I LOVE BUDAPEST

For a while spring has been my favorite season and it is because flowers and blooming trees invade the city after the snowy and often grey winter. It is so magical to just go out on the streets and see the trees dressed in pink and white and yellow and green! PERFECT!

For people who want to enjoy this fully I recommend a walk on the Gellert Hill or the Marguerite Island where you can also have a nice morning jogging training. As for me, I would love to go to the Flower garden of the Corvinus University which is actually right by the corner from me but I have not taken the time to actually walk there. The other place I would love to see is the Füvészkert in the District no.8. where Ferenc Molnár's boys were playing serious games and now it is supposed to be a magical garden in the middle of the rough city.

I love this city because I can ride my bike everywhere I want to go. Even though people say that the Netherlands is the Mecca of bikers, Budapest is pretty cool "bikewise".

I started biking regularly four or five years ago when I decided to clean my old bike (my mtb is at least 15 years old, but it is still loyally taking me anywhere I want to be)...then after biking to dance practice twice a week, I started using my bike for going jogging as well...then for getting everywhere downtown and I went as far as going to work by bike - which allowed me to take this to the extremes sometimes (when officehours are actually not taking place IN the office.)

So bikers can easily get from one point to another in and out of the city IF they want to bike. For me biking is relaxing and fun and gives me time to think and slow down in the daily rush. I just had this "Magic Moment" coming home from the supermarket after work. The bikeroute is going right by the motorway but it was framed with pretty trees blooming and full of fresh green leaves. It was perfect!

I have always loved this place and this enthusiasm has been growing ever since I first took friends from abroad around the city. There are so many cool things to see and every time I see the Andrássy Road from a bus or from a bike or just from the end when I'm on foot I am amazed at the architecture and style people put into this avenue more than a 100 years ago. There are palaces and theatres, even the magnificent Opera House that take me back into the romantic past. When I ride my bike on the bikelane (well, that needs some improvement) I am imagining myself as a baroness dressed in a long pretty dress walking on the streets with an umbrella... It is truly worthy slowing down there...

I love jogging in the morning. All the pain of getting up an hour earlier is worth running down to the riverbank and have a thirty minute jog around the ELTE  uni campus and see the sun rising higher and higher.

The best part is when I've done my laps and start stretching facing the rising sun, the National Theater and the Palace of Arts (MÜPA), the construction works that goes on and on. My iPod is playing my favorite songs and I can sing them out loud, cause noone is around at this time of the day.

A perfect start for the day.

I live in Budapest.

I have lived in other places in my life and have enjoyed it thoroughly but I still think that this city is worth every minute.

I wrote a couple of blogs about my time passed abroad but I have not written one in English and have no clue whether this is gonna last or not. Today it just popped into my head that I have to share my excitement when I look around and maybe you'll find it interesting or boring, or useful or useless - if you read it at all.

...and if you are ever around, I'll be happy to give you ideas where to go, what to see and how to enjoy this place...