Forest at the End of Town

In an odd turn of events last Saturday happened to be almost irrationally sunny and pleasant by Budapest weekend standards, which state that fine weather should invariably turn miserable at 6 PM on Friday. Or perhaps at 7 AM on Saturday, so those ridiculous souls who are awake at that ungodly hour will have a…

A Trailer to Spring 2017

So it’s that time of the year again when on March the 1st I wake up, look out the window, notice the same drab morning grays, the same freezing dachshund in tiny pink overcoat being dragged along by a heavily indisposed human, the same slightly annoying drizzle, the same child wielding a particularly pointy umbrella…

Barlove: Espresso Embassy

I’ll cut straight to the chase: in my humble yet I would say pretty well informed opinion, based on downing hundreds, if not thousands of coffee cups in a wide array of Budapest establishments which offer it these days, Espresso Embassy is the best. Since it’s also among the first third wave coffee shops to…

Barlove: Castro Bistro

The whole point of having a relaxed late winter (a bit of wishful thinking here, I guess) Sunday in the city is not to have any rules, but sometimes you really can’t refuse the universe, as the great master of everything, Leonard Cohen so rightly put it. So our not so ad-hoc rule, which actually…

The Big White- A Winter Walk at Normafa

Whenever I go up to Normafa, I feel a bit like one of the Bagginses setting out on an adventure. As the bus or the cogwheel train makes its unhurried way up the hillside, I am slowly surrounded by names that would not sound out of place in a Tolkien story- or Winnie the Pooh’s…

Just a Bit of Frozen Planning

Every now and then I get linguistic crushes: I grow very affectionate of expressions in a certain language, and often suffer when I find they are nigh untranslatable. That’s probably their charm in the first place- finding them I feel I discovered a way of saying something I hadn’t known before. Such is the French…

River of Ice- A Walk along the Wintry Danube

To quote Blur (and it’s very nice to start a post by quoting your favourite Britpop band), modern life is rubbish. These days, instead of going out onto my balcony to investigate whether I feel mildly cold, just plain old cold, or hideously cold, I constantly refresh the alpha and omega of all Hungarian weather…

Best of 2016- Budapest

So since last year I started a tradition (though I don’t know if you can already call it that after only one iteration) of listing some things which I found particularly nice about Budapest in the previous twelve months, I will try to continue it this year, with new ones, and perhaps see how many…

The Budapest Christmas Market Roundup

December is neatly divided into two phases, which follow each other abruptly and without any form of transition. Phase one is the oh Christmas is still ages away, I will take my time and enjoy this bit, when you cheerily look at a shop window or two and passingly check out a Christmas market with…

Barlove: Wild Flower Bar

Update September 2019: The Wild Flower has now moved and changed its name, it is called Plante and you can find it at Madách Imre út 8.  When you’re a child you imagine many many wonderful and ultimately impossible things about your brilliant future, and for me one of these was gaining the dexterity which…