So... I Went Back to Budapest After 9 Years

So, how does it feel? This is what everybody is asking when they find out it’s my first trip to Hungary in nine years. Last time, in 2017, I came for my father’s funeral, and I have not been back since. How it feels is not an easy question, and it requires a lot of self-reflection. I guess the city I was born in is exactly the place I should self-reflect in.

First of all, there are the surface-level observations. Everybody seems to be friendlier and kinder than I remember. Great service in shops and restaurants. People tell me the mood and attitude truly shifted after the Orban government was finally booted out during the last elections, just a couple of months ago. I truly treasure the experience of hearing this collective breath-out, and it’s one of the few things that gives me hope for the world. If my country did this, so can yours! Did Orban do everything wrong? Of course not, and that’s why I think he should get a dessert every now and then and be allowed some visitors during his hopefully long stay in prison.

Then there are friends and family, lots of them, thank God! I was only there for four short days, but I got to meet with my now-adult kids twice and my siblings twice, and they loved me, fed me, and tolerated my nodding off during the conversations. I met with my eldest daughter’s girlfriend for the first time! The girlfriend is smart, funny, and very chill, which is actually a hundred percent of what I look for in people. In fact, I recently started to collect smart, funny, and chill people at work - you know who you are.

I met with my ex-wife and her new husband. The new husband is a nice guy. I allowed myself to notice that I’m a few months younger and a few centimeters taller - but who’s counting, right?

I visited our Budapest office as well. Turns out, our company moved to a new building, one block down. When the taxi dropped me off, I had no idea where I was and had to ask for directions to find the building. It was what’s professionally known as a “mind fuck”, and what made it even funnier is that I used to have an apartment right between the old office and the new one; I just could not find my bearings.

It was lovely to run into people I used to work with, but I might have been thinking out loud, a bit too loud, when I proclaimed again and again, “I used to know this guy when he was young and beautiful!”

I only went out for lunch and dinner with people. It would have been a waste of precious time to eat alone! I loved my friend Gyuri’s vegan restaurant; Tranzit by Flow is worth a trip in itself. I also went to a traditional workers’ lunch “kifőzde” with my friend Balazs, and it was glorious. And I visited Nobu with a Japanese delegation, covering the fine dining end of the spectrum! Over the four days, I went to this Czech pub just across from the hotel three times with three different groups of people! I guess it’s going to be my spot in Budapest, moving forward.

Now, I am very happy to fly back to the “Far East”. I have my little daughters and my wife (hopefully) waiting for me at home in Hong Kong. But I promise it won’t be another nine years before I return!