Buda & Pest

View over the Chain Bridge to the Buda Castle

Second stop on our trip... Budapest. And the first lesson I learned while researching our trip, Budapest used to actually be two separate cities, Buda and Pest (there was actually a third city that was incorporated into the city as well but for some reason it's name didn't make the cut). I'm sure I must have learned about this back in my European history classes right? But then again as Steve and I have discovered sadly enough we sure don't remember much from our history classes. However, I'm also quite sure that most of my European history included very little information on eastern Europe. Maybe I'll take an interest to learn more when Emma gets to high school and starts learning these things,...

Having fun on the one rainy day of our trip

A four hour train ride down the Danube from the Wachau Valley and we found ourselves arriving late in the evening in Hungary. Although the train ride went pretty well, let's just say our arrival promptly at Emma's bedtime was less than ideal. Arrivals in new cities are always bound to be stressful - finding your way, exchanging money as needed, buying tickets for public transit, etc., all while typically being in one of the shadier areas of the city (train stations and airports tend to be hubs for petty crime in Europe), but add a crying 3 month old to your list of things and it makes for a stressful arrival to say the least. Always trying to be savvy travelers we very rarely ever take a taxi, and as inviting as it looked upon exiting the train station in Budapest we knew that now it likely wasn't even an option as we didn't have a car seat for Emma (although I don't think that would stop a lot of taxi drivers from taking our money).

Anyways we got ourselves straightened out and headed to the very old subway, which we quickly discovered lacked elevators and in some places didn't even have escalators. Although Steve had to do a lot of heavy lifting, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the Hungarians were much friendlier than we anticipated and offered to help in several occasions when they saw us with a stroller and big suitcase. We had not anticipated this after visits to other eastern European cities (Prague and Istanbul) had led us to expect a quieter more reserved culture. Emma's first subway ride was a success as it lulled her to sleep and we made our way to our hotel, which was in the center of the city in a trendy neighborhood of restaurants and shopping.

Looking over the city from St. Stephen's Basilica

With a good night's sleep we headed out to explore the city and the first stop was St. Stephen's Basilica. Although beautiful inside, one of the reasons it is a popular tourist attraction is that it is one of the tallest buildings in Budapest. The other reason, is that it houses the right hand of Stephen, who was the first king of Hungary. I'm still trying to figure out why it has only his right hand...

The rest of the morning and afternoon were spent meandering to the opera house, Heroes Square (the name says it all), the city park which is home to a small castle, and then walking along the riverfront for views of some of the more famous sites which we would visit the second day. With rain setting in we decided to finish off the day indoors at the Great Market Hall, which is a huge indoor market that sells everything from fresh produce and meat to tourist souvenirs and everything in between. Although busy for a Tuesday afternoon, it was nothing close to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and was much more laid back with only limited amounts of haggling to be done over prices.

Heroes Square

Cool gate and fortress walls of the castle in the city park

The second day we were excited to be spending the morning touring the Hungarian Parliament Building as Steve had done a great job securing what can be difficult to obtain tour tickets. The Parliament is an exquisitely designed Gothic building. We knew we would have limited access due to some sessions still being in order and another large event going on in the building but we were happy just to get a quick glimpse of the lavish inside. The central hall's domed ceiling was one of my favorite areas.

View of the Parliament Building from the "Buda" side of the Danube

Ceiling of the dome

Guarding the crown jewels, do you think these guys ever get bored?

From there we headed out to finally cross over the Danube to what was formerly the "Buda" side of the two cities. Up until then we had been only on the east bank, which was formerly "Pest." Crossing over the beautiful Chain Bridge by foot we then headed up to the Buda Castle, also known as the royal palace to take in some amazing views of the city. A short walk further led us to Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion, which also offered up some fascinating architecture, design, and views. After seeing so much intriguing architecture and enjoying the gorgeous weather, we felt content to call it a day as far as sight-seeing goes and just spend the rest of the afternoon and evening soaking in the atmosphere of a city much more vibrant and full of rich history than we had expected.

