“I like the posture, but not the yoga.
Roman Payne
I like the inebriated morning, but not the opium. I like the flower but not the garden, the moment but not the dream. Quiet, my love. Be still. I am sleeping.”
I have packed for a cold early Spring. Budapest has delivered beautiful warm weather in the mid to high 20s. I am not complaining, the weather is stunning.
We both love gardens. We seek them out when we travel.
It seems like an old person’s pastime, we are the youngest in these places by decades.
Fair warning, the following is picture-heavy and almost entirely botanical.
First, we need some breakfast.
It is not unusual for us to find a place we like and keep going back. We run the risk of missing out on something different, and perhaps better, but there is comfort in knowing and we head back to
Zërgë Coffeeshop.
“only the distant and unknown completely fill and satisfy the mind.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I order the Ruben and Shell mixes things up with something new.
Both delicious. The coffee is predictably good.
Our first garden is the Philosopher Garden and predates anything JK Rowling penned.
Perched on Gellért Hill and opened in 2001, sculptor Nándor Wagner intended to bring the great religions together to explore the diversity of theology and its cultural significance. Five statues face a central sphere which represents a central ‘God’.
All the major religions are represented, except for Islam.
Islam is sensitive, but they make a rod for their own back when their Prophet cannot be drawn or sculpted.
“Islam rather dangerously says, ‘Ours is the last and final one. There can’t be any more after this. This is God’s last word. That is straightaway a temptation to violence and intolerance and if you will note, it’s a temptation they seem quite willing to fall for.”
Christopher Hitchens
We head to the Füvészkert – ELTE Botanical Garden of Budapest.
Founded in 1771 by the predecessor of Eötvös Loránd University and is home to over 7000 species.
Shell’s obsession with tulips found a home in these beautiful gardens which include a tropical glass house and an impressive cacti garden.
“But wildness is more a quality than a place, and though humans can’t manufacture it, they can nourish and husband it…
Michael Pollan
The gardener cultivates wildness, but he does so carefully and respectfully, in full recognition of its mystery.”
We start to make our way back to the hotel.
We have already covered 10km.
On the way is Károlyi Garden.
More a park than a garden, it is a beautiful spot to sit and listen.
In the heart of the city, it is surrounded by stunning old buildings that seem to have purpose and presence around the garden.
Young people sleep and picnic, while others are reading on the benches.
There is a noticeable absence of phones.
There is sound, birds, and wind in the trees, gentle talking. Even the laughter and joy of children have a sense of belonging here.
Is it possible the sounds of children playing outside are entirely different from the noise they bring on iPads in cafes?
“I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature’s only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.”
Wilkie Collins
It is time to head home and I am starting to feel hungry.
I feel like the beer-for-lunch strategy failed due to a lack of food yesterday and had little to do with the beer.
Today I ordered a beer and pulled paprika chicken on a brioche bun.
Shell decides not to eat.
“Beer’s intellectual. What a shame so many idiots drink it.”
Ray Bradbury
Home for a break.
We head to Parisi 6 for dinner.
We order to share kolbász és savanyú, followed by marhapörkölt and lassan főtt sertésnyak for mains.
A jug of house wine.
Desert looks great so we share túrós galuska and házi almás rétes.
A mystery clear spirit that burns the brain to finish.
The warm weather has drawn the crowds. People everywhere.
There is a relaxed feeling.
The weather is perfect, cool, but not cold.
“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest.”
Ernest Hemingway
Despite already having dessert, we can’t walk past the Gelato store without grabbing some ice cream to get us home in the balmy weather.
A perfect day.
Home.
Bed.
Tomorrow we pick up our car and head into the mountains.
Stunning photos😀