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Are you a Buda or a Pest?

Thursday 21st November – Saturday 23rd November 2019

Are you a Buda or a Pest? The question my mum asks me every time I go to Budapest, ok, that’s an exaggeration, I’ve been there once before but pretty sure that was the first message I got from her! To answer the question, after 3 months of traveling and not much exercise I was most certainly borderlining on Buda, and the epic cold I had sure was a pest, so let’s just say I’m somewhere in the middle.

Usually arriving in a new place I’d have the public transport routes sorted to save money but getting to Budapest sick AF I pretty much googled which taxi company wouldn’t rob me and went with them from the airport to my accommodation. With Air BNB accommodation being ridiculous cheap in Hungary (yep, that’s where Budapest is!), I spent the usual cheap skate budget but got pretty impressive digs. Condo with a balcony right on the Danube river. Winning!! So this is an average view cos it’s night and I was giving zero (insert swear word), but you get the idea, pretty cool place!

Getting there at 8ish, a healthy Holly would have dropped the bags and went to explore, sick Holly walked across the road to a dodgy supermarket, found a day old lukewarm schnitzel to eat, ate and went to bed. There was no normal Holly the next day either, having a small stash of Sudafed left from the UK (why I didn’t stock up no idea!) I stayed in bed and tried to convince myself being healthy was more important than exploring Budapest. If I didn’t have a tour of Jordan starting on the Sunday I would have forced my sick and gross arse out of bed but Budapest really was after all a stop off on the way to Jordan. So can’t remember if I mentioned it before but to get to Jordan from London and back it was about $600, that’s flying London to Amman in one hit via Budapest. Or I could get a cheap arse flight for £30 to Budapest, stay a few days on the cheap then get a cheap flight to Amman before the tour starts. Want that one. Just didn’t plan on being sick and spending said short trip in bed, or on the couch, I did switch between the two at some stage during the day. Also took a chance on their version of Uber Eats called Wolt, there were these dumpling noodle things, didn’t realise you also had to order a sauce but did get some goulash, kinda worked together. No photos cos sick remember, apparently I’m in capable of clicking a button when sick.

So the next day, Saturday if you’re still with me, I was determined to see some of Budapest, even if I had to snot my way through it. Was also determined to find medication that could lessen the flow of snot down my face… sometimes you’re just not fast enough. Popping into a chemist, I thought it could be hard to get what I needed due to the language barrier and having to have ID in Australia for the strong shit but based on the look and sound of me the pharmacist knew exactly what I needed. And unlike the cold n flu tablets in Morocco which contained arse, these were jam packed full of pseudoephedrine, hallelujah! But as my mum taught me, if you’re taking strong drugs then you gotta eat so found this weird kinda hot dog at the supermarket, interesting taste but pretty sure my taste buds were MIA and that was the reason it didn’t taste as good as it looked!

Having already mapped out an itinerary in Goggle, I headed to my first stop, and the biggest must do in Budapest, parliament. Yeah, didn’t sound right to me either but apparently Google reckoned this was one of the top tourists attractions in Budapest. For once, Google didn’t lie. The Hungarian Parliament was that word beyond beautiful, no idea what that is but it’s that. Said wow out loud numerous times which when you have a cold sounds more like OW so people may have thought I was in pain…

And where is the parliament? Smack bang on the river so of course it’s surrounded by a million other gorgeous buildings and monuments, kicking myself for wasting a day and for reals saying OW…

Wandering along the Danube as you do on a glorious day, it was pretty after pretty and kick after kick…

Wandering over the bridge I wished I could turn back time because Budapest is so damn pretty and I just spent a day in bed ignoring her… sorry sweet!

Next stop was Fisherman’s Bastion and St Matthias Church. Now if you know me, you know that I’m not a big fan of seafood, mainly the smell, so why go to some Fisherman’s what ya call it?? Well… this place has nothing at all to do with fish, not even on the river’s edge, I’m sure there’s some reason it’s called the Fisherman’s Bastion will google that after you wowser at these gorgeous pics!!!

Yeah so Google tells me it’s called Fishmans Bastion maybe you commemorate the fishman who lived down by the Danube and maybe protected it in times of conflict, but not even google is sure on this one! What makes this place so damn amazing though is the views over the Danube and Budapest, can you get more picture perfect than this??

