Author: julianromano
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The box theory and why it is bullshit
A few years back my high school had its 10 year reunion for the graduating class of 2014. I was travelling at the time so couldn’t attend. Speaking to friends who did go, one comment really stuck with me; they observed that people who attended the event were largely the same as they were 10…
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Quitting alcohol in the most alcoholic country in the world
For some time, I had been toying with the idea of going completely sober. One night in late September, at a sushi restaurant, after finishing an ice-cold Asahi that perfectly matched the crisp European autumn weather, I decided that would be it for alcohol—for a while, at least. Since then, I haven’t had a drink…
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An Australian Football Club in Budapest
It’s a mild Saturday in mid-May in Nysa, southern Poland. We’re nearly 550 km from our home ground in Budapest—a distance that’s become routine for footy here. As the umpire blows the whistle and the Sherrin is tossed up, the scene is instantly familiar yet unmistakably foreign for anyone who’s played footy back in Australia.…
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The challenge of understanding our former selves
One of the main purposes of writing these articles is to catalogue my experiences spending a year abroad, with a focus on how I felt at the time I would encounter these challenges and the learnings I’d take away from them. Challenges such as trying to communicate at the health centre that I had been…
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The cultural significance of Europe’s era from 1870-1918
I don’t claim to be a historian, not at all. However, after traveling through much of Europe and spending countless hours in museums, one moment stands out vividly. It was a chilly December evening as I stood staring at the gargantuan Hungarian Parliament, lit up in a hue of warm yellow the iconic neo-gothic features…
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A few thoughts on David Szalay’s novel ‘Flesh’
I recently had the pleasure of reading the novel Flesh by David Szalay which won the 2025 Booker award. Flesh follows the story of a Hungarian man Istvan throughout his life and large portions of the book are set in Hungary itself. This making it an exceptional choice for me to jump into this book…
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Thinking in another language
Talking in a foreign language is fantastic. It feels so gratifying to order food at a market in Italy or to ask how much something costs in Hungarian, rather than defaulting to Google Translate or playing charades with the confused-looking storeperson. Perhaps the most significant benefit to me, however, is not the saving of…
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Deliberate choices: Active vs Passive downtime
Precious downtime can be hard to come by in our day to day lives. When we are all either working, studying or fulfilling other peoples requests of us throughout the day, when we finally do encounter time for ourselves it’s a coveted possession. As far as how we spend our spare time, I see it…
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Cycling around Lake Balaton
A few months into living in Budapest a friend asked whether there would be any interest in cycling around Lake Balaton over a single day. While I wasn’t ready for that big of a cycling challenge I began to look into the idea of cycling Balaton over a week. Here’s my recap of cycling around…
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Memento Park: A unique communism collection
I had the privilege of visiting Memento Park on the outskirts of Budapest recently. Memento Park is a unique museum in that it has actively kept statues from the time of Hungary’s occupation by the Soviet Union (1945-1990). Following the fall of the Soviet Union across 1989/90 most of the statues with a communist agenda…