Postcards from Europe #3
A series of my first time travelling through Europe before settling into my writing residency at the Chateau d'Orquevaux. This postcard is about Budapest
The Postcards from Europe series chronicles my first trip to Europe visiting Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Novi Sad (my father-in-law home town), Belgrade, Paris, Dijon and Joinville. After this I commence a three-week writing residency at Chateau d’Orquevaux.
Catch up on previous posts
Hello my dear Musers
I’m writing to you on the bus from Budapest to Novi Sad. It’s a four-and-half hour bus ride through fields of corn, hay, sunflower and tree plantations. We’re passing small villages with houses with terracotta roof tiles and walls painted white. Occasional church spires pierce the sky. Fields have crumbling houses and sheds. I keep looking for wildlife like I would in Australia, but there’s nothing. A truck packed with live geese passes in the way a truck of sheep or cattle would. A reminder that I’m in Europe, not Australia. I still have awe embedded in me where everything is new, different and unusual. What a privilege it is to travel safely especially in such fraught and awful times.
Let me take you back to my time in Budapest.
Budapest
Will I continually be overwhelmed by these big European countries?
Yes, I suspect so. Budapest was one of those cities that had everyone excited when they heard I was visiting – I was flooded with suggestions. My Budapest Google map had over 30 saved recommendations for places to eat, walk, and explore. But there were just two things I was really keen on.
About two months before our trip, M and I watched a couple of episodes of Sue Perkins' Big Adventure: Paris to Istanbul. The Budapest and Bucharest episodes showed Sue visiting the Children’s Railway and one of the famous bath houses. While she did other things (including a fish cooking session with locals), the railway really caught my attention, and I put it straight on our itinerary.
Surprisingly, many people we spoke to - even locals - had never heard of this railway. But that didn't dissuade us, and I'm so glad we went because it exceeded our expectations. We had the most delightful conversation with Zsolt, a young conductor who took his job very seriously, constantly interrupting our chat to perform his duties. When he learnt we'd travelled all the way from Australia to ride this child-operated train, he let M use his ticket puncher - just like Sue had been allowed to do in the show. If you want to see how our adventure unfolded, I highly recommend Episode 4 (available on ABC iView or Channel 4 in the UK).
The trip had another magical moment. After leaving the hills and riding back down to the city on a trolley car, M struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger about the trolley's mechanics. I caught the man's English accent and joined in, mentioning we'd visited the Children's Railway because of Sue Perkins' show. He then revealed they were actually from a town between Melbourne and Ballarat. As we explored this coincidence further, they mentioned having a good friend in Kensington. I had to ask the name – Kensington feels like a small town despite being in Melbourne's inner city. Their good friend turned out to be our direct neighbour! I'm no scientist, but I'd guess the odds of this happening are pretty close to zero.
The railway itself delivered unexpected surprises beyond the charming conductors. The views back down to Budapest were spectacular, and we found ourselves completely immersed in nature. The line runs over a very high hill with sweeping views of the city below (you can get off at a stop to walk to Elizabeth Lookout), and the temperature was blissfully cooler up there.
We arrived in Budapest on our twenty-sixth anniversary and wandered around the District V neighbourhood and saw Bilanx, a Michelin restaurant. We’ve never eaten at one so decided this was our chance. Our meal was incredible: seven courses paired with Hungarian wines was worth the 12.5 million Forints – yes, you read that right. Hungarian money feels like Monopoly money; it’s hard parting with thousands when purchasing anything!
When I left Melbourne, I wanted to spend my time eating the food, drinking coffee and absorbing the culture rather than ticking boxes of all the the ‘must-sees’.
But it’s hard.
There’s so much to see and I’m feeling that pressure to do it all. The internal battle is a disquiet. It’s also a test spending all our time together. I’m used to having loads of time on my own. So, I took some moments on my own over coffee, on our balcony, by the river to immerse myself in the space. As I said, it’s hard. There is so much to see and I don’t want to ‘miss’ out on things.
(This reminds me of when we travelled around Australia when our kids were little. At our third stop, a couple told us they’d been travelling around Australia for seven years and hadn’t seen it all, so let go of that idea. A good thing to remember.)
