I hadn’t been to Budapest in 12 years and back then it was summer, I was young and had not traveled that much, meaning I could get enthusiastic about pretty much anything. I remembered it as untouched by tourists, “underdeveloped” in terms of shops and restaurants, but lots of fun. I rediscovered it invaded by hoards of tourists all huddled up from the cold, poorly dressed and way too loud, or maybe it was just me, I thought I had a serious case of fatigue until I got my period and realized it had just been hormones. Oh, well. Continue reading
eastern Europe
Bucharest part II
I was a bit disappointed to hear that F was teased at work since he’d caught a cold and stayed home for a couple of days right after our trip: “Did you get food poisoning in Bucharest?” a French buddy said. “I hear you were in Bucharest”, a Czech colleague added, “it must have been wild!” And I know it was all a joke to them, but I have to admit it hurt. Here we are in 2018, traveling like never before and still harboring the same stereotype views of the world. Book a trip, I blurted out! We decided to invite them and serve them Romanian wine the same quality and price range as the French ones, hiding the label to see their reaction. ‘Cause it’s easy to classify persons as “ignorants”, but the thing is many decent people probably feel the same way, but don’t say it out loud and so nobody ever corrects them. Anyways, rant of the day.
Traveling around Romania
We´re organizing a trip to Romania with some friends of ours since I want to show them a glimpse of my mother country and at the same time discover some more of it myself. We´re planning it in May, since it´s her birthday, but also because spring is awesome everywhere, and even more so back home. A week´s time flies fast and we want to make sure we get to see as much as possible, but still enjoy it at a nice pace. We´re hoping to get to see Bucharest, Sinaia, Brasov and Cluj-Napoca. If the latter proves to be too far, we´ll choose Sibiu instead. What do you think? Any suggestions?
Belgrade II
Finally I get the chance to tell you more about our lovely stay in Belgrade. I couldn´t wait to do that, but the first two days after returning were chaotic, especially since our luggage hasn´t arrived yet and I keep remembering all the things we had in it that I don´t want to lose. In addition to that I spent 3,5 hours at the Romanian embassy (for the very last time!) waiting in line for a piece of paper and getting frustrated, it was as comic and tragic as a Kusturica movie.
But let´s leave it at that and let me take you back to the Balkans and demistify the area for you. As I mentioned last time, we were there for the wedding of our friends Dragana and Alex and since we´d already taken a couple of trips each in May, this was also our summer holiday. Meaning we splurged a little on our hotel and eating out budget to compensate for the fact that Belgrade isn´t a coastal town and that the weather was either too chilly, too hot or too rainy to make the best out of it. And boy was that a good idea! We felt so spoilt in the end we couldn´t wait to get back home and cook our own food and fill our own fridge!
Jevrem restaurant in the lovely Dorcol area
life in a bubble 