And what makes this ‘bastion’ super duper special is St Matthias Church standing in the background, or foreground, guess it depends which way you come up. This church is something special, in a completely vein and superficial way, cos it’s so so so pretty! Coloured roof tiles, white limestone, gothic towers and windows, just gorgeous. And I’m being vein because I was feeling so sick and snotty that I didn’t go in cos I felt bad spreading germs in a church, so no idea if this pretty one had an substance.

Having done a fair wander around the streets, cos getting lost is one of my favourite things, my tummy rumbled as it permanently does so I headed to the Christmas markets, thinking I’d be able to find something to eat, boy did I find something!!! Soooo much food. Stuff that I had no idea what it was but by gosh it looked good. One of everything please, except the Rooster Testicles, I’ll pass on those!! Ended up with this plate of deliciousness, some kind of meat and potatoes and ???, spinach I’d say but that green stuff did not taste good, and ended up costing me about $30 too, tourist rates me thinks!!

As far as Christmas markets go, these were pretty damn impressive. I guess Christmas was just over a month away so time to get into the spirit!

Well and truly pooped from just walking and wiping, I was homeward bound and somehow between sitting down to stuff my face and finishing, it had gotten dark and a bit chilly. Perfect for a sickie like me!?!? Although I had planned on being back before dark, kinda glad my plans went astray cos Budapest at night is something else, the whole place lights up and feels like magic! Almost looks like a golden city, and the Fishemans Bastion and church at night, wow!! If I had an ounce of energy left I would have legged it back over the bridge to see the view over Budapest at night from the Bastion, but I didn’t. So here one side of the river lit up like a Christmas tree, a golden one…

Wandering back down the Danube by night, my last stop was something that will be etched in my mind for eternity, the Hungarian Parliament all lit up so spectacularly it takes your breathe away. My crapola iPhone only captured about one hundredth of its brilliance!

Legging it back to the apartment along the river, I have to admit that I did start wandering if maybe I should have known better than to walk along a river at night by myself!! Did another quick stop for full strength cold n flu meds to get me through Jordan and it was back to bed. Really really really wish I’d spent more time exploring Budapest, glad last visit with Kylie we went to the thermal baths, no way they’d let me in in my state, my whole head was a thermal bath of snot!! Anyhoo, taxi booked for 4am the next day and it was good night to me and fingers crossed for a less snotty time in Jordan!!

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Happy birthday to me!!!

Sunday 18th August 2019

All credit to Kylie, I was quietly trying to ignore my birthday as I do every year but the lovely lady organised a birthday/welcoming party of her nearest and dearest to help celebrate my day. We also let the Geordie tag along. We still can’t seem to shake him…

After Facetime calls from home, smiling like I hadn’t just drank Connor out of all the gin in England, we headed off for our afternoon destination, the Mercato Markets. Like me, you’re probs thinking markets aren’t really where you’d expect to have birthday drinks, am I right?? Once again, the Brits kick our arse when it comes to markets. Add a gin distillery, a brew house, an epic beer garden and food stalls from every corner of the globe and you have the Mercato Markets. Bloody brilliant place to spend a birthday, even for a grinch like me!! And there were ribs, which after bacon are the easiest way to make me happy… my birthday in summary: eat, drink, laugh, repeat… fingers crossed for many more birthday repeats to come!!

So now to the serious stuff. Taking stock of your life on your birthday can be dangerous, or fulfilling. I’m somewhere in between. I’m now hitting late thirties and in all honesty, I’m not in the place I thought I’d be. And I don’t mean the UK. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I wanted the fairytale life. Meet the man of my dreams, fall in love, have a family, travel and just be overwhelmingly happy. There’s a reason all the fairytales finish with the man and woman falling in love then the line “they lived happily ever after” thrown in for good measure. It’d be too scary for little girls everywhere if they actually showed you all the bumps in the road and curve balls between falling in love and the happily ever after. I am lucky enough to have been in love, honestly and truly three times. One died and the other two just didn’t want the same things in life. People have different fairytales. Am I hopeful there’s more love in the future?? Yes and no. I would like for it to happen again, there’s no better feeling in the world than holding the person you love, ok maybe having kids feels better?? And bacon with avo is pretty damn good…. I’ve already been lucky enough to experience all that, possibly more so than other people have so I’m not holding my breathe for that feeling again. I’m not going to revolve my life around finding my person, I’m going to revolve it around me. Sounds narcissistic, I know. And I have been told lately that I make everything about myself, character flaw. I guess what I mean is that my world is going to revolve around being happy with who I am, where I am and being alone. If someone comes along and adds to that happiness, then great but I’m not counting on it. So yeah I’m getting older and the fairytale hasn’t worked out how I thought it would, but maybe I’ll write a new fairytale for little girls, one that says you’ll fall in love, you might lose the person you love but you’ll be ok. Love the person you are and surround yourself with people that love that person too. Do that and you’ll live happily every after. Cue the line “And SHE lived happily ever after”.