The temperature ramped up to 35ºC while in Budapest on the day we’d planned to see Buda Castle. After riding the Funicular (our sixth form of public transport there) we were melting in the sun. We settled for an iced coffee in the shade after a quick look around and we’d head to the Lukacs Baths. It’s a lesser well known bath house to tourists but well known to locals. It was perfect. Immersion in cooler water while watching the world go by: a pool guard with the round belly, bare feet and yellowed beard and moustache from smoking, chatting up the pretty young women; an old man so tanned his skin was leather; an older woman so tanned her orange lipstick stood out, flirting with the pool guard; another older woman mopping up the blood from her husband’s leg while her boobs fell out of her bikini; thongs (of the bikini variety) on all ages and shaped women; men openly watching the women. Here, I thought, I’m in Europe. On our way back to our apartment, we decided to walk across the Margit Bridge, and on a whim (the wonderful thing about holidays!) we walked onto Margit Island. It was full of life with the hot summer evening. In the centre of the park, a musical fountain had people of all ages enthralled.
We’d been given loads of recommendations to go to the ruin bars in Budapest, so I found the OG, Szimpla Bar. The reviews told me all I needed to know (overrun by tourists) but we went anyway. The vibe’s still there: grunge and haphazard, cigarette smoke, eclectic furniture, crumbling walls and stairs. I could have been sitting in a 1990s Collingwood bar. A great feel, and made us reminisce of the old days. The word is that the younguns still got there, just after the oldies have retired to their hotels.
While there, we continued finding the scent of M’s family that we had begun to find in Bratislava. As we walked around, we talked about how they would have walked these streets. On our last day there, we found a building that was in an old photo. A building that had once been owned by the family. There’s a fizz inside me as the old folk begin to reveal themselves in the pavements, buildings and cities.
The place that we spent the most time was in the Jewish Quarter because there’s so much in there: bookshops, cafes, bars, flea markets, etc. Again, like Wein and Bratislava, I feel the sadness steeped in these places, the memorials and can’t help but ask how the hell do those in power continue to inflict genocide on others. Why haven’t we learned yet? It feels particularly poignant now with Gaza, Israel and Iran. Enough. It makes me want to shake my fist and scream.
Budapest was incredibly easy to get around with trams (trolley cars), buses and trains running every few minutes or so. We walked a lot but also jumped on and off buses and trams so we could get a little lost and discover places we hadn’t seen yet. This, the wandering and surprises this provided, was probably what I loved most about Budapest. We also had more picnics for lunch (bread, cheese, meat, tomato, fruit) and made our first dinner for the trip. The good life.
I’ve definitely left enough unseen or experienced to mean I will need to go back one day, if able.
My writing
I received an invitation yesterday to join the Chateau Orquevaux Instagram group and it is all beginning to feel quite real. It’s exciting to see that there are some artists from Melbourne coming and that I will be meeting artists and writers from all over the world. With that, though, also comes a bit of anxiety. I’m trying to be curious about this instead of anxious. It’s a trick I teach my coaching clients because when we are curious, there’s no space left for anxiety.
So, looking at my feelings with curiosity (I give myself the statement: How interesting), I can see that there’s stuff going on about feeling like an imposter, or needing to make something amazing while I’m there. That puts a load of pressure on me and my time there, and it’s hard for creativity to bloom with pressure. So, in response to my statement of how interesting, I’m responding with let’s find out. That’s a more empowering statement that gives me so much to work with.
I’ve been journalling every day while away and I know that I’ll be dipping back into this while I’m on my residency. I left home with a Plan A (write a new thing) and a Plan B (edit an older thing) for the residency. Now, after three weeks away, I’m adding a Plan C which is to build on everything that I have seen, heard and felt during this trip. I’m okay with it still being in the air, for now. My itinerary in the few days before the residency starts has a few days in a smaller quieter village in France. I’ll be there with my middle son and I’m planning for some quiet time firming my intentions for the residency then.
Until then, my words are here, in actual postcards to people and in my journal.
Are you enjoying these postcards?
Please drop a comment below to let me know if you are and that I’m not just writing into the void 😬
Thank you!
Until next time, with a postcard from Novi Sad!
x M
PSST: if you’re new here, welcome! It’s lovely to have you here. If you haven’t checked out my Welcome post, I’d recommend that to find your way around
Since you’ve made it all the way to the end, I’ll show you some more pics
Love getting these postcards Meg and enjoying your journey!
Thanks for the vicarious enjoyment.