Pictures from Spain

So I think this should work, but I'm not sure. Let me know if it doesn't. Here are the links to my albums on Facebook from Barcelona and Madrid; copy and paste, and enjoy!

Barcelona: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2658842&id=7921292&l=26ac0eb8e9

Madrid: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2658874&id=7921292&l=d024d1f8c1

Madrid Day 3

Today was not a great day. Nothing majorly bad happened, so don't be concerned, but it was just full of mishaps and bad luck. I'm not going to write about it because I don't particularly want to focus on it or remember it later. Stuff happens.

Tomorrow is a new day. I get to see Mom and Dad in Paris, so yaaaaaayyyyy!!!

Madrid Days 1 & 2

Hola! Buenos Dias! Gracias!

That's all the Spanish I've learned in nearly a week in Spain...and everyone seems to say valle (sp?) a lot, which I think means 'okay'...

So anyway, I arrived in Madrid yesterday. The weather hasn't been as good as in Barcelona, but it's only actually rained for a couple of hours and (thank god for my acclimatization in Switzerland) I haven't found it that cold, even though the locals are bundled up like Christmas is next week. On day one, I had the afternoon to kill, so I made my way over to Paseo del Prado to the Museo del Prado--one of the largest exhibitions of Spanish, as well as European, art. Lots of Goya and Velasquez here. It was a lovely museum, but to be honest I quickly get tired of looking at picture after picture of Jesus at various points in his life, or the Virgin Mary, or, for a little variety, some saints I know nothing about. I think maybe if I knew more about it all--what the imagery means, how the styles evolved, I might enjoy it more. As it is, it all looks the same to me. So after that I headed over to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia--Madrid's modern art museum. I enjoyed this one a lot, though modern art does tend to be touch and go with me. Often it appears to me that it's people with no talent who have let their wild imaginings run away and called anything that pops into their head art. There was an exhibition involving recordings of everyday conversations coming from inside bottles of cleaning supplies. It was in Spanish, so the effect was really lost on me. Going back a few days, in Barcelona I went to a really great modern art museum--one of the first that I've really enjoyed and been drawn to a good portion of the works. It was mostly stuff done between the late 1940s and late 1970s, and the artists seemed to actually have well-developed artistic talent. That said, the Reina Sofia was really nice, and I want to go back because I wasn't able to see a big piece by Picasso that they have.

So that was it for yesterday. This morning, I got up and did a tour of all of the major attractions of Madrid. The Palacio Real was beautiful, as was the Catedral de la Almudena next to it--the cathedral had some really interesting stained glass windows, almost modernist, as if Picasso designed them. Then I moved on to the Plaza Mayor, and over to the Parque de El Retiro. The park was gorgeous; it's enormous, with tons of fountains and kind of lanes running through it with overgrown trees that make you feel like you're in a forest alone rather than a public park in the middle of a capital city. Oddly enough, there is also the only statue of Satan in a public space--it's beautifully done, and kind of sad. So I wandered through the park a bit--I was unimporessed by the 2 ¨palaces¨in it, which were more like small conservatories built for one of the past kings for when he wanted to wander through the park too. Then I moved on to the Puerta de Alcala--one of the historical gates to the city--and on to Plaza de Santa Ana, which is apparently where all of the people would hang out post-bullfight to discuss the days events. Earnest Hemingway also liked to get drunk there...awesome...

And thus ended my second day in Madrid. I'm going to go out shortly for some tapas and a drink, then maybe try to see a flamenco show tonight. Probably early to bed, though--all this adventuring is exhausting!

Barcelona Day 3 - Gaudi is a Genius

So I've had my final day in Barcelona, and in the morning I'm off to Madrid.

I started today with a trip up to Tibidabo--I took a bus, another bus, and the funicular up to the top of the mountain for a look at the church and amusement park. The church is really nice; kind of small and quant, with some really lovely stained glass windows. The view from up there would normally be great, but unfortunately it was cloudy this morning so I couldn't see much. Luckily, I saw plenty of panoramic views of the city from Montjuic yesterday, so I wasn't too disappointed. After the church, I checked out the little amusement park up there. I don't know why, but there were very few people there today, so the place was deserted and a little bit creepy--something about an empty amusement park makes my skin crawl. So, I caught the funicular back down and continued on my way.

