Budapest for Christmas

The three of us took the overnight train to Budapest to meet-up with family for Christmas.  A middle(ish) ground between Western Europe and Russia. It was a really nice time!  We had a lot of fun catching-up despite inferior health (as it was going around...).

Our hotel was really nice, albeit a tad unfriendly and with a small menu.  Overall, I only got to see a bit of Budapest as Alex fell quite ill, leaving us to take turns spending the bulk of our days in our room (explaining my concern over the small menu...).  I wanted to go to the famous baths and even managed to buy a new suit to replace the one I forgot to bring (duh)... but alas, my bath will have to wait until my next visit to Hungary. (Any smelly jokes out there?)

From what I saw when I ventured out, there are some really beautiful places in Budapest.  Really beautiful. But most of it is crumbing, stagnated and holding so much promise.  If only there were some money.

The front of Hotel Boscolo, Budapest

In the café / restaurant of Hotel Boscolo, Budapest

Raclette

Yum! We made the investment!  We will be calling you for Raclette parties in 2013!! Fun, yum, yum!

Fasnacht - incoming!!

It's coming!!! Get your clique pin now before you get attacked by confetti bombs!!!

A carnival tradition held annually where different cliques (organized groups) wear certain coloured and patterned outfits and practice their parading music (a collection of popular tunes played off rhythms and out of tune) so than can woo you in the old neighbourhoods during the wee hours in Basel.

Many people flee the city for higher (quieter) ground.
We might flee this year as well. Here's a pic of a stand (in the Christmas market)selling fasnacht paraphernalia. Last year I blogged about the yummy greasy flakey dessert they sell at this time of year.

Artist's Angst

Alex likes to "DRAW"! We break out the markers, pen, pencil and paper on a daily basis (sometimes a few times a day).  On this particular day he was especially "inspired".

Entitled: "Airplane" graphite on standard density bleached paper

Entitled: "Sit Down" graphite on painted wood

Christmas Shopping

Yes, he's super organized. He's collecting all the wrapping materials he'll need.

At another location (IKEA) he decided to stock-up on puppies!! Can't have enough of those!!!

Christmas Lust

Okay, I meant Christmas "list"!!! Alex added a shiny red item to his list and was on excellent behaviour (for a while). Fast forward a couple of weeks and: what a rip-off, Santa still didn't bring it!!

Girls night out

I froze my butt (and legs) off trying to find the Turkish restaurant where we, the girls (sans kinder) were meeting for a nice pre-Christmas dinner. I chose an entirely bad outfit for a scavenger hunt during a cold snap. But I wanted to look nice... I'm such a girl!

Eventually I found the cozy place (and the girls) and together, we enjoyed our delicious dinner with good conversations.

I was too full for dessert, so I had some lovely tea.

So pretty!

Lovely tea after dinner at "Kelim"

Invasion?

No, it's not an alien invasion it's the custom around Christmas time to bake these sweet egg loaf people called "Grättimen". They are delicious and festive! They come in a number of assorted sizes, have raisin eyes and sometimes have accessories (pipe). There are males and females and I've even seen them made of pretzel bread!
Yummy yummy!

Winter Wonderland

We drove through Gempen today. We couldn't really see Basel because of the cloud cover, but it didn't matter. The scenery nearby was simply beautiful!!

A few quotes I like

Mark Twain:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sales. Explore. Dream. Discover."

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." 

"When in doubt, tell the truth."

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." "Man is the only animal that blushes -- or needs to."

"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." 

"Travel is lethal to prejudice."

"Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become."

Others:
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt." ~ Bertrand Russell

"You must be the change, you wish to see in this world." -Mahatma Gandhi

"One good thing about music, when it hit's... you feel no pain." ~ Bob Marley

"The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him." ~ Sun Tzu

"Too frequent rewards signify that the enemy is at the end of his resources; too many punishments betray a condition of dire distress." ~ The Art of War by Sun Tzu Chapter IX: The Army on the March

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." ~ Albert Einstein

"Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace." ~ Oscar Wilde

Unknown:
"There is no shortcut to any place worth going."

