Reflexions Itinerant: July 2004 Archives

The reason for heading over to Hungary was to participate in a seminar day at the beautiful Budapesti Mûszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem (Budapest University of Technology and Economics) where a couple of researchers in my field are based; the sciencey part of the visit was actually very interesting, if difficult to sit through (08:00 through to 18:30) for the lack of air conditioning in a stuffy room in a still and humid city basking under sunshine at 35 °C.

Though eight people were attending from my laboratory, only two of that number were travelling with me; we arrived in Budapest a day earlier, on Malév, the national carrier, and I got the perfect seat, with a full view of the engine and the outboard section of the wing, the latter being something which has fascinated me since about the age of three; as always, my face and hands were glued to the window during landing and take-off, lest I miss the crucial changes in flap, slat and aileron positioning that give rise to the sheer craziness that is the lifting off of something that heavy into the skies (no, but seriously, a tiny 737-500 weighs in at 55 000 kilogrammes, a 747-400 F series at 390 000 [squillion] kilogrammes. I know it's all perfectly rational, but it's still bloody amazing and I can't take it for granted).

Okay, I've wiped the drool from my face.

Checking in to our student accommodation was an event, since the building was clearly a relic of the soviet occupation, and came complete with scary wiring, peeling, leaded paint, hole-in-the-wall showers (it was like having a giant piss a column of water at you from somewhere on high, but lacking the thrill of watersports), and those magical Eastern European shelved toilets that just defy further elaboration. And it was warm, fairly clean, and comfortable; good enough for me.

We had the whole day to go 'sploring. In fact, when we weren't playing academician and socialising with our colleagues, we were out exploring, and eating, and looking, and touching, and walking for hours at a time whilst getting very sweaty in the crotch. It was great! One of the attractive features of the city is certainly its architecture, and if you visit Szt. Istvàn Basilica (I'm guessing St. Stephen's) and climb to the top of the dome, you'll find yourself with the ideal 360° panorama of the city which affords views of many of the more famous landmarks.

King Stephen united Hungary under Roman Catholicism in 896 A.D., following a message from the Pope that ordered him to convert or get out. He converted, don't you know, and was later beatified for his display of exceptional courage.

The food proved very satisfying almost without exception, though it is widely geared toward staunch carnivores; we ended up in a restaurant called Fatál, which was anything but that (a fatál is a wooden platter), where we were served things like this, and more, for peanuts, which equated to one of the best meals I've had in a long while.

Following the end of the seminar programme, we ended up going to the Gellért bath house, a huge, famous, baroque affair of sculpted masonry, pools and thermal baths - all radioactive, and part of the attraction - which was really something else.

In addition to seeing my supervisor in the buff -- well, fear kept me from looking right at him -- a Hungarian twenty-something rather bravely tried to give me the eye despite the fact that I was foreign, talking to another foreigner in foreign, and about 30 °C too far over my own body temperature to even want to contemplate contemplating getting any sweatier. I quietly flashed him an appreciative grin with "No" written all over it, knowing full well that I wouldn't have gone there whatever the situation. In any case, his swimming trunks offended me, which is just as well, and though there were a good sixty naked blokes running around the place, one looking like a younger, hunkier Vladimir Putin, hung like a dinosaur, that was as gay as it got.

More excitingly, they had the most powerful wave pool I've ever been in; elegantly surrounded by white stone balustrades and little renaissance statuettes, this incongruous pool of mammoth waves and crazy breakers had a unifying effect on all present. We stopped, if only for a moment, to watch and smile as our supervisor turned into a ten year old and threw himself into the foam, grinning like a kid; I plan to be that sprightly at fifty.

Thereafter, pretty much everybody left for the U.K., leaving Huey (my friend and colleague) and myself to explore all corners of the city on foot for an extra night and day. We visited; the parliament, purportedly inspired by the Palace of Westminster; Pest's huge and very tasty indoor market, where I wanted to steal most of the vegetables on display and smear myself with the local patisserie; Vajdahunyad Castle, which was surrounded by ducks, and an extraordinarily high incidence of nookie (I've never seen so many people making out as I did in Budapest as a whole); another bath house, Széchenzyi, which was rather pretty and a cheering respite from the tiring heat outside; a Japanese-style vegan restaurant, Wabisabi, because we just had to after four days of meat and pickled vegetable for four days in a row. Here, I encountered rooibos tea, a South African export that I've been drinking almost every day since I got back to the UK (right now, in fact!).

Our last few hours were spent at the Buda Royal Palace, which sits atop a hill accessible by funicular or on foot (we chose lazy and novel over energetic and commonplace, though it incurred a small fee). Up here, we sought shelter from the heat beneath a huge bronze statue of a horse and rider, sitting on its highly photographed limestone plinth and ruining everybody's pictures whilst admiring the fine views, our collection of fetish shots, and the travesties that some people elect to visit upon themselves.

After a few hours of sunning our toes, it was off to the airport; this journey we decided to make via metro and bus, and for a total of about ninety pence each, it was far better value than the ten quid taxis with the upside of a little extra adventure. I even saw my sister along the way, which was unexpected. At this point, Huey reveals to me that she is a closeted Taiwanese princess, and somehow manages to get us into the first class lounge for free drinks, food and internet before our flight back to the British sunshine. Budapest was memorable.

Just a quick one to say a general hello; I am currently sat in a tiny, smokey internet cafe a couple of hundred metres from the River Danube, having a wonderful time and eating as much as I would be expected to be eating in a place with good food at low prices and rather vast portions.

It is extremely taxing, but I shall prevail. I expect to be home fairly soon, at which point I might have something to share, but until then, take care all. And thank you, Mister C, for looking after my comment spam so diligently!