At this point I gave up on public transport for basically the whole day, and I'm pretty sure I walked all of Barcelona. My feet really really hurt. I wandered around for probably an hour or more looking for Parc Guell--a development masterminded by the incomparable Gaudi and turned into a public park. My great sense of direction took me in a couple of circles, then, when I thought I was definitely going the wrong direction but walking forward anyway (looking for a bus stop) I found the street I was looking for. It had a sign pointing toward Parc Guell, so I followed along, but the signs stopped and I was lost again. Anyway, I wandered a while longer and eventually found the back entrance to the Parc. That was another mistake, as all of the paths leading to the monuments area--which is really the only thing anyone goes to Parc Guell for--were blocked off with fences. So I wandered about, following path after path that each invariably led to a locked gate and a sign saying ¨Monuments Gaudi¨that I could not follow, for probably another hour. I felt like I was in a nightmarish fun house designed to drive me slowly insane. Finally, I ran into a lovely Chillean girl who was in the same predicament (it wasn't just me going crazy, thank God), and together we found our way around to the front entrance and the desired monuments. Those were amazing. I cannot emphasize enough how incredible Gaudi's work is. A lot of the work there--benches and fountains and houses--were done in large part in mosaic tiles, which must have taken ages. But more than that, there's just a shape to Gaudi's work that I have never seen and whih is incredibly appealing. I'll put pictures up when I can; it's really fantastic.

So then the Chillean girl (her name escapes me now) and I walked over to the Sagrada Familia--a much further walk than I had anticipated, but again, totally worth it. And it was handy to have a Spanish speaker around to ask directions. The Sagrada Familia is now my favorite church in Europe. As I was explaining to a very nice Catalan guy in a park yesterday, all of the churches in Europe are done in pretty much the same style--big archways, stained glass windows, carvings of various saints in various numbers, Jesus on the cross, etc. They are beautiful and moving, but after seeing so many in so many cities over the last few years, they're a little boring. The Sagrada Familia follows the blueprint of these--the archways and windows and carvings--but Gaudi makes it so much more interesting with his modernist shapes. The carvings were much more emotional than the normal ones of dead saints--they depicted actual scenes from the Bible, with very human expressions of abject sadness and faith and determination. Most churches have a much more staid feeling to them; something about the Sagrada Familia is much more accessable. And again, the shapes that his buildings take are so abnormal but beautiful. You wonder what was going on in his mind to have been able to create these things. It's really been my favorite part of Spain so far.

Leaving there, I made one last trek accross the city for a final walk down La Rambla, then stopped for some fantastic Paella--whoever came up with that is a genius too--and made my way back to the hostel. Now it's time for bed, and more Spanish adventures tomorrow.

Barcelona Day 2

I feel like I've walked miles and miles and miles; my feet definitely hurt. BUT, it's worth it.

Yesterday (Day 2) started off with a wonderful little breakfast at a cafe just up the street from my hostel called Buenas Migas; I had a pastry of some kind--it had raisins, and oatmeal, and I think every drop of sugar in Spain. It was very rich, but absolutely delicious. Then I walked (a long, long way) over to Plaça de Espanya. It's a huge square with a fountain in the middle and the grand entrance to Montjuic--a big hill/mountain with the olympic stadium, several gardens, a few museums and an old castle. It would take too long to describe all of those here--I'll put up pictures in a couple of weeks when I get home--but suffice to say it was all very grand and impresive; and I got a nice hill workout. The views from the cable car up to the castle, looking out over all of Barcelona, were amazing.

The weather continued to be gorgeous, so after walking around Montjuic all day I returned to the hostel to change shoes (so different parts of my feet could get a chance to blister) and then walked all around the port and Batti Gottic. I was looking for some good guitar music, but there was none to be found, so I just kept walking. There was a choir doing some singing outside of the Catedral--oddly enough, they weren't doing much gospel; more show-tunes. Have you ever heard ¨Summer Lovin'¨in Spanish (possibly Catalan)? I have...So I strolled a little longer, back throught the Born district with all it's fabulous little shops that I very industriously resisted going into (you should appreciate that that is like an alcoholic walking down a street full of bars and resisting going in them, even when all the drinks are 50% off...). Then I strolled back to the metro (lazy, I know, but I just couldn't walk anymore) and went back to the hostel.

It looks from this post like I didn't do much, but really I did a lot--too much to write about in fact. You'll see pictures soon. Today, my final day in Barcelona, I'm going to figure out how to get up to Tibidabo for some more great views of the city, then finish everything off by exploring Gaudi at Guell Park and the Sagrada Familia. I leave in the morning for Madrid!

Barcelona Day 1

I finally arrived in Barcelona!!! After having a lovely Easter Brunch in Geneva with some friends, I hopped on a bus, train, then plane headed west to Spain. The traveling was pretty easy, except for teh 18kg extra bag I'm carting around to give to Mom and Dad when I see them next week so they can take it home for me--my hope is that for once when I come home permanently (in July) I won´t have to pay for excess baggage weight. So yeah, my arms are pretty sore from lugging that around the city getting to my hostel, but I'll live. The hostel is nice, as hostels go. It's in what appears to be a very safe area in this great big old building with a winding marble staircase a really old (safe? maybe) elevator running up the middle. It's surrounded by a street of designer shops, which makes me feel safer--Chanel wouldn't set up in a bad part of town, right? The only bad part of the hostel is that somehow my sheets have disappeared. I left them on my bed yesterday, and when I returned in the evening they were gone...I'm still waiting to ask the maid. I mean, who steals sheets???

