Little Wonder

I'm sure everyone who is reading this already knows that our beautiful baby girl, Tímea came into our lives and we're absolutely in love with her! Words can hardly describe our happiness, perhaps that's also the reason why it took me so long to write this blog entry. It is the most wonderful experience we ever had and we keep on admiring her day after day.

But let's take a look into the beginnings first...2012 was a year that we will never forget, so many life-changing events happened.

From the moment we found out I was pregnant, we were really excited ...and the journey of pregnancy began, opening up a whole new world for both of us - the first steps into the parenthood: another view of life, other feelings and an enormous vocabulary of German baby terms, too :-)

In the meantime our Little Wonder started to make herself comfortable in my tummy, developing week by week just like a perfectly average baby, without causing too much trouble to her Mummy.

From 9 months

Looking back, I consider myself very lucky with this pregnancy -  some headaches, constant hunger and tiredness in the first trimester (which I have fought with little naps during lunch breaks in the fitness/wellness park) and a little sleeplessness and back pain at the end - really not much to complain about. On the other hand, I had so much energy from time to time, that Daddy could hardly keep up with my walking, shopping, moving "appetite".

Speaking of moving: yes, 2012 was also the year when we found our dream place in Switzerland, a perfect home with big garden area for our Little Wonder... and we closed the deal by transferring the reservation fee from the middle of the Indian Ocean during our wonderful holidays in Mauritius - our first holiday in three. Well, technically Little Wonder was not yet able to admire with us the beauties of Mauritius and Reunion, to swim with the dolphins and walk with the tigers, but she was there and I'm sure she felt all our excitement and happiness waiting for her arrival. Tigers... hmm, yes, she probably sensed the closeness as she already shows an instant connection to her (so far) favorite animal:

Moreover, Little Wonder was the probably the youngest climber of the 2600m active volcano, the Piton de la Fournaise, a real challenge of 7-hour-climbing even for non pregnant people. We both did really well!

After our babymoon in the Indian Ocean, we had a very busy summer with lots of fun and work done to prepare for the arrival of Little Wonder: 2 concerts in three (Guns N'Roses and Madonna), a trip to Porto and Galicia, another one to Lake Como, an amazing baby shower organized by my colleagues and plenty of time spent with packing, moving & unpacking... our new place slowly became Our Home and everything was ready for the arrival of Little Wonder:

From 9 months

With the very last lamp installed on a Sunday morning (2 days after my due date) Little Wonder apparently started to feel herself uncomfortable in my tummy... and right after Daddy  - extremely tired from a long work-out at the fitness park - fell into the bed, she started to show the first signs of her readiness to arrive.


From there on, things started off very fast... Daddy was well prepared with his contraction tracking app, which after one hour showed already frequent contractions 3-5 minutes apart. We drove to the hospital, where they set us for another walk "just to be sure" it was time... well, after that midnight walk now we know every corner of the hospital's garage as this was the only place where it was neither too cold (like outside), nor to warm (like inside the hospital). Later everything slowed down and we spent long hours in the delivery room. Without too many details about this part (which I am not sure I would ever forget - like many people say), after 16 hours our dream came true:

Our Little Wonder,

Tímea Gyenge

was born on 19th November 2012 

with 50 cm and 3.590 kg.

From Our Baby Girl Timea

From Our Baby Girl Timea

The most beautiful present that life could give us was finally in our hands!

From Our Baby Girl Timea

Tímea's story and our present to her, in a different way:






Find more photos in our Family Album
   

Another blog entry with Tímea's first days/months will follow soon...  

Albis area & the Türlersee

We promised to write a few words about Albis, the area around our new home. About half-way between Zürich and Zug (both cities easily reachable by train or 20 mins car-ride), it is also known as "Zurich’s nearby recreational area with a dense hiking-path network".

From Albis

As so often in Switzerland, the real charm of the area is provided by the nearby lake, the Türlersee, offering great bathing, camping and grilling opportunities for the summer, iceskating for the winter-time, numerous hiking & walking trails for spring & autumn.

From Albis

Aeugst am Albis (yes, that's our village :-)) itself is only a short walk from the lake with the most amazing views one can imagine of the Glarner Alps and the Bernese Alps with the Zuger lake and the Pilatus in the foreground:

From Albis

No wonder it did not take us very long to fall in love with this area...

It seems that soon after our move, Aeugst just wanted to present us its best: within just two weeks time in October (!) this year, we already had the opportunity to experience summer, winter and spring-time at our place (crazy weather, isn't it???)