Crossing the Chain Bridge

Matthias Church

Fisherman's Bastion

We wanted to make sure we had ample time that last afternoon and evening to enjoy and sample a little more of the Hungarian cuisine. To say the least for the two and a half days we were in Budapest we were all over the board with the food we ate. We caved and ate some American food, Subway, as a good sub sandwich may be one of the most simple but most missed foods from back home for both of us. We also ate Indian food once out of convenience. But once we ate authentic Hungarian food I think we both wished we would have made an attempt to eat more of it. From goulash, to Hungarian BBQ, and stuffed peppers it was all very good. However, what I perhaps enjoyed the most was finding out that they serve real lemonade in Hungary (or at least one restaurant does) and real cheesecake. Both of these favorites of mine have been hard to come by since moving here... oh, the little things. So with full stomachs and memories of a fascinating city we got ready to head onto Vienna the next day.

View over the city from Fisherman's Bastion

In the distance Matthias Church & Fisherman's Bastion

Family photo from the Buda Castle

Stunning views from the Buda Castle of the Chain Bridge and St. Stephen's Basilica

The Danube isn't really blue... The Wachau Valley

In case you were wondering, no the Danube isn't really blue like the title of the famous song. Not that we really expected it to be a distinct blue, but you never know as there are other rivers that run through both Switzerland and Austria that are a distinct shade of green. However, on our first stop on our trip along the Danube, the Wachau Valley, we did at least discover that the Danube is not the muddy brown of the Mississippi either...
 

Durnstein from the water

The Wachau Valley is located just west of Vienna and is made up of several small villages along what is said to be one of the most beautiful stretches of the river. We chose our base for two nights to be the sleepy village of Melk. Although it may be a relatively quiet small town, it is also famous for one of the world's largest monasteries, the Melk Abbey (also called the Stift Melk). We arrived in Melk in the early evening our first day after an eight hour train ride from Zurich and after eating dinner in the shadows of the Melk we called it an early night as we had a full day planned ahead of us.

Our one full day in the valley started by taking a boat cruise downstream to the most famous village of the region, Durnstein. On the boat ride we saw why the region is also well known for the wine it produces as we passed vineyard after vineyard on the bluffs surrounding the river. After about an hours ride we arrived in Durnstein, which is a picturesque town perched on the bank of the river and is where King Richard the Lion-Heart was held captive by Duke Leopold V. We were happy with our decision to spend the majority of the day in this beautiful spot that is best characterized by it's narrow cobblestone pedestrian-friendly streets. Because of the way it is perched on the river bank there was plenty of walking up hill simply to be done in the town, but we also decided to hike a few hundred meters above the town to some medieval castle ruins. Although not much remains from the castle today, the views of the Danube and surrounding valley were more than worth it.



Dad & Emma having fun on the boat



Mom & daughter on the Danube

View from the boat ride

Another castle and vineyards along the river

Looking over Durnstein and the Danube from the castle
remains above the town

Our lunch in Durnstein reminded me of one of my favorite things about Europe, all of the outdoor restaurants and cafes. There is no better way to eat on vacation (or really anytime) then to sit outside in perfect weather at a small restaurant occupying a prime spot of sidewalk real estate. And only one thing makes that even better, a little baby girl that happily plays and entertains herself throughout lunch!

After lunch we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and spend the rest of the afternoon walking 4 miles or so along the Danube to the next large town of Krems, which marks the end of the valley. The town of Krems does not have much exceptional to offer, but the walk was enjoyable as it wandered through vineyards and several very small villages that each were likely only home to a few hundred residents. From Krems we hopped on the boat back to Melk for the night.

The following morning we were excited to finally visit the Melk Abbey, as it was the reason for choosing to stay in the town. It never ceases to amaze me how and why people decide to build things in the places they do, and this was certainly no exception. It is absolutely daunting the way it sits above the entire city. After the hike up another steep hill (Steve was quickly getting really good at pushing Emma's stroller uphill), we were able to tour the inside of the Abbey. Unfortunately, after being in awe of the enormity and beauty of the outside of the building, I would say we were actually a little disappointed with our tour of the inside. Don't get me wrong the inside of the building was beautiful with elaborate paintings on the ceiling, a huge library, and a beautiful church - we were most disappointed that we only got to see an extremely small fraction of the entire building. We're guessing that is because a large majority of it was simply residential and is filled with small rooms, but we're not entirely sure. Nonetheless the visit was worth it as there was once again amazing views of the valley to be had and beautiful gardens to visit surrounding the Abbey.

