Finally Returning Home From my Vacation!

Thanks for helping me get on my flight back home! Sorry I didn't elaborate on the extent of my travels, but I'm sure you can figure it out for yourself. :)

Apart from the amazing view when leaving the airport, this flight is getting pretty boring. Let's take a look at the puzzle section in the in-flight magazine!

FEBNA       EIHSA
VBURM       HAYSR
TOREE  -->  MNEKT
SOVSS       URIEW
FINED       ALSOQ

Clue: SIAMESESIAMESESIAMESESIAMESESIAMESE


Anyway, what city did I just fly out from, and what city am I going to?

$$\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_\to\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_,\_\_$$

Meta:

This puzzle is a tiny bit more mathematically inclined. It shouldn't be a hindrance to anyone, though.

Free hint: There are no tricks in the wording of the puzzle.

Hint:

Want to contact me? Just mail me something!

• Looks like the crowd is still mentally drained from failing your other three cryptograms. :P May 20 '15 at 19:41
• @Bailey M There is no failure, only the potential to succeed... May 20 '15 at 19:46
• I already got the tool to decipher it but the first grid doesn't make any sense unlike the second grid that spells out a complete phrase Oct 30 '15 at 7:24
• Same here. I think I know the city the second phrase is referring to, but the first one is quite a mistery. Oct 30 '15 at 15:20

Here's my attempt.

The clue is "SIAMESE" repeated 5 times, and it points towards

the Siamese method for the creation of 5x5 magic squares.

If we use that sequence to read the grids, we have:

BESTBOUNDSFORRAMFIVESEVEN

and

HOWMANYSQUARESARELIKETHIS

Now, the second one is the easiest: it is known that

the total amount of possible 5x5 magic squares is 275305224.

The hint comes handy now:

"mail me something", that number is a ZIP code: Goldsboro, North Carolina.

The first one gave me a headache: after a long search I came across

the Ramsey numbers. The phrase is asking for the lower and upper bounds of R(5,7), which are 80-143.

Now, if you look that up,

you find that's the Italian code for Naples.

NAPLES --> GOLDSBORO

• Check and mate. Excellent work! Oct 30 '15 at 21:59

sounds like I AM SS.

Explanation:

From the five words on the right side of the arrow, only one has SS, i.e. SOVSS.
Searching for SOVSS led me to A. Rodriguez, he's from New York, or NYCITY.

In the clue,

SS is written as ESES - so EIHSA caught my eye from the five words on the right side of the arrow. First search result for EIHSA had Argentina in it.

NYCITY to ARGENTINA.

• Thanks for the answer! Sadly, this is incorrect. In general, the clues are much more specific than what you are thinking. The given hint is precise, in terms of length, something that you didn't use. The letters in the grid are also l precise, and you don't seem to use all of them. Cheers :) May 21 '15 at 8:57
• I think I figured out the city from which you flew out from. But I can't make any sense of those grids, it could be a shift cipher but then I couldn't catch any sort of key to decipher it. Could you give another small hint? May 21 '15 at 19:25
• Use the clue from the puzzle. Don't read it out. What's being repeated, and how often? May 21 '15 at 19:27
• I already used that, and it lead me to the first city. Anyways, I'm enjoying it May 21 '15 at 19:39
• In that case, the clue is used for both parts of the puzzle. May 21 '15 at 19:40