I love February. It is no longer as cold as January and we actually have signs of life coming up. For me in particular, my oxalis plants always signal the start of spring as they always sprout in this month.
And for sure, this year’s February is already loads better than last year! Here is a rundown of the month’s highlights:
Liszt Ferenc Zeneakadémia tour
G got us tickets to the English guided tour of the music academy. I’ve been intrigued about this place ever since learning that the large hall of the academy was used as a venue for Nazi/Arrow Cross trials. If you like Art Nouveau, this you will love the academy…and that great hall is a thing of beauty! I suggest to take as much time as you can to take in all the intricate details in and around the hall.
At the end of the tour, we were treated to an excellent live performance by two of the Trio Energico members – they are former students of the academy and are now professional musicians holding concerts in and outside of Hungary.
Bibimbap Korean Restaurant
After the tour at Liszt Ferenc, we had dinner at this restaurant that we’ve been meaning to try for a long time. Bibimbap serves some of Korea’s world-famous traditional Korean dishes, and they have table top grills!! We have loads of such places in Manila and I was really excited to try it here. We ordered samgyeopsal, which came with heaps of banchan. I can highly recommend this place – the ambience is welcoming, and the staff is very friendly (they speak Hungarian, English and Korean). The price point is fair – this is an authentic Korean restaurant serving proper food and hearty portion sizes. We would surely come back again! My only advice before coming here: be very, very hungry! That’s the only way to finish everything you have on your table! 😀
Jazz night at Opus Jazz Club
G is a big jazz fan and could not pass up the opportunity to see another great performance at Opus Jazz Club, this time courtesy of the French-Swedish trio, Deep Rivers. What is it with jazz music that stirs up so many deep emotions in you…
Simon Tailleu (bass) , Paul Lay (piano), and Isabel Sörling (vocals)
New dressmaking course at Stitch Budapest
As I previously said, Stitch Budapest helps bring color to my otherwise humdrum creative life here. This year, I was finally able to attend another English sewing course, another dressmaking one. The most exciting/stressful part was, as usual, deciding what fabric to use: the type, the print and the color. I ended up with a geometrical pattern in earthy shades, which I bought specifically for the purpose of pairing it with lots of my Snag Tights. Then I panicked as soon as I got the fabric delivered, because I thought it looked like smeared poop! OK, Zsuzsi said it definitely does not look like poop and it is a nice color.
Hiking
Because of the warmer weather, G thought it would be a good idea to get out and enjoy nature in the hills. So one nice morning, we found ourselves in the Pálvölgyi area, savoring the warm sun and fresh, cool air. I really hope we could hike more often. Back home, I never really went on hikes, because I lived in the capital, and there are no proper hiking trails nearby.
6-week Language Challenge (6WC)
No matter what month, there is always something language-related that’s happening in my life. And this month, it happened to be the 6WC over at Twitter. I chose Swedish as it is my beginner language and I decided to use Pimsleur and my Rivstart A1+A2 textbooks. I completely forgot how Pimsleur immensely helped me when I was starting out in Hungarian! And it was the same with Swedish this time too. I could make rapid progress with listening, a bit on speaking too. Pimsleur should really be in any serious language learner’s arsenal.
Undercover
We started watching another Netflix series! Quite gripping! I love the main characters Bob (Tom Waes) and Kim (Anna Drijver)…but how good is this Ferry Bouman actor (Frank Lammers)?! Somehow he can be menacing and yet he’d make you want to hug him, like you would a teddy bear…I am enjoying this series so far, and it looks like there’s a couple more seasons to this plus a movie, so I am quite happy! Actually, if it were up to me, I’d finish this entire season in a weeked. But G insists we can only do a max of 2 episodes per day…what on earth…
Cat Cafe Budapest
Another one of those places I haven’t visited in a long time due to COVID. But it’s good to be back, and it’s even better to see that there are more customers than usual. Now you need to make a reservation for weekends because they can be quite packed. The one time we tried to visit, there was a pretty long line outside in the rain. Those chubby, chubby cats sure are big crowd drawers!
This month, the annual Farsang (Carnival) was also cancelled due to the pandemic. It would have been fun (and funny)! G’s company was planning a dress-up contest and we were already going around the second hand shops for some weird clothes for him. Also, the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated into a full-blown war in this month and every country in the vicinity (including Hungary) is on high alert, constantly monitoring developments by the minute.
Q1 has been great so far! (except for the war. War is never great) I am ready for more adventures this year as we slowly, slowly open up and recover from this pandemic. God knows we all need a break!