Looking up at the Abbey from the Melk city center

Courtyard inside the Abbey

Happy baby girl looking out over the Wachau from the Abbey

The Abbey towered above everything else in town

Hardly a spot in town that you could not see the Melk Abbey

With some time to spare before we hopped on the train to our next stop on the Danube, Budapest, we once again got in a great lunch at an outdoor restaurant where I tried a regional specialty, spinach strudel. And Emma couldn't help herself but to quickly become friends with people at the table next to us with her constant smiles and giggles. If only I could have bottled up that good mood for the rest of the day and train ride... Oh well, but I think Emma's mood upon getting ready to leave the Wachau Valley summed up the way we felt about it as well, it was well worth the visit!

Family photo in front of the Abbey

Traveling with Emma 101

A few weeks back we went on our first big trip with Emma - 9 days spent in the Wachau Valley of Austria, then onto Budapest and back to Vienna. It was a great trip with future blogs to come on our travels in each of these beautiful cities, but first here's a look at the many things that we learned from traveling with a 3 month old...

Emma teaching dad who's boss!

• We are a tourist attraction: I have come to the conclusion that as long as we live in Europe people will stare at us. At first it was because we stuck out as Americans that didn't know what to do. Then it felt like I was stared at because I was pregnant (still confused on this one as I'm pretty sure I've seen plenty of other pregnant women out there before). Now, it's because we're traveling and going anywhere and everywhere with our ridiculously cute little girl. However, the staring reached a whole new level on vacation when we had people take photos of us with Emma! No one asked us, but in each situation before we knew it the person was quickly transitioning from ooing and aaaing over Emma to quickly posing next to us while their friend snapped a photo. Maybe we should start charging?

• Traveling with two adults makes life easier: I take Emma by myself many different places around Zurich, and even sometimes around Switzerland when Steve is out of town. However, I learned on this trip to be thankful that Switzerland is relatively baby friendly when it comes to transport. There are times when there are only stairs and you have to find someone to help you with the stroller, but these times are relatively infrequent. In other places this is not the case... especially in Budapest where we found both the train station and all subway stations without elevators and most without escalators as well. In some situations it proved nearly impossible to get around, especially upon arrival at the train station with all of our luggage and one very tired, cranky baby, but in the end we always found a way to manage. It also makes me think about how difficult it would be for a handicapped or elderly person to get around the city. Yet, at least Budapest had one thing going for it in this category that Switzerland seems to lack... friendly people willing to help you out when you have your hands full.

• Stroller surfing: Overall I think Emma did a great job traveling, yes we had our moments each day, but who doesn't get worn out on a European trip? These trips we take aren't exactly like going on a beach vacation. Speaking of beaches we did find something that helped keep Emma content for extended periods of time when she got tired of her stroller - and that was stomach surfing in her stroller. Our stroller is a little different from most typical American strollers in that it has more of a bassinet style attachment to use for a newborn, hence making it easy to lay Emma on her stomach. And since she loves to lay on her stomach these days, it worked wonders for us to get some extra playtime in for Emma with her toys in the stroller while mom and dad could take in the sights happily as well. We again got a few looks, but hey it's whatever works for your kid right? And to our surprise we actually have seen a few other parents do this too!

Stroller surfing - top down!

• Strollers aren't just for babies: I used to think it funny to see people carrying their babies and pushing their empty strollers. Now I understand why. Emma can handle being in her stroller for a little while, but somedays she gets tired of it quite quickly. If there's one good thing about carrying her instead of pushing her in the stroller, it's that we can put anything additional we are carrying into the stroller instead. My favorite day was when we went on a bit of an uphill hike and I carried Emma in the baby bjorn while Steve pushed the stroller with our jackets and other stuff in it the entire way up!

Emma was actually in the stroller this time Steve pushed it up a rather large hill...

However, on another day he pushed it up and held onto the runaway strap all the way down with no Emma even inside!

