just dropping in

(pic borrowed from here)

Hi guys!

The day before yesterday the free internet at my hotel did not work and then yesterday I did not have time to blog because I had to catch my flight back to Germany after work.

This weekend is a little stressful because today I'm out and about all day and tomorrow I will fly back to Budapest for another six days very early in the morning, so I'm just dropping in to tell you that I'll catch up with posting all the lovely Budapest photos and stories as soon as I can (hopefully tomorrow when I'm back at the hotel and the free internet doesn't break up again).

Have a wonderful weekend!

budapest day 4

Szent István-bazilika (St. Stephan's Basilica)


Hi guys!

Oh my goodness, it's so exhausting being a kind of part-time tourist. I was at the office today from 8.30 to 5 and then one of the Hungarian girls showed me around. I think tomorrow I'll have to make a sightseeing break and just go downtown to have supper and do a little shopping, my feet are so not used to walk around after work for 3 or 4 hours everyday.
But it was amazing again! Budapest has so many different interesting spots and although I went on an extensive walk around Buda Castle and the surrounding area, I still saw so many new things today. It's like you could walk around here for hours without getting bored because behind every corner there is a new pretty building.


Magyar Állami Operaház (Hungarian State Opera)


entrance hall of the Mai Manó House of Hungarian Photography


This girl who showed me around today has a kind of student's tourist guide degree and she was able to tell me the stories about every building and street and monument we came across, it was simply amazing! She took me to the St. Stephan's Basilica that houses Hungary's most sacred relic, the right hand of St. Stephan wo is regarded as the founder of Hungary because - if I remember it correctly - he was the first king here.
We also visited the opera where famous componists like Mahler and Liszt used to work, a famous boulevard that was built especially for empress Elizabeth of Austria (Sissi), the Budapest House of Photography, the House of Terror ( a museum that commemorates the fallen fighters of a revolt in the 1940s) and then our walk ended at the big Hero's Square where the seven most important persons of the Hungarian history - mostly kings - are depicted as huge statues.


House of Terror


they're hosting an exhibition about the revolt of the 1940s


all around the building there are photos of the many people that were shot down



in front of some over 100 years old cast-iron gates


Hősök tere (Hero's Square)


I also got some good advice about what souvenirs I should get and where because these normal souvenir shops are so overpriced! Typical Hungarian things are for example a liqueur called Unicum, a fruit brandy called Pálinka, pickled peppers, crochet doilies with folklorish floral patterns or figurines of the above mentioned famous king St. Stephan. I think I'll visit the huge Central Market Hall to get some of these things for better prices tomorrow evening.
But for now I'll just fall into my bed, curl up and sleeeeeeep... ;)

Have a lovely day/evening!

budapest day 3

Hi guys!

I am SO tired! I've been awake since 7 am and th day was pretty exhausting but I', really having a blast here. I worked from 8.30 to 5 again today and afterwards one of my student co-workers again offered to join me this evening because I had planned to visit the beautiful Buda castle in the Buda hills. It was the same girl that had already showed me around a bit yesterday and I love it that we get along so well, it's as if I was exploring Budapest with a local friend. We chat and grab some food and walk around and she explains things to me, we talked about the Communism and how Hungary changed after the government had changed, talked about travelling, she adviced me on which snack bars are good and cheap and all. I'm really haviing a surprisingly good time in this city :)


the funicular (cog-wheel railway) to the Buda Castle


view from the terrace on the way up


in the castle's frontyard


view on the Szabadság híd (Liberty Bridge)


For tomorrow another one of my student co-workers offered to show me around, she has a kind of tourist guide degree and she is a very lively girl so I think it will be fun to walk around the city with her too. I think my co-worker I spent the evening with yesterday and today will also join us again and I'm already looking forward to getting to know more about Budapest.
Seriously, if you guys ever happen to be here or if you have the chance to go here you really should, it's a beautiful and interesting place for sure.


adornment on one of the castle gates


view from the backside of Buda Castle

Halászbástya (Fisherman's Bastion)

view from Halászbástya (Fisherman's Bastion)


Today I also got the confirmation of my German supervisor that I will be returning to Budapest for another four days to instruct my co-workers a little longer, so if I don't manage to visit everything I want to see this week I can still do it next week.
I really hate being away from Patrick for so long and I wish that he could be here so we could explore the city together but at least I have the girls from the office that plan a different sightseeing tour for each evening for me ;)

a street on the way back down to Pest



one of the many lovely shop signs in Buda

So, my résumé for today is: being a tourist is tiring but awesome :)

Happy Tuesday!

budapest day 2

Hi guys!

Today was my first dy at the Hunagrian office of the company I work for. I was quite excited because I didn't know what to expect and how the team would welcome me and if they would like me at all or if I would like them or not. Fortunately they are all supernice colleagues! The country manager gather everybody in the lobby and introduced me and one of the project managers even draw a map of the office featuring all the names and the info about who is in which room, so nice of her!
Then I got to know the four new student research assistants and after the first day I can say they are the cutest colleagues ever (no offense my German colleagues!). They were so interested and open-minded from the first second and they asked me a lot and also told me some basic stuff about Hungary and Budapest. Two of them even passed a test that allows them to be an official tourist guide and when we had lunch together one of them offered me to take the time to show me around the city on Wednesday. Awesome, isn't it?



