the dry shampoo struggle

the first dry shampoo i ever tried was bumble and bumble spray for blondish hair, i loved it. i've had medium to long hair all my life and washing/drying it every day is not only bad for it, but a pain and a time suck. over the last 10 or so years i feel like i've tried them all. my favorite spray is elizabeth & james black nirvana, even 3rd day hair is acceptable. for powders, it's oscar blandi i fear is discountinued. with no blandi to order and areosole shipping not allowed, what did i manage to find in budapest?

bumble and bumble pret a powder is a good travel size and does nearly as good a job as the oscar blandi. i say nearly b/c it's a bit harder to get out of the bottle after a few shakes.

lee stafford was a co-worker reccomendation and is a close second to elizabeth and james. it's got good absorbsion for a spray, blends into my darker hair and doesn't have an offensive smell. the downside is the size of the can, it runs out pretty quickly.

batiste has a stronger smell. the original is fine but there's no 3rd day possibility here. the xxl volume is pretty sticky, like a hairspray with powder, which might be what you're looking for.

aussie miracle is pretty crap. the smell is the standard aussie smell which is a bit over powering. the powder also seems to separate from the spray, it needs a lot of shaking before each use.

garden of philosophy

i know i said i was doing a night run this past weekend, but life got in the way. specifically a co-workers going away dinner trumped a 7k for me, and it was totally worth it. instead of a 7k night run, i managed a 7k afternoon run to the foot of gellert hill and walked up to the garden of philosophy, something i've been wanting to do for months. totally worth it as well.

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

mom and dad explore europe - budapest update

the first thing i got asked when i told my friends and family i was spending the year in budapest was "when can i visit?" my parents have both been to europe but at different times. they've been planning a trip to selvacava, italy, where my dad's grandparents immigrated from, for as long as i can remember. they finally got to take that trip, bookended by weekends with me in budapest.

i have to say, budapest - italy - budapest was the right way to do this. they got to visit me and had something to do during the week while i worked. we managed to make it out to a few places i hadn't ventured yet.

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

one pot chicken couscous

i had some friends coming to town last week which meant there would be no cooking during the week. to avoid the work commissary, i decided to try a big one pot meal that would take care of me for a few days.

i found this tasty (looking at least) recipe from brit + co (click for original post and recipe)

saturday after pilates i grabbed a water and headed to the central market hall, the largest market in budapest, which i hadn't visited yet.

it goes on forever

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!

spiralizer: thai chicken zoodles

i finally ordered a spiralizer and spent a good part of the week saving every zoodle recipe i could find to pinterest. for my first attempt i chose a thai chicken with spicey peanut sauce from the blog joyful healthy eats. i also tried out a new market near me that is, shockingly, open on sundays. all the produce for this meal was purchased here. the chicken was from the grocery store, i haven't been brave enough to try the meats stands. maybe this weekend.

lehel market

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?

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.

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!