• Sock obsession: Europeans in general are obsessed with babies being more than warm enough, especially with them always wearing socks. It seems that no matter what the temperature they will look at you funny if your child doesn't have socks on. I have read that for the most part babies are comfortable in about the same amount of clothing as you are, maybe just a little bit more, but nothing excessive. It's quite clear Europeans don't feel the same way about it (if you don't believe me take a look back at the photos of the day Emma was born where they had her in 3 layers while it was close to 80 degrees and there was no a/c in the hospital). It has been the rare occasion that I have felt Emma is cold, usually I feel like she is getting too hot! Nonetheless there have been situations both on this trip and other times where people have either commented to us about her not having socks on, or simply looked at us with scolding eyes. Most of the time she does have socks on but I start to think when it is above 70 degrees she is probably ok if she doesn't have them on, but clearly I must be a terrible parent for thinking so.

• Diaper blowouts happen: They happen no matter where we are, Emma seems to have a secret talent for doing this... luckily they are becoming more infrequent. But this still meant we had to do some entire outfit changes in random public places. It also meant that I packed about double the number of clothes for Emma that Steve or I had packed (good thing her clothes are tiny), along with stain remover and laundry detergent to try and salvage any clothes that I knew I wouldn't get to wash until we got home. We've never been particularly light packers, but it's clear that packing and the amount of stuff we have to bring with us will never be the same.

• Good thing we're not picky eaters: As I'm sure every parent of a child can attest to, sitting down to eat a good meal is a rare occurrence. We've decided that especially when traveling our sit down meal of the day will probably have to be lunch (which isn't all bad since many times European menus are less expensive at lunch). We quickly learned that dinner can and will be completely hit or miss depending on Emma's mood and timing of what we are doing, and a quick takeaway meal will probably be the norm. However, on occasion, since Emma is usually asleep by 8 pm and for those first few hours after she falls asleep she sleeps like a brick, we can throw (and by throw, I mean gently place) her in her stroller and go out to a sit down meal and eat interrupted. Yet more often than not we will opt for the most convenient meal option. And on one rainy night in Budapest after putting Emma in bed that meant ordering in as our hotel concierge said "we have lots of options of restaurants that deliver." Evidently by lots of options he meant about 10 different restaurants, of which about 8 were Indian food. We're both open to eating just about anything, but Indian food definitely isn't our first option. However, there we were - two Americans, in Hungary, eating Indian food - and it wasn't good, but at least it was food and I think that's all either of us cared about by that time!

Enjoying a daytime stop at a cafe

• Diaper planning: When at home we try to use cloth diapers most of the time, but for sake of ease when we travel it's disposable. We figured if we had space we would try to pack what was probably enough diapers for the trip so we didn't have to worry about finding a place to buy some (or figuring out a new brand). So we did just that, but by the second to last day we knew we were going to be a little close with having enough diapers, so we tried to keep our eyes open for a store to pick some up. Given we didn't try as hard as we could have, but we never ended up finding any before we got back on the train for the 8 hour ride home to Zurich. And by the time we got home we had one diaper left, yes one diaper. Steve called it incredibly good planning on my part. I called it incredibly stupid planning, and that we just got very lucky. Next time we'll try a little harder to find a store that sells diapers...

• New forms of transportation: Emma checked a few more forms of transit off her list during our trip. First, she rode her first long distance train. Not really any different for her than riding the train 2 or 3 hours to get somewhere in Switzerland. But it was a new challenge for mom and dad to adjust to a different train set-up and finding out where there was space to get a stroller on board, changing areas, etc. It was also Emma's first time riding an underground subway (in Zurich we only have above ground trams). She did great, especially in Budapest, which has some of the oldest and loudest subway lines I have rode on, but she still managed to often times sleep right thru the ride.

First subway ride in Budapest! Old school cars!

• Tolerance for babies in public places: I think Europeans have a higher tolerance for babies being out in public places than Americans do. It's simply an accepted way of life, as people gather outside of the home more here, especially at cafes and restaurants. This obviously makes travel and getting out a lot easier on us, and doesn't make us feel limited to a few places. Unfortunately, as hard as we try Emma can't always be perfect everytime we go out. Yet for the most part we never felt like people got upset with us, instead they looked at us like "yes, we understand and have been there/done that." That was until we noticed some American tourists near us at an outdoor cafe one day. I won't lie, Emma wasn't having it that afternoon, hence one of the reasons we were at a cafe just trying to be low key. Yet it quickly became clear that they were not pleased with us and our crying baby when one man quite loudly and in an annoyed tone said "don't they just have a bottle they could give her." Not sure if he said that because he knew we could understand him or if he thought we couldn't understand him. Either way, we could have done without the comment. I'm sure similar things sometimes get said by other Europeans, we just can't understand them, but I'm still fairly confident that most of the time they don't make quite as rude of comments.

