It is a city I have come to know intimately after hearing of her beauty (though more akin to varázs, if we are to speak of her in her own language) through the stories of my father.

Perhaps it’s a good thing I never (really) listened, for when I finally got there it allowed me to be more open to her wiles and her charms.

The magic my father had talked about was certainly there, but there was much more. She drew people in, much like a siren. But instead of a voice, she lured them with light. Those lights that illuminated her buildings that rich men and kings had created, as if to invert nature, lights that illuminated to enhance and entice. Enhance an idea that was put to life, enticing those who would come to escape the plights of the lives they had lived in other parts of the kingdom.

Lights that changed with the times while continuing to send the same message.

It is a message I captured with my soul and can only attempt to give back with these pictures. A highlight of what she stands for, to myself and to others.

My body is elsewhere and so is my mind but somewhere buried deep beneath her soil rests forever a piece of my soul.