Just thought I'd share a few of the pics from...

Now you recall I mentioned in the last blog post that all the buildings in Budapest are like... fake 3rd Century buildings that weren't really built in the 3rd century at all but instead the 18th but made to look like they're 3rd.  Well I was having a rant about that as we walked about a small town north of Budapest and Carl decided to take a picture of me doing so...

Fake architecture or not, you have to give them some credit because it turns out heaven itself is in Budapest.  And it serves coffee!  Imagine our surprise and joy :)

Now never you mind checking out my crotch - I prolly should have cropped that picture before putting it up, but am too lazy.  Anyway, as ya'll know I had experienced travelling companion, expert on Hungary and Budapest - Mister Carl Baker.  For those of you who've not had the pleasure of meeting him, here is a picture taken of him and some gentleman we met in a fake castle type thing.  We don't really know who he is, but he insisted on having his photo taken with us.  Interestingly enough, this clever looking chap sits opposite a statue of very evil looking cloaked gentlemen, with a deep hood and scarily dark eyes.  Turns out he's not meant to be evil, but has no eyes or distinctive face because he's meant to represent an anonymous person who recorded lots of history .

Here's Carl in heaven....

They have big sausages there, thought we'd take a moment to point them out...

And here's us eating in one the cities fine eateries, having a discussion with Gal... Galem?  Galen?  He's somebody to philosophers anyway, and had given the conference keynote.  I was a little afraid he'd sus me out when he sat down at our table.

Carl gave a paper at the conference too, this snap was taken while he was taking a question - He'd look almost studious if I didn't know he was really thinking 'I need to pee, I need to pee, I need to pee...'

Here's me in that paper, in which might I add, Carl gives me a moment of acknowledgement - which all helped my fake 'philosophy degree' story.  Check out the real philosophers around me - how perfect are they?  The woman speaking is the person primarily responding to Carl's paper.  She's taking it apart right here, and while the guy with the beard on the right looks kinda bored - he turned out to be listening and weighed in quite heavily a little later...

And that'll do for now.  There's some of the scenery on Facebook and more of the conference dotted about the web - I think this is about enough to sum things up for now.

Be good,
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Phil
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This week I've been on holiday in Hungary.  Regular  readers will perhaps be familiar with Carlos, who served as experienced travel companion (having spent a long 4 days in Budapest before), and armed with his  Hungarian for "Thank you", "Do you speak English?" and "How much?", we were set to take on the city.

We visited the castle district, which most notably does not contain a castle of any kind, but does host a cathedral and a war museum, so it was interesting enough to explore.  The War Museum was filled with weapons and mock ups of things people had used to conquer Hungary through the ages, with one section devoted to the most proud moment where the Hungarians fought successfully to throw off their oppressors.  It's no wonder the Hungarians that they have been subject to much power change and oppressors though - the country is quite a gateway land for Europe and is therefore a highly coveted territory, much like say... Iceland, Alaska, and Brazil on the Risk board.

A bit of trivia though, Budapest may not have a castle, but it does have a Citadel.  The Citadel was built in order that the population could hold out against the next would be conquerers, but unfortunately, it was only completed about the time that Castles and Citadels were becoming obsolete, and in fact provided little to no deterrence or protection in the coming power-shifts.  It's this sort of, punctually challenged bad luck that Hungarian defense seems to have suffered from through the ages, and many of the sights you see in the city which look like they'd be really impressive constructions of their time were actually really lame constructions of a slightly later time.  No no, I'm being cheeky - for one thing, there once was a Castle, and the reason old looking stuff has unfitting dates on them is because the people have to keep reconstructing their historical sites from scratch.  The Hungarian ancient buildings then are often more 'in memory of' said ancient building... which is them making the best of a bad few centuries.

A little more Trivia, which many perhaps know but here it is anyway - Budapest is in fact two cities, Buda, and Pest, that were unified a little while back.  I mused that the Pest representatives on that council must have been difficult about it really, preferring Pest'Buda as a name (FYI, the 't' is a very soft t in Hungarian so while it isn't as phonetically pleasing as Budapest, it could work).  A little later in the day, we came upon a café called 'PestBuda'!, apparently a few die hard patriots of Pest are still holding out for an appeal.

One of the most jaunting experiences you'll come across is the House of Terror, which was the HQ for Hungarian based versions of Nazi and Soviet secret police one after the other. It's now a museum dedicated to showing the world without tact or concern the raw atrocities that took place in this place less than a lifetime ago.  It's contains an in-depth commentary on what happened when and how, in the political and social climates through the time, ending with a stark walk through of the basement chamber where thousands of prisoners were kept and tortured.  It's horrific, but very important to see and to honour those people who lived in such times.

We visited the national museum, spent an afternoon in some Turkish natural hot baths, saw the views from the Buda Hills, and much more.  The food is great - we ate at some rather swish restaurants for not very much money, and let me tell you, the desserts are clearly very important to these people, which is as it should be.  Drinks too - the coffee is good and on the first night I ordered a hot chocolate, receiving a cup of basically, hot, dense, chocolate mousse.

Brilliant stuff.  The holiday was well worth it and quite necessary, but perhaps in danger of being ordinary without there being a little something else to throw in.  A game was afoot!  While in Budapest, for two days, I was to attend the Second European Philosophy Graduate Conference at the CEU (Central European University).  The CEU hosts almost exclusively post grads so it's a little different from most UK universities I've visited, and as such this conference was dominated by Masters, PhD students, and beyond.  My challenge was to pass as one of them during the seminars, breaks, and evening meals.

According to my back story I'm 23, and I graduated philosophy at Leeds University last year. Since then I've taken a year out, just to gather a bit of money and think about my next step, working in admin for a finance company.  I'm going into my second year out, but it's time for me to think about applying this year to masters courses for next. I'm at the conference to consider if this passion is what my life is about, or if I feel I perhaps don't fit, and need to start making my job into a career.  A number of the conference attendees expressed their hopes that I'll take on a masters, but mostly they were just being polite I think. A girl who studies in Wales suggested I look at a part time PhD like she does, allowing me to keep some of the career investment and financial freedom I've become accustomed to.  Howard was the most sincere when it came to encouraging me into the fold, and was more specific in picking out how my mind and perspectives could really bring benefit to the community.

I was just about ready to fill in an application to the CEU when Carl reminded me I'm not actually a post graduate philosopher and will not be able to produce transcripts or recommendation letters from my imaginary bachelors degree.  Ah well.  Just as well I have a programmer job then.

It was a good work out for my old noggin - pretending to be something you're not on holiday really helps you take your mind out of your life, which is sometimes what you really want to do.

I'm now back in the uk, looking forward to getting back to the office, and to planning my next excursion.
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Phil
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