Crovenia

I'm home!

Feels good to be in familiar old Grinnell, if only for a very short time--tomorrow, I'm driving up to Ames (1 hour away) to start my summer REU at Iowa State.

So, time to tell about the last couple weeks of the semester. Finals were tough, but I did well enough (and the BSM grading was easy enough) that I ended up with a pretty good looking transcript at the semester-ending farewell party: 2 A-'s, 3 A's, and 1 A+. Too bad that doesn't factor into my HMC GPA!

Boy was it a relief to be done with classes. My family arrived in Budapest early that week and I showed them around Budapest: all the usual sites, some great restaurants, and a little hike in the Buda Hills. We also went to see Wagner's Die Meistersingers von Nurnberg at the opera house, which was AMAZING if only for its scale: I think the cast was at least 200 strong, and the opera lasted a whopping 5.5 hours. (At $5 each for the tickets that I got us, that means less than a buck per hour of opera!) Whew...it was good that we had taken a relaxing dip in the baths earlier that day.


Tim and Claire ascending a cool little watch tower in the Buda Hills

Some last pictures of Budapest: Erzsebet körut and the 4-6 tram

Almassy tér, near my apartment

Jim, Tom, Caroline, and Anna at the farewell party

Professor András Gyarfás, my Combinatorics teacher and a really nice guy. He has an Erdös number of 1!



Once I had had my farewell party, we headed off in a rental car for Slovenia. Slovenia is an "overlooked" country in terms of tourism, the first part of former Yugoslavia to break off from the problematic pan-Slavic state. Its main draws are the quaint capitol of Ljubljana and, in the northwest, the beautiful Julian Alps, the eastern end of Europe's great mountain range.

We first spent some time in Ljubljana. I really liked the cute little city, with nice pastel-colored buildings á la Prague, a thriving cafe culture and nightlife in the pedestrian downtown district nestled by the Ljublianica river, and a pretty castle on a forested hill rising above the central city.



Claire, Dad, Mom, and Tim upon arrival in Ljubljana

Night view towards the main square

Huh, What, Where?

Seeing which brother carries the most weight

Ljubljana from the castle's clock tower



Our next stops were Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj in the Julian Alps. Lake Bled can only be described as a "fairy tale lake"--I think you'll be able to tell from the photos of the island church and the castle perched on the cliff. We also explored a couple gorges in the area--they were, of course, gorgeous (not my pun). Next up was Lake Bohinj, which is supposedly even more serene than Lake Bled, but we didn't get much chance to admire the lake, as we decided to go on a hike that day. The hike ended up being longer than we intended, including at least a mile of tough (and wet) going through snow fields, climbing up into the mountains. It was beautiful, though--lots of little abandoned huts and alpine lakes overshadowed by imposing peaks.


Lake Bled's island church

Lake Bled's castle

Falls in the gorge, during a downpour of rain

The sun suddenly came out, providing some awesome misty photos...

Beautiful.

Looking towards Lake Bohinj.

Snow fields don't scare this guy

High in the Julian Alps


Next, we crossed over into Croatia and took a short domestic flight from the capitol, Zagreb, down to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik, the "Pearl of the Adriatic", was really the highlight of the trip for me. The main part of the city, about a half square mile, is an entirely pedestrian zone, filled with beautiful old buildings roofed with red tiles. This main district lies on a peninsula jutting out into the sea, and is surrounded by imposing centuries-old city walls and forts. More than being just beautiful, though, Dubrovnik also has a rich history--it was once a powerful city-state with the 3rd most powerful fleet in the Meditteranean. Also, it's played a role in even the most recent of historical conflicts: back in 1991, after Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia, Dubrovnik was unexpectedly attacked by Serbian forces. The residents of the city stayed fast, and Dubrovnik was beseiged for over a year. Most of the beautiful and historic buildings in the city were damaged or destroyed by the shelling, and about 200 "Defenders of Dubrovnik" were killed. Seeing how beautiful and carefree the city is now, it's amazing to think that such a conflict happened there so recently, even in my lifetime.