So anyway, I started my first full day here with an aimless walk down Pasieg de Gracia toward Plaça de Catalunya--a lovely little park at the head of La Rambla, which is the most famous street in Barcelona. The weather was gorgeous all day long for my strolling. So then I wandered down La Rambla with all the other tourists. It's a beautiful tree-lined street with restaurants and street entertainers all along the way. There were some of the most elaborate "statue people" I have ever seen--you know, those people who paint themselves a metalic color and stand really still until they pop out and scare someone? There were some truely amazing ones on La Rambla. As it was Easter Monday, a lot of the shops and such were closed, which helped keep me from shopping. However, I did lose an obscene amount of money at one of the only open Change offices. I had been unable to exchange money in Geneva before leaving because Alice didn't pay me until Friday night, and (again, Easter weekend) everything was closed in Geneva all weekend. So, I needed to exchange money--a lot of it, mostly for use on this 2 weeks of traveling and some to send home with M&D to put in my bank account. Anyway, the sign said ¨no commision¨ which is great. So this is how it went:

Me: I need to change this to Euros.
Guy: Okay.
Me: No commission, right?
Guy: Si, no commision.

I hand over the money, he does his thing, I sign the receipt, he hands me the Euros and my copy of the receipt, and I walk out as I look things over. Then I stop abruptly when I see on the receipt ¨Service Fee: 358Euros¨WHAT?? The ¨No Commision¨place charged me a 358Euro (more than $400) fee to change my money! So I went back in to demand an explanation,

The guy explained: ¨there is no commission when we are buying Euros; when we sell them it's an 18% commission¨
Me: but you said there was no commission when I asked, and obviouly I was buying Euros, not selling them. You lied!

The guy looks confused, his manager comes over, I explain. The manager says there is nothing he can do. I yell a little--money is really tight right now, I can't afford to just let this go. Yelling doesn't work, so I cry a litte (I know it's girly and wrong, but they were real tears of frustration) and he finally relents and gives me back 1/2 of the commission they took--179 Euro, which means it still cost me 179Euro to change the money, but there was no way I was going to get it all back.

So that really really sucked, and I'm still mad about it, and it ruined my day for a little bit, but then I reminded myself that I'm in Barcelona and I can't change what happened and I should just have a good time. So I did (until my sheets were stolen--bad luck that day--but I got over that too).

So, I continued down La Rambla toward the Monument to Christopher Columbus, then walked along Port Vell. The boardwalk along the port is a great place to just stroll--it's somewhere I would go running if I lived here. There are people just sunning themselves, and ice-cream vendors and restaurants (I had a burrito, it was awesome), and the guys sellling illegal handbag and sunglasses knock-offs who have to pack up in 2 seconds everytime the police drive by. It's lots of fun. So I followed the port until I broke off to head toward Santa Maria del Mar--a gorgeous church. It was closed--doesn't that seem like the one place that should be open on Easter Monday? Apparently not. I'm told I have to go back so that I can go inside. From there I walked over to the Catedral in the Barri Gotic district--the Old Town of Barcelona. It has wonderful narrow streets and cobblestones, and in several places there are men sitting outside playing the Spanish guitar. The Catedral was gorgeous, and I was able to go on the rooftop for an amazing view of the city. My favorite part was the Cloister--a wonderfully cool and quite garden with a beautiful and simple fountain, and the afternoon sun was just perfect, and I could faintly hear a street guitarist playing. That was a perfect moment. After leaving there, I watched the street musician play for a bit, and bought one of his CDs as my Barcelona souvenire.

I wandered the old town a bit more, then headed over to the Arc de Triomf--nice, but couldn´t really compare to the Arc de Triomph in Paris. It's courtyard, though, leads to the Parc de la Ciutadella, which is the perfect place to hang out on a perfect afternoon. There were tons of people just laying out, reading, listening to or playing music, playing a bit of soccer, etc. It looked like the city's entire youth population was on the lawns of this park. So I sat for a while, listened to my iPod, and thought of afternoons just like that at Barton Springs in Austin. Then I got up, made my way back to the Port for an ice cream, and wandered my way back to the hostel along La Rambla and Passieg de Gracia.

It was a good first day, other than the couple of mishaps. Today, I think I'm going to head up to Montjuic and Tibidabo--both are supposed to have some great views of the city from hilltops. I'll let y'all know how it goes...

La Fete du Chocolat! and other things lately

So I had a fabulous weekend last weekend. I ate more than should be humanly possible--really good food, too--and, more importantly, had some great company.

