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The Orbanization of America
I was sitting in a retro cafe in Budapest in a neighborhood just a few blocks from the magnificent Danube. I saw the back of a woman talking to a waiter. She looked strangely familiar. I turned to my wife and said, “I think that woman is Kari Lake, you know, that conservative politician from…
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Risk-Taking in the ESL Classroom
Helping Students Step-out of Their “Comfort Zones” My former Hungarian high school student, Kristof, had it in his sights all along. He said he wanted to study abroad, somewhere in Europe, ever since I knew him as a 9th grader. Recently, he wrote me from his university in Sweden, “Steve, I am way out of…
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Budapest by Brompton (or any bike, for that matter)
“You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy a plane ticket to Budapest. And that, pretty much, is the same thing.” mysuitcasejourneys.com “To me, it doesn’t matter whether it’s raining, or the sun is shining, or whatever: as long as I’m riding a bike, I know I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” Mark Cavendish,…
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Istvan
I suppose it’s unlikely I’ll ever see him again. There was an air of dignity around him, sitting as he did each afternoon along Stefania Street back to the sun, almost always with a book in his hand. As I passed him on my daily bike ride home from school, his stare was inevitably downward,…
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Istanbul, City of Two-Continents
Istanbul, residing as it does on the edge of two-continents, still gets to call itself Europe’s largest city with its teeming population of more than 15-million people. For many, it’s a city that occupies a uniquely romanticized space in people’s imagination — a swirling image of magic carpets, smells of spices wafting through pulsating markets,…
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Split, Croatia: Palace City on the Adriatic
Split, Croatia’s second largest city, is only a hop, skip and jump from Budapest, Hungary, meaning a half-day of air-travel can get you there. We flew from Budapest to Vienna, then on to Split, via Austrian Airlines. This gave us about half-a-day in Split, time enough to get to our AirBnB and still enjoy our…
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Two-Years and a Thousand Tears
It’s rather unmistakable. The first time we lived here in Budapest we both noticed it. We felt it at work, in shops, nearly everywhere we went in Hungary. After several weeks, we came to an explicit agreement–we would not let the palpable, dour spirit become part of our souls. This would take some work. There’s…
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Ljubljana, Song of the Dragon
President George W. Bush, the story goes, got off Air Force One and waved enthusiastically to the crowd. He was about to meet with Russia’s new President, Vladimir Putin. With hands extended and a huge smile, he yelled out “Nice to be here in Slovenia!” Actually, President Bush was in Bratislava, Slovakia. His now legendary faux pas,…
American in Budapest
A Year of Living Extemporaneously
American in Budapest 