History aside, Dubrovnik is a great place to visit. The weather was (for the most part) sunny and pleasant, and although the tourists were quite numerous inside the central city, the local culture was prominent and welcoming. Activities included: exploring Dubrovnik's narrow streets and stairways, watching the sunset from a beach, hearing a Mozart concert in the open courtyard of a little palace, people-watching on the main street, and walking all around the city walls--an amazing experience. We also took a short boat ride to the forested island of Locrum, where we swam in a little salt lake connected to the sea (and I jumped off a 15 meter cliff) and hiked around.


Dubrovnik!

The Pearl of the Adriatic

The busy main street of Dubrovnik

There are TONS of cats in Dubrovnik, I think because they keep the city rodent- and pest-free. And maybe because they are so cute.

Night falling over the city

Looking towards the walled city

EXtreme wave jumping!

Sunset over the harbor

Walking the walls



As annoying as pigeons can be, I think some of them have senses of humor

Looking down the main street




That was about it. We drove back to Budapest, stayed one last night in my apartment, and headed out the next day.

So, now I'm back in the States. It feels good to be back in a place where I don't have to constantly worry about language, and, to tell the truth, the US (or at least rural Iowa) feels a lot more open and less constrictive than busy, dirty Budapest. However, I already miss the "real" parts of Budapest, the things that weekend-tourists overlook, but I have grown to love: the rustic beauty of once-grand, now-decaying Jewish district apartments; the unassuming, but always striking cityscape at and above the Danube promenade; the elegance and refinery of Andrassy út and the music/theater district; the dog- and family-friendly parks; the practicality and efficiency of the public transport system; the proud, formal, independent, but also friendly and intelligent Hungarian personality; the remoteness of the Buda Hills; the cheapness and good value of food; the bustle of Pest and the peace of Buda. I got all this, plus a base to explore the wonders of Eastern and Central Europe, while receiving the best educational experience of my life thus far with BSM. What a deal!

I'm pretty sure this has been the best semester of my life.

For this, I'd like to thank:
- My abroad friends, especially Jimothy, Kira, Caroline, Ivan, Tom, Anna, Lauren, Adam, Kelsey, Dan, Spencer, Jason, the Quad, Caroline's friend in Prague
- My AMAZING BSM professors: especially Szabó, Gyarfás, Simontis, Salamon, Elekes
- My visitors: Julia x 2, Matt, family
- Mr. Pizza, the scary waitresses at Don Corleone's, the cute and exceedingly nice waitresses at Taj Mahal, the pancake place near our apartment for selling 180 Ft shakes, the school cafeteria for selling 250 Ft sandwiches and 5 Ft slices of bread
- The metro police, for never checking me when I didn't have a valid pass
- The St. Petersburg Philharmonic for the best concert I've ever been to
- Bartók and Liszt for being Hungarian and thus making my new interest in their music that much more exciting
- Mom and Dad for giving me a considerable travel allowance
- HMC for preparing me well to deal with 6 simultaneous classes
- Erdös
- Réka
- The guy who made the website with hiking trails for the Amalfi coast and the Isle of Cápri, for making that vacation worth it
- The person who walked into my apartment during a 10 minute window in mid-afternoon when I was bathing and my apartment-mates were napping and stole my laptop, forcing me to give up computer games and movies/TV shows for 3 months
- The sleazy French guy waiting with me at the airport ticket counter, for hitting on the attendants, conversing with me in a refined accent, and in general slightly cheering me up after I wasted 2 skipped classes and a trip to the airport; and lost $75 rebooking fee, a night's hostel charge, and a day with Julia when I forgot my passport on my way to London
- Julia for putting up with my crap
- Arpád and the Magyars, for conquering the Hungarian Plain in 896


I think I'm going to keep this blog up, at least over the summer, if not into next year. I may not have as interesting things to say from now on, but hopefully that just means I'll say less and not waste your time :-)
Thanks very much to everyone who has kept up with what I've been doing. It means a lot to me!