Warsaw to Paris to Budapest

2009-10-05T18:47:00.000+02:00

"Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue."

Bob Dylan (It's all over now, baby blue)

Attention

2009-09-17T14:51:00.002+02:00

Why is it that I had to wait for some-one to notice my absence before deciding to blog again? The summer is all over now and outside the window I can hear the rain falling so hard that it almost sounds like applause. I have had the wierdest three weeks of my life at work, and now that it feels like autumn is finally on its way, a nrew phase begins again. September is the new january apparantly.

One way or another, this will be my final year in Budapest, and whilst last year I kept away from my blog for fear of giving too much away, I would like to be better at recording what I actually do while I am in and around Hungary. There is a lot going on at weekends these days and it would be nice to try and remember some of it, rain and all. At the moment however, there is only work and sleep, with precious little in between. It is astonishing to see how the routine climbs back into first place.

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."
Dolly Parton

Over the sea to Skye

2009-08-09T15:11:00.002+02:00

This summer has been in very definite chunks of time; a week in Budapest, two weeks in Yorkshire, Paris, more Yorkshire, Isle of Skye and then Budapest. Now that I am back from the Isle of Skye, all thoughts return from holidays to real life and a return to Hungary. This has been the summer that lasted forever, with the simultaneous feeling that there has been lots going on and also long stretches of very little.

The Isle of Skye was simply one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and I will be posting pictures over the next few days.Skye involved lots of things, all of which were affected by the weather. The wondrous landscape is sweeping, breathtaking and ever changing as the clouds, sun, rain and mist waves across the peaks and valleys. To wake up every morning and look out at the Cuillin Moutains was a joy.

The beautful joy of sitting at my little desk in the VII district and listening to the life around me whilst sipping coffee is what I am looking forward to now, as I travel home to Budapest on Tuesday morning. I have enjoyed taking pictures over the last few weeks and am hoping to have the time to sort all the pics out before the end of the week. I never imagined that I would miss my little apartment so much, that I would long for the sights, smells and, most importantly, the sunshine of my lovely Jewish quarter.

Mine all mine

2009-07-31T20:15:00.003+02:00

Has the world not been given the memo? Why does no-one realise that Paris belongs to me? It is mine, my secret city, the one where I wander down the streets that bring forth in me the most heart wrenching emotions and make me remember why the French Capital has been immortalised in so many songs, paintings and films.

Going back there was the emotional experience I expected, but also held quite a few surprises. Firstly, I had forgotten how expensive the city is. Ridiculously expensive, like 5 times more to sit and have a coffee than Northallerton or Budapest. And the cost of everything just makes people shrug their shoulders and say 'well, it is Paris...'

Seeing D and L again felt like no time had passed at all, but it has. Three years since I stood weeping at the airport, with D, L and J watching me go through the departure gate like a scene from French Kiss, I walked on, didn't look back and moved to Budapest. There was a bit of messing about in the middle, but too long a story for here and now.

The Five days went by in a whirl of dinner parties in the 16th arrondisement, summer soldes at Le Printemps and walks in the Jardin du Luxembourg that felt some-how like the moment had passed. I love Paris, and I have loved it and missed it while I was away, now that the mad ideal I had built up in my mind has been knocked down a bit maybe I can enjoy the city for what it is...romantic, breathtaking and special. Only for me though.

Long enough

2009-07-14T14:50:00.003+02:00

Has it been long enough to be considered a proper break? Five weeks or so feels like a long time, although not that much has happened. I am back in North Yorkshire and being slowly driven mad by the lack of transport, and thereby being stuck at home with nothing but daytime TV, a load of friends who are still at work and parents who want to 'talk about your plans for the future'. I once read that we all become children in our parents house and have to say that has felt more true on this trip than any other. I love North Yorkshire and I love my parents, I just love them more when I have my own car.

Shining on the horizon are the scintillement lights of the Eiffel Tower, sparkling just for me as I ready myself for Paris on Thursday of this week. The weather should be perfect and the idea of a noisette with D, or a Sunday in the Jardin du Luxembourg is sending me into a spin. I am still reeling with emotion about my trip to France and it is hard not to wonder what it would be like to live there again. More boring navel gazing, so I will leave those thought tucked into a drawer at the back of my mind until the time comes again for an emtional de-clutter. I am going to snap happy while I am away, with a wonderous week in the Isle of Skye to follow my city chick wanderings around the City of Light.

