July 2015

An interesting feature of the city is that it is divided into two halves, Buda and Pest, by the Danube River. Oddly enough, however, one of my favorite spots lies between the two. Margarite Island is a long, narrow green space, lacking any high rise buildings and surrounded by the river on all sides. And I can say with absolute certainty that I have never seen anything quite like it before.

The first thing to catch my attention was a red, single lane running track around the perimeter of the entire island. Now, for some of you this may not mean much of anything, but for me, a compulsive runner who makes laces up the sneakers every morning come hell, high water or hangover, I felt like a 19th century prospector striking gold. So obviously, I went running on it my very first day.*

And while the track is amazing, the island between it was not too shabby either, and crammed a whole lot within a small space, like a swimming pool, fountains, sporting fields, and even a zoo. Although the zoo mostly contained animals like the common deer and a few birds. I guess you can't win them all sometimes. Mostly, I just liked how the island was a bit of an escape from the urban center, yet still provided some pretty great pictures of both sides of the city.

*and second day.