Budapest Travel Photos | Personal Story

Last month, my husband and I travelled to Budapest for me to attend Fearless Conference Europe. We’ve never been to Hungary before so it was definitely something new for us to experience.

As with everything else, there’s always The Good and The Bad. Let’s start with,

The Bad

I discovered I was allergic to cheese. Of all things. Thinking back, I’ve always craved cheese around my period so when I get breakouts on my face, I’ve always associated those to be hormonal in nature. Unfortunately while we were on our trip, we joined a dinner boat cruise on the Danube along with other photographers from the Fearless Conference. The cruise itself was awesome, and the food and entertainment they had were fantastic. The cruise however had a wonderful array of cheese laid out on a huge silver platter. Unabashed, I went for it, gorge those delicious cheese like it was the last time I’ll ever have cheese again.

Because as it turned out, it was.

Soon after I had a healthy dose of cheese in my system, my lips started to burn, my eyes itched, and my skin exploded. Well, more like erupted into clusters of tiny hives around my eyes, nose, and mouth. My skin has recovered now bit it took at least two full weeks to clear out.

You may be asking, “Lyn, how can you be so sure it’s cheese?”

Well, that’s because a week after the incident, I was still in denial that I was allergic to cheese. Wouldn’t you be? Anyway, I defiantly ate lasagna after we got back and lo and behold, my lips started to burn again.

So, yup. No more cheese for me. (Insert crying emoji)

The Good 

The Good certainly outweighs the The Bad. It’s much nicer to end an article positively so here are the great things that happened to us in Budapest!

1.) Budapest is a beautiful, travel-friendly city.

Lots of places to see, and so little time! If you love architecture, Budapest will have you seriously smitten. The city is easy to navigate on foot, though you might have to rely more on landmarks than street names because those names are hard to pronounce AF. They do have a great metro system as far as I know but our hotel is close to everything to we mainly just walked to and fro. And also, you won’t have to worry about food. Budapest offers lots of choices for restaurants. As for price, they are not much different from the restaurants in Toronto.

2.) Prestige Hotel in Budapest

If you’re looking for a place to stay in Budapest, the Prestige Hotel is fantastic. It’s only two years old so the rooms are quite modern, and the staff always keep the place pristine. They include bathrobes and spa slippers in the rooms and so are your choices of pillows you can order from the front desk. We were happy with the ones we have in the room so we didn’t have to change them. Prestige Hotel also offers breakfast in the morning which my husband and I enjoyed everyday we woke up before 10:30 am. They also have a driver that can pick you and drive you back to the airport should you prefer at an additional cost. And the best part about the Prestige Hotel is the location. It’s close to everything!

3.) Fearless Conference

Last year’s Fearless Conference in Porto left me inspired, recharged, and changed. It was the best photography conference I’ve ever attended at the time. I wanted to get more of that energy in me before the wedding season starts again. And this year in Budapest, I was not disappointed! I’ve learned to have the courage of a streaker, to listen to my gut, and photograph my own life because I too deserve to preserve my own memories of the people I love. I learned more than that obviously, but those were what stood out the most for me.

4.) I got to see Teresa!

Teresa has been my longest photographer friend. We met way back in March of 2010 at WPPI, another photographers conference, when were both just starting out. Since then, we’ve kept in touch through Facebook and met each other every year when we attended WPPI. I didn’t get to see her last year because I chose Fearless Conference in Porto. So earlier this year, I happened to mention to Teresa that I was attending the same conference in Budapest. Turned out, Fearless Conference in Budapest worked for her schedule too!

Learning new things and exploring a new city is much nicer with a friend by your side, I think :)

5.) Travelling with my husband is fun again.

Not gonna lie. He drives me crazy when we travel overseas. You see, the last few times we’ve gone away together were to All-Inclusive Resorts in the Caribbean. He has this tendency to obsess on things, which make him great for his work.  But, when we’re away, and he’s out of books to read, he would start obsessing about work things that he couldn’t solve while away from his office. I love him but when he gets this way, he can be a pain. P.A.I.N. Such a big pain.

Needless to say, his eagerness to come along with me to Budapest  somewhat worried me.

On one hand, I could just rest my brain and trust him to navigate our way from the airport, to our connecting flights, and our hotel. He’s great at that. But on the other hand, he could become obsessive and I could lose my patience with him. I may swore never to travel with him again.

Luckily for us, my husband had enough to see and do. He never did get bored. And he never became obsessive about anything. And I stayed sane! We actually had fun!

So I guess I found the trick. Only travel to places where he can never be bored and our marriage will stay safe.

Here are a few images from our trip to Budapest!