Best of 2015- Coffee Cups

As opposed to cats, coffee took quite a long time to grow on me. When everyone was downing cup after cup during exam sessions, I would put on a refrained smile and keep on reaching for my can of Coke. Mind you, I still love Coke, and it’s one of those things, like Coldplay, that I plan to be forever unapologetic about. Yes, it’s an explosion of sugar and artificial flavour enhancers (just like Coldplay, come to think of it), but even the distant fizz of a can being opened puts me in a state- I know, it’s called addiction, but everyone needs the poison of their choice.

So back to coffee, I did have a nice big cuppa one night before my American history exam, and then at 4 am, when I could recite all the amendments of the constitution pretty much by heart but was still staring at my bedroom ceiling with my limbs shaking I said no more of this lethal brown liquid, and to this principle I stayed true for almost a decade.

Then, about three years ago, one fine morning in January I said, well, it’s kind of cold and I’m sort of sleepy, maybe I could have a latte. So I did. A big latte filled with honey and agave syrup- more precisely, what today I call a crime against both humanity and common sense, surpassed only by the green monstrosity of matcha latte. Next day I said, well why not have that latte again. A hundred or so days later I gave up on the honey, and then the agave syrup departed from my life as well.

Soon enough, I discovered that I was craving morning caffeine to degrees which could not be properly serviced by a latte. So I switched to flat whites. And then, on another epic day, in Italy, as luck would have it, I discovered that I could simply have a pitch dark espresso. 

And ever since, I have measured my life with coffee cups. Or with distances from one coffee shop to another- of which there are plentiful in Budapest, because we are painfully cool, I know. And still, I have missed a few, so I might as well add visiting them to those new year's resolutions I never manage to keep and see if for once I succeed.

'New wave' Turkish coffee in Kelet- minus the dregs, which is a bit disturbing

The real deal, dregs and all, in 2Cafe Karaköy

Espresso with a prickly friend, Addicted2Caffeine

That time I read about owls in My Little Melbourne

Summer delights in the Massolit garden

An Italian novel demands a small but viciously strong espresso

How my morning walk invariably ends up looking come spring

Lavender days in Budapest Baristas

The My Little Melbourne pit stop with a bit of reading thrown in

The inevitable accident of spilling the coffee while shuffling it around for a better shot

As I was saying, Italian novels and espressos

A Massolit espresso in all its lonely beauty

Spring with latte in Sarki Fűszeres

And for a change, spring with latte in Espresso Embassy

When in Vienna, have some coffee (I might have tried reading in German as well, I guess)

When the table matches your accidental bookmark in Café Demel

Geometry in Espresso Embassy

And here's my espresso with one of those lovely surprise finds in my home library

I am a pretzel fiend and proud of it

The almost nearly perfect espresso- and my favourite coffee shop logo at Budapest Baristas

So I went a bit over the top in Café Torino, but I just had to indulge in a bicerin, and cute little cookies

To more serious stuff, that killer Italian espresso in Café Florio

Channeling France in Gerlóczy

Autumn rains arrive at My Little Melbourne

And then autumn moved on

But here's to finishing in a very summer mood, with a Velence lake espresso

Tales from the Seventh Month

Since July is the seventh month, here’s seven things I learned (well not, not really, I never learn) this month.

1) No matter what I do, I always get delayed with the monthly random, because I am doing random stuff instead. Maybe it will work better in winter, when instead of randomly freezing you might prefer to huddle up in front of your image editor. But that remains to be seen.

2) Crossing to Buda feels like a day trip. Which is probably wrong, and exploring the whole of Budapest is one of those things I keep procrastinating but should really start to do one of these days. The presence of several really awesome coffee shops along Bartók Béla út might offer some incentive, but I’ll probably just stay stuck to the line of the 47 along the main road.

3) One tends to take IKEA totally for granted, but they love to trick me by running out of the one item I desperately need. Or totally discontinuing it, which is the epitome of Swedish evil. They did compensate a bit in July by dispensing free breakfasts in Akvárium, but I do foresee another drama for August when I need to track down the new catalogue.

4)There’s been some intensive heat action in July- it’s been quite a few years without a proper heatwave actually, so I was somewhat pleased. Stating this did bring the worst out of some people though, who complained about the atrocious symptoms they felt as a result. Strangely they were the very same people who went overboard and got hysterical about the unseasonal autumn weather when the temperature decreased to a comfy 22 degrees. There’s no pleasing some, it seems, but  I say it’s best to just go with the flow and take some pictures of the storm as it (not so) politely hurtles onto my street. The sky for one is much more exciting when there are at least some clouds. More clouds mean more fun, and there’s a pleasing intensity to the blue of overcast summer skies.

5)I did wax lyrical in the past about how Budapest is the praguest city that is not Prague due to the amazing number of great Czech beer joints, but now it is also becoming the belgradest city that is not Belgrade- or well, insert ex-Yugoslav capital of your choice here, but I will always be partial to Belgrade, so that’s it for me. Point is, the number of places offering great Balkan food is ever growing and if until now the focus was almost solely on the food (almost always excellent), the competition now calls for places that are pleasing to the eye as well. Which is double good and we approve.

6) The great, unexpected, mostly unknown, shocking truth is that summer calls for light blonde beers and I will give a benevolent pass to many brands that would be failed by my harsh, cynical winter self. Except my arch enemy, the unnamed Dutch beer with a red star on it. There’s not excuse for that vile liquid in any weather.

7)Although everything might seem alright, there are evil forces lurking under the surface. The more I ogle building facades, the more creepy statues I find, from the slightly unsettling to the downright terrifying. If the statues were not enough, we must never forget the pigeons. They are an evil kind by definition, but Budapest pigeons seem to have their own particular brand of maleficence, staring at you criminally with their beady little eyes.  Their minimal hope is weaseling some food off you, their maximal-word domination, of course.