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Silent witnesses

In conversation with Dorottya Szalay recently, I asked her what I could expect were I to call NANE’s helpline – ‘First of all’, she said, ‘We would believe you.’

The capital with the eye of an expat

Life is too short to lack colour

‘Michael Gambon is dead’, he said. ‘I was there when he first set eyes on E. It was like seeing lightning strike.’

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Tard: A stitch in time

In the many road trips I’ve taken around Hungary, the same questions always come to mind. Why isn’t more being done to capitalise on the wealth of talent in the villages? Why is almost everything city-centred?

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The capital with the eye of an expat

The Voice of the Martians

György Marx was everything I have never aspired to be: a physicist, an astrophysicist, a science historian, and a professor. Okay, I’d have liked to have been a professor, but not in science subjects. Google tells me that he discovered the lepton numbers and ...

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The Albanian Riviera: New builds and daydreamers

I like to think that I can spot potential. In plans. In people. In property. Especially in property. I’m not for a minute suggesting that I know the real estate market and know where to invest to get the best return. I’m clueless in ...

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Art is so marmite

Someone once told me that their birthday was on 16 June. Ah, I said, you were born on Bloomsday. They looked at me, cluelessly. In explaining what I meant, I realised that I was innately proud of a man I’d never met and a ...

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Out of Seasand and the Air

I’m a firm believer in old souls and past lives. Some of us - not all of us, but some of us - have been around before. I’ve learned to pay attention to that feeling I get when I meet someone for the first ...

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From Streets to Homes: Pledge that 1%

I didn’t get to see the Pope when he was in Budapest recently, but I was delighted to read that he’d revisited St István’s letter to his son from the eleventh century (knowns as the Admonitions) and had spoken so frequently about helping others, ...

The capital with the eye of an expat

Paying to pray

It’s been a while since I’ve done the tourist thing in Budapest. Most of my visitors have been here before and want to venture further afield. This time though, I’d a first-timer and I’m in shock.

The capital with the eye of an expat

Wanted: Chocolate Bunnies

I grew up in a place and time when having some sort of voluntary experience on your resumé or CV was almost as important as your exam results. In 1980s Ireland, it was a given that you’d be asked about it in just about ...

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Fact-checking St Patrick

His given name wasn’t Patrick. His colour wasn’t green. And he was never canonised a saint. In preparation for the big day in March, a fact check of stuff I thought I knew about St Patrick has me questioning everything else I was taught ...

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The Albanian Riviera: New builds and daydreamers

I like to think that I can spot potential. In plans. In people. In property. Especially in property. I’m not for a minute suggesting that I know the real estate market and know where to invest to get the best return. I’m clueless in ...

The capital with the eye of an expat

Where there’s a need…

One of the silver linings in this whole COVID-19 phenomenon is that we’re all slightly more aware of the fortunes and misfortunes of others. Life as we know it came to a standstill and is now limping forward, trying to regain some semblance of ...

Translating a need

COVID-19 has brought out the best in us and the worst in us. After five months of lockdowns and reopenings, be they full or partial, we’ve begun to adjust to the new normal. But our world is divided.

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On wanting to be a Zen Master

With so much being written about Covid-19, there's very little left to say. Yet writing about anything else seems inconceivable, as the virus consumes our thoughts, restricts our movements and turns our worlds upside down.

The capital with the eye of an expat

Paying to pray

It’s been a while since I’ve done the tourist thing in Budapest. Most of my visitors have been here before and want to venture further afield. This time though, I’d a first-timer and I’m in shock.

The capital with the eye of an expat

Mastering my AÁBCs

For the seventh time in twice as many years, I have once again boarded the Hungarian language train after nearly a 12-month stopover in the land of anything-but.