Budapest / ECAL'09
Down in the old town centre lights shimmered busily. The wind mixed the buzz of the city, the hooting of cars, and the occasional laughter and shouting into a jolly babble and carried it up the Castle Hill, across the park, and up to the walls of the palace. Around, a few groups of people, strolling, many with wine glasses, chatting, smiling, enjoyed the warm Indian summer night and the views across the Danube onto the city of Pest. The giant cornice above the tunnel that lead through the Castle Hill and connected Buda's alleys directly to the Chain Bridge shimmered in a magical silver tone created by the fool moon that shined through the trees. The cornice was a traditional meeting place for couples, and on this night several of them sat and stood along the cornice edge and further up between the trees of the castle. Enchanted, I thought that if someone would ever ask me what it was that I missed while living in breathtaking Australia, missed so much that I could hardly imagine settling there, all I needed to do was to bring across a little of this humbling atmosphere that filled everything around. I could not imagine to find anything like that anywhere outside Europe.
I came to Budapest to take part in ECAL'09 (the 10th European Conference on Artificial Life). It was a good conference, Suzanne's and my work on Dual Phase Evolution was very well received, and I had a chance to catch up with some very interesting people who I met a year earlier at ALife XI as well as to meet some new colleagues. However, my most memorable impressions came from the fact that I finally was in Europe yet again. 2009 has been an eventful year, to say the least, and attending the conference gave me a chance to visit friends and relatives in the Old World, something that felt overdue for a long time.
So having attended quite a few (mostly very interesting) talks I skipped just a couple of sessions (usually early morning) and took the some to explore Budapest. I'd say, I recommend anyone to visit. It's a beautiful city with very nice people and friendly bars. I was also quite impressed by the amazing steam room in the famous Gellért Baths, and I am usually not easily impressed by saunas. I met some cool people from the Science and Engineering of Natural Systems Group at Southampton University, some of whom I knew from the previous year, and together we have asserted that Budapest is a great place for night-time fun at any day of the week.
In summary, the conference was very interesting and Budapest is an amazing city. I enjoyed myself a lot, but I also could not wait to finally go to my next stop - Hamburg.
Photo albums related to this post:
Comments
Post new comment