Boring, boring, gone.

2009-06-05T17:14:00.004+02:00

See you all in a few weeks when I have something interesting to blog about.

Spending time

2009-05-30T21:21:00.003+02:00

The last few weeks of term are always mad, but this year seems to just be non stop. When I haven't been wandering around Hungary on different school trips, I have been collapsing in my apartment and trying to catch up on sleep. In between the days away I have been watching season 1 of the Mentalist and getting excited about the Isle of Skye by watching Coast. The rest of the time is a vicious circle of laundry, and nipping to the shop for milk so that I can have a cup of tea.

Today, gloriously, I find that for the first time in 4 weeks I have a day when I didn't need to do anything, so I didn't. Tomorrow is the city horse race on Heroes Square and the much smaller event of Judafest in my own district, and yes, that really is what it is called. I am enjoying the city at the moment, even today with the thunder and grey rain can be special when you are able to stay inside and watch. Finally, the smell of camp fires, unwashed clothes, and damp socks has gone to be replaced by a wave of fabric softener and the promise of the summer holidays in just three short weeks.

Fields of Gold

2009-05-26T18:35:00.002+02:00

I had an amazing, exhausting time in the Northern Uplands. Going on a trip with a load of kids is not the most relaxing past time, but it does afford me the opportunity to visit parts of Hungary that I would never have been able to see otherwise. On this visit, I went onto the Blue Roof, the highest point of Hungary and into the Bukk and Matra Hills. It really is the most beautiful part of the country that I have seen.

The last two weeks have been very busy indeed, but it is making the time go fast and I am now looking at only 3 weeks left of school after tomorrows trip to Visegrad for a couple of days is done. I am nearly at the end of my second year in Budapest and will definitely be back for a third. Dreaming of the summer holidays and the Isle of Skye, Paris and the Yorkshire Dales. It will be here soon enough, so much to get through before it does.

The Northern Uplands photos

2009-05-24T08:06:00.006+02:00

Lomtalanítás

2009-05-16T18:44:00.002+02:00

It was throw-out weekend again yesterday and today and I really enjoyed watching the vans and carts loading up the stuff that some-one else had chucked away. One guy that I saw had bagged the most amazing art deco dining table and chairs that I wondered how anyone who has ever watched the antiques roadshow could possibly not know that it would have been worth a fortune. For myself, I saw a chair that matched the one that I hoiked upstairs after the last throw-out, but this one was too far away from my apartment for me to manage.

Life goes on in Budapest and I spent most of the day wandering back and forth between the WAMP and the shiny new Costa Coffee that has opened on the corner of Andrassy by Deak Ter. It made me highly excited, I have a love of multinational coffee chains that I am aware is not very fashionable at the moment, but I don't care. They make me feel like I am home, and when you live abroad sometimes you just need that.

This is the North, where we do what we want.

2009-05-08T18:44:00.002+02:00

I read a review a few weeks ago about a TV adaption of David Peaces 'Red Riding' quadrilogy of books. Set in Yorkshire from 1973 until 1984, they focus on the corruption and lawlessness of the region during the time of the Yorkshire Ripper. Being a dyed in the wool Yorkshire girl, I felt drawn to the series, no matter what they were about, as they were set in my homeland. Even though I spent my formative years in North Yorkshire, I was born in Bradford and this is where all my family orginates.

What followed was four and a half hours of the most gripping, darkest and brilliant film making I have seen in a long time. Homesick for the Yorkshire accents, each character, flawed as they were, meant that I could not tear my eyes away. After watching the first film, 1973, I clicked straight online and bought all 4 books, which arrived today. The whole thing made me proud, ashamed and nostalgic all at the same time. If you can get hold of a copy, watch them. Seriously.

Summer Lovin'

2009-05-03T12:42:00.002+02:00

This summer, I have the lovely long holiday that comes with working in a school. This week saw only four days at work, a renewed contract for one more year in Budapest and a tooth extracted at the Dentist. Don't let anyone tell you that my life is not full and fascinating. The next thing to think about is the summer holiday. So far, I have a few days in Istanbul, a couple of weeks at home in Yorkshire and a week on the Isle of Skye.