Friday night was Sarah's going away dinner at Gabriel's apartment. She has finished her internship at the hospital here and is moving on to an internship in Lucern before returning home to Berlin in a few months, presumably to be a real adult and (more daunting, and terribly adult) to be a real doctor. We had 2 really lovely lasagnas--one beef, one vegetable--plus tiramisu and strawberries with whipped cream, along with several glasses of wine throughout the night. It was one of the best dinner parties we've had, with all the people mixing well and making great conversation. Liz's hilarious cousin Phil was visiting from Italy; he was a great dinner companion. Afterward, Liz, Phil and I went to a very secret underground bar in Geneva--no name on the door, no indication whatsoever that there is something fun going on upstairs. Liz knew of it from others, which is apparently the only way to find it. As luck would have it, it was "German Night", which, obviously, meant lots of drunk guys in lederhosen and polka music banging from the speakers into the one-room "bar". It was great fun, and I finally felt as though I was finding Geneva's (very hidden and under-developed) sub-culture.

Saturday afternoon I dragged myself out of bed for the one thing that could get me out of bed: a chocolate festival. It was in Versoix, celebrating the chocolate makers there in in the surrounding villages. Liz, Phil and I basically went for the free samples. I'm pretty sure I ate at least a pound of chocolate in about 20 minutes, and felt subsequently ill until I had a basket of fries to counteract the sweetness. Healthy day, right? The festival was great fun though, and life doesn't get any better than free Swiss chocolate.

(I apologize for the shoddy camera work--they were taken with my phone)

Saturday night, my recently-made friend Kunal invited me to a dinner party a friend was throwing in Carouge--a very young and trendy part of Geneva, containing one of my favorite jazz bar/clubs, the Chat Noir. Kunal is a pastry chef here--I know, and Indian pastry chef seems a little ridiculous, right? But he's fabulous. It's a good thing I'm reasonably sociable, because when I arrived he was still cooking so he just introduced me to everyone and scurried back to the kitchen, leaving me with a room of 4 strangers. They were all very interesting and nice. One is an environmental lawyer here who gave me some great tips on working in international law. It was a very adult dinner party, which I found so enjoyable because I so often feel like a teenager doing a summer babysitting job. And the food was fabulous--the chocolate cake with strawberry cream finish was particularly amazing.

Sunday morning the eating recommenced with a big American brunch back at Gab's apartment. I made buttermilk blueberry muffins that were, if I do say so myself, fabulous. Actually, it was quite an international brunch, more-so than American. Liz made crepes, Florian made pain perdu (which is what the French call french toast--it's made with baguette instead of slices of toast), and Phil made up what we are now calling the Buffalo Special (potatoes, onion, courgette, l'herbes de Provence--it's fabulous). 

After all of the eating, I basically slipped into a food coma for the remainder of the weekend and commenced work on Monday a little heavier in the waist but lighter in the heart (I am apparently in a poetic mood right now). 

The week has been nothing overly interesting. Leo has been particularly badly behaved when Alice is around--I think he's still punishing her for going out of town 2 weeks ago, and he's just getting older. It's Friday now, which I'm pretty excited about. Particularly because I'm heading toward a 4-day weekend--I leave for Prague Sunday morning (6am flight!! making Daddy proud) to meet Lauren and Erik there. Then I'll work Wednesday through Friday when the family leaves for Australia for 2 weeks and I head off to Spain, Paris and Rome. Life's rough this month...

Isn't my baby boy adorable??

Guess Who's Pregnant!?

No, it's not me--you can start breathing again Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, etc. concerned family and friends. It's Alice! The mother that I work for. She told me yesterday that she is expecting baby #2 in September. As I'm leaving in July, I will not be around for the joyous birth--thank goodness, since I don't get paid nearly enough to put up with that :) We are all quite excited though; except Leo, who has no idea what we're talking about. His world will be rocked soon enough when he starts to wonder why Mum is getting fat. 

I have to say, even though I'm unsure whether or not I'll ever do it myself, the idea of growing a person inside of another person is so fascinating and ridiculous! I mean, there's going to be a live, moving around, one-day-will-be-an-adult-like-you-and-(sort of)-me, person in there! It's crazy! Is it a little wrong that all I can really picture when I think of this is that scene from the movie Space Balls (spoofing the movie Alien I think) when the slimy dragon-looking alien bursts out of the guys stomach in the diner and then does a song and dance number on the counter? That was awesome, but probably not the birth plan Alice is going for...

I suppose now I have to cut her some slack for being tired all the time. I had been resenting her complaints of exhaustion following a day spent at the spa or something equally 'stressful' while I raised her kid all day...I guess the stress of cooking up a baby is a pretty good excuse...

Beautiful Budapest!

Hello!

So, I finally have something interesting to write about: my weekend in Budapest!!

It was absolutely fabulous. Such a gorgeous city; the architecture throughout was just amazing. It really reminded me of an upper-class residential area of Paris or London--very orderly, well-maintained historical buildings (most of them probably hundreds of years old--from back when Budapest was a cultural and political capital of Europe). I have to say, my expectations were pretty low. My mental image of an Eastern-European, former Soviet state city was of slum-like, utilitarian buildings with little charm or warmth. It was really the exact opposite; I stand corrected.

