I love snow.
Much more than I love sun. In fact, the colder the better. It makes everywhere look ethereal and pure, burying life’s excesses beneath it. The world is a more beautiful place when it’s covered in snow. But that’s just my opinion.
Another thing I love is the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen. I’ve listened to it for most of my adult life and still can’t get enough. The depth and rhythm of his lyrics is unique, and he can capture the soul of a place or the emotion of a moment in a few short verses. Ever since I first listened to ‘Take this Waltz’, I have had a picture of this Austro-Hungarian world on the banks of the Danube in my mind’s eye, in all it’s breathtaking romance. It was somewhere I had always dreamed of visiting one day, so when a significant birthday (ahem) loomed, a weekend in Budapest seemed like a perfect idea.
Trying to see everything in a couple of days would have been a little over-ambitious, so aside from a few must-dos (eat, drink, bathe), the best option was to just walk. Everywhere.
As soon as I stepped outside, the snow begun to fall. Lightly at first, but soon the cloud thickened and it came down straight and steady for the day. It was soft though, and it seemed to enjoy conspiring with the city to create an epic snowscape, worthy of such an alluring place.
