Gulliver in Walt Disney World

We have long been promising Gulliver to take him here, he was so anxious...
He met all of his friends, from Mickey and Minnie,

From USA - FLORIDA

to Pluto

From USA - FLORIDA

Donald.....

From USA - FLORIDA

and Goofy:

From USA - FLORIDA

But the highlight of the day was getting his picture taken with the "old man" holding Mickey's hand and with the Cinderella castle in the background:

From USA - FLORIDA

A few hours later at the same place we all enjoyed the fireworks:

From USA - FLORIDA

Downtown Miami

Exploring Downtown Miami was great... after we managed to park the car:

From USA - FLORIDA

We took the so-called "people mover" which was great not only because its free, but also because it offers the best views:

From USA - FLORIDA

From USA - FLORIDA

The mix of palm trees and skyscrapers reminded us of Singapore last year.

From USA - FLORIDA

A nearby neighborhood, Coral Gables seemed to us just like a place perfect for a little house to buy for spending the winter months:

From USA - FLORIDA

Unfortunately when we returned to Miami after our cruise 10 days later, the weather changed "a bit", actually we kinda' froze...

From USA - FLORIDA

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!

Christmas markets 2009

It's that time of the year again ... when Christmas markets open up all over Europe and you can barely walk 5 steps without running into a Gluehwein hut ... and you suddenly find yourself having the urgent need of shopping, eating or drinking something. This is however not the case in Zurich, where the entire Christmas-market, including the Christmas tree decorated by Swarovski crystals is hidden within the main station. Very practical set-up, no snow storm or sudden rain can ruin the 'business' ... but: there is no Christmas spirit either.

So we decided to visit some 'real' Christmas-markets in the last couple of weekends. This year we booked our room in Strasbourg early enough (in August already) as we found out last year that there is no chance finding a room several weeks in advance for any December - weekend within 60 kms radius around the city. No wonder there are so many people visiting Strasbourg this time of the year. It is called "la Capitale de Noël" – the Christmas capital ... the entire old town is one huge Christmas market with hunderds of little shops selling a huge variaty of toys, candles, Christmas-deko, crepes and vin chaud ... and thousands of people wondering around and enjoying the holiday-spirit. The only thing missing from turning the place into a real winter magic was the snow (looks like someone forgot to 'order' it from Santa this year :-))

You can see some of the photos we took in Strasbourg in our album here:

From EUROPE - FRANCE -Strasbourg

Strasbourg was however not the only (and first) Christmas market we visited this year. One week earlier we had a weekend trip to the Netherlands and Germany: first a housewarming party in NL with Krisztina's colleagues, then the Weihnachtsmarkt in Cologne. We had the feeling that german Christmas markets are all about eating an drinking (you can find here tons of tradional food, showing the many different nationalities living in the country) and of course, plenty of Gluehwein. See some of our photos here:

EUROPE - GERMANY - Cologne_by Christmas

Santa also arrived to our home in Zurich, bringing nice presents not only for us, but also for our little friend Gulliver.

From 2009 - Karacsony

Cinque Terre

Just as the cold and foggy autumn time started to break in to Switzerland, we headed off for a short holiday (or a long weekend ?) to a Cinque Terre, Italy... although not too far from Zurich (about 5 hrs driving), here was still wonderful summer weather, 30+ C and lots of sunshine.

It’s easy to fall in love with Cinque Terre. It’s a line of 5 small towns that are along the eastern coast of Italy. In this area, traveling by car is the most impractical way to get around. The best way to transport yourself is by Train, or Boat, or Foot. We tried all three of them.

First day we started to explore the area by taking a boat trip along the cost, leaving from La Spezia, where our hotel was located. Truly wonderful scenery, and gorgeous villages! Will let the photos speak for themselves, as it is difficult to describe with words.

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

For the second day we had big plans. We headed out reasonably early (well, 9:30 is early enough on a holiday, isn't it?) and took the train to Monterosso al Mare, the first city if traveling from the north:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

... and started the Cinque Terre hiking tour:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

............ to Vernazza:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

........ to Corniglia:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

...... to Manarola:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

... and finally, through the Via Dell'Amore, to Riomaggiore....

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

We found Cinque Terre one of the most delightful areas we've ever been to and we can fully appreciate why this region has been listed as a World Heritage Site. Almost unbelievable what did native people build in this area. Lots of stones have been used to build the vineyards and the thousands of km-long stone structures to prevent erosion.