We started our trip by setting out on foot to see some of the major sights. St. Stephen's Basilica was truly amazing--very grand and imposing, with some great detail in the stone work. One of the best basilicas I've seen :) It's in this big open square that I imagine bustles with tourists in the warmer months. As it's still winter (which I'm not a fan of, by the way), we had nearly all of the places we visited to ourselves. 

St. Stephen's Basilica:

The Basilica at night:

Next we walked toward the Chain Bridge, which spans the Danube River and connects Buda and Pest. We stayed on the Pest side, which I think is a bit more cultured and trendy, while the Buda side is more residential. The bridge is pretty fabulous, and it leads to right underneath Buda Castle. It makes quite a picture.

After crossing the bridge, we stopped into a lovely little bar to warm up a bit. I couldn't believe the prices for things!! A glass of wine was 2 Euros! I was so excited! Granted, I live in one of the most expensive cities in the world (point of reference: I paid 16CHF--about $20--for a gin and tonic in Geneva a couple weekends ago), so my perspective is skewed in the opposite direction, but it was just so nice to be traveling somewhere that wasn't going to bankrupt me in a day. Anyway, after warming up, it was getting dark so we headed up to Fisherman's Bastion, which offers some of the best views in the city. Amazing. Amazing Amazing AMAZING. From this higher vantage point on the Buda side, you can see across the Danube to all of the sites in Pest, which are beautifully lit up at night. The Chain Bridge is entirely illuminated, as is Parliament and St. Stephen's Basilica. We stood up there for probably an hour just staring at it and taking picture after picture because we couldn't believe how gorgeous is was. That was truly one of my favorite things that I have seen in Europe, and I will never forget it (especially since, between the 3 of us, I think I have about 60 pictures of it). 

The Chain Bridge and St. Stephen's Basilica from Fisherman's Bastion:

Isa, Lauren, and the Chain Bridge:

So we got a little cheesy. This one looks like I took senior-year pictures in front of a Budapest screen :) :

When we finally dragged ourselves from that view, we found a great restaurant nearby. I had a fantastic soup and salad, and then had the best chocolate ganache that has every been created. It was so perfectly warm and moist and chocolatey. Mmmmmmmm, I go into a dessert coma just thinking about it. For anyone in Austin--it was even better that Roy's chocolate souffle. Yeah, that's right--better than that. I could go on and on, but I won't. After that we made our way back across the bridge (taking more pictures along the way, obviously), and back to our hostel to sleep.

The next day, being typical 20-something girls, we went shopping. We had to see what shopping is like in Hungary, right?? It's a very important part of any culture. There was a big, proper mall near our hostel, which I was pretty excited about since there's noting like an American mall in Switzerland or France, or really most of Europe. After exhausting that, we swung by the Hungarian Parliament--a big, imposing, several hundred year-old building that really showcases the grandeur that "governments" of the past insisted upon as a reminder to everyone of their power and wealth.

Parliament:

After Parliament, we trekked back to the Buda side, had some lunch at a pizza place after walking forever to find somewhere to eat, then walked some more in search of the Hungarian Wine Society, who's website says they have free wine tastings on Saturdays. We were pretty excited about free wine (refer again to how ridiculously expensive drinks are in Geneva). Well, the website is a liar. They don't do the wine tastings anymore. We were disappointed, but continued our day nonetheless. At this point we popped over to Castle Hill, which is littered with various monuments and (surprise!) Buda Castle. The day was a bit overcast, but it was all beautiful anyway. At one monument, there was a man hanging around with an eagle, apparently available for picture-taking. We all know that vanity is the downfall of every eagle...what narcissists. Actually, is was pretty intimidating to be so close to one--they are huge, and very powerful-looking...and they look a little bit mean.  Anyway, pictures are worth a thousand words, so I won't explain the sights of Castle Hill:

Buda Castle:

Gate to Buda Castle:

Church on Castle Hill:

All that rounded out our second day. We went back to the hostel, exhausted and elated. The partying Germans in the room next to ours were a bit of a nuisance that night--though they were nice enough to invite us along in their drinking holiday--but we managed to find sleep eventually. The next morning, we didn't have much of a plan other than hitting the famous, and apparently ancient, medicinal thermal baths. We walked to City Park, through Heroes Square (amazing, imposing, as everything else), with a stop at Vajdahunyad Castle. I was so so so excited when I saw that there was an ice-skating rink set up next to the castle! I haven't ice skated in years, and only once or twice in my life, so this was not an opportunity I wanted to miss. Lauren and Isa went to the zoo, which I was fine with skipping--a giraffe is a giraffe, whether in the US or Hungary or Hong Kong. I went and rented skates for an hour, and it was warm enough to take off my jacket. I got to ice-skate outside of a Hungarian Castle! How awesome is that? I really enjoyed it; it was such pure, unadulterated fun.