• Nursing in public: Similarly to the point above, it is much more accepted to nurse your baby in public here. I'm definitely not as open about it as many Europeans are, but it is nice to know you won't be judged for having to feed them in a public place, which I feel is often the case in the U.S. and makes traveling much more prohibitive with a small child. To say I'm not quite as open about it as others... take for instance the lady I saw walking and nursing her baby down one of the busiest pedestrian streets in Vienna. I bet you wouldn't see a lady walking around a mall nursing her baby in the U.S.! Also, in some situations Europeans will try to encourage you to feed your baby in public. Most of the time it is other women just out of good nature telling you to do whatever your baby needs. Other times, well it's not for quite the same reasons... in my situation in Vienna it was a 75 year old man at the table besides us at dinner one night. Emma was starting to get a little fussy (it was after all getting close to her bedtime), so after already having a pleasant conversation with him he turned to me with a little smirk on his face and said "she probably wants the breast don't you think?" To his disappointment she had just been fed a short time prior and I knew that was not why she was fussing. But he couldn't help himself when Steve took Emma outside the restaurant to walk around with her and calm her down to ask me again, "What is your husband going to do with her? He doesn't have a breast for her!" All I could do was laugh, especially coming from this cute old man that spoke with broken english. Meanwhile his son whom he was having dinner with kept trying to apologize to me for his crazy old man!

Needless to say we have a lot more to learn, and I can't wait (and sometimes I'm a little nervous) to find out the many other things Emma will teach us about traveling with her in the coming months!

Man Weekend (Guest Author)

While a frequent contributor to the photos on the blog, the time has come for me to test out my writing skills for the first time in many years (let’s not pretend that accounting memos count). For my birthday, my amazing wife got together with a couple of my expat friends, Ryan and Trevor, and planned a man weekend for us – canyoning and rafting in Haiming, Austria.

Our good friends loaned us their car for the weekend and we set out Friday night - our first order of business was to secure a “vignette”, a windshield sticker for driving on the Austrian highways (cost: 8 euro) to avoid paying the fine if we were caught by a traffic camera (cost: 240 euro).  But apparently all the gas stations on the Swiss border decided to close too early, so we were well into Austria before we could find one. So…we're really hoping our friends don't get a little surprise in the mail in the coming weeks!

Aside from that, we made our way to Imst Friday night and then on to Haiming on Saturday without any trouble. Haiming is a sleepy little town, primarily just known for its outdoor sports…so we were in the right place. Up first – canyoning, which is basically hiking down a river canyon using whatever means necessary, hiking, swimming, climbing, jumping, sliding, or abseiling/rappelling. I was a little concerned when I heard the water was 6 degrees (which means 43 to you and me), but our wetsuits kept us more than warm enough. I really enjoyed the abseils and the slides and jumps, which reminded me a bit of Johnson Shut-Ins State Park back home.



Our guide was great, and we met an Australian who we talked into rafting with us the next day.



No we didn't canyon down this one..maybe next time.



After warming up with some Zipfer and Schnapps (apparently big in Austria, who knew?), we went to a campground just outside Haiming for some R+R and grilling up some brats…once we convinced the campground host (whom we had just met an hour before) that we weren’t “gypsies” trying to freeload on the campground grill. We finished the night at Oilers, a local establishment, specializing in American 80’s rock...I mean, what else would you expect?

Sunday we rafted the Inn River, one of Europe’s best, but as it was a little late in the season, we did an easier section than we had hoped, with just class II/III rapids.  But still the water moved well and there were some were good rapids. We even hopped out to take a few short swims (for about 2 minutes, when our legs went numb!) All in all, it was a great trip and I’m already looking forward to planning the next man weekend in the Spring – even bigger and better!  

We had another fun guide who shared some crazy stories and told us about all the brilliant questions he had been asked. My person favorite was “do those rocks go all the way to the bottom?”

 

Our fearless leaders Ryan and Trevor manned the front of the boat, where they could set the pace (and take on the most water!)