The third day we took a less tourist-packed hiking route from Portovenere to Riomaggiore.
In Portovenere we visited the town and castle:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

Then we began our long hike. After being lost once and climbing a few thousand steps, we had magnificent views of the Ligurian coast:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

before descending down to Riomaggiore.

All along our hiking trips we were accompanied by our friend Gulliver who got his own backpack to carry his own stuff.

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

Cinque Terre is magical! Make it a destination sometime in your life. We can highly recommend it.
See our entire photo album on Cinque Terre here .

On our last day of our mini-vacation, we visited Genoa as well, where the city is dominated by magnificent historical buildings and the omnipresent scooters:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

Via ferrata (Klettersteig) in Braunwald

sLast weekend we went rock climbing (Via ferrata) to Braunwald with some friends, namely Gabi, Salo + Ioana and us (unfortunately Gulliver was left out this time, but we are working on some climbing harness for him to be able to join us next time).
The group posing in front of the TARGET


The climb comprised 2 stages:
- An "easy" first stage to "Leiteregg" at 2310m altitude

Salo's @ss on the way to the first peak on the "easy" climb:


which was just a great warm-up for what was about to be

- Stage 2 to the "Vorder Eggstock"at 2449m


me f@rting on the way to the "Vorder Eggstock"...


completing the construction on the peak:


"highway" between two peaks:


finally taking off our helmets for a shot on said further peak "Mittler Eggstock"


after which we had to go down (the worst part, I don't like to go down!!)


all pictures on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/gulliver.gyenge/Braunwald#

Summer visit from LILI

This summer Lili was our guest for a few weeks, bringing us some moments of joy.
We don't really know how come she turned up at our place suddenly.
She quickly found herself a comfortable place on our balcony.


When the sun was shining she fully enjoyed the sunny spots:


and the food she got mornings from Zoli:

However, as suddenly as she showed up at our place, just as sudden she left us a few weeks later.

(We've been told her owners left for vacation and apparently she liked us more then her temporary caretakers).

Summer 2009

It's been a long time since we didn't post anything to our blog... and that is not because we had a very lousy summer and got bored of staying in our apartment and watching movies, but rather due to the lots of family events, visitors and weekend getaways we had during the last couple of months.

These are just a few of the events which kept us busy during the summer:

* We took a few trips around with Zoli's parents in July ...

From Luzern and surroundings

... and visited together Verdi's "Aida" at the lake stage of Bregenz:

2009 - Aida - Bregenz Seebuhne

* On my Birthday we had a great time riding all the roller coasters in EuropaPark:

EUROPE - GERMANY - Europa Park

* Then we have been invited to our friends' wedding in Cluj, Romania, where we enjoyed the time spent with our families and friends.

* In August, when my parents visited us, we made some short weekend getaways to Strasbourg:

From EUROPE - FRANCE -Strasbourg

and Germany:

From EUROPE - GERMANY - BodenSee

(we took this picture in Meersburg, a really nice, romantic little town on the northern part of the BodenSee)

... meantime some birthday celebrations and grill parties with our families in Cluj and at our place:

From Csaladi Esemenyek- Szuletesnapok

Unfortunately it seems that yesterday was the last real summer day in Zurich, so at least we are not too late with publishing this post ... and we are hoping for many nice, sunny autumn weekends when we can make some wonderful cycling & hiking tours around in Switzerland.

Is Brussels really the most boring city of Europe...? NO!!!

At the beginning of July I've been working our company's headquarter in Brussels, where Zoli joined me for the weekend as well, so we spent some time together with my team.
Although the EU capital has recently been awarded by a survey of international travellers with "the most boring city of Europe" title (just beating out Zurich who came second in the race), there were a few things we found nice about the city:

The Grand Place in the heart of Brussels, one of the nicest town squares we have seen in Europe:

From EUROPE - BELGIUM - Brussels

Plenty of restaurants - bars - caffes all over with lost of people enjoying the evening near a drink in the crowded terraces of the city (just like we did):

From EUROPE - BELGIUM - Brussels

A huge variety of chocolate and waffles, which may not be a lot better than Swiss chocolate fondue, but Belgians certainly know how to 'serve' them:

From EUROPE - BELGIUM - Brussels

The European Union buildings however seemed to be less impressive than we have expected them to be in the "capital of EU", which doesn't mean though that Brussels is not worth paying a visit ... it will probably never take the place of London or Bangkok, neither of Vienna or Barcelona on the list of our favorites, but calling it the most boring city of Europe...? well, that must have been said by people who didn't like beer and good food...