keeping pace

i've done some runs over the last 4 years, i've blogged about a few. they've been different lengths

disneyland half marathon

my skin and europe aren't always friends

a quick note to say i'm sorry for the delay in posts. i had company in town 2 weekends in a row and we are about to start filming at work so, my free time has been extremely limited. i will have some great budapest updates next week tho, promise! now, on to the good stuff.

my skin has been a problem my whole life. i've had eczema since birth and still will scratch a random patch in my sleep so that it's very hard to fully heal. i've managed to keep it a bay for the most part with a water filter shower attachment and a strict seasonal rotation of aveeno products. guess what they don't have in budapest: aveeno!

coming to europe without my trusty aveeno wasn't entirely planned or unplanned. i stocked up on the travel size gold bond cremes and eucerine because i like to keep those in my purse as my hands get very dry. having not had a real flare up in a while, it didn't really occur to me to worry about my body lotion. i had already scoped out shops on google maps, i knew i'd be able to get my lush dream wash and butterballs locally. i figured finding body lotion would be the easy part, oops.

it never occurred to me that i wouldn't be able to find fragrance free body products here. the stores are jam packed heavily with perfumed body wash, lotions and balms, (and 20 kinds of femme wash) but fragrance free was hard to find. same with laundry detergent. my beau thinks this is a hold over from when they showered less so needed to smell artificially clean, who knows. after fruitless trips to every supermarket and drugstore chain in town, i settled on nivea cocoa body lotion. i've used it before sporadically and knew it wouldn't break me out. for the most part i was right.

fitness friday - my home away from home gym

my home away from home gym

european rail trip - part 2 vienna

when last we met we had explored sopron and were on our way to vienna. i have to say, the train ride from sopron to vienna was much more scenic than from budapest to sopron. but moving on.

fitness friday 6.3.16

today i'm going thru some of my favorite apps, free and not.

map my fitness: an upgrade of sorts from map my run, b/c you don't need more than one "map my" from the same company. my friends and i like to give each other transatlantic encouragement. i'll be tracking my bike rides soon as i plan to purchase a bike this weekend. love the 30 second delay on the "start" feature, gives me time to get myself situated before the playlist begins.

european rail trip - part 1 sopron

it's been a while since i traveled anywhere, i've been falling into a rthym of life in budapest. we had a long holiday weekend and lucky me, my best friends decided to make the trek from the us all the way to budapest just for little old me! it was the 10 year anniversary of us being friends so we felt it was appropriate to celebrate, we're kind of a big deal.

502pc!

fitness friday

i'm getting a bit ambitions by naming this "fitness friday." it's put me in the box of posting fitness items on friday. i'm not a fan of boxes, unless i can make them into a fort, but here i am.

the official motto of 502

minimal-ish travel beauty bag

while i've never been the full on face of make up type, i don't consider myself a minimalist either. my skin is too dry for that!

on my recent overnight trip to prague i was only packing in my backpack so i knew i'd need to streamline even further than i usually do. here's how the packing in went:

the whole load

my face

28 hours in prague - part 2

since i made it back to the hotel a bit earlier than i had planned saturday night, i was up bright and early sunday to pack in a full day of exploring.

28 hours in prague - part 1

i'm not the least bit embarassed to admit that all of my "europe on a whim" expectations come from the mandy moore movie "chasing liberty." naturally prague, where the movie begins, was at the top of my list.

i've nearly run out of long weekends for work, the next and final one coming while my friends are visiting me, that will be an adventure! but back to prague. since i was only going to be in the city for about 28 hours, i challeneged myself to pack everything in my work backpack.

totally worked, but that's another post

10 favorite travel apps

as i've mentioned before, the prospect of a year in budapest initially bummed me out. but then i got on kayak and saw all places i would go for a quick weekend trip and cheered up pretty quickly. i've been in budapest nearly 3 months now and have found some apps i could not get thru this year without. wether going on holiday or spending a year abroad, here are my most used apps for travel. (i'm not including google maps, b/c i use that everyday everywhere, even at home)

bonus - they're all free!

easter trip to paris - part 2

i know i said "next week" when i first posted but i had some personal requests to update on mallory...she's kind of a big deal.

on to day 2 in paris, also know as: the day i spent with dead stuff.

there are 2 places in paris i've wanted to go for a while but was never able to do to either time or co-travelers not being interested. this trip it was all about me! 

