On living a dual life

"This is great, but you don't experience what it's like to cook in a given place, what you can get at the market and the bakery. I'm now experiencing the subtleties of joy of life, the deeper layers that culture, history, and architecture provide (for example, in Florence...)."

Tamás Frei in the August 2024 Hungarian Forbes on what it's like to switch to a "multi-location" life due to the intense travel "obligations" arising from work.

This article made me wonder what a dual-location life might be like. Then, after a little thought, I realized that this is exactly what I'm doing in the second half of this summer. Since mid-July, I've been alternating my residence between Malta and Hungary in 2-week intervals.

It took a bit more reflection to realize that I'm currently changing my current residence even more intensively than dual-location living, as in the past 10 days, I've slept in a tent in Balatonföldvár, in a grandparental house in Gyékényes, in Siófok, in an apartment, with friends near Gellért Square, and in my parents' home near Budapest.

And which was the best?

The continuation of Tamás Frei's already quoted paragraph also fits here:

"Yet there's no such thing as one city being better. It's simply different. (I don't like to be bored, I feel good when I'm exposed to a million stimuli.)"

I'm very curious about the Maltese autumn. If everything goes as promised, the weather will be ideal, still allowing for swimming in the sea and sunbathing, but also enabling us to be outside of a building's four air-conditioned walls during the day.

Before moving to Malta, I talked to someone who has been living in Budapest as an American for more than 30 years. He provided me with a lot of valuable advice and experience, one of the most memorable and interesting being that "The streets will smell different because the composition of fuel used in cars is different." This was one of those things that wouldn't even cross your mind if you hadn't stayed abroad for more than 2 weeks at a stretch before. And it warns you how many nuances affect the experience of life.

The other thing was that "a lot of things will dawn on you..." - here I got a diplomatic hint about cultural differences :-)

But in a blog about Malta, let's touch on some specific examples at this point:

• I've already written about transportation and weather in several rounds.
• Perhaps also about how easy it is to adopt the habits of our new micro-environment (e.g., work ethic, sports, cooking). In short, very.
• It's interesting to see how many "small but bad decisions" we can make suddenly in such a new situation, from the cheese bought in the store to choosing the time for the day's workout.
• We can realize that these small bad decisions lead to good decisions, and that such a learning process is very beautiful (and fast).
• Spending free time is an interesting question, the sea acts as a very strong magnet, even if we don't live very close to it.
• On weekends, we can behave and feel like we were on vacation.
• Going to the market, observing and trying the habits of local people is my task for the remaining months.

And as a closing note, here's another relevant Frei quote from the interview, read the whole in Forbes!

"But of course, I slow down too. (...) immersion, alertness, and presence require slowing down. You can hear the little bell I brought from Bhutan now, the wind is swinging it on the balcony. It reminds you to hear, see, touch, feel."