Budapest in Bloom

On the Town
Spring has finally arrived, albeit several weeks late. The trees are green, the lilacs are out and the pitypang (dandelions) are already turning puffy white. Statues and sculptures that were either covered during the winter or stored somewhere have appeared in squares and along the Pest side of the Danube. Many of the pedestrian streets are now half as wide as they were in early March. The restaurants have put down platform with tables, chairs, sun umbrellas or awnings. People sit, eat and drink outside in the early evening. Coats are gone and the boots of Budapest have been transformed into sneakers and sandals. The homeless have moved up out of the metro entrance passageways onto the benches in front of the street planters and sleep in doorways of empty shops. The weather is sometimes on the rainy side—clouds, drizzle, and occasionally a half hour down pour.

On Friday I went with the Fulbrighters to Eger. Tari and I had been there a few weeks earlier as guests of Helga. But Tari had to go to the airport to meet our daughter and her girl friend who were coming for a short visit. The Fulbright tour took us to the Lyceum library with the tromp l’oeil ceiling of the Council of Trent. But then we visited a second room which also had a tromp l’oeil ceiling, but this one had the four faculties in the Lyceum—law, philosophy (including natural sciences, military and political geography), medicine and theology. We climbed the stairs to the Camera Obscura, which is like a periscope that can look down upon the town. We were taken to lunch at a restaurant in the nearby Valley of the Beautiful Women (literally Mrs. Pretty Valley). They served us the famous Bull’s Blood Egri Bikaver wine (a red blend of several varieties of grapes). Allegedly the Hungarians defending Eger during the 38 day seige in 1552 had to mix the available red wines When they drank, the wine spilled onto their beards and armor. The invading Turks thought that they were drinking bull’s blood which was giving them the strength to resist the siege. It was certainly a heavy, full bodied red and I thought a little “creamy.” We then returned to Eger and went through the castle tunnel system.

Academic matters
This was the last week of classes. On Monday I gave a guest presentation for Edina on the rise of medical science from 1400-1900. I covered the early anatomists Bartolomeo Eustachi and Gabriele Fallopio who were the first to discover body parts names after them (Fallopio is said to have invented the first condom). I also discussed the first blind experiment to test Mesmerizing conducted by Ben Franklin, Antoine Lavoisier and Joseph Guillotin. I ended up the presentation with Virchow, Pasteur and Koch.

Wednesday was the last class for the English language medical students. Only four showed up. Nevertheless I gave my presentation on doctor patient relationships including some US case law concerning obligations to patients and ethical issues. The students were allowed to have two absences, so most of them had an absence to use up and took it. Several may have had a major exam on Thursday. For the class I helped teach, they are to write a short 2500 word paper in English on what they learned in our class. About half agreed to turn in the paper by May 17th and the other half at the end of June. Since they will submit their papers as email attachments I told Peter I would be happy to read them even after I returned to the US.

I spent the rest of the time plugging away at my writing assignments for articles, presentations and the case studies on social science research ethics.

Tour Guide #1
Our daughter and her girl friend are the first of three sets of visitors we expect over the next five weeks. We took them to some places that were not on the schedule of their river cruise tour. After Tari picked them up at the airport on Friday morning and dropped their bags at the apartment, she took the girls up to Nyugati pu, the western railroad station which was built by Eiffel. The did a brief tour of the large Westend mall. They later walked along Vaci Utca, the main tourist drag. That kept them awake sufficiently to begin to acclimate to European time. After Harry’s return from Eger, we all went out to dinner at the Central Kavehaz for Hungarian food.

On Saturday we walked to the central market hall which was also built by Eiffel. We crossed over to the Buda side and went into the Gellert Spa. It features two thermal baths one for men, one for women and a swimming pool in between. We then went across the street and up the hill to the Cave Church, originally home to Saint Istvan, a hermit monk who cured the sick with thermal waters that sprung in front of the cave. A grotto chapel was carved out starting in 1926 and is now taken care of by the Hungarian Paulite order of monks. We took a tram to Moscova Ter in search of a nearby street fair. We found it but it was mainly for small children. Later that afternoon we went by St. Stephen’s church but it was closed for a wedding. When the newly weds emerged, the groom was in a dark uniform with a white cap. Six soldiers held their swords aloft for the couple to pass under as they walked down the church steps. That night we attended a concert at St. Michael's Church on Vaci Utca. A small string orchestra played the greatest classical hits—Pachelbel,Vivaldi, Bach, Handel and Mozart. The acoustics were great and the solo violinist for Vivaldi’s Winter from the Four Seasons, Gabora Gyula, was spectacular.

On Sunday we had breakfast at Spinoza’s. Afterwards we went across the street and through the Gozsdu Bazaar which is open Sunday mornings during the summer and features a variety of people selling all sorts of arts and crafts as well as old books and touristy nicknacks. The three women bought a number of things. We then spent the afternoon at Aquincum, the remains of the Roman town dating back to the first century. The new museum had some recent findings from digs where the new M-0 ring highway will go. The main part of the site consists of the remains of stone walls showing the various buildings in the town. Interestingly, the Roman bath was set up exactly like the Gellert Spa (or maybe it should be the other way around—the more things change the more they remain the same). The Roman bath had heated changing rooms and thermal baths for men on one side and women on the other with a pool in the middle. We also looked at the remains of stellae/ tombstones and other statuary. On our way back we stopped at a pancake dessert house at Batthyány tér that one of the Fulbrighters had recommended. It was a nice sweet pickup after two hours at Aquincum.

More on Tour Guide #1 next week!