Last Night in Budapest

On the last night, we were taken to dinner on a boat that cruised along the Danube as we ate good buffet food with wine and champagne, and some live classical music. I managed to get outside after dinner and took some photos.



Onward to Germany.

Old Town Bratislava

Downtown Bratislava was quite beautiful, in contrast to the university. We had a very robotic tour guide, but we did learn a little of the history.

This is part of the Holocaust memorial. This picture is actually in honor of the synagogue that the Soviets tore down to make way for its "modernization" of the town.

The Danish embassy in Slovakia also serves as a bar.


Here's a popular tourist attraction: A jolly old pervert, as I like to call him. He symbolizes someone who looks up dresses when women walk past.


A close-up view of him.

Bratislava, Slovakia

We took a day trip to Bratislava, in Slovakia, to tour the Univerzita Komenského. It was fairly run-down on the outside, remnants of the soviet-era architecture and lack of strong academic funding, however, I found the faculty and students quite proud and enthusiastic about their research and it was impressive, given such a modest budget.


As you can see, the outside is quite worn-out.


The inside wasn't that great either.


However, they are able to still perform some fantastic experiments, like this laser lab. Because of their limited funding, Eastern European researchers tend to focus on the hard sciences, where expensive equipment is not too necessary. One of the most interesting observations I made is that these scientists work very closely with their students--I mean shoulder-to-shoulder in the laboratories--all day long, even though many of these scientists teach multiple classes at multiple universities: amazing!

Random Statues

Nearly everywhere you go, there is some random statue that you can find. This one was found on a wall of some apartment building.

Another cool random statue.

Sedilia

Many buildings in the castle area have what is known as sedilia, basically meaning that modern renovations of the building has kept something about its previous architecture. If you look next to the door in this photo, you can get an idea of what it means.

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

The Academy of Sciences is an impressive building containing several rooms of priceless artwork of famous scientists and aristocrats. We were lucky to have a private tour of the building.

It is very impressive-looking at night.

Another Statue

Here's a statue honoring the overcoming of Muslim control in Hungary. Note the turban on the boys head at the bottom of the horse

Emperor on Horse

Budapest has a rich history of emperors and sieges. Here's a statue of one.

Here's another angle of it.

Yes I Was There

Here's the proof. At this point, I was very, very tired. Like damn tired.

Saint Stephen's Basilica

One of the coolest places was St Stephen's Basilica, located near the office of our hosts. It is a basilica because it contains the only remaining anatomy (a hand) of the martyr.

Another cool view of it.

First Full Day in Budapest

5/19/08 Early start for some traditional Hungarian breakfast at the hotel. It wasn't too bad. Sat through several lectures over international education. We had a nice walking tour of the Buda side of the river, going to the castle area. It was a pretty cool, at least what remains of it (it was a German hide-out in WWII and most buildings were bombed to rubble. After the tour: more orientations and another dinner at a fancy restaurant with some fantastic, live jazz music.

First City Lights in Budapest

Budapest is amazing at night. Nearly every cool building is lit up with several hundred bulbs of many colors. Here is a picture of the palace on the Buda side.

Hungarian Food

Here's my first Hungarian dish, called pork knuckles. It was a lot of food and it tasted great. The potatoes were awesome.

Made It

5/18/2008 Finally made it to Budapest around 12pm local time after an adventurous landing. I snagged some Forints (Hungarian currency) from the ATM and got a speed-racer cab to the hotel, after managing the language barrier: Hungarian is a hard language to learn! With a nice case of jet-lag, us fellows met in the lobby for a language and city orientation of Budapest, I'm sure I'll forget everything after I sleep finally. We were taken to dinner at a great restaurant, enjoying some national cuisine. I had a pork knuckle, resembling a cave-man style hunk of meat with some pickles and vegetables. The wine was good--of course I thought the “red” was better than the “white”. The Cock Testicles (no joke, it is a food dish) weren't that bad either, just a little chewy. A group of us walked along the Danube after dinner and were amazed at the city lights along the river. The views are fantastic. Well, time for some necessary shut-eye.

Almost there

5/18/2008 Arrived at Paris airport around 7AM. All I can say is that I'm glad I remembered some French as my seat was given to someone else, so I was put on the waiting list, but assured I would probably make it since they make everyone check-in on connecting flights and they close check-in 30 minutes before the flight, so they always plan on screwing over some passengers. While I was first on the waiting list, the attendant proceeded to give the available seats to French-speaking passengers, knowing that I needed a seat. Realizing this, I spoke a little French and finally got a seat. I guess the US has a long way to fix its international reputation.

The Start

5/17/2008 Left Denver after only a few hours of sleep. Made it early to JFK where I enjoyed a couple of 10-dollar a pint Stella's and some fish and chips. My flight to Paris left 30 minutes late. The story behind the delay was quite comical. As we were taxiing, I noticed that the personal in-flight entertainment system was rebooting and that it was a version of Linux. I thought that it was pretty cool, thinking that it was good of Delta for using such an open-source approach. However, before take-off the pilot apologized for the delay and indicated that it was due to a problem with the entertainment system. Ha Ha Ha, I guess the Linux community still has some work to be done.