Fei's Magical Day

Szia!

Today was yet another beautiful day here in Budapest. The day started out with breakfast, over which Nick relayed stories etiquette school (for a gentleman to help a lady through a revolving door, he must run through it a couple of times to get it going), after which we hopped on the 7E and made our way to class. We started out the day with some math; some of us (me) found it was a little hard to stay focused the day just after the midterm (I swear I'm a good student, mom), but we persevered and learned a couple useful new theorems. 

Class ended around noon, at which point Catherine met our group and the majority of us went to the train station to buy tickets to Vienna. After that we had some time for lunch, so quite a few of us made our way to a döner kebab place nearby the hotel for a quick, cheap, and filling meal. We also made friends with some birds. Hopefully they'll keep in touch. We had a little bit of time after that to drop our backpacks off at the hotel and take a quick power-nap before meeting back up as a group in the lobby. 

Eric and Sam at the train station.

These guys made a lot of money today.

We left from the lobby around 1:30 and took the bus across the river to the bottom of Castle Hill. We took a tram (below) on our way up the hill, and enjoyed seeing our view of Pest expand as we rose higher and higher. We reached the top just in time to witness the ceremonial changing of the guards at Sándor Palace, the official residence of the president of Hungary. Then we walked over to the Royal Palace. Any signs of a former royal presence had been stripped away by the Soviets, so it now functions as the home for Hungary's National Gallery.

The view from the bottom of Castle Hill.

The view from the top!

At 2:30 our group met up with our tour guide who led us through parts of the gallery. She had a few specific pieces that she had us stop so that we could consider them in detail. We started by looking at older pieces, including towering church altars and other religious imagery. She showed us several pieces from the 19th century, and commented on how many of them were subtle rebukes of the ruling Austrian Hapsburgs. Then she showed us some slightly later pieces, with some color commentary on the interesting living situations of the artists. All in all it was a fantastic tour, and a fantastic collection.

Our wonderful guide.

A rather large altar.

By the time we finished, it was about 4:30 or 5:00, so by the time we got back, it was time for dinner. The Eriks went out to eat at a nice modern restaurant called Reuben, Fei went out for Vietnamese food, and I went with Eva, Kate H, Mattie and Nick to a Lebanese restaurant called Baalbek. Nick an Eva learned that peppers are sometimes spicy. Nick did not hold the door. Tsk Tsk.

My dinner - Shish Kebab

Now we're hanging out in our hotel room, having the weird sorts of sleepy conversations that can only be had after a full day of adventure in an exciting city.

From Budapest,

Jó éjszakát

-Will (and Fei and the Eriks)

P.S. Today Fei got arrested. Well, only technically, but still.