Day 16 - Claim: January 20th was the best day in Budapest.

Proof: We must show that January 20th was the best day in Budapest.

By the Room 765 Theorem, a good day requires good company, good times, good food, and money well spent.

Case #1: The 20th had good company.

We could list the names of all 26 awesome people on this trip, but we already know that they are amazing. Today was no exception. In the morning we were also joined by Prof. Miklos Abert from BSM and Renyi Institute and he was a great speaker on Graph Theory. Then in the afternoon Prof. Berliner brought the energy to Euler’s Theorem. Uncle Jerry made an appearance at the Central Market too! By the evening, many mathematicians met up for gelato.

All in all, today’s banter, conversation, and laughter with the lovely folks here in Budapest made it a wonderful day.

Case #2: The 20th had good times.

Prof. Miklos Abert started the morning off with a math colloquium that engaged the audience with the comparison of graphs to trees, trees having leaves, and monkeys playing an important role in tracing the paths of these trees. Who knew we would learn so much about Environmental Science in a Number Theory course. In all seriousness, this was many people’s first exposure to graph theory, and it encouraged many people to learn more about it in the future (including Prof. Berliner’s course next fall!).

In the afternoon we learned about a theorem that is even more powerful than one we learned before it yesterday. See Figure 1 below.

From McDaniel College, a large proportion of the class traveled to the Central Market. There, people explored the rows and rows of vendors. Window shopping or not, there were so many goods to look at or eat that the group left with full stomachs and items to remind them of a lovely month in Budapest.

A smaller group consisting of Gavin, Grace, Helen, and TJ (See Figure 2) went to an NGO called Dévai Fogadó to learn about their work for our cultural project. Dévai Fogadó helps refugees in Hungary get supplies like clothes and food, meet people through programming for different age groups, and overall adjust to life in Hungary. They got to see the space and speak with someone who works there; it was very informative and inspiring to learn about how this organization changes lives for the better!

In conclusion, from waking up to bedtime, memories were made with lessons learned and places explored.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Case #3: The 20th had good food.

Breakfast hit per usual with our one consistent serving of fruit per day. Pancakes with Nutella and peanut butter can also never go wrong, whether in Northfield or Budapest.

Room 765 headed out to the Goat Herder cafe to pick up some lunch, where we got delicious hot chocolate, acai bowls, avocado toast, and a hummus wrap. It was buss. See Figures 3 and 4:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

We want to show that our dinner at Pasta Bella was the best dinner of all. We will proceed to prove by contradiction. 

We will assume that the others had the best dinner. However, we received a photo of a suspicious looking "steak" from unnamed persons (Figure 5), which we thought could also be a turkey or a chicken, and may have also been cooked using a dishwasher? This steak definitely can’t be the best dinner, so our assumption is false.

By contradiction, we know that our dinner at Pasta Bella must have been the best, as desired. See Figure 6 for further proof.

Figure 5:

Figure 6:

We ended the night with many treats that we have collected from grocery stores and some yummy macarons from the Central Market.

Thus, all stomachs were well filled with yummy food today, so January 20th meets the good food requirement.

Case #4: Money was well spent on the 20th.

At the Central Market, when Morgan tried to buy a chimney cake, the chimney cake man said “card declined, no money.” That was in part due to the scarf, postcards, ornaments, and souvenirs that were bought within the previous hour. Others purchased paprika for years' worth of good cooking. Many also indulged in some sweet treats (see Case 3). See Figure 7 for evidence of purchases.

The money spent on delicious meals and desserts was also worth it. Big shoutout to the food stipend. 

While the bank accounts may not be happy today, that is not part of the theorem for a good day.

Figure 7:

Because all requirements of the best day in Budapest have been fulfilled, by the Room 765 Theorem, we know that January 20th was the best day in Budapest, as desired. Hooray! ▢

Addendum (1/20/26 9:33PM)