Buda & Pest - Hungary

On April 13th, Andy and I along with our friend Josh (who is originally from Arizona and with whom Andy works here at KPMG Zurich) took off for a 4-day "weekend" in Budapest, Hungary. Sadly, not one of us remembered to bring our camera! We have no photos whatsoever of this trip and it is a real shame because Budapest was an absolutely amazing city - beautiful in an Eastern-Europe sort of way that you can't really duplicate. I stole a few pictures from the internet so you can at least see what a gorgeous setting it is! What we learned upon arrival, is that the city is actually split into two parts - Buda and...you guessed it - Pest. The two are split by the Danube River (which you can see in the photo above - Buda on the right bank and Pest on the left bank).

For our first day, we decided it would be a good idea to hop on one of those obnoxious convertible city tour-bus type vehicles. That way we were really able to see the whole city (too large to walk it!), learn a little, and enjoy the sunny weather and sites. It wound up being a great tour, taking us through Buda, then Pest and across the famous Chain Bridge which connects the two. I'll spare you the details of all the great historical lessons we learned, but let's just say that there was no lack of amazing history and gorgeous buildings!

Budapest (capital city of Hungary) is famous for its bath-houses. Now I know what you're thinking, a bunch of wrinkly old guys in speedos soaking in non-chlorinated "healing waters". And for some of the houses, you'd be right! The three of us were lucky enough, however, to find a relatively plush bath house called the Gellert Baths. This is a famous bathhouse dating back to 1912 with various indoor soaking pools containing water from the nearby Gellert hills mineral hot springs. It was a great authentic experience getting right in there with the locals! (Below: The largest indoor pool of the Gellert Baths)


Another well known sight in Budapest is the Great Market Hall which serves as the central marketplace for locals. Hundreds of stalls are filled to the brim with meats, cheeses, fresh paprika (a Hungarian staple), local crafts and delicious homemade strudel. (Below: Inside Great Market Hall)


We also squeezed in a night-time dinner cruise on the Danube, and a second day at the bathhouses (this time at one with an enormous outdoor hot tub cranked up to 90 degrees and dirt cheap massages!)

Rome - Italy (Easter Weekend)

April 6 - 9: For Easter weekend we decided at the last minute to join our friends Braden & Anna in Rome...

Due to it being the busiest weekend in Vatican City (Easter Services and all) we had to really improvise our travel and accommodation options. Luckily we're getting pretty good at this fly by the seat of your pants style of travel - so taking a one hour train north of Zurich to Basel, then a flight to Rome on Easy Jet (Europe's "discount" airline - yes we were thinking it too - glad the plane didn't fall apart mid-flight!) and an hour taxi ride to the last resort camping facility in Rome equipped with our very own tent was no big deal ;-) Once there, we realized we had somehow left home without our sleeping bags, which required yet more improvising involving patio furniture cushions and every sweatshirt we could find to serve as blankets!

That aside, we (we meaning Andy) got our tent all set up (see photo below) and set off for, what else, Vatican City!

Braden & Anna had tickets to every Easter service imaginable (Braden is Catholic and was especially excited to see the Pope give mass) so Andy and I (took the day to wander around Rome, eat heaps of gelato and just relax. We swung through Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, The Spanish Steps, Vatican City, and generally just wandered until we found our favorite spot - Campo de Fiori (translation - "field of flowers" named for the farmers market they have daily). From there on out for the weekend, if we weren't wandering around the streets, we were parked in the Campo (see photo below) having cheap Chianti and appetizers.
(Campo de Fiori)

That night we met up with Braden and Anna for a classic Italian dinner on the Piazza Navona (photo below) followed by gelato and a evening stroll past Trevi Fountain (photo also below).



The next day (Saturday) B&A took the day off from Mass and joined us in the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. Now, don't be shocked, but I was finally able to show ANDY something (rather than the other way around). Somehow, he had never set foot in the Colosseum! I was pretty thrilled to finally have a leg up on some site-seeing!
(Us in the Colosseum)

We all agreed that one of the high-lights of our trip was dinner on Saturday night. As you might have noticed, we're constantly consulting Rick Steves for his favorite hole-in-the-wall spots. (Side note: For those of you who haven't heard of Rick Steves, he is an American that has dedicated his life to traveling around Europe and has about 30 travel books published. He runs his company "Europe Through the Back Door" with the purpose of helping Americans to travel efficiently and "blend" more appropriately into the European culture ;-). He lives in Edmonds, WA and my Mom & Loren have actually met him!) Anyhow, we digress...Point being, Rick (from here on out we'll probably just refer to the book as "consulting Rick") recommended a tiny restaurant called Paola's. The place is run by a little Italian woman named, you guessed it - Paolo. Upon seeing our copy of Rick's book in our hands, she started yelling "Rick Steves, numero uno, numero uno!" and proceeded to flip through our book to the page that features her restaurant. Some love him, some hate him, but most all small establishments are grateful for the publicity they receive as a result of his recommendations. The unique part of Paola's, is that there is no menu. You literally sit down (with the hundred other people scrambling to get in) and the food and wine are just brought to your table sight-unseen. I have to admit, we were skeptical. We shouldn't have been. It was some of the best food we've ever eaten - and at an all inclusive price of about $30 all-you-can-eat/drink, it was affordable too. Here is our friend Anna with Paolo:

At the end of our jam-packed Roman holiday, we made our way back to Zurich in a shared night-train compartment with our friends. We brought along some wine and hung out until the wee hours before drifting off to sleep in time to wake up in Zurich....(Below: Andy and Braden getting the night-train festivities started)

Our Place - Zurich, Switzerland

We kept promising to put up some photos of our apartment...A little late, but here they are! A few things to keep in mind - a) some of these pictures are old and from when we were moving in, so the house is both more put together (pictures on walls etc.) and less clean, b) all Swiss apartments are pretty sterile looking so don't think we've lost all sense of decoration, it takes a while to get set up!
Above: Entryway
Above: The Kitchen
Above: Our bedroom, still no bed frame!
Above: Our living room back at Christmas...
Above: Andy putting up our huge world map in our dining room / guest room / office.
Above: View out our living room window...

Welcome to our blog...

We have finally decided to join the masses of our friends living over here that have set up blogs to keep everyone at home posted on all the excitement. So this is for those of you who wish we could call more to give details, those who are curious what we're up to living here, and for those who just want to live vicariously through our travels!

Happy reading!

Andy & Shannon
(Almost The Euroblocks)