i got up very early on easter sunday, 7:30am is early when you're on vacation ok, and took the train down to the catacombs. i tried to go on saturday but the line was massive and i wouldn't have made the cutoff time. when i arrived at 8:30am for a 10am open, i was the 10th person in line. by the time it opened, there as already a 2 hour wait. that's right, people line up to see a bunch of bones just like they do to purchase a new iphone.

am i actually gonna do this?

mallory in budapest - update

this is going to be very long

i've held off on this post, probably for superstisious reasons. i'm afraid any update will cosmically turn everything down hill. but here we go...

she likes to help me work

shortly before we left for budapest mallory was diagnosed with small cell lymphoma. to put it mildly, i freaked out. all i was hearing was "cancer" and tho obviously not genetically related, that didn't bode well as the women in my family don't have a great track record with cancer.  i mentioned i'm slightly supersticious right?

easter trip to paris - part 1

when my company landed on budapest for our basis of operation, i was pretty bummed out. we had been looking at london for several months and i was super stoked about that. i had previous co-workers in london, the language barrier is zero and the eurostar is right there. but budapest it was to be.

i quickly jumped on kayak and google maps searching for quick weekend trips. if i was going to be in europe for a year, i was going to make the most of it. the first 3 day weekend we had i decided to stay in town to get my apartment settled. traveling now is a bit more complicated since my kitty requires medication each day, but that's another, longer, post for later.

i'm not a terribly religious person, but i've always enjoyed the easter service at the church i grew up in. i haven't done much besides dinner with friends for easter since i've been in los angeles, i figured with the 3 day weekend, paris was as good a place as any to spend the holiday.

i've been to paris 2 times before, i've hit most of the typical tourist spots, so you won't get much of that here. this trip was all about what i wanted to see.

i had 2 days to get it all in. i landed in paris around 12:30pm and left monday mid-day. somehow, i managed to get everything that was really important to me taken care of.

when i began planning, i discovered that my carry on suitcase, which i've had for 7 years, is technically too large for many of the budget airlines. just to play it safe, i purchased a north face base camp duffle. i'd seen a family navigating the christmas crowds carrying them and thought it seemed like an excellent idea, i was right.

do i look legit?

how to live in budapest and not gain 50 lbs

50 pounds may be an exaggeration, but i don't think it's far off.

weight gain comes from 2 places

1. my metabolism is in constant conflict with the overwhelming availability of pastry
2. my west coast aclimatized body doesn't want to run outside in the cold

seriously, every morning i come into the office and the assistants have got fresh baked goodies for breakfast. it takes everything in my to not eat them all.

the portion sizes here also put american portions to shame. the girls in the caffeteria laugh at me when i say "that's enough" as they're loading up my third pasta dish of the week. pasta and cheese sauce, it's a thing here. a very tasty thing.

from the west coast to eastern europe, how do you dress that?

since i was taking off from los angeles and landing in budapest, i had 2 completely different climates to adjust to. when i left la it was cool and rainy but i was totally comfortable in my leggings and flannel tunic. but i knew when i land i was going to need winter gear.

i have a fairly standard travel outfit: leggings, tunic/pullover top, blanket scarf or zip hoodie and uggs.

is works regardless of the time of year. if i'm doing somewhere very warm, i'll wear sneakers instead of uggs. i tend to alternate between a flannel tunic and a linen one, both from j.crew, depending on the season. i usually take an oversized hoodie because, while not the most stylish, it's not binding when moving around in the air plane seat and the hood also covers most of my head, keeps the light, and other people, out of my face. i left that hoodie in california this time and opted for a sleep mask to block the light.

packing for a year in europe ...

if you thought the ... would be followed by a "in 1 suitcase," you've come to the wrong blog.

there's no way i was going to budapest with just 1 suitcase. i have mallory with me after all.

i did pack for this trip to north carolina in one suitcse

budapest so far

i've been here a month and am finally feeling like i'm getting the hang of things.

i have a car and can now get from my apartment to work without google maps. obviously, i have an apartment so, no more tiny hotel fridge for me!

now thats a beer!

traveling with my cat

yes, i travel with my cat. i've taken her a number of places, by car and by plane. she's stayed at the homes of friends and family, hotels rented by production and occasionally, under much protest, a kennel. before you balk at the girl with a pet carrier walking her cat thru security let me assure you, my cat is way easier to travel with than most of the kids i've shared a plane with. also, mine fits under the seat!

posting delayed - traveling this week

was planning on only taking one week off of posting but the jet lag / housing move / work schedule has me a little upside down. i'll get something up next week but until then...

mallory at cdg airport