Tap tap. Is this thing on?

So perhaps launching a travel company a couple of months before a global pandemic wasn’t the best idea.

It’s been an immensely difficult year—and the three of us have been lucky. Liddy’s been holing up in Salt Lake City with her aunt, uncle, and pup Naus. Stephen and Theo have been in Brooklyn with Mack, their OG pup, alongside Tibor, whom they adopted last April and of course gave a Hungarian name (OF COURSE). We don’t have that much to complain about. We’ve been relatively healthy. We’ve kept our jobs. We’ve been able to see our friends and families (socially distanced and behind masks, of course).

Still, in addition to all the losses and loneliness and scary moments of 2020, the three of us have acutely missed being able to travel. It’s how we met each other, how we’ve met some of our best friends, how we’ve planned and shaped out lives. Of course the loss of being able to travel isn’t comparable to the deep losses so many have suffered this past year. At the same time, it’s a loss. And we’ve been longing to hit the road.

Here in the U.S., there’s some optimism. We dumped Trump. There’s a national vaccine program. There are inequities in distribution and health care nationwide, but there seems to be a flickering, distant light at the end of this ridiculously long tunnel. And that means we’re eager to take to the skies again, set out for new adventures, and return to our second home: Magyarország (which, for those following along at home, is Hungary in Hungarian).

For most people, it’s not safe to travel yet. We’re definitely not encouraging anyone to trek to Hungary until vaccinations are more widespread, infection rates have gone down, and the risk of variants has decreased. Still, we’re hopeful that you all, like us, are starting to dream. Where to go next? What adventures lie ahead? What friends will we see again? What’s next on the bucket list?

We hope that Hungary is on your agenda. The country is certainly having its own struggles with Covid (along with its regular political and societal woes). But it’s still a place we love, a place we tell people to go and see for themselves. A place where you can eat amazing gulyás and soak in a thermal spa and try and wrap your tongue around one of the most complex languages in the world.

So let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s get our vaccines. Let’s demand that everyone get one. Let’s take care of each other. But it’s definitely not too early to start dreaming about that next big adventure. We hope that Hungary’s a part of those dreams, and that we can help make it happen.