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kareinaMy flight to Budapest for the IMA conference was scheduled for 07:00 on Saturday morning. This means leaving my house at 04:00 to walk to the train station to catch the bus to the airport on time. Since I had a fair bit to accomplish before flying, I decided to just stay up all night, thinking "I can sleep on the plane".
Well, I did manage to sleep on the bus, but the Alps were visible for the flight, so I didn't sleep in favor of looking out the window. I got to my dorm room around 11:00 on Saturday, and spent the rest of the day alternating short naps with useful tasks like buying some food and the all-important uni work.
Since my Thursday/Friday microprobe session had discovered an important phase in one of the samples I'd inherited from a predecessor (a decade before me) it was needful to process all of that new data in record time and revise my poster for the conference this week accordingly. I managed about half of that on Saturday, and did the rest on Sunday morning. Once it was together I brought my computer over to the conference venue (no internet in our rooms, which may be part of why I managed to get the work done so quickly--no distractions other than taking naps as needed) to e-mail my new, improved, poster to the guy organizing the on-site printing. I finished that just on time to attend the opening ceremonies for the conference, and went from there into the Pest city center to meet a couchsurfing friend who had stayed with me when he and a friend visited Milan back in November.
He and I wandered around the city center a bit, looking at interesting buildings and stopping to eat reasonably priced crepes (I had a really yummy spinach-sauce filled one, he opted for the layered stack smothered with chocolate sauce) before we crossed the bridge to the Buda side of the river and climbed the "Castle" hill. They were having a Folk Festival on the "Castle" grounds this weekend, so we enjoyed wandering around looking at booths, listening to folk music, and eating kürtős kalács. As a snack food I pronounced the one I had as too sweet. I ordered the "nut" version, but the sugar-nut mix in which it was rolled, still hot from the coals, was much higher in sugar than in nuts. If I see them again, I'll ask for it plain!
I hadn't really planned on doing any shopping while in town, and when I converted cash at the airport I changed only €50.00, thinking that would be plenty for food for the week. And, indeed, based on what I've spent on *food* so far, that estimate was probably correct. However, there were temptations at the Folk Festival. My first purchase of the day was a large ball of hand-spun wool yarn (maroon colour) for 360.00Ft. Now, that might sound like a lot, but when I gave the woman my €50.00 at the airport, she gave me back 12,190.00Ft. I knew that paying €1.48 that much hand-spun wool was a good deal, so I went for it.
Quite a bit later I was admiring some lovely mugs in the perfect shade of blue, with pretty Celtic triangle spiral decorations that were very tempting, but I don't need mugs--I never use them, since I drink my water out of either a water bottle with a drinking top, or my CamelBack pack. If she'd had bowls in that style, I'd have gotten one. However, I then noticed that she had butter dishes! I love this sort of dish--they keep the butter fresh outside of the fridge, which means that it is easily spreadable. The ones have had before didn't have those two holes in them, which mean that it is important to put only a little water in the bottom of the dish, or the air can't escape when you put the lid into the base. This sort means that you can fill the water deep enough to actually be in contact with the butter, which, on a hot day, will be a very good thing for keeping the butter cold enough not to melt. From there I then checked a variety of wood merchants till I found one selling butter knives, so that I could start using the dish this week, rather than waiting till I get home. (the dish was 3,000, and the knife 250, which means I'm out just over 13 euros for the pair).
At that point I was down to about 1,700Ft. in my wallet, and thinking I should be done spending money. And then I saw the potter with the black wares. After drooling on the various size and shaped pitchers he had (I've been wanting one for feasts for ages), the cheapest of which was 2,000Ft. I wandered off, intending to go home without one, since I didn't have the cash on me. I got perhaps 100 meters before I decided to go ask at the info booth for a cash machine. Sure enough, there was one on site, so I went back and got this one:
Alas, the potter spoke no English, and I found his booth after my friend had had to depart to meet someone else, so I have no idea of what style this is. It looks historical to me, but I have no idea what century or culture, if any, apply. If any of you happen to recognize this style and can tell me anything about it, I would appreciate it.
I was also tempted by a cute pair of pointy-toed leather shoes that would have been fine for SCA events, but when I got cash I didn't get enough to cover shoes, too, and decided that I didn't *need* them. Particularly as I plan to seek out the Birkenstock shop later this week to replace my close-toed Birks, since I managed to lose one in the Dublin airport on my way home from Ireland. I didn't notice that it had come unhooked from the outside of my pack until after I'd gone through the "no return" doors, so couldn't go back and look for it. While the security guy said he looked, I don't think he was as careful about the search as I would have been.
Alas, by the time I got home from Sunday's lectures it was too late to get into the conference building to check my mail.
This morning I went to lectures on the History of Geology, and plan to attend the session on pretty minerals this evening. Right now is the poster session, and I should probably wander around that soon.
