The capital with the eye of an expat
EVEN BEYOND THAT…
One of the more confusing things about living abroad is getting your head around a new set of holidays. I was surprised that in Malta, Easter Monday isn’t a national holiday. I was surprised, too, that in Montserrat, 17 March, St Patrick’s Day, is. ...
The capital with the eye of an expat
A Christmas tipple
It’s Christmas. The season of goodwill. And giving. Lots of giving. Mostly giving stuff that people don’t want or won’t use or have no need for. It amazes me how caught up we all are with consumerism, even in times of spiralling inflation, increasing ...
The capital with the eye of an expat
Sparkling Somló
While I rarely get excited about anything, I have three underlying passions that bubble to the surface on occasion: stories, traditions, and wine. When octogenarian Károly Fehérvári shook my hand and smiled a Monday-morning welcome, he opened a door to a world that would ...
The capital with the eye of an expat
Scary stuff
It’s the time of year when ghosts, ghouls, and goblins roam the fringes of reality scaring the living daylights out of kids and adults still in touch with their inner child. TV channels, movie platforms, and cinemas screen their horrors of horror. Christian graveyards ...
The capital with the eye of an expat
An opportunity to change
The villages of Bag and Dány in Pest County lie about 26 km apart, both a little more than 40 km from the country’s capital. Both have populations of around 4,000 with sizeable, segregated Roma settlements.
The capital with the eye of an expat
The only certainty is uncertainty
Well, the past couple of months in Hungary have certainly been eventful. The demise of the Kata taxation system has sent many budding entrepreneurs to the wall and killed the efforts of many more to supplement their already meagre incomes. The fall-out won’t be ...
The capital with the eye of an expat
Who’s Margaret?
‘We’ve never been to Margaret Island.’ It was a simple statement of fact, not a complaint. My many-time visitors had never, ever, been down to Margitsziget. I’ll admit to being a little taken aback. How can you come to Budapest and NOT visit the ...
The capital with the eye of an expat
Kids and what they can teach you
I have issues. My issues have issues. But I have no issue. Don’t you just love the English language?
The capital with the eye of an expat
Tut-tuts no more at The English Garden
Sam Cartwright arrived in Budapest in 2002 with two small kids and a husband. Fed up with life on the hamster wheel in Liverpool, she didn’t think twice about moving to Hungary when her husband, Andy, got a job at the Central European University ...
The capital with the eye of an expat
Isten hozott
Many lifetimes ago in Edinburgh one Sunday, I made for the nearest cathedral to get Mass. I thought all cathedrals were Roman Catholic. I knew no different until the giveaway – the tell – that part of the service where I realised that the ...