Heroes' Square

Ice rink in front of Vajdahunyad Castle:

After meeting up with Isa and Lauren again, we had some lunch--I had a Langos, a local dish that is slightly sweet dough, about 9 inches in diameter, with sour cream, cheese and ham on top. Clearly, Hungarians aren't really health nuts. Side note--it was nice to be in a country where, unlike France and Switzerland, everyone wasn't stick-thin and intimidatingly waif-ish. Anyway, I was a little ill after scarfing the Langos, but I soldiered on to the baths for my first encounter with a bathing suit since summer-time. Thank goodness I'm not trying to pick up Hungarian men, so I didn't really have to care how I looked, especially after the Logos deliciousness. The baths--one of many throughout the city--were very grand and ornately decorated. Apparently in the summer, the outdoor ones are open and old men sit in the baths and play chess on stone boards in the water. As it is still winter, just the 9 indoor baths were open. Each is labeled with it's temperature, and whether or not it's medicinal. The 20 degree (celcius) one was freezing, the 38 degree was quite hot, so it was nice to visit for short periods, and the 34 degree one was just right. It was so nice to sit in the warm water, without a care, after non-stop walking for 2 days. My knees and ankles were very grateful for the R&R, and I personally never tire of looking at, or become less amazed by, the huge variety (including the just plain huge) of men in speedos in any European water-setting. We sat in various baths, and took some time in the steam room, for about 4 hours. It was glorious.

The Baths:

Finally, our time at an end, we headed back to the hostel to get our bags and catch the train to the airport. That's when the adventurous extra night in Budapest began:

For the first time ever I missed a flight. It started when we took the train from downtown Pest to the airport; the train was more like what I had imagined before going to Budapest--old and rickety, a holdover from the Soviet era probably. Anyway, they didn't do nice things like announce stops or even have a map posted so that we knew how many stops until the airport. So, we were watching closely out the window to see the signs at each stop so we could get ours. Well, the train slows down and we see that it's our stop, so we grab our bags and head to the door. In the 15 seconds it took us to do that, the train stopped and then started again. Literally, it could not have stopped for more than 10 or 15 seconds--it was ridiculous!!! How can anyone get off in that amount of time?? If I knew what was going to happen from then, I would have jumped off of the moving train (yes, the doors remained open as the train started--safe, right?) So Isa and Lauren start freaking out, but I'm trying to stay calm and explain that we'll just get off at the next stop and backtrack. We left plenty of time, we still had nearly 2 hours until departure. Then the guy comes by to check tickets, we ask when the next stop is, and he says it's 30 MINUTES on. Then I freaked out. We only had an hour and a half until our train left at this point! We were still hopeful that we could make it, though, if we rushed through check in and security. So we finally get to the next stop, go ask information when and where the next train that stops at the airport is, and the uninterested attendant writes down the time and platform. So, we get on that train. Again, ticket guy comes by, we ask how long to the airport, and he says "this train doesn't stop at the airport, you'll have to change trains at the next station and go back". I wanted to cry. Seriously??? We were having some really bad luck. At this point I became very calm, because now we definitely weren't going to make it. So, after another 30 minute useless ride, we change trains again, and then finally get to the airport. Of course all of the ticket counters are closed by then, but the woman at information is able to tell us that Easyjet's next flight to Geneva isn't until Tuesday afternoon. Great, except that we all need to work the next day, not hang out in Budapest some more. But, lucky us, there was a flight out in the morning on some Hungarian airline. To book that flight, we needed to go to the other airport terminal, which was...wait for it...6 KM AWAY. Who builds airport terminals 6km apart?? I started laughing hysterically at this continued ridiculousness, and the woman helping us probably thought I was crazy. So we took a cab to the other terminal, spoke to a representative of Malva Airlines, and finally booked a ticket home for 7am the next morning--for about $350, which is about 5 times the amount the original ticket, round-trip, cost me when I booked on Easyjet 4 months ago. Awesome; because I'm definitely made of money right now. So, determined to make the best of it, we sat down at the 24-hour airport cafe, bought a couple of beers and slices of cake (calories? who cares when you're spending the night in a Hungarian airport?) and we got a little drunk and fat before going to sleep on some benches. I finally got home at 10:30am the next day; and, thankfully, Alice was nice enough to let me sleep until Leo was up from his nap at 3. 

I'm still exhausted, but at least I had an adventure, right?

There's horse meat in my fridge...

So I don't really have anything interesting to report in the last couple of weeks because I've kind of been working non-stop. I had Leo all weekend because Alice and Dan went to visit a friend up at her 10-bedroom chalet in the Alps...life is rough for them, right? Leo was well-behaved and adorable, but I'm still exhausted today--my 12th straight day of work with a small child. I'm really looking forward to this weekend--2 whole days off!! That's before I kick into another 14 days straight of work because Alice and Dan are going to Berlin for Valentine's weekend. The fun never stops.

So, since I've nothing terribly interesting to report, here are a couple of things I've thought of lately:

--There are slices of horse meat in a package in the fridge. It's read, and kind of jelly-looking. I'm slightly disturbed, even though in truth I don't have a problem with the concept of eating horse meat--I can't come up with any reasons that it's different than eating beef, chicken, etc. Still, I don't intend to try it.