Yesterday morning I did something that I have been thinking about for a while and booked flights to Paris for a few days in July. It has been 3 years, 10 months almost to the day since I was in the city, and that was the day that I left after living there for only a year. Paris has haunted me ever since, and even I am nervous about returning. So amazing was the city to live in, I wonder if I will be able to tear myself away when I go back. I left originally as I spent the whole year panicking about money and the cost of living there, it doesn't mean that I didn't adore every corner I went into. Hopefully, going back won't be too emotional.

Worse still, I am meeting D and L, so it may even be like I never left. I want to stay near my Jardin du Lxembourg, so I can imagine that everything is like it was. Should be an interesting summer at any rate, Paris and a few weeks in Budapest. I know that I like the Hungarian captial a whole lot better when I actually have the chance to explore it during the holidays. There are still 7 more weeks of school madness to go, including trips to Eger and Visegrad. Should fly by though, this time of year always does.

Day trip to Szentendre

2009-04-23T10:09:00.003+02:00

A million miles

2009-04-22T19:54:00.004+02:00

Well, more like twenty kilometres, but who is counting? I was today, when I cycled down the Danube to Szentendre. For those of you who actually partake in some sort of fitness I am sure that the pretty much flat twenty kilometre ride out among the blossoms and sunshine seems like a dream, when you consider that you could be stuck in an office instead. Well, you are partly correct. The skies were the kind of blue that you use as your computer wallpaper in winter to remind you that there is a summer in this world. The cycle path veers alongside the Danube under the most fragrant trees, wafting a soft pink scent towards you as the breeze cools your face. It was idyllic, and even though it was hard, I was very proud of myself when I was all done and sat in Szentendre for lunch with A.

It was about the time that we arrived back in the city and had to cycle through the traffic that I could feel my knees and the seat of my pants weaken and ache, and not in a good way. Now I am home and off to bed at the unseemly time of 8.00 PM, as that may be the only way that my legs are able to cope with the pressure of being attached to my body. All this has taught me one powerful lesson. I should either exercise more often, or not at all.

"I really don't think I need buns of steel. I'd be happy with buns of cinnamon." Ellen DeGeneres

In four years time...

2009-04-20T17:25:00.002+02:00

Where do I think that I will be in four years time? It will be 2013, and I will be 37years old. This month, my blog is four years old, and is made up of 769 posts (including this one!). If I go back to the start, I lived in Warsaw, then I moved to Paris, after that I went on holiday to Canada, before going back to Warsaw for a few months. That was followed by six months in North Yorkshire, and the move to Budapest, which is where I currently reside. It does not feel like I long time, four years, but I seem to have squeezed a lot into there.

When I contemplate the fact that I have been writing on here for four years it makes my head spin a little. I suppose that the larger part of myself is imagining that I have just been living away from England for a few months. I still don't really consider myself to be an 'ex-pat', in any sense of the word. Moving around so much has made every choice feel like a crossroads, and even now I feel the feet itching once again.

In four years time, I would like to think that things would be different all over again. New faces, new challenges and new cities. The idea that I will be 37 is freaking me out more than a little though, as like so many people, I feel 26. All the change breathes new life into me and the altering landscape blows away all cobwebs. Will I still be blogging in four years time? Of that, I am least certain of all things.

"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out"
Vaclav Havel

In this city

2009-04-19T19:52:00.002+02:00

It is Sunday and the sun is officially out to stay. A came round at half one and we spent a few hours this afternoon wandering and watching Budapest wake up after the long, dark winter. We started at the Design market that happens once a month. Being so close to my district, I often have a walk down there on a Sunday. Today I felt the heat of the sun on my skin and watched the crowds and clouds float by in a haze of weekend relaxation. I like the idea of supporting local artists and I bought a gorgeous print of a watercolour of Matryoshka dolls, being totally obsessed with the things as I am.

The rest of the day was spent in quiet reflection as we watched the thousands of bikes toot past our little cafe on their way to the Critical Mass, seems like it is all happening in Budapest today. A salad, a cappucino and a little sunburn later and I am back at home. I am finally starting to feel normal. It usually takes me a week of holidays to start to feel like myself again, the rest of the time is a blur of work and attempts at getting enough sleep. Gloriuos work free days stretch ahead and I have much more the city that I never got around to seeing before.

