The Importance of Life’s Little Luxuries

Sometimes when travelling, you just need to slow down the pace. After a pretty full-on week at Airwaves, I was looking forward to enjoying some of life’s little luxuries in Budapest.

I recently wrote about the need to find that perfect travel style. It was in Budapest that I realised a few home truths.

That being, that when one travels, they do not need to adhere to any sort of checklist. For example – the world doesn’t end if you go to Paris and neglect to climb the Eiffel Tower (arguably – it’s a structure that’s better enjoyed from the ground).

My boyfriend has become one of most frequent and favourite travel companions, largely because he is the most easy-going person, on perhaps the entire planet and he likes all the same stuff that I do.

Equally as delightful, pounds are a much nicer form of money to earn than Australian dollars, as you don’t so much feel like crying tears of despair whenever you convert them into another currency (all the while howling but where did all my hard earned dollars go?). We decided that when in Budapest, we would “treat ourselves”.

And so we did.

So, what did our trip to Budapest involve?

Lots of walking. From our AirBnb, into the city. Along the Danube and and across the bridge. Right up to the top of Gellért Hill, where we managed to catch an exquisite sunset. Down across the Chain Bridge, while having a heated debate over whether or not it was the Chain Bridge. (“If it’s the “Chain Bridge”, then where are the chains?!” – BF). Getting Chains by Tina Arena stuck in my head, as a consequence of walking across said Chain Bridge while unabashedly serenading my boyfriend in public until we were very much within a public area.

Szechenyi Baths – touted as being a “highlight” of Budapest and adequately demonstrating that Trip Advisor in nearly every situation, is not to be relied upon. Admitting that I had been somewhat ruined for life by the experience of the much warmer and cheaper hot baths of Reykjavík the week before. Indulging in a massage at the baths nonetheless, my only regret being that I opted for a 40 minute massage over a full hour. Rookie mistake.

We realised towards the conclusion of our trip that we had way more Hungarian Forint’s than we knew what to do with. So, we took ourselves to a fancy restaurant and stuffed ourselves to our heart’s content, enjoying some traditional Hungarian cuisine and wine that hadn’t been bought from the shop around the corner from our Airbnb (let’s also not get into how much Glüwein was ingested during walks around the city).

It’s not the way I’d always like to travel (mostly because I doubt I could afford it). Sometimes it’s fun to rush around, taking in all the sights of a city. Other times, it’s best to slow down and “smell the roses”.

So that’s what we did in Budapest. And I’m all the more happier for it.