--Leo giggles when he sneezes. It's really cute.

--I've adjusted to the cold--I was super excited that it hit 45 degrees yesterday.

--I've only been peed on once this week. Score!

--Leo yells "Goal!!" anytime he sees a ball. It's one of the 3 words he can say. I love it.

--I'm thinking of taking a big trip through Eastern Europe in April when I have some time off--Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia...we'll see what I can figure out. I think it would be tons of fun, now that I've seen most of the highlights in Western Europe. 

--French is going well--I practice a bit with our housekeeper, so at least I'm able to use it occasionally. 

That's all I can really think of for the moment. Like I said, nothing terribly interesting. I'm hoping to go skiing this Sunday, so pray for me not to break anything :)

Bye!

Amsterdam Weekend

Goedendag!!! 

That's "hello" in Dutch; which is the language spoken in the Netherlands, which is where Amsterdam is. My friend, Isa, who accompanied me to Amsterdam last weekend was unaware of this fact, so I just wanted to give everyone a little geography lesson for the day :)

Amsterdam was lots of fun!!! The weather was pretty awful--it was below freezing most of the time, and it rained every afternoon. But, we persevered. After having gotten up to go to the airport at 4:30am for our 6:30 flight, we arrived in Amsterdam by 10:30--gotta love European proximity. We all wanted to take a nap, but instead we took a free walking tour. Another great thing about major European cities--these days a lot of them have "free tours," where you just tip at the end based on how good you thought it was. We took a free bike tour through Munich last October that was great. I tend to be a big tipper, so I'm not sure I actually save any money, but it feels like I did. It started raining about a quarter into the tour, but by then we 3 girls were too attached to the very attractive Australian tour guide to let something like that deter us. He was adorable, and once he gave me his jacket to layer over mine it really wasn't that cold. So we had a quick run-through of Amsterdam's history, which is quite varied and very interesting. They were in the middle of all of the religious faction fighting of the middle ages, and were a big part of the Renaissance Era; both of which I'm interested in, so I had fun. I particularly enjoyed seeing several of the "hidden churches" in the city--these are generally Catholic churches, which had to be incognito when anything but Calvinism was outlawed for a while. In classic Dutch style, the government was totally aware of these hidden churches, they charged the churches a tax to exist, and if any well-meaning citizens reported an illegal Catholic church to the authorities the police would go by to check, say "I see no church here" (even if you could hear some 500 worshippers inside singing hymns), and move on. Dutch tolerance, pragmatism, and their love of money, has a long history. They apply this same mind-set to some of those things Amsterdam is famous for these days... ;)

So after we dried off and warmed up following the walking tour, we went to the Anne Frank house. This is where Anne Frank and her family hid for 2 years when the Nazi's occupied the Netherlands. It was depressing, but it felt like one of those things you should go see if given the chance. Mostly I was struck by the humanity of it all. They still have the magazine pictures posted on the wall by Anne in her bedroom, and it's all so classically adolescent--a mix of movie stars, musicians, fashion articles. It makes it so evident that she was just any average 13 year old, which makes the things she went through that much more striking and real. I won't harp on it, but it was all very moving.

That first night, we had some dinner and then went to a coffee house, where we played checkers all night and giggled like adolescent girls ourselves. The next day, we slept in (which was glorious), and then eventually ran through the rain to go to the Rijksmuseum. They have a lot of Rembrandt's pieces, and those of his contemporaries. Seeing his most famous works is really breathtaking, particularly when you can compare his work to his contemporaries who were equally famous at the time--it's no wonder that it's his name that has lasted through time. The talent is awe-inspiring, because it seems like the differences between his work and others is so subtle that it's almost imperceptible, but you can feel the difference when you look at his work. I won't go all artsy on you (mostly because I don't actually have the knowledge to know what I'm talking about), but I really enjoyed it. After that, we ran over to the Van Gogh museum (who knew he was Dutch??). I've been in love with Van Gogh for years, so I won't waste your time gushing about him; I'll just say it was nearly too much to take in, being able to see so much of his work in one place. I got in trouble a couple of times for taking pictures, but it was worth it. Surprisingly enough, these museums took up nearly the entire day, and we were exhausted from all the activity. So, we had dinner near the hostel and went to bed.

On our final day, we really didn't have anything planned. And, surprise surprise, it was raining again, which doesn't really inspire a lot of energy. So, we went shopping. What else were we supposed to do that would keep us indoors!? In the middle of the day, we did decide to be cultural again, so we spent the afternoon at the Dutch History Museum. But then we shopped a little more on our way walking back to the hostel. I bought a pair of really adorable shoes, though I won't be able to wear them until summer. Amsterdam has absolutely fabulous shopping, and it's only because I'm rather poor at the moment that I came home with only a new pair of shoes...okay, and a shirt, but both were on sale for a really good price! 