From Albis

... and thus we are now looking forward to have a beautiful white Christmas this year (the chances seem to be very good in our village):

From Albis

New home for our growing family in Aeugst am Albis

After just 1.5 years in the Lorzeninsel (our latest appartment in Hagendorn), we started packing again this summer ... for the 4th time in 6 years since we moved out to Switzerland (!). This time however we had to take a longer term decision: was it the right place to buy and settle with our (growing) family?

We fell in love with the appartment (especially with its large garden area and amazing views on the Pilatus and Bernese Alps) at first glimpse.

From Albis - Our Home

Although it seemed like an ideal home for us, it was not an easy decision:
- Do we have / are we going to get from the bank the necessary funding...?
- Is it the right location the Albis-area (half-way between Zürich and Zug) for us? (a description of the surrounding area will follow in the next blog entry)
- And most importantly, are we ready to spend at least the next 10 years of our lives in Switzerland...?

Many similar questions were circling around our head, until we took the final decision to buy this place on the day we left on holidays to Mauritius & Reunion (and almost missed our flight due to last-minute arrangements) making the bank transaction from the lobby of our hotel in the middle of the Indian Ocean (isn't technology great?).

From Albis - Our Home

After 3 months of waiting and packing, we were excited to pick up the keys and finally celebrate the purchase of our own home on the 20st of Sept. First nice surprize: a warm welcome from our neighbours, who showed up at our door on the day of the move with a big basket of welcome gift.

From Albis - Our Home

... It just felt like a perfect start of another chapter in our family life, especially now, waiting for the arrival of our baby girl within a few weeks only.

Family gathering in Como

One of the advantages of living apart from our families is, that sometimes family gatherings offer nice opportunities for a weekend getaway to a destination chosen by spotting on the map. Well, there is of course some rationale - mainly related to travel options and costs - behind, but you also have the flexibility of choosing the perfect travel destination: last year we planned a Christmas-market visit to Vienna with our brothers and friends, this year a summer weekend at the Lake Como, one of the most amazing sites at the Swiss-Italian border:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

Fortunately we had a beautiful weather and enjoyed exploring together the area around the lake:
- Bellagio (the real one, not the one in the meadows of Nevada), the pearl of lake Como:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

- Menaggio, on the western shore of the lake:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

- Panorama views of the lake from the observation tower in Brunate, high above Como:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

- and the town of Como itself, with its waterfront, impressive Cathedral, pleasant terraces and best Italian icecream :-))

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

When we all got tired enough from wandering around and unsuccessfully search (as the Italians sold everything) for a public beach to go swimming in the lake, we found a perfect shady terrace for our siesta-time, before all of us heading back to our homes: Zoli's brother to Budapest, us (with my parents) to Switzerland...

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

Our photo album of Como, Italy.

Summer 2011

OK, so it's been a while since our last blog entry, so we have a lot to catch up on. In the meantime, summer is officially over, with plenty of achievements and fun, too.
First, we finished our moving  and decorations of our apartment, which we have celebrated with couple of house-warmings. This is a view of our "island" from the countryroad above:

From Hagendorn

... and we started to exlore the area around Zug
- by bike:

From Zug and area

- sailig (hmm, did we mention we started to take sailing courses ...?):

From Zug and area

- swimming in the lake (the very best way to relax during lunch breaks :-))

From Zug and area

- hiking at Mt Rigi:

From Mt Rigi

-or, taking the funciular up to the Zugerberg:

From Zug and area

It's been also a time full of family events and birthday celebrations, having barbecue with our parents at the balcony:

From 2011 - Csaladi Esemenyek

From 2011 - Csaladi Esemenyek

And last but not least, the two main reasons for celebrating in the summer of 2011: Zoli's successful EQE (resulting in officially becoming a European Patent Attorney) and our 5th wedding anniversary!!!

