Ooopss...long time...no post

Looking at my post log, I realized that I haven't posted in 6 days!! Incredible. I am no remedying that problem with a post about a Budapest (four weeks and four countries ago, I'm a little behind). I just posted pictures from the 4 day orientation in the lovely and enchanting town of Budapest. Ten scholars from across the US (CA, MA, MO, IL, KY, NC, ????) and across disciplines (but mostly bio and chemie) met on a boat on the Danube on Sunday May 16th. After introductions by Agi and Chris (people who work for the Institute for International Education, our host organization), we started a week of lectures, tours, travel, food, and little sleep. (like 4 hours a night if we were lucky).

Budapest is actually two cities, Buda is the older (tourist inundated) part on the west side of the Danube while Pest is the more residential east side). Nearly all of our time was spent in Pest because the IIE offices were right next to the Hungarian academy of sciences on Roosevelt Ter (plaza) in Pest. Sunday night we visited a traditional Hungarian pub (forgot my camera so no pictures). Monday we sat through a lot of lectures and then visited a wine bar where we partook of a large amount of wine and water carbonated at the restaurant. The next day, we sat through more lectures, visited the Hungarian academy of sciences, saw the chemistry building of a Hungarian college, and saw the symphony (a true highlight of my experience). On Wednesday we took off for a day trip to Bratislava....I didn't take any pictures of Bratislava because I knew I would return later. On Thursday, we sat through seminars in the morning and then some of us took off for some Turkish baths. After relaxing for 2 hours in the baths of various temperature and mineral content and enjoying the 2000 year old building, we left for a dinner cruise across the Danube. After the dinner cruise we visited a "budha bar" with small huts overlooking the Danube and a giant statue of Budha on the dance floor. After the buda bar, we visited the beer garden that had chairs on the side of the walls...it was very odd. After returning to the boatel at 2am, I packed up my remaining items and slept for two hours before waking up at 5am to catch a 7am flight to the states. Phew.... a very busy week indeed. Anyways...here are the pictures...enjoy.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chariteach/BudapestOrientation02