What a fine day for science! It is grey, wet and relatively cool. It is excellent for math and software development. Here are the code campers installing the software package.
I'm against 3 mac persons with my supercheap and superweak netbook with ubuntu.
Anyhow, the workshop is quite high-speed so not much blogging for the next few days...
What a fine day for travel! Predicted to be the hottest day of the summer. Temperature sensors in Eger cannot decide between 38 and 39 Celsius, but the actual number does not matter. It feels hot.
Maybe I'm getting older or it is just the fact that I am properly paid in Australia. In Budapest I opted for the airport shuttle instead of public transport. 3 times more expensive and 3 times faster. Somehow this felt natural as my rucksack felt heavy.
There was a surprise on the way. Though I was heading to Budapest Airport Terminal 2, I had a glimpse of Terminal 1. It is closed. Period.
I guess it was indeed a very economical decision. Malev, the Hungarian airlines went bust few months ago so now the low cost airlines can also fit into T2. Good for them. T2 is lot nicer. But hey, the net value of this is that we had two terminals before, and now we have only one. I'm not going political here, but I remember long time ago before I stopped reading news I found a rhetorical gem in government communication: "Success is invisible". I wonder whether this idea can be pushed any further, for instance 'Success looks failure.'
I arrived at the airport an hour before checkin time. Since I often run into trouble, I never plan things tight. I had time, but no books with me. Thus began the era of the ebook-reader for me.
To say something good about the airport I must admit that the new part of the T2 is really great, it is up to international standard. Spacious, light, free power with universal plugs, free wifi, and the inclusion of a free table football shows that the designers know what life is about.
I left all my coins in a charity box. Another first in my life.
The last glimpse of homeland before it disappeared into the haze.
So it is time to reflect on the last 3 weeks. A year ago, when I came back to Hungary from a week research visit in England, the plane landed and I felt really really bad about being again in Hungary. Naturally 3 months later, when the plane took off on the way to Sydney last September an emotional decision was made: never to set foot again on Hungarian land. Hungarian readers of this blog (family members and friends) will find this a bit unnerving, but hey things changed, so it is now harmless to declassify these files. Of course, the land is not responsible for any romantic misfortune happening on its back.
Apart from the backdrop, which is a raging chaotic storm in economy, moral, education, etc., I had wonderful time in the last 3 weeks. Especially people at my previous college, by assigning me the role of an organizer of Fib15 they created the illusion that I never left them.
But no need to be sentimental. Next stop will be my 3rd home, England. And yes this blog is getting closer to its end. In slightly more than two weeks time I will be back down under. What a lucky bastard I am!
Flight shot. 
Our German friends seemed to get some proper storm clouds above their heads. 4 minutes later the aircraft hit the tip of this cloud formation. A turbulence that made me think that probably there was no need to write blog entries any more.
We arrived safe at London Heathrow. Temperature is 15 minutes cooler.. Hooray! I took the local bus instead of the train through London to Hatfield. My local knowledge of the bus network is not expired yet.
I finally arrived at 11pm. My little chair is still behind the drawer, the anti-squirrel water gun is still in use, the wifi router still has the same setup as I left it. I'm at home. Again.
It is record hot now in Hungary so after the excursion I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon in the entrance corridor of the house, lying on the floor. That is where the shoes are and the coats hanged. Darkest place of the house, but also the coolest.
For Sunday morning Sir had a great idea. 45 mins drive to the Tisza-Lake, 4 hours canoeing. 45 mins drive back to Eger. I extended his plan with driving me back to Egercsehi and have lunch there with us. So we did so. We consider each other's ideas great. That is why we remained friends since secondary school. He was my history teacher there. His nickname comes from Monty Python's Holy Grail.
So here is our canoeing trip.
Last few years idea of shandy reached Hungary got diversified and industrialized, so we could have a refreshing drink, cold, straight from the cooling box.
We got a vicious mosquito attack from this green wall.
Tisza Live as we call the real river.
Navigation signs.
Water bush
The Tisza Lake. Shallow but it covers quite some area.
In hot weather skinny dipping is compulsory.
The water temperature was still somewhat refreshing, as you can see from the steerman's face.