From 2011 - Csaladi Esemenyek

Reflections ... and plans for 2011

Can't believe it's already one month since Christmas! After spending almost all of our vacation days on our Asia-trip last year, we did not plan anything special for the end of the year - we spent the Christmas, as usually, with our families in Romania,

2010 - Karacsony Szilveszter

followed by a short, 4-day-skiing break in Grindelwald, where we also spent the New Years's Eve, visited (twice) our favorite Mexican restaurant (*El Azteka, for those interested to try the best Mexican food in Europe, accompanied by live music) and had fun in the snow:

From Grindelwald

And here we are, back to business and normal life - not sure if it's entirely 'normal' though with all the challenges waiting for us this year:
* German exam, which we still owe to ourselves since our last year's new year resolution (no more excuses this time, we have finally signed up to take the Goethe ZMP next Saturday),
* European Qualifying Examination - second part (for Zoli, of course)
* Starting my job in Zug (more about this in a later post)
* Searching for apartments in Zug (by the way, this one can be ticked out from the list today :-))
* Moving home
... and of course our regular yearly plans and desires for enjoying life in Switzerland and traveling as much as we can (no exact plans for our next big holiday, but it seems that we have a lack of travel experience in the southern hemisphere :D)
  

Camping in Arosa with the Family and Goofy

Arosa is one of the greatest Alpine all-rounders in Switzerland: perfect for skiers in the winter, hikers and mountain bikers in the summer, with great camping and barbecue places, two lakes for water biking and swimming and the greatest views you can imagine. We have only been here for one day couple of years ago and decided it was a great time to return for a weekend camping with my family who have been visiting us in August. Especially because we had to take Goofy, our new A3 for a trial run on the Swiss Alpine roads... and this was just the perfect road with its 365 hairpin bends on the 30-km-ride from Chur to Arosa.

From Arosa

Well, Goofy loved the zigzagging way and did not disappoint us. The 250 thoroughbred galloped out of corners as if ridden by a jockey (me?) and ran up to 2000m altitude in no time. And surprisingly the passengers did not complain at all, even though I was afraid they would, as a review I read described the S-line suspension "its like it would think you're blind and the road is Braille".

Arriving to Arosa, we first raised our tents at the camping site and were pleasantly surprised by the free all-inclusive cards (offered to all visitors of the resort in summer) giving unlimited access to the cable cars and lifts, pedal- and rowing boats on the lake.
We took the cable car up to LAW-Mittelstation at above 2000 meters and headed off for a short(er) descent back to Arosa with really spectacular views all around:

From Arosa

The afternoon we spent with a barbecue at the lake-side, after which we enjoyed Arosa's summer attraction, the water- and light show on the Obersee.

For Sunday we planned a little more challenge for my parents, starting our tour from the top of the cable car at Weisshorn at 2650 m.

From Arosa

Tired enough after a few hours hiking, we were looking forward to a refreshing swim in the lake, but we lost our enthusiasm pretty quickly when dipping our toes into the cool, 17-degree- Alpine lake. It was certainly refreshing, but a little too cold for us...

You may check out some more photos of Arosa in our Album (it's another place well worthwhile visiting in Switzerland, but make sure you have a good car and an excellent driver (thanks Krisztina) for the last portion of the road)

Having double Birthdays ...

... is something I was used to since my childhood. No, it was not because my parents wanted to buy me so many toys! ... but simply because The Big Day fell always in the middle of the summer holidays, so I had to organize my party with the other kids, schoolmates & friends while Everyone was still around. Then, of course, when the real one came, we celebrated it again with my family. As a child, I always hated this double Happy Birthdays and wanted to have a 'normal' one like everyone else, on the REAL day.

But as I get older, things change... no more two-months-summer holidays, but living away from our families, which now not only doubles, but more like triples the number of celebrations. And guess what, I don't mind having two or three B-Days any more - probably a sign of getting older every year... (hopefully not three times faster though)


This year, we started with my first birthday cake back in June at my Mom's place with my family,

and continued drinking & eating when our parents came to Zurich...

In the end, on my real B-day after our full-day-hiking to Trift, both of us (pardon, all three of us including Gulliver) were too tired for my present & drinking, so we postponed the celabration for the coming day.

From Csaladi Esemenyek- Szuletesnapok

... and still, I don't feel like being older ;-))

Swiss Chocolate Fondue

It's an absolutely must to try in Switzerland! We thrilled Zoli's parents with a delicious one, which we prepared using our secret recipe: fresh fruits dipped into dark chocolate and pieces of nuts on top. (That's it for our secret now!) Even the pictures look so yameee that we can't resist not posting on our blog...

