budabest – Adventurings

hi friends! did you have a lovely easter?

i just kind of peaced out of the blog for about a week… i actually did write an easter post but last minute packing took precedent. if you were following along on instagram, you might have seen that we took off to budapest for the long holiday weekend! this year was the first year that (finally!) good friday was a public holiday… which means now i don’t have to feel guilty for taking that and thursday off, heh.

it is so difficult to write about this holiday besides saying that it was just magical… all of the heart eyes and sparkles come up whenever i think, talk, or write about the city. it just completely blew me away… a bit strange because i wouldn’t say that happened when i first went there ten years ago as a little twenty-year-old backpacker on her second whirlwind europe trip. i don’t know what it was…. perhaps it was the mysterious and magical hills of buda that kept calling me. how friendly, fun-loving, and lively the people and the nightlife were as well as the unforgettable crumbling facades of the erzsébetváros district where we stayed. the history, the beauty… and just being there to soak it all up with my favorite guy.

i loved being immersed in this different culture; a country so close but yet far from the one where i currently reside. with a language and people so different to the discerning eye, now that i’ve really lived czech culture. on my first trip the two were almost indistinguishable, but how wrong (or just young and naive) i was.
my favorite moments were exploring the neighborhood around us and finding just the most incredible things. although the buildings of erzsébetváros seem neglected, the culture that you will find inside of those walls is incredible. an amazing garage rock band, a ruin bar complex that just goes on forever with hidey-holes undiscovered… flea markets, secret courtyards and gardens… i only wished i had more time to immerse myself in it all.

(this food truck village on kazinczy utca might not seem like much to my west coasters, but we just don’t have things like this in central europe… until now)

(having life revelations, inspiration, and excellent people watching at szimpla kert)

the sour cherry strudels and cafe culture… the amazing buildings, monuments, and parks! hungarian wine & all of the delectable treats you can find all over the place; it was like there was no way to go wrong!

(the “opera slice” at my fav, gerlóczy kávéház because we were going to the opera!… coming in the next post)

going ballistic over the tiniest signs of springs that had not yet materialized “up north” where we live. sitting under the cherry blossom trees as the petals whirled around us and danced out our feet like confetti for a vernal celebration. sitting underneath the bridge on margitsziget drinking the last of our wine on our last night in the city and “cheersing” the bright and beautiful skyline with a "na’zdravi, budapest!“