In the evening I did the last on-the-hill running with Dzsoki. Strictly camera-free event. Living the moment rather than capturing it. However I still had to carry a plastic plate and water. Dzsoki does not care too much about emotional-spiritual human-land bonds. He just wants water after a good run.
The last day of the conference was the excursion to Szilvásvárad. A village in the Bükk Mountains with a narrow gauge railway.
I love that little train but otherwise the excursion was a bit lacking since we used to start our hiking from this place, but not as the final destination. Fortunately there was one Mexican PhD student who wanted to see the cave that was used as stables by ancient people so we did a bit of hiking.
It is an easy walk though.
and some beech "bush"
It is nice as always, but last year's drought has obvious consequences. The Veil-Waterfall is empty, the stream is bone-dry, spring water is not drinkable. This is something I have not seen in my life...
However, the food was great in the village and the modern sons of Bonacci were satisfied thus the 15th Fibonacci conference had a happy ending.
This event was great. Not talking about math, here are the social highlights.
The organizers considered me as one of them, this was very kind. It somewhat dampened my being-tourist feeling. Here is my rock'n'roll-algebra friend.
First evening. Wine & cheese reception. Due to my alleged real-time translator skills I ended up as the president of the wine-knight committee. This is a theatrical celebration involving drinking wine. I got into the mood and I consumed way too much (very good) wine. It seems I get very generous when I drink since many people thanked me for the beer afterwards. Including my new American friend here wearing a Hungarian football shirt.
This generous hospitality was not without some danger as I had quite an amount of cash on me. Exciting moment in the morning when opening my wallet. No losses though.. :) I did not end up paying rounds for everyone awake after 1am in town.
Next day I did not have headache, but I was very weak. I was asked to interview the Fibonacci Association's president and the distinguished invited speaker. For the local TV. In that feeble state. It went very well.
I found a Japanese Prof. to play GO with.
I lost.
The distinguished speaker and his wife wanted to do some hiking, so on Friday after the last talks I took them to the Eged hill. 14km with significant climbing. They enjoyed it. Not many tourists do that, so I was really impressed as well.
The old building of the college. Last year I worked at this college, but no, I was based at a different campus. However, last week's conference was held here.I always liked this building, but it is really nice now.
Big key...
...that opens big doors
I promised more photos of Eger. Since I spent last week there, I had ample opportunities to capture some of its beauty. Here is a selection.
sorry about the orientation
...with the Harsányi family is entertaining. The Euro Cup is still on, some of the matches are slightly interesting, but the boys continuous comments, arguments and passionate discussions are lot more interesting.
To get this straight in the beginning, it is not my choice for holiday. Tacky and it is in decline. Deserted new buildings, sparsely populated old hotels. Loud crap music everywhere. People are labouring under the misapprehension that this is relaxing. OK, there are thermal baths, but that is it.
On the other hand, quite many members of the family were there, so the time was not wasted. And with a bit of work and reading it turned out to be a pleasant experience. I enjoyed the playroom in the hotel. Photos on my sister's camera as I was immersed in the possibilities of the toys there.
But here is a shot of my mother, sister and two nieces.
Debrecen is a big city with a university, where I spent some of my undergrad years. It is on the Great Hungarian Plain, which looks like this.
The early evening temperature in Debrecen is the same
as it was in Eger the day before.
The tourist photo of Debrecen is this one with the reformist church.
We had dinner here, a nice restaurant with Australian prices.
Catfish in a paprika-based sour-cream sauce with pasta and cottage cheese again.
The reason of my visit was to meet Vago, an on- and offline GO friend, who is planning to pay a short visit in Sydney next January.
and Kojak, the rock-star programmer with whom I went to Helsinki, Finland in 1999.
We had quite a few glasses of beer and had great geek fun, then we went home (I stayed at Vago's place). To finish the day in great style we played go in the wee hours. We do know how to experience life to the fullest. :)
Before you ask in enquiring emails, I lost.
So Debrecen was quite interesting to revisit. It is a prospering city with many new buildings, there are streets that changed so much that I can't recognize them any more. Of course hungarian reality still shines through. During breakfast we found this:
An anti-theft tag on a food item. I hope this photo will soon become historical evidence only. Also, the great achievements of socialist architecture will stay for a while.
and the final blow :)