One week

2009-04-18T15:51:00.002+02:00

I have had exactly one week of my holiday and I now have another one to go. I have travelled through four different countries and spent so much time on the road, or on trains that I can't quite believe that I am sitting still with the view out of my window unchanging. Highlights include a day alone in Krakow, the snow still on the mountain tops of Slovakia and a gorgeous day of food and thermal baths in Budapest.

One week is all that it takes to get yourself completely out of your normal work routine, and this change has been just what I wanted from my holiday. Budapest is better in the sun and there are a million places in the city to make you happy to be outside. It has all happened so fast, green sprinting its way out of the branches on trees. We seem to have missed Spring altogether and the weather is so gorgeous that I need to keep telling myself that it is only April, and that the summer holidays have not started yet.

4 countries in 7 days - Austria

2009-04-18T08:53:00.005+02:00

4 countries in 7 days - Poland

2009-04-16T13:35:00.005+02:00

4 countries in 7 days - Slovakia

2009-04-16T13:32:00.005+02:00

4 countries in 7 days - Hungary

2009-04-16T13:27:00.005+02:00

Here are a few images from my day at Lake Balaton. Also coming, Poland, Slovakia and Austria. A lot of miles, hours on the road and looking out of train windows.

Exhausted

2009-03-27T17:36:00.002+01:00

I've been attending a course at the Danubius Hotel for the last two days and have one more to complete tomorrow before I'm done. It has been brilliant to have a couple of days out of the old routine and I have really enjoyed doing some extra stuff to get me fired up about the business of getting kids to know stuff. Unfortunately, I have been full of the most horrible cold known to man and have snuffled and sneezed my way through the course. Even know, on a glorious Friday night I have things to read and have to be up again at 6.00 tomorrow to get back to the hotel.

Two weeks to go until my wonderful Hungarian road trip with A and G and I am exhausted. Going to bed at 8.00 is staving off the worst of the cold, but I am all eyes on Sunday, when I can sleep and stay in the same place for a day, no up and out the door for me. I love meeting teachers from all over the world, and it has fired me up anew for all the possibilities that the world holds. Not so fired that I want to move from my sofa on Sunday. Being able to breathe again without sounding like a peeping Tom in the bushes would be lovely too.

Thursday gone

2009-03-19T17:56:00.002+01:00

I am so close to the weekend...I can almost taste it. Another week and no news, so maybe I am destined to stay in Budapest after all. This is the worst bit, as soon as a choice is made, I will feel better. Chatting to K when we went out for dinner last night with some-one staying in Budapest, we spoke about how moving around when you start this carousel of living abroad can become a little addictive. You get used to saying goodbye and become highly proficient at being the new one. On the eve of change, even though it is looking increasingly unlikely, it has made me think.

I have all my plans done and dusted for the Easter holidays, A, G and I are going on a little road trip around the Balaton. We will stay in Heviz, but also visit Veszprem and Keszthely. Leaving or staying, it will give me a chance to try and understand Hungary, as up to now I have found myself totally perplexed, undecided. There are still 3 more weeks of work, and yet the next holidays are the shining light on the horizon.

Saturday morning around Josefvaros

2009-03-15T07:50:00.004+01:00

Hours and minutes

2009-03-08T18:24:00.002+01:00

It's a funny thing how blogging becomes part of your life. I started when I was in Poland, living this amazing ex-pat life, and I wanted a record of the little things. The cafes, the food, the people, the cities around me. And blogging nearly every day gave me all those things. Photos and memories all rolled up in a microchip somewhere, a masive e-scrapbook of the 6 years of living abroad. It only started to unravel when I moved to Budapest. The two years that I have lived here have not been the same as Poland or France, and I have found my relationship with Hungary to be strange in varying degrees.

The blogging went quiet, and most of the time it was because I couldn't find anything good to say about this new Eastern European city, not sure how to express my reactions to where I found myself. In the last few months, I have stayed away because I was contemplating leaving and didn't want to say anything until I was sure of what was coming next. As much as being a travel blog, WarsawtoParis has become about that moment of change, the build up and the aftermath.

Now, in early March I find myself again on the cusp. Thinking of leaving but with no-where yet to go. I had forgotten how stressful that time was and the hours and minutes seem to tick by so slowly. I am not sure where I will end up next, but I know that movement is in the air. I do find a tiny bit of fondness for the city begins to creep in, but not enough to make me want to stay. The waiting for the next turn in the road to be revealed is the most difficult part of all this travelling and living away from home.

"There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one."
Kazuo Ishiguro