Tomorrow afternoon I fly from Budapest to Frankfurt and then back to the US.

I've been in Budapest for the past 12 days, staying in two different apartments in the city center and doing my best to see the sights and experience the city in between my work schedule.

Why did I spend the past 2 weeks in Budapest?

Well I've been interested in traveling with my remote job for a while now, and recently decided that I wanted to do a "test trip" to make sure I really enjoyed it before making a more serious commitment to traveling over the coming year. Why Budapest specifically? Well, for various reasons I narrowed down my destination to Europe, then got into the idea of Central/Eastern Europe, and then from there it was only a matter of time before I read countless glowing reviews from people saying that not only was Budapest their favorite city in the region, but their favorite city in all of Europe. I was sold. 

Within a couple days I slowly made family and friends aware of my travel plans. There was a little bit of surprise but honestly, people mostly just said "That sounds awesome man, have fun." Easy enough.

Two weeks later, and I can tell you it's been a really fun time here. I went to Gellert Baths, Buda Castle, saw countless beautiful monuments, went for runs on Margaret Island, saw the parliament building lit up at night, checked out Szimpla and other ruin bars, ate all kinds of food (yes I had Langos, funnel cake, and goulash), enjoyed the amazing public transit here (but also pretty sure I walked around every corner of the city), and really had no choice but to café-hop all over the city like a madman.

I also really enjoyed the people of Hungary. I met some really kind and helpful folks, and would generally agree that they are a more introverted culture than back in the US. They don't have nearly as many people with main character syndrome - you really get the vibe that it's a real city full of real people, all just trying to live their own lives and not trying too hard to get attention or get into each other's business. It was something I picked up on within a few hours of walking around here, and I really enjoyed it.

The only downsides I feel about the trip were two pretty basic things:

It was a bummer to know that I really liked this city, but was only going to be here 2 weeks.

 Obviously it's up to me - I could extend my trip here if I really wanted to - but I had made up my mind to stick to the trip as I had planned it. Even still, it always felt lame telling someone that I was "heading out next Monday." For me it's a lot more fun to be a person who is "around" and have the option to keep building on relationships with the people, but with this specific trip I guess it's what I signed up for. That said, I'm going to aim to have future trips be longer, and hopefully have an experience closer to the "expat" part of the spectrum, even if I won't be a full expat anywhere.

I was taken off guard with how much colder it got over the course of my trip. I didn't come to Budapest in November for a tropical getaway, but I do remember looking forward to warmer weather than what I was getting in VT. After a week or so it's gotten a lot nippier here (and getting dark around 5:00pm), which may be the one thing keeping me from getting sad about my flight tomorrow. I would love to see Budapest in the spring or summer, I'm sure it's amazing.

Alright, so what did I learn from all this?

As you can probably tell, I kept things pretty simple and predictable on this trip, and still really enjoyed it. It's making me excited to do a more extended and adventurous type of trip, possibly as soon as later this winter. 

I was surprised at how much time I devoted to rest - almost every other day was a day that I just decided to chill, do some work, then get some food and watch a movie - nothing all that different from what I normally do at home. But it gave me more energy for the days and nights that I did decide to get out and make the most of my trip, and I wouldn't change it all.

It was easy to get workouts in and get in better shape - just need running shoes and an outdoor gym somewhere, and ideally some headphones. The next picture is the outdoor gym I used, located on the southern tip of Margaret Island underneath the bridge:

And generally I learned that yes, I can handle a more mobile lifestyle, and think it could be a lot of fun and worth trying for a longer period of time.

Alright, that was really only the basic rundown of my trip here, but I'm getting tired and have a flight to get ready for tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have more to reflect on later once I'm home, and either way I look forward to doing some more writing here over time.

Később találkozunk. Jó éjszakát 🌙

 I'm already thinking about my next trip - Buenos Aires and Bangkok are high on the list right now, but it'll be interesting to see if that changes. Stay tuned 📡

Some thoughts as I prepare to leave Budapest, wrapping up one of my first trips outside of the US in a while.

Zach Again