Duna bella!

Where does one even start :). It has definitely been quite the busy month! But I'm probably saying that because we've just come back from an amazing half a week in Budapest :D. What a fun getaway, and much needed!

So, every year towards the end of autumn I think, we must book a holiday of some sort for October or November. Break up the dreary early winter months where the darkness creeps, then rushes on. Because without that break, it feels like a hard old slog to get all the way to Christmas. Anyhow, this year we actually did it!

It was the first time for either of us in Hungary, so we didn't necessarily know what to expect, however, having seen the city in films and tv and such, we did know there was a lot to like, particularly as we do rather like just ambling along enjoying interesting buildings, food and the occasional foray into a museum or two :). Well, Budapest delivered on all fronts!

We had pretty nice weather for the most part. It was noticeably warmer than in Norway, and more importantly, with more hours of morning light! On the flip side, with the massive Danube (locally known as the Duna) flowing through the middle though, there was definitely a lot of wind.

Having acquired a handy city pass that provided unlimited access to public transport as well as free entry to many of the main attractions, we had no trouble getting out of the weather when things did get a bit too fresh :).

One thing that struck me soon was how much variety there seemed to be in the buildings, and oh yes, so much re-building, even in the historic castle district. As we spent more time looking around though, it became clear that at least one of the reasons was the number of times the city (or cities rather) have been demolished and rebuilt, for one reason or another.

Another thing that started dawning on me as we spent some time in some of the museums and galleries was that the history of Buda and Pest don't necessarily reflect the history of Hungary as we know it today. Bind in the middle of Europe has certainly taken its toll!

All in all though, it was lovely to be able to meander around for as long as we wanted. Stop when we wanted. Enjoy some great food (the famous Hungarian goulash soup of course, but special mention to the awesome street-stall-sourced chimney cake :D). And in the process get to know a little bit about a part of the world we were not really that familiar with. An excellent holiday was had :). 

As a bonus, all the travelling worked out more perfectly than any trip in recent memory :P.

Now that we've been back for a couple of days though, it's time to get used to the cold. Luckily, the proper freeze has stayed away at least long enough for me to get the tires switched today :). But it had been a somewhat unseasonably warm early half of the month. Not quite record highs, but not far off. I guess we'll have to see how the rest of the winter pans out. Although now that the car's properly shod, I can hardly wait for the snow to arrive :P.

In an unrelated attempt to make the early part of winter more enjoyable, finally started running on a regular basis! It's only been a month, and short distances, but by the latest run I was no longer struggling to just keep a steady pace to the end :). Let's hope we can keep that up.

On the books front there's been actually almost more that I can immediately remember! Abaddon's Gate feels like a very long time ago :). The most clear sense I have of it though was one of slight disappointment :/. Or maybe disappointment isn't quite the right word... mild discomfort maybe?

The scope of the story definitely takes a huge step outwards. Boldly going where no human has ever gone before and all that. One of the things I'd been rather enjoying in the previous books though, was the comfortable interplay between the four core characters. But there seemed to almost be focus pulled away to others. Which did happen in the second book, but not to the extent where Holden and co seemed to almost be side lined.

(Btw, I might be disappointed, but after three books, this feels like a series that is going to keep it's almost soap opera style main characters alive for the long haul. I feel somewhat justified in thinking that because they went through the trouble of writing out origin stories for the TV series tie-in ◔_◔.)

Nevertheless, it was still overall a fun read. But somehow I didn't feel like committing to more Expanse just then. There was also the book club book to read, and this time it was my recommendation! Although I honestly didn't know what to expect. I'd picked the books by the somewhat vague criteria that they needed to be fantasy, reasonably recent, like within the last couple of years, and not part of a series. I also decided to restrict myself to stuff available in the local library :).

The result, once the voting happened, was Blood Over Bright Haven. And I'm not quite sure what to think of it :|. I suppose it doesn't help that, as I said, I didn't know what to expect. I'd never read anything by the author before, and Goodreads blurbs only tell you so much.

To break it down a bit, I think there were aspects of the writing that I really enjoyed. Particularly the ability to articulate emotions. I mean, the beauty of the horrors of blight, I found breath taking! There's also very obviously a clear-eyed approach to violence and exploitation. But at the end of the day the ending's not really an ending, is it? Oddly enough, I found myself thinking of Rang De Basanti as I finished reading the book. Hmm. I wonder how the discussion will go...

Then, not just to sort of get some mental distance from both The Expanse and Tiran, I decided to act on a thought I'd had some months ago. Wondering how Asimov would read now. Happily, I have all the Robots and Foundation series books sitting on the book shelf behind me, so I just picked up The Caves of Steel as we packed lightly for Budapest.

You can kinda tell that this was written three quarters of a century ago :|. In some ways I'm finding it charming, but in other ways it's really odd! I think my abiding feeling of the Foundation universe is rather heavily influenced by Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation and Foundation and Earth. In one way the beginning and the end of the Foundation arc, they are also the last books written. And I have a feeling that the last time I read the series, I read them in publication order.

The sense I was left with was that of a story years in the making. A story-teller closing the grand circle, something of the weight of history telling in the process. However, tCoS reads like a young story! Brimming with nervous energy, or so it feels to me. I'm curious to see how the feeling evolves with the books written across more than five decades.

The other thing I'm noticing, which is more of a remembering than a surprise really, is how political Asimov's plots are! Definitely looking forward to more. The question, as always, is which order to read them all in :).