Building codes are different, too. Restaurants have smoking sections right next to non-smoking sections (something our generation only vaguely remembers from when we were pretty little), and smoking is allowed in a fair number of places.

Walking around the city, there are a lot of squares. That sounds funny to say, but it's very true. Also, most squares and streets are named after famous Hungarians or people who otherwise influenced Hungary. Overall, I'd say that we can identify some people, but definitely not most. It's helpful, though, when you go to the museums. If you saw the same name on street sign, whatever you're looking at is probably important.

ABC's, CBA's, and any other combination of those letters indicates a little grocery/convenience store, and they are everywhere. They have mostly groceries, so don't quite think Walgreens or anything like that, but they usually have a deli counter and at least one full aisle of beverages in addition to normal staples.

Gyros seem to be the quick meal option in Budapest, the same way you might just grab a burger in the states. Other quick food stops tend to be Chinese food (Hungarians butcher it just as much as Americans), bakeries, and then fast food chains we are used to. I will admit, some of the group has been to McDonald's in a time crunch. The most amusing part was the head to toe uniform, including McDonald's jeans where the back pocket stitching was golden arches.

Meat is everywhere here. In restaurants, yes, but even moreso in grocery stores and marketplaces. There is a lot of raw meat available, sometimes even directly from the butcher. You definitely won't find a meat section in a store where a slab of meat is sold on a styrofoam tray wrapped in cellophane here.

We hear a lot of American music here. Everything from oldies to current popular songs can be heard in restaurants, walking by stores, and on the radio. Somebody asked Andras Nagy about it yesterday, and he said that Hungarian popular music lost ground during the communist era, because rock was suspicious, and it's not up to par yet. Apparently, a lot of radio stations are required to play Hungarian music 40% of the time to try to counteract the too readily available imported music.

One final thought – the metro escalators. It no longer phases us, but the escalators down into and up out of the metro are much steeper than any escalators we've encountered before. New to them, you really feel like you're going deep down into the bowels of the earth, and it's almost dizzying.

The next blog post will be Sunday, to fill you all in about our free weekend. Don't let the skipped Saturday worry you; we'll be having too much fun to write!

Kelsey and Emily