A backlog of Budapest
I apologize for the lack of updates but the constant partying (of the homework variety) has put a serious limitation on my blogging time. So the first major piece of news is that last Friday we finally made it to Parliament!!
Ranjan, very generously, made the trip to pick up the tickets before class on Friday. After class we had some time to kill before meeting Kylee at Parliament. So we wandered the thrift stores on Rákóczi utca, but we didn't find anything to match the sweaters we had previously purchased. Once we did make it to Parliament we had to first go through a security check, not quite as bad as airports since we got to keep our shoes on. From there the tour started in earnest. It is easy to see why the building is considered the most beautiful parliament in the world, everywhere is decorated in detailed art work almost all of which was made in Hungary. One of the few things not of Hungarian origin were 8 columns gifted by the king of Sweden (I think) these are some of only 12 in Europe the other four being in the English parliament.
Next came the inside of the colossal central dome. In the center of the dome the Holy Crown and Hungarian crown jewels are on display, having been brought back from Fort Knox where they were safely kept until 2000.
Next were a series of rooms leading towards the main chambers. The Parliament once had two houses each with their own meeting room though now there is only room so one chamber is mainly used as a backup. Despite the fact that one house of parliament was lower than the other, Parliament is actually symmetrical, the only difference is the color of the decor. In one of these chambers there were statues representing traditional Hungarian careers, my favorite was the wizard pictured below.
Soon we reached the outside of the main meeting chamber, where we were shown a set of labeled cigar holders. Back in the day representatives used to smoke out in the halls and only go in to the meeting room for important speeches. This created a problem as senators would forget where they left their cigars, hence the numbers. Apparently if a speech was good enough representatives would forget about their cigars leaving them to burn away, such a speech was "good enough for a Havana".
Lastly we made it to the main hall which I was unable to take a steady photograph of. We did learn some very cool things including that it is the third largest parliament in the world, was build using 40kg of real gold, and cost as much as a city capable of housing 30,000 people!
On Sunday I finally experience one of Budapest's other feature attractions, thermal baths. A group of us went over to Városliget (city park) to visit the Széchenyi-gyógyfürdő (Széchenyi baths). This proved to be a very relaxing afternoon as the baths are a large complex with 2 large outdoor baths and at least 10 indoor baths varying in temperature and mineral content. My favorite was the warmer outdoor bath which was about 37 °C, it was wonderful to be outside and yet be so warm. The other outdoor bath was a great deal of fun because in the center there was a circle of jets which created a fast spinning current. We played in this for a while letting the water push us around, before venturing inside. There the baths ranged from 18 °C to 40 °C, we wandered from bath to bath spending time to sit and chat in some. Before leaving we also checked out the saunas including a steam sauna, a light sauna (think Skyspace but hot), and my favorite a sweltering 80°C sauna.
Most of the rest of the weekend (including Monday) was spent in the aforementioned homework parties. Though I have been busy with classes most of this week I did manage to make it to the International student dinner earlier tonight. I was informed of this in my last class of the day with the vague description that it was at the math school and there was free food. This certainly was true, for those of my readers who have experienced the Claremont Colleges International Festival will have some idea of what it was like. BSM is housed in a building known as College International which naturally has a great deal of international students, not just from the US either. This event was put together to allow these students to showcase their cultures in one of the best ways possible, food. There were booths with food from all over Japan, Israel, Spain, Italy, and of course Hungary. I took the only logical course of action and ate some of everything!
Ranjan, very generously, made the trip to pick up the tickets before class on Friday. After class we had some time to kill before meeting Kylee at Parliament. So we wandered the thrift stores on Rákóczi utca, but we didn't find anything to match the sweaters we had previously purchased. Once we did make it to Parliament we had to first go through a security check, not quite as bad as airports since we got to keep our shoes on. From there the tour started in earnest. It is easy to see why the building is considered the most beautiful parliament in the world, everywhere is decorated in detailed art work almost all of which was made in Hungary. One of the few things not of Hungarian origin were 8 columns gifted by the king of Sweden (I think) these are some of only 12 in Europe the other four being in the English parliament.
Next came the inside of the colossal central dome. In the center of the dome the Holy Crown and Hungarian crown jewels are on display, having been brought back from Fort Knox where they were safely kept until 2000.
Next were a series of rooms leading towards the main chambers. The Parliament once had two houses each with their own meeting room though now there is only room so one chamber is mainly used as a backup. Despite the fact that one house of parliament was lower than the other, Parliament is actually symmetrical, the only difference is the color of the decor. In one of these chambers there were statues representing traditional Hungarian careers, my favorite was the wizard pictured below.
Soon we reached the outside of the main meeting chamber, where we were shown a set of labeled cigar holders. Back in the day representatives used to smoke out in the halls and only go in to the meeting room for important speeches. This created a problem as senators would forget where they left their cigars, hence the numbers. Apparently if a speech was good enough representatives would forget about their cigars leaving them to burn away, such a speech was "good enough for a Havana".
Lastly we made it to the main hall which I was unable to take a steady photograph of. We did learn some very cool things including that it is the third largest parliament in the world, was build using 40kg of real gold, and cost as much as a city capable of housing 30,000 people!On Sunday I finally experience one of Budapest's other feature attractions, thermal baths. A group of us went over to Városliget (city park) to visit the Széchenyi-gyógyfürdő (Széchenyi baths). This proved to be a very relaxing afternoon as the baths are a large complex with 2 large outdoor baths and at least 10 indoor baths varying in temperature and mineral content. My favorite was the warmer outdoor bath which was about 37 °C, it was wonderful to be outside and yet be so warm. The other outdoor bath was a great deal of fun because in the center there was a circle of jets which created a fast spinning current. We played in this for a while letting the water push us around, before venturing inside. There the baths ranged from 18 °C to 40 °C, we wandered from bath to bath spending time to sit and chat in some. Before leaving we also checked out the saunas including a steam sauna, a light sauna (think Skyspace but hot), and my favorite a sweltering 80°C sauna.
Most of the rest of the weekend (including Monday) was spent in the aforementioned homework parties. Though I have been busy with classes most of this week I did manage to make it to the International student dinner earlier tonight. I was informed of this in my last class of the day with the vague description that it was at the math school and there was free food. This certainly was true, for those of my readers who have experienced the Claremont Colleges International Festival will have some idea of what it was like. BSM is housed in a building known as College International which naturally has a great deal of international students, not just from the US either. This event was put together to allow these students to showcase their cultures in one of the best ways possible, food. There were booths with food from all over Japan, Israel, Spain, Italy, and of course Hungary. I took the only logical course of action and ate some of everything!
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