(edited to add: follow the butter dish link above to all of the photos on facebook from my trip so far, if you like that sort of thing)
Well, I did manage to sleep on the bus, but the Alps were visible for the flight, so I didn't sleep in favor of looking out the window. I got to my dorm room around 11:00 on Saturday, and spent the rest of the day alternating short naps with useful tasks like buying some food and the all-important uni work.
Since my Thursday/Friday microprobe session had discovered an important phase in one of the samples I'd inherited from a predecessor (a decade before me) it was needful to process all of that new data in record time and revise my poster for the conference this week accordingly. I managed about half of that on Saturday, and did the rest on Sunday morning. Once it was together I brought my computer over to the conference venue (no internet in our rooms, which may be part of why I managed to get the work done so quickly--no distractions other than taking naps as needed) to e-mail my new, improved, poster to the guy organizing the on-site printing. I finished that just on time to attend the opening ceremonies for the conference, and went from there into the Pest city center to meet a couchsurfing friend who had stayed with me when he and a friend visited Milan back in November.
He and I wandered around the city center a bit, looking at interesting buildings and stopping to eat reasonably priced crepes (I had a really yummy spinach-sauce filled one, he opted for the layered stack smothered with chocolate sauce) before we crossed the bridge to the Buda side of the river and climbed the "Castle" hill. They were having a Folk Festival on the "Castle" grounds this weekend, so we enjoyed wandering around looking at booths, listening to folk music, and eating kürtős kalács. As a snack food I pronounced the one I had as too sweet. I ordered the "nut" version, but the sugar-nut mix in which it was rolled, still hot from the coals, was much higher in sugar than in nuts. If I see them again, I'll ask for it plain!
I hadn't really planned on doing any shopping while in town, and when I converted cash at the airport I changed only €50.00, thinking that would be plenty for food for the week. And, indeed, based on what I've spent on *food* so far, that estimate was probably correct. However, there were temptations at the Folk Festival. My first purchase of the day was a large ball of hand-spun wool yarn (maroon colour) for 360.00Ft. Now, that might sound like a lot, but when I gave the woman my €50.00 at the airport, she gave me back 12,190.00Ft. I knew that paying €1.48 that much hand-spun wool was a good deal, so I went for it.
Quite a bit later I was admiring some lovely mugs in the perfect shade of blue, with pretty Celtic triangle spiral decorations that were very tempting, but I don't need mugs--I never use them, since I drink my water out of either a water bottle with a drinking top, or my CamelBack pack. If she'd had bowls in that style, I'd have gotten one. However, I then noticed that she had butter dishes! I love this sort of dish--they keep the butter fresh outside of the fridge, which means that it is easily spreadable. The ones have had before didn't have those two holes in them, which mean that it is important to put only a little water in the bottom of the dish, or the air can't escape when you put the lid into the base. This sort means that you can fill the water deep enough to actually be in contact with the butter, which, on a hot day, will be a very good thing for keeping the butter cold enough not to melt. From there I then checked a variety of wood merchants till I found one selling butter knives, so that I could start using the dish this week, rather than waiting till I get home. (the dish was 3,000, and the knife 250, which means I'm out just over 13 euros for the pair).
At that point I was down to about 1,700Ft. in my wallet, and thinking I should be done spending money. And then I saw the potter with the black wares. After drooling on the various size and shaped pitchers he had (I've been wanting one for feasts for ages), the cheapest of which was 2,000Ft. I wandered off, intending to go home without one, since I didn't have the cash on me. I got perhaps 100 meters before I decided to go ask at the info booth for a cash machine. Sure enough, there was one on site, so I went back and got this one:
Alas, the potter spoke no English, and I found his booth after my friend had had to depart to meet someone else, so I have no idea of what style this is. It looks historical to me, but I have no idea what century or culture, if any, apply. If any of you happen to recognize this style and can tell me anything about it, I would appreciate it.
I was also tempted by a cute pair of pointy-toed leather shoes that would have been fine for SCA events, but when I got cash I didn't get enough to cover shoes, too, and decided that I didn't *need* them. Particularly as I plan to seek out the Birkenstock shop later this week to replace my close-toed Birks, since I managed to lose one in the Dublin airport on my way home from Ireland. I didn't notice that it had come unhooked from the outside of my pack until after I'd gone through the "no return" doors, so couldn't go back and look for it. While the security guy said he looked, I don't think he was as careful about the search as I would have been.
Alas, by the time I got home from Sunday's lectures it was too late to get into the conference building to check my mail.
This morning I went to lectures on the History of Geology, and plan to attend the session on pretty minerals this evening. Right now is the poster session, and I should probably wander around that soon.
(edited to add: follow the butter dish link above to all of the photos on facebook from my trip so far, if you like that sort of thing)