So, having had  delightful, cold, wet, exhausting weekend, we took the tram and the train back to the airport, and headed back to Geneva. Just for a little change of pace, when we arrived in Geneva is was cold and pouring rain. Since we had parked my car in a lot about half a mile away (because it's much much cheaper), I ran through the rain to get it while Sharron and Isa waited at the arrivals gate. I drove both of them home, got a little lost trying to get home myself, and finally settled into bed. I've been recovering all week...

Unfortunately, I can't post pictures from all this fun for the moment because I need to go get a card-reader for my camera. I intend to do that this weekend, so I'll post pictures as soon as I can. 

I miss everyone!!!

Hong Kong, Home, and back Here (Geneva)

Wow! So much has gone on in the last 8 weeks!! So much that I didn't even have time to write at all...okay, so I was a little bit lazy. I'll try to make up for it now.

So Chris and my trip through Southeast Asia was incredible. Of those of you who read this, I think I've sees all of you and probably told you about it by now, so I won't reiterate here--it's just too much to even recount. Though I will say that I feel like I came away with a much better understanding of some of the realities in the world. For all that I've travelled, I didn't really realize until this trip how amazingly huge the world is, how many people there are, and how varied the modes of living. I don't mean to be depressing, because this trip was absolutely not depressing, but I have never seen such poverty, and I doubt few people in Western society ever have either. American "poverty" is Beverly Hills compared to how some of these people live. But one of the things that was truly striking was that many of the people seemed incredibly happy, easy-going, and really contented. I am aware that that is largely because they haven't ever known any difference. And I don't mean to say that because they are happy we shouldn't try to help them rise up to a better standard of living--we absolutely should do as much as we can. But it really puts my own ideals about money and happiness to the test, not to mention putting into stark terms how truly and amazingly lucky I am just to have been born where I was. Anyway, enough of that.

After getting back from the trip, I had 2 more weeks in HK before heading home. The weather was gorgeous for those weeks, which was great. I didn't really do anything spectacular before I left; just went back to my favorite spots: Stanley Beach Market, Wan Chai for live music (gotta love Chinese bands covering American 80s power ballads--seriously, they were awesome and I loved it), Lan Kwai Fong for bar hopping, SoHo for shopping, Southbay beach and Repulse Bay Beach. I discovered a great sea-view promenade for running on that had some spectacular views. Basically, I really loved Hong Kong, and I miss it already. I would go back to live there in a second, and if you ever get the chance to go, jump on it. 

Finally, though, I returned to Austin. I love Austin. It's really my favorite place in the whole world. My family is fabulous, I can't get enough of my friends, and the city itself just makes me feel like me again. We had a great Christmas party, with some hilarious reindeer games, and the whole night ended in beer pong on the kitchen table. I think the consensus amongst my friends is that my parents throw the best parties ever, and I have to agree. We met Josh's...Christi ("girlfriend"? I don't really know what her title is)--she's fabulous, but I won't go on about that. It was really nice to get to hang out with the family in Georgia for a few days over Christmas. New Years was a ton of fun; Chris threw a fabulous party at his condo downtown, including plenty of Champaign and some truly amazing views of the downtown fireworks. I think it was the perfect New Years--I spent the night with the friends I love the most (except Amanda--grrrrrrrrr--and my family, but I can only do so much!!); can you ask for anything more? I spent the rest of the time in Austin eating everything in sight, enjoying the great weather (for most of the time), and being late to everything because I was always having too much fun doing whatever I was doing before (does that make sense?). I miss it already...

The flight to Geneva was really not bad at all. I guess I'm just getting used to the long-haul flights, because when I hear "our flight time today will be just over 7 hours" I think 'sweet, that's quick'. I was delayed into Chicago, so I literally ran through the airport to make my connecting flight to Switzerland--that was okay, I needed the exercise anyway. Unfortunately, no one ran my bags from one plane to another (I figured as much at the time), so they did not make it to Switzerland with me. No big deal; I picked them up last night. 

I'm settling in to the new house and job. I like the house a lot--very open and airy, decorated in a very modern, minimalist way. One of my favorite features: there's a faucet on the sink that automatically dispenses boiling water for tea or for cooking. It excites me a great deal. Leo is a really cute little boy. He's very well behaved, and (you'll only understand the impact of this if you've raised kids) he's a good sleeper and eater, so that's awesome. I know it's only been a couple of days, so it could all change, but I'm riding on hope that it doesn't. Alice is super nice. She's very organized and clear (former corporate lawyer), which I really love. She's out of the house most of the time, which I prefer, rather than having her around where I feel like I'm being watched all the time. So far, she and I have had some great conversations--I think we're very similar in a lot of ways, surprise surprise. I haven't met Dan yet; he travels most of the time, so won't be around much except for the weekends. Basically, it's all good so far. 

I'm going to Amsterdam this weekend; I promise not to take 8 weeks to write about it :)