Separating the Buda from the Pest ...

(subtitle: The Fourth Noble Truth)

With a week before my exams and a weath of reading and theory to still digest, I grabbed my books and headed towards the appropriately-timed Spring Festival in Budapest, Hungary.

By night, studying in opulent fin-de-siecle Hapsburgian coffeeshops ...


During the day, wandering in search of sun, scenes and sensations ... (such as this rhino with cherry blossoms, an all-too-unlikely combination)


And no Budapest experience would be complete without indulging in their numerous spas and baths (photo below of the idyllic Gellert Baths was pilfered from the internet ... understandably, cameras are not permitted in such environments ... fortunately, I was)


Most importantly, I was able to complete the virtuous cycle ... after being hungary in turkey (passing through Istanbul on my way to Amman in December), I was finally able to eat turkey in hungary this week ! Poetic closure ....

De Hoge Veluwe ...

On little more than a rumor and a hunch, I followed the springtime weather (and, technically, also a train and a bus) out to De Hoge Vueluwe National Park (about 6 km outside of Arnhem) ... the largest of its kind in Holland, it is home to a 26 km bicycle circuit through a wealth of the most wonderful and peaceful landscapes ...

After meandering through hours of vast and vacant landscapes (not encountering another soul), I stumbled upon the Kroller-Muller Museum ... the personal collection of the the park's benefactors houses a very familiar collection of Van Gogh's and Picasso's as well as a fine collection of pointalist works ...

The Museum also is home to Europe's largest sculpture garden ... spread out amongst the surrounding forrest ...

The day was so magical and the scene so magnificent that this short entry cannot begin to do it justice ... The source of some of my most pleasant memories of Europe ... I felt like I might be starting to understand what Aristotle meant by Eudaimonia ... (feel free insert your favorite "it's all greek to me" joke here____________ )

More of the day's beauty can be found on my Flickr site ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/nixdorff/

Nixdorff in Dusseldorf ...

Or was it the other way around ? It all depends on your perspective ... my first return to Germany in almost 12 years for a slight change in my own.

A quick daytrip for a Picasso exhibit focusing on his prolific years as an octogenarian ... I wonder if this is how the world is going to look to me in 50+ years

Escaped from the rain and the cold (you would think I would be used to it by now) to get overly-caffeinated and read some Heidegger and Husserl in a Starbucks on the Koningsallee ... seemed the most (ironically) apporpriate thing to do on several levels ... a wonerfully self-indulgent phenomenology !