Any guesses as to what that means? We’ll give you cryptoquip fans a hint: X = S. Still no guesses?
Today we learned about cryptography and the different types of ciphers. The encrypted message above is a monoalphabetic cipher, the least mathematically intense of the ciphers we discussed today! (You’re welcome.)
We also discussed Caesar ciphers, linear coding functions, and RSA encryption. Messages can be expressed as plaintext, numeric (Like our post title! Can you crack that one?), and ciphertext. Most of our time was spent decoding ciphertext using RSA encryption, which was definitely a lot more time consuming than any of us were anticipating. But hey, we are well on our way to being cryptographers for the NSA!
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| Cryptography! |
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| Code cracking anyone? |
A number of us went to one of three favorite lunch spots: The Goat Herder, Eat?, and Lipóti Pékség. The hot chocolate at Eat? is a fan favorite!
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| Hard to pass up hot chocolate! |
This afternoon we had a guest lecturer named Laszlo Arato who talked with us about Hungarian literature. We learned how the isolation of Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric language, has had a big impact on the spread of great poems and literature. The unique rhythm that comes with Hungarian is lost in translation. He read to us different poems and short stories, and we discussed what they can tell us about Hungary’s history and culture. It is common for Hungarians to focus on the struggles and failures since much of their history has been spent under another country’s control. We are thankful that Laszlo could come and speak with us!
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| Laszlo read us some poetry in Hungarian so we could hear the rhythmic difference between Hungarian and English. |
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| Skylar and Jordan's post school adventure |
Jordan and Skylar walked back to the hotel from school after the lecture and got to explore a new part of the city. We spotted a good number of dogs and many cute cafés. It is a nice, refreshing walk, especially after a day in the classroom.
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| Skylar found her car's long lost sibling! |
A number of us took the bus back, but stopped for chimney cakes on the way back to the hotel. Among the flavors purchased were cinnamon, vanilla, and cocoa. Chimney cakes fresh out of the oven are hard to beat!
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| Post class snack |
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| Too many toppings to choose from! |
For dinner, Jordan and friends went to get waffles for dinner. Jordan is partial to the Nutella topping, but fresh fruit is also a popular option. Julia and Skylar went with a group to For Sale pub, a small restaurant with a huge menu and even bigger portions. The walls are covered in notes that people from all over the world leave behind. Part of the evening may or may not have been spent throwing peanut shells at each other!
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| For Sale pub! |
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| Notes on the ceiling of For Sale |
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| Only Brian, Luke, and Derek were members of the clean plate club this evening! |
Köszönöm for following along with our adventures! We have had a blast and a half exploring Budapest and can’t believe our time is coming to an end. Even though we have to start studying for our final (finals already? 😰), we will definitely still be finding time to explore parts of the city we have yet to see!
Signing off for the last time,
Jordan, Skylar, and Julia
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