St. Olaf Budapest Interim 2016: Day 5: Szentendre

We have officially made it through our first week of Number Theory! Well, we would have if the weather was more cooperative. Because the forecast calls for rain tomorrow, Bruce moved our weekend trip to Szentendre to this afternoon. Before heading out, we finished our last class of structured Hungarian learning. Both Erika and the class felt a little bittersweet that our time together had come to a close, so we gave her a bouquet of flowers chosen by our very own Sam and Salih to show her how much we appreciated her teaching. Erika was thrilled, and we soon returned to "Survival Hungarian," finishing up with the days of the week, greetings, goodbyes, and useful phrases for navigating our home for the next month. At the end of class, we all sang our favorite song, "Olvadás", once more. Before she left, Erika gave us a list of things to do in Budapest, as well as recommendations for those of us traveling to Vienna during our free weekend.

Now that we had some Hungarian under our belts, it was time to go on our field trip. As a class, we took the metro to Buda, where we lunched on crêpes at a restaurant called Nagyi Palacsintázója. Many chose the banana-and-nutella variety, while the options ranged from other fruity combinations to more savory selections, such as the classic Hawaiian (ham and pineapple). After lunch we boarded the train to Szentendre, and practiced our Hungarian to purchase tickets. Once in Szentendre we were met with a beautiful view of the town and the river Danube from a church courtyard atop a hill.

Aboard the H5

After stopping for some breathtaking views and photos, we visited a pair of museums in the city. The first was a museum of ceramic artwork by Margit Kovács, a 20th century artist who donated her works to a local museum. Their collection spans her entire career, beginning with pieces she made before the Second World War, and ending with some of her final works before her death in 1977. There was even a selection of "Hands On Art" in the museum, which many of us acknowledged as a very nice touch. For people raised not to touch art, it was daunting at first to feel the artwork, but it aided the understanding.

Following Bruce

Our last collective stop was at a small museum that exhibited about a dozen works of Micro Art. We had to use microscopes to see the artwork, as each piece is barely visible on its own. The artwork was beautiful on its own, and the amount of work needed to create art that small added to the experience.

A gold caravan in the eye of a needle.

Night view of Szentendre

After the museums, we were on our own. Many of us took this time to continue exploring Szentendre. Among the shops and restaurants, we found chessboards, puzzle boxes, ornate glass bottles, and a chocolate shop.

Tonight was the last night of professor dinners, so the remaining five of us went with Bruce and Jill to a pleasant restaurant that played 70s/80s disco and funk music. While the music seemed disconnected from the culinary experience, it was overall enjoyable.