Yeah, that was a bit lame but whatevs… it’s my birthday and I can be lame if I want to…

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Home of punk

Even though the previous day was nothing but naps, somehow I still slept in. Well at least a sleep in by Kylie’s standards, I think she was itching for me to get my arse out of bed and kick off our Saturday. When I finally emerged around 10 (I call a sleep in past noon), there was no way we’d get ready and tubed to Notting Hill markets before they closed at 1pm, and actually have enough time to enjoy them. Next best option, Camden Markets.

Arriving with a grumbling stomach was not a good idea. So many delicious food stalls with yummers from all corners of the earth. But there was no going past a Yorkshire Pudding Burrito. Roast beef, stuffing, potatoes, greens and gravy all wrapped in a larger than life Yorkshire pudd. Kid you not, I was making mmmm sounds as I ate. Or at least my stomach was. Soooo good, how do we not have these in Australia? Hmmm, food truck idea…

With appetites satisfied, it was time to wonder aimlessly through the lanes and buy things we didn’t need. The markets themselves are glorious, old red brick buildings, tunnels and open air stalls, so beautiful that Kyles called it – not the next best option after Notting Hill, better than.

Falling in love with a million little things, it was a lesson in restraint. I really didn’t NEED a wooden gin serving tray, a black cape jacket or a 60s style handbag. Just really really really wanted them. But I do prefer to spend my money on experiences rather than material things. And spend $$ on gin, gin makes some experiences bearable. Plus, with still over a week of my trip left, I knew if I shopped up a storm I’d be surviving on a diet of dust for the rest of the trip… but I did come across a Levi’s jean jacket with silver sequin angel wings that I couldn’t walk past… too old for sequins, maybe. Do I care? Not one bit!! Absolutely loved the markets, lots of things I just knew you’d never see in AUS, but of course, a lot of the stock standard things every second stall seems to have.

The highlight and possibly one of the most super cool stores in the entire world, Cyberdog. A raver’s dream, all things neon and glowing, everything you could ever dream of needing for a music festival or rave. Will be back before Glastonbury to stock up on flashing mouth lights, glowing eye lashes and neon fur coats.

After what felt like 50,000 steps, we took a drinks break at the funkiest bar ever. Exposed brick, neon lights, retro posters and arch windows. Would love to teleport that bar to Adelaide.

Having our fix of the markets, it was a leisurely stroll around the streets of Camden. So different to any place you’d find in Australia – well, at least the places I’ve been to. Shops selling everything from pot flavoured lollipops and chocolate to punk rock Doc Martens that’d make any Ramones fan proud. The place has a life of its own, an absolute buzz which explains the hoards of people packing the streets. Loved Camden, it’s added to the shortlist of places I could live if (or when) I move to London. Understandable why the mega superstar Amy Winehouse lived here.

With a 40th birthday to prep and pamper for, we reluctantly headed back to Brixton, having to leg it to a tube station further down the track. The Camden station was so busy they had to close it temporarily. Could you ever imagine that happening in AUS?

Back in Brixton we had the luxury of time to get ready for the 40th birthday of Dylan, a friend of Kylie’s and her house mates Kam and Sean. Wish I’d taken more pics of Kyles and I looking glam for the night, having been a super annoying tourist and taking millions of photos every minute, for some reason, only took one pic the whole night. The photo booth at the party got a good workout but with so many peeps per shot, kinda forgot to grab any evidence for myself.

The party itself was at a gorgeous bar overlooking the city. Once again, no pics. Why oh why. Fabulous night, Dylan’s partner Joe put together the sweetest video of birthday messages from his family and friends in Brissie and of course the music was amazing so we danced the night away. Loved meeting so many new people, felt like maybe, just maybe, I could start a new life here. Or get on with making the current one even more amazing.

Saturday 12th January 2019.

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