Hello again, my e-chums! Time for another quick update about my favourite topic: ME.

So, what have I been up to? Ah yes, I was in Austria with Michaela & the boys to see family. It was lovely, but sadly all too brief (for me at least; Michaela's extended drive home again is entirely another story); I only had a day & a night there, and then had to get the train back to Munich for a choir rehearsal on the Sunday.

Still, the Saturday was fabulous. We left Michaela's nice & early, and got to Greinsfurth in time for a delicious lunch at Martha & Hans's place. Then we popped in on Inge & Otto for a quick cuppa & an even quicker white wine spritzer, before driving over to Martha & Poidl's for coffee, cake, & a full-on Jause of meats, cheeses & salads. It was, as you can discern from these lines, a high-calorie visit.

Back at Martha & Hans's we had a remarkably restrained - for us - evening of wine & chat before turning in. And the next morning, after a delicious breakfast with farmhouse bread & extra-fresh sheep's cheese (the likes of which I have never even seen outside Austria: it's a bit like fromage blanc and tastes marvellous with paprika), Hans dropped me off at Amstetten station. I caught a train to Salzburg and then another train to Munich, then headed straight to the rehearsal.

That evening I celebrated the arrival for her two-week German course of my dear friend Ali. She & I had a bite to eat near Sendlinger Tor, and then we headed to mine for wine & an ample cheese board, where we were joined by Bénédicte.

A pretty busy weekend, all things considered!

The following week was pretty full-on too. I hung out with Ali most evenings, allowing her to wind down from a head full of German each day (she was doing an intensive course at the Goethe Institut). At lunchtimes I caught up with EPO people and with Michaela & Charlie.

And then, on Thursday, it was time for my next international adventure: a long weekend in Budapest!

I caught the train to Vienna in the morning, where Bernhard met me at Westbahnhof and we headed to the Naschmarkt for lunch. It was a pleasant sunny afternoon in Vienna, and we wandered around enjoying the atmosphere (until I got a bit of grit under one of my lenses and suffered PAINNNNNN). Then, at four o'clock, we got back on the train and headed to Budapest.

Our hotel, the EasyHotel, was very central, close to the Oktogon square and lots of restaurants & bars on Liszt Ferencz Tér. We dumped our bags, freshened up, and headed out to enjoy the sights & smells. Actually, that's pretty much what we did all weekend, in a variety of cafés, restaurants, bars & pubs.

Budapest has lots going on, not just in terms of sightseeing - which one can do PLENTY of, what with beautiful bridges, palaces, churches, Europe's largest synagogue, and marvellous hot spas - but also in terms of nightlife.

There's a very lively underground bar culture - literally bars in the cellar of lots of buildings. But our favourite Pub, Dupla (just behind Liszt Ferencz Tér) actually goes over three levels: upstairs is a quiet area for board games (the Hungarians love their backgammon); the ground floor is pubby with a piano; and the basement is a funky bar with a discoball & cool sounds.

In a fit of photo-efficiency, I've already uploaded a representative selection of my photos on my main site. Enjoy!

Essentially, we did Buda & the centre of Pest on Friday, the rest of Pest - including the Szeczenyi Baths - on Saturday, and Memento Park (a collection of Soviet-era statuary in the suburbs) & the Gellert Hill on Sunday. And, after an action-packed couple of days, we hopped on the train on Monday morning that took us all the way back to Munich.

Back in Munich, we met Ali just by the station and had a bite to eat with her before having a drink in the Isarpost café (actually a huge club venue, but when there isn't an event on they open their foyer which has comfy sofas and cool sounds).

On Tuesday I took Ali to the Hofbräuhaus - a must for visitors to Munich, if they're not here for the Oktoberfest - with my mate Jürgen. After a beer & a chat with random strangers on our table (in true Oktoberfest style) there, we went on to Opatija, a Croatian restaurant round the corner, for a bite to eat, and from there to The Lodge for a cheeky limoncello.

I rounded off my March with a spot of culture: Ali & I went to the Neue Pinakothek on Wednesday afternoon and had two hours of new visual impressions before I left to go to my choir rehearsal. We met up again afterwards for a few more drinks.

And that, ladies & gentlemen, is my story up to the end of March. Peace out.