Good old friend..

Annd I am back ladies and gentleman, nice to still see you here after so long. I just had some rough times and now I am back, in a new year, with new ideas and new plans ahead. Short term ones, not to spoil life surprises of course.
Nowadays, still winter, my favorite season of them all, cold weather and white pictures everywhere, just the way I like it. And since I missed to write the Christmas and New Year stories, still I'm gonna tell a kind of Christmas story, about an old friend that's by my side since I was a kid. In winter or summer, whether I am gone or back home, he is still here, waiting for me and brightening my mornings since many many years. Presenting... my very own Christmas tree :)


Just to let you know, he lives in front of my house, in fact, he was planted here by my grandparents or parents, I don't even remember. He is around 20 years old, a little smaller than me at age, but more than 7 times taller :)) Yeah, you are right, that's me in the picture with the tree. It's clear that we grew little bit more than I was imagining when I was that small. He had a lot of space when he was young and little, in fact he's still young, just that he grew so much that the space is not enough for him now. But he is taking it very well and apparently loves us and got used to us that much...that he keeps growing. My dogs love him to, they can hide under his branches and chill in the hot summer days. He makes winter and season holidays more beautiful and all my mornings happy, cause I wake up with him in front of my window.
And as friend was telling me these holidays, in fact we don't decorate Christmas trees, they decorate us.

Impressed by Budapest

Just to let you know, I am home, for good, moved 2 months ago (I know I am a huge bastard for not writing since sooo long), relaxed and very much happy with my choice. Dubai? We divorced, things were not going well between us, so to stop ruining our lives, especially Dubai mine, therefore I decided to split up and he didn't had anything to say about it. Emirates? We're still good friends, but not working together anymore, at least for now :P
Current location: Timisoara, Romania (a.k.a. HOME); weather: autumn, 25 degrees; feeling: damn good; in a relationship with my true love: theatre, adaptation status: complete, current job at NESsT Romania.
And because at very beginning of a job you get a training, just to have a rough idea what the hell is going on in that new place, my very short 3 days training happened in Budapest, Hungary, the place where my foundation started activating a few years ago. You can imagine that after 1 year and some months of Emirates, and quite some travelling and so much of heat I am tired like hell, and sick of travelling, but since there was no choice, hop in the train, route: Timisoara - Budapest. After 4,5 hours of train ride I finally made it to my destination to get out of the big train station to find...a huge construction area. Did I end up in the right place? Is there another station where I was supposed to get off? Apparently not, just this is how the historical Hungarian capital welcomes you since a few months, with a pile of wholes and metal junk in front of the station, extending the metro line... First impression...obviously not so pleasant, until I got in the metro and reached my boulevard. That is where the view changed completely, I discovered a beautiful city, with old well preserved buildings all around, with bicycle tracks all the ways, with trees and noisy cars moving around, with fancy girls and boys walking relaxed on the large streets, with tones of places to visit and such a short time. 2 evenings I had in my pocket, and after 2 long days of learning and listening to different kinds of stories about what I'm supposed to do, I felt a big joy when the sun started to go down, knowing that my short journey will start.

First stop: Margarit Island, a small but good looking island in the middle of Danube river, connected on Margarit Bridge. The place is perfect for a warm evening walk but the thing that I enjoyed most was the "dancing" fountain (not as big as in Dubai of course), a small round fountain that was dancing on classical music. I laid there on the warm grass, looking at the water dancing and inviting me to dance too. But I just stood there and dreamed away. Mirifique! The boulevards you cross till you reach Margarit Island are absolutely beautiful and the view from the bridge is incomparable, sitting there between Bupa and Pesta and thinking of all the history and stories that happened maybe in that exact spot where you are sitting...

Second stop: Budapest city hall. The reason why I went to see this place is because of it's beautiful architecture. I'm not really the kind of a person to go in a city and visit the buildings (except if it's Gaudi or Hundertwasser of course), and even here, in Budapest, well I was not that much impressed by this city hall, no matter how many centuries old it is, or how many times it was renovated and still standing. But you might see it different, so it's worth of a visit :)

Third stop: Buda Hill. Now that I liked. Starting with the fact that I had to cross Chain bridge to get there, which is by the way a great construction, so big and imposing, continuing with the way up to the hill, which you can choose to make in a cable or walking (the second options was more relaxing) and ending with the view on top of the hill and the greatness of Buda Castle, all worth a visit. Imagine the castle was first completed in 1265 and it hosted a great number of Hungarian kings. Pure history, pure beauty!



I must admit though that I started missing travelling, as I got to the conclusion that it't quite tiring to travel, but when you stop...it's quite boring...
And I'm damn curious where will my next vacation will be :)

Back home

"I'm taking the long way home", was the song from ATB. Well guess what, it was worth it, even on the long way. Imagine I am writing theese lines from the cousiness of my home, in my room, with my decorations and a cold cold winter outside the window. Not snowy, not in my town, but still winter.
Now what can you do in the cold hometown after 8 months of summer and sand , spicy food, skyscrapers, camels, salty sea and lots of work? Well surelly a lot, starting with seeing all the friends, and neighbours and family and long lost family and friends again, and old colleagues and the list could go on, visiting the city's old places, bars and clubs where you used to hang out some time ago, (re)culturize yourself with a little bit of drama (theatre), a little bit of music, a little bit of art, walk a lot or go with the trolleybus and tram :D, go in the middle of the city centre square, picture the beautiful old buildings around and carry those images with you wherever you go, visit friends new houses and play with the cats and the dogs, have a cheap and healthy haircut :)), read some books and listen to old national music, explore the city if anything new appeared while you were gone, go pray a little bit and visit old county monasteries just in case you don't have any nearby churches in the place where you now live :P, talk to the people from work to be sure you'r not missing something important :)), eat all the traditional delicious home made foods, spend lots of time with the parents, prepare all the projects for the semestrial exams when still a student :-S, protest along with the country citizens in the city centre to get rid of the president and put country on the right track, go in another city to visit you old friends, write home impressions on the blog to share your happiness with the world and of course enjoy all the small things cause you won't see them again soon.
You guessed right, this was my home vacation, ready now to go back in the desert and continue what I started last year in May, Dubai baby adventures :D