The other girl said that she had the evening off today and if I'd like to go shopping and have supper with her, so I gratefully accepted her offer. I think we really are on good terms with each other because when we went downtown together it was like hanging around with a close acquaintance. We talked about work, our studies (she's a medical student), fashion, TV shows, holiday plans and all and we had delicious Asian food for supper. I love to have locals that can give you good advice concerning restaurants so I won't fall into the tourist trap of the overpriced cafés and bistros here.
Tomorrow I plan to visit a castle that's located in the hills on the other side of the Danube river, hopefully the weather will be good.



By the way I didn't have time or the possibility to take many photos today because I was at the office from 9 to 5. The pictures above were taken last night on the balcony, I played around with the shutter speed and the city lights a little bit.

Have a lovely day! :)

budapest day 1

(view from my room's balcony)



Hi guys!

My first day in Budapest is almost over and I'm so glad that there's free internet available with the laptop here so that I can blog and use Facebook and all. This makes me feel at home at least a little bit, which is nice because I don't know what to do all alone in a hotel room in a city where the language couldn't be more foreign to me ;)

I'm out and about since 4 am in the morning and had one or two low points when the only thing I wished for was a bed, but I followed through because I didn't want to waste a second of my only day off here. I arrived at 9.30 am and couldn't check in at the hotel before 2 pm anyway, so I left my luggage at the hotel's luggage room and went downtown.





It feels really strange that I can't understand any single word of the Hungarian language. Normally when I went to Brussels or Paris I was able to derive French words from English or Latin (or both), but here I have no idea of word stems, pronunciation or anything else. This definitely makes me feel lost in certain situations but fortunately some Hungarians speak English too. By the way I already learned my first Magyar (Hungarian) vocabulary: "köszönöm" means thank you. Oh there are so many umlauts in this language ;)

At 2 pm I was finally able to enter my room and freshen up, comb my hair, put on fresh clothes. It's the little things that make you feel better again after you've run around like a homeless girl all morning, no?







I put on this breezy skirt because of the not warm but kind of sticky weather here. Then I grabbed my bag, went to the elevator and... as soon as I walked outside the hotel it began raining cats and dogs. Nice! Same weather as in Germany when I left this morning.....
So I got me an umbrella and headed back downtown to spend the rest of the day roaming around the main shopping street and looking at all the nice things. I love that all shops are open on a Sunday here! Is Germany the only shitty country that has this stupid rule for all shops to be closed on Sundays?

Anyway, on my way through the streets I discovered a lovely little bazaar in what seemed to be a kind of artists district. It was raining and raining, but all the lovely crafted DIY things made me forget the weather and i swooned over some handmade jewelry and decoration. I admit I was too much a coward to take photos of the items because I didn't know if the vendors would have liked it.







As it didn't stop raining and as I began to feel cold in my breezy skirt I decided to give in and go "home" resp. to the hotel. On my way to the station I discovered a Pull&Bear, Stradivarius and Bershka and snatched a shirt and a belt in their sale (we don't have these stores at home so I was pretty thrilled hihi). I also got me a not-so-yummy ham and eggs sandwich at the supermarket and took these snapshots on my way back to my hotel:


rain, rain, go away...


failed self-timer experiment (but nice soft lighting)


one of the many lovely little shops I saw


this kid ran into my photo :D I actually wanted to capture the benches and wall design


You know what? I'm so tired, I think I'll call Patrick, smoke a good-night-cigarette on the balcony and call it a night. More Budapest impressions and stories about my first day at the office tomorrow.

Have a nice day!



now playing: band of horses - is there a ghost

badtastetoast goes budapest - hopefully!

(picture borrowed from kizioko via deviantart)


Hi guys!

So tomorrow I'll be leaving for Budapest very early (at 6 o'clock in the morning, who the hell schedules these flight times?).
Of course I plan to keep on blogging from Hungary but I'm not sure about if my hotel room has free W-LAN so... either this is the start of a nice little business trip diary or I won't be able to blog until next weekend.
Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the former will be the case.

Have a lovely Saturday! :)

atlantis to interzone

Hi guys!

Can you tell from my last posts that blue has taken over in my wardrobe? I bet you can. I just noticed it myself: I totally dig darkblue at the moment. plus I love the combo with brown and khaki - but that's obvious too, oh well... ;)

It's weekend, yay! Tonight I'm going to meet some co-workers and go to the big summer fun fair that takes place once a year here. I can't wait to eat a chocolate-covered banana! It's a kind of tradition for me, I eat two chocolate bananas a year: one at the fun fair in summer and one at the christmas market in winter. That's a must!



♥ dress, jacket + belt: new yorker ♥ tights: h&m ♥ shoes: goertz ♥ bag: nook art via ebay ♥



God, only two more days until I'll leave for Budapest. The days went by so fast since I first got the message about my business trip and today I even heard that two days after I've come back, I'll go there again for another week. And I'm only a student worker, that's so crazy... of course I'm happy and feel very flattered though.
So tomorrow I need to make the last preparations like finishing to pack my suitcase, asking Google for Budapest's sights and stuff, maybe learning hello and goodbye in Hungarian? It's said to be such a hard-to-learn language but I hope I'll find some "listen and repeat" on Youtube or somewhere else.



♥ necklace: claire's ♥ bag: nook art via ebay ♥




What are your plans for the weekend?
Something nice I hope!

Happy Friday!




now playing: bloc party - hunting for witches (crystal castles remix)

oh h&m...

Hi guys!

Have you seen the new H&M fall collection? Oh my God, it's as if they knew my favourite colours and spread them all over their new fall line! Okay it's summer...but who cares? I love fall colours!
Let's swoon over my favourite H&M fall pieces together:



















All pictures were taken from hm.com/de!

Gorgeous, isn't it? Now I need to find someone with enough money to buy this for me... ;)

Happy Wednesday!