From Various Zurich (Home)

For all our friends visiting us: Shoggi Fondue may be served 'on demand' at Gyenge's B&B :-))

From Various Zurich (Home)

Weekend getaway to Strasbourg

Zoli's parents visited us in July. As usually, we celebrated his Mom's birthday together and organized a surprise weekend getaway to the lovely city of Strasbourg for them. In the end, it was a pleasant surprise to all of us finding out that there was an International Food Festival in the old town, with great food & drinks to taste from various countries of Europe. Yameee! We could find here everything from Romanian 'mici' to Hungarian 'kurtoskalacs', Greek salad, Spanish tapas or Belgian beer (for Zoli's Dad). And, on top of everything, we had a delicious fruit-ice cream bowl we could not resist skipping:

From EUROPE - FRANCE -Strasbourg

We spent the rest of the weekend by walking around, climbing the tower of the Cathedral (to avoid ordering our dessert with a guilty conscience) and taking a pleasant boat trip around the old town.

In the evening, we visited the Summer Show, which is a 30-minute-water, light & fireworks show played daily in summer-time.

Visit our entire album on Strasbourg below:

From EUROPE - FRANCE -Strasbourg

Celebrations' time

The 'wedding and anniversary season' started again a few weeks ago - it's usually a very time- (and money-consuming) period for us traveling back to our home town for couple of days only, but we always love these celebrations as we basically spend the entire time in Kolozsvar with eating & drinking with our friends and families... sadly enough, we also realize from time to time that we are getting older and can't drink as much as in the good old student time any more (when Zoli just used to order his "one meter of Tequila" and was still able to walk home in the middle of the night from the party)

We probably reached our celebrations record in April, with 3 events within less than 3 days:

• The wedding of our friends, Mesi & Ors (who have finally decided that "it was time to get married" :D) - great party, lots of friends and drinks...

• My Mom's birthday...


From Csaladi Esemenyek- Szuletesnapok

• And, last but not least, Zoli's birthday...


From Csaladi Esemenyek- Szuletesnapok

Two weeks later, we returned again to Romania for our 10-year Graduation Anniversary (yes, we are really sooo old, can't believe it's already been ten years since I've last been at our highschool). It was really great meeting our ex colleagues, some of us have changed quite a lot, others still look and behave just like 10 years ago...

Talalkozo2010

Over 9000 kms and 40ºC from Christmas to New Year

As usually, we spent our Christmas at home in Romania, together with our families and friends. A completely white scenery and -10ºC has been waiting for us when we landed at the airport in Cluj... we were hoping for a white Christmas, but unfortunately most of the snow has melted before x-mas day.
We spent the whole week with Christmas dinners, family visits and meeting friends ... it was a really busy, but very pleasant and enjoyable week. As we were planning to leave on the 25th, we started the x-mas celebrations a little earlier this year, with a dinner at my parents' place:

From 2009 - Karacsony Szilveszter

From 2009 - Karacsony Szilveszter

The Christmas Eve we spent at Zoli's parents' house, in an even bigger family circle, together with our parents, brothers and their wife/girlfriend, cousins, aunties, uncles... there were so many people talking at the same time that sometimes it became nearly impossible to understand what one was saying ;-))

From 2009 - Karacsony Szilveszter

We had a very hard time keeping ourselves away from the tons of food and drinks we were offered (for some strange reason everyone thinks that in Switzerland we do not cook and eat, therefore we need to eat for the whole coming year when we are at home...)

Before flying back to Zurich, we had a few drinks with our friends, former colleagues (at least we only had to 'organize' one gathering with our classmates as both Zoli and me attended the same class in the high school) and another Christmas supper at my brother's place ...

We had a great time, but we were already very excited about our New Year's Eve celebration in Miami. We only had one day in Zurich to pack out and repack our luggage, leave the cold and snow behind and fly off to the 'sunshine state'. Waiting for our connection in NY JFK we had the chance to meet our long-seen friends, Manyi and Csongor - it was great catching up on the past 5-6 years we haven't met each other on.

From USA - East Coast

AND FINALLY: we have arrived to Miami on the 27th and we had a fantastic New Year's Eve celebration at South Beach, enjoying the fireworks over the beach and palm trees on Ocean Drive, knowing that a Caribbean cruise was waiting for us on the 1st of January.

From 2009 - Karacsony Szilveszter

I would say, our start of the year couldn't have been any better (see our next blog posts for some amazing stories and photos on our holiday in Florida and the Caribbean)... the last relaxing days before the hard work starts, especially for Zoli studying for his patent attorney exam in March. So I guess building our career is our main goal for 2010 ... plus the ZMP (intermediate German exam) waiting for both of us in automn (and, of course, continuing to enjoy our life in Switzerland, do some nice trips and travel around).

You can see here our full Christmas and New Year's Eve Album.
Finally, we would like to wish a great 2010 to all our friends reading this post!