“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.” Sylvia Plath I awake to the sound of birdsong and the fast running brook under our window. There are no sounds outside of nature. My only complaint is that the sun rises…
Category: travel
Zázrivá – Slovakia
“Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. ” William S. Burroughs You need to be prepared to change your plans. Our initial plan was to explore Romania, but more heat is heading our way. With highs of 37…
Magyar Nemzeti Galéia
“After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.” Oscar Wilde I wake up with a hangover. Thankfully I drank last night so the…
Arrivals – Budapest
Saturday “I wonder why I don’t go to bed and go to sleep. But then it would be tomorrow, so I decide that no matter how tired, no matter how incoherent I am, I can skip on hour more of sleep and live.” Sylvia Plath There is nothing enjoyable about a night flight. The only…
Departures – Budapest
“It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear on the contrary that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning” Albert Camus Another blue sky. I watch the sun hit Szabadság tér. A symbol of…
The Last Night In Budapest
“I would have stayed a hundred times and I would have left one time only – still, I left.” Mihail Drumeş We are up early and there is a deliberate lethargy to our actions that has nothing to do with tiredness and everything to do with a reluctance to leave. Breakfast is not until 8.00…
Slovakia – The Tartra Mountains
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” John Muir A great night’s sleep. Up early for another…
Slovakia – Poprad the Sequel
“Dead voices, lost sounds, forgotten noises, vibrations lockstepping into the abyss and now too distant ever to be recaptured!…What sort of arrows would be able to transfix such birds?” Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam Despite the noise, I fell asleep and slept well. I am woken at 4.00 am by a man howling in pain. Long,…
Slovakia – Kosiče
At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing.Let him sleep on.” Samuel Beckett Not the best night’s sleep. Music and general revelry. It is the price you pay in the heart of the city. We head out for an early morning walk. The markets are…