I have spent the last week (from the 27th of October) in Budapest, going home for the first time outside the Christmas break since I live in Belgium. And to make things even better, it was a surprise visit, with only a very few people knowing that I was coming, so my parents were completely shocked when I arrived home – but shocked in a good way :) I did not do too many things, I met only two friends (but very good and pretty ones :D), but I had spent a lot of quality resting time in the couch (with my parents and/or their iPad :D, or with my brother and FIFA12 – guess who was winning ;P), which I really needed. I got new glasses, some clothes, and of course I have brought back a huge amount of cookies (thanks Mom, I will probably not need to go shopping for a week now, I can live on the cookies) and some quality Hungarian wine. Sweet wine of course. (Click on the images for larger versions!)

Budapest is getting more and more beautiful, and when you get your salary in Euros, then everything is pretty cheap too. Like having a honey and biscuit flavored latte and hot red wine for a total of something like 3.5 € in a nice cafe, I could live with that here too :) The city is fabulous, several squares, big roads and one of our oldest bridges were recently reconstructed, and as you can see, the Parliament building got new night lights. So the downtown is one of (if not The) most beautiful cities in Europe (or the World), but the outskirts are still quite crappy in some given directions… The new airport terminal is also very European, but the check in is still a mess, I was at the airport 100 minutes in advance, and I almost had no time to buy the wines… When I raced out from the tax free shop, the boarding was already in such an advanced state, that there was no queue at the desk…

Now I am back in Leuven, I am completely knocked out as I went to bed at 2 and I had to get up at 4:30 to catch my plane (thanks Mom again)… I have slept something in the past hours, but now my throat is not ok, and I am still KO… I hope I will be better by tomorrow, or I will have to work from home.

While we were walking in the Castle district, a guy thought I was Italian :D Then I said, ok, let’s grab a pizza :P But instead, we had pancakes. Hmmm… :)