"Reality can be beaten with enough imagination."

"The Consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical actions."

"Dance like no one is watching
Sing like no one can hear you
Love like you have never been hurt
And live, like it is heaven on earth"

"If you lose your temper, you’ve lost the argument."

"You laugh at me because I am different, but I laugh at you because you are all the same."

Being Anders

AWESOME!!

"Not only better. Different."

Frankfurt Scenery

View of the "new" city from Sachsenhausen

Old City

Night Bridge

Alte Opern

The most adorable little boy looking into the Galleria Vitrine

There he is again, admiring a crystal cascade.

Protest in Frankfurt... um, yes, again.

Donut.

Hauptwache

My next spring dresses.

The Current, Basel Scene

What I found walking around Basel these past few days...

Awesome paper store in Basel (wanna go broke?)

Frank Gehry's local treat 

Nearby they're demolishing the old train station.

Some dudes over the Rhine ;)

Basel Herbstmesse - Autumn Fair

Yummy & warm!

The Church plays background to the Swings

The Ferris Wheel

Frank O.Gehry & Friends

Frank Gehry building (and others!!!) at the Novartis Campus, Basel

It felt like I was a miniature figurine walking in a model.

Ooooo!

Curvy!!
I've been told that hoarding is required around the perimeter of the building in winter because the ice shed can be dangerous!  Whoops! Did someone say design flaw? But I guess when you're this famous, it doesn't matter anymore...

Some tourists taking the unhappy loop-de-loop tour through the building.

Vase or 3 faces?

Love the colours! Love the human scale!

Tour guide and tourists.  I'll let you decide who's who.

Happy Scccarrrry Halloween!

Scary Hedgehog

This was the best I could do before his Kinderkrippe this morning.

Alex insisted on putting his new shoes on, so he was distracted.  

Then he refused to keep the hood on.  However, he liked it on me and kissed the nose. 

We'll try to get some more pics later.

Bats!!

At twilight we turned down the lights, opened the shutters fully and watched the aerobatics of our neighboring bats feasting.

Alex stood on the window ledge leaning on me and hands fully pressed against the window. There was lots of fast bat-spotting and counting:

"One little bat! WaHaHaHa!!! Two little bats!! WaHaHaHa!!!"

It was fun watching them swoosh around, up, down, to and fro.

Milestone?

Alex's crib is now a "big-boy-bed".



He still cries like a baby when in it though. Just ask his Dad who tortured him for 40 minutes trying to get Alex to sleep in it tonight. So we revert to the "falling asleep in Mom&Dad's bed and mysteriously waking up in big-boy-bed" routine from the first night.

Hopefully he'll transition back to his bed eventually. Cuz like this... romance=not happening.

Cute

I love these guys!!!

Totoro and Chibi

What is Cy talking about?

Frankfurt Visit

Last weekend we went to Frankfurt. We had a great time!
We were able to catch-up with good friends, enjoy some yummy food, smooth wine and comfortable conversations. On Saturday we did a bit of shopping and on Sunday we took in the beauty of the Palmengarten. Truth be told, we did more in Frankfurt this past weekend than on many of the weekends when we lived there!! Ahhh Frankfurt! I miss you!

Oh poop.

This week Alex started half-days in his new Kinderkrippe (daycare). We are now complete week 1 of an estimated 2 week integration period.

I had planned to make my first post something cute and sweet but yesterday (Thursday) I noticed a sign on the door that had apparently been there all week. Not so cute and maybe only bittersweet... If that. More like icing.

Yep... I missed it. I did some research. Hopefully we won't catch either.

Let the good times roll!

I'll post something fun another time. For now we are happy (and relatively healthy - just a new boogery nose for Alex) and both he and I are transitioning relatively well.