Capricious

60 - Budapest

"But that's the wonderful thing about foreign travel, suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most basic sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross the street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses."
- Bill Bryan

Travelling light, how little I need to fly away, to sustain my being while I explore. The very thing that pushes me to such extremes, decisions deep yet clear, a fresh new strength to explode into the unknown.

Sharing these buds of music, listening to classic and indie rock together, dancing on the plane together, singing every chorus together, without a care what any might think.

Our spontaneous descent into Budapest, a whole new world for our relationship to explore. We discover the city together, through the stylish streets and romantic boulevards, cavorting through what rays of sun do shine. Soon it all feels so familiar, sampling the unique tastes, admiring such magical buildings and the sparkling ambiance, a bitesize flagrance of clashing splendour. Mosaic roofed churches and ruin ridden castles, other delights that dominate such an interweaved culture, embodying the romantic play of Paris, the winding alleys of Amsterdam, the vibrant essence of Bavaria, and the solid stature of Mother Russia. With an ecstatic array of varying styles, elements Gothic and Baroque, Classical and Art Nouveau, undercover tourists there we fly, deep beneath the city's soul, we cover all roads worth taking.

Exploring history through museums and galleries, oppressed pasts and such surreal art, mind dancing in that great purifying storm, left to admire deep compositions as if set in space. Stepping up towards the crown, spectacular views of the city spread around us, two cradles joined by a snaking belt of blue streaming through, as a field of pink sets upon the mix. Savouring pastries in the morning, a feast of meats in the afternoon, an evening of duck in cherry sauce and potato croquettes, all divine new experiences to relish. Nights spent losing ourselves in ruin bars, vines and madness splayed around, each room an intoxication and hallucination, while we melt into broken sofas, beliefs of the world breaking through to her. Keeping to our schedule, adapting where we must, living as much as we can, and discovering more where we will. Basking in thermal pools of elegance, in the midst of a magnificent display of yellow brick embossed with white relief, flowing round and round and soaking through, then bathing in the peppermint steam. Cruising down the Danube, charming lights flickering through the dark, as the promenade glows aflame, lost in a lifeless romance, yet cosy to the end.

I find I'm comfortable with her, despite days without reprieve, too busy to mind. Sharing every thought, for from them stem our conversation, ever worth something to her somehow. Finding myself totally without shame, sharing my strengths and weaknesses, all that defines me. Every bit of wit and humour adding to our charade, being as I would be when alone but with her, as good company as any. Unafraid that I may hurt her feelings, less delicate than previous lovers, mature honest and genuine, we can explore anywhere.

Thorns of a black rose still drawing blood within my mind, even in the midst of my own adventure, she encroaches like a shadow through my window, taking advantage of my exhaustion, to make me mourn that which was never alive.

Here I stand, the almighty leader to our adventure, organising through and through so exquisitely, in my element for this land far far away. Having to know what to do, how to fix every problem, take on responsibility regardless of fear, a show of strength to break through the barriers that cut across us. Some delegating to share the burden, making decisions as to what fits, a strategic sacrifice maybe, using all I've learned to some effect. It all comes together so well. The success of our endeavour alluding to my mastery, I can do this even better than my predecessors of the past, I am a man of the world, flourishing in an acute sense of power however small.

Yet all under the remarks of the traditional, left wondering how appropriate this is, what signs I am projecting through such a stunt. It is just a way to live, why let the lack of time restrict us so, we do not have to be as they want. So simple I keep things, she doesn't seem to mind, just for the experience, not anything more, the rest left to dreams.