European Dips: the Budapest stag report

Behold! I have returned from the continent.

Hi!

Hello! I really hope you enjoyed last week's piece on Hungary! I had such a good time writing it. I was so pleased when I saw people's nice comments about it. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Europe and meeting more people soon.

In the meantime - as I believe I explained when I first had the idea for this change in direction, going abroad for a few days to write a feature takes a fair bit more work than "having ideas while sitting on my couch or perhaps somewhere in my neighbourhood".

As a result, I said I'd start sending only three emails a month, instead of four, though with one of them being noticeably chunkier than the others, meaning that you wouldn't lose any words in the process.

This may well end up being what I do from next month on but, as it happens, I did have an idea for a fun little sketch to write as an aside from my main Budapest piece, and I have attached it below, as a nice bonus.

Hope you like it, and see you next week for a regular column!

A little sketch

Guilt doesn't often manifest itself physically, which is a relief. In Budapest, however, you can have a tough time trying to keep the consequences of your own actions at bay. I'd booked myself a cheap Airbnb around a week in advance, because the trip had been planned at the last minute and I'm not a millionaire. I knew I probably ought to have shelled out and got a hotel room instead, but I just couldn't be bothered feeling that virtuous.

I arrived on Wednesday evening and walked into the building of the studio I rented, walked up to the second floor, started looking for my door, and saw some words written in sharpie on one of the shared windows. I took a picture of them and planned to run them through Google Translate once lying on my bed, but could tell I probably wouldn't enjoy what I'd find.

Next to those few Hungarian words, which, it turns out, meant "SHUT UP, YOU IDIOT", was another message, helpfully written down in English. It read: "GO HOME". I tried, for the rest of the trip, to convince myself I wasn't the problem. I'm only one person! I've become so achingly polite that people struggle to believe I'm French! I'm here for work! Surely, I wasn't the villain.