Number Theory in Budapest: Museums and Speedos and Vienna! Oh My!

Sunday – our first day free of any class obligations meant that many got the chance to play tourist for the day. Different groups split off and visited different sites. One group visited the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts (Szépművészeti Múzeum) which was hosting a special Italian Renaissance exhibit, “Botticelli to Titian: Masterpieces of Two Centuries of Italian Art”. The exhibit presented paintings from many well know artists such as Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo de Vinci, Titian and many others. The temporary exhibit housed one of the largest collections of Renaissance art ever created outside of Italy. Paintings were brought in from museums around the globe: Paris, New York, London, Rome, Milan, Venice, Dresden… to name a few. After visiting the exhibit it was also worth visiting the permanent art collection. The artwork in the permanent collection contains works by many well-known European artists. Much of the Hungarian art is not housed here, but instead is inside the Hungarian National Gallery (Magyar Nemzeti Galéria) on Castle Hill. The building that houses the Art Museum is as much a piece of art as anything else, with painted ceilings, decorative columns, and tiled floors. Other groups visited the Szechenyi Baths. Budapest is the city of spas and is known for its baths heated by thermal springs. At Szechenyi you can even play chess in the baths on floating chessboards! It makes the perfect outing on a cold overcast day! According to Erika our language teacher, the baths have special healing powers! This has unfortunately proven not true as several of us who went to the spas still cannot breath through our noses. However, the baths were relaxing! One had a spiral shape and had benches with jets! The one problem with this is you had to hold on so as not to get swept away. We all enjoyed all of the different pools and the sights! The steam made it impossible to see the other side of the pool! This was not too disappointing considering it meant that we missed some of the sure to be shocking Speedos that the Europeans were rocking. After the baths we were completely drained. Matt led us to a crepe restaurant. We all had several! I think it is safe to say Nutella is a gift from the gods! Our more adventurous companions woke up at 4 this morning, and headed to Vienna! They are not back yet so we have not heard about that trip yet! Sunday was definitely a busy day and I have to say it was nice to sleep until 11!