Laure and Quarup

Monday, March 9, 2015

Q's surprise birthday destination: Budapest

Last year, Laure and I decided we would follow our friends' advice of replacing birthday presents with surprise travel destinations. So in August, Laure took me somewhere that we have long been wanting to visit: Budapest, Hungary.

A quick layover in Vienna, Austria almost through me off.

Up until 1873, Budapest used to actually be two cities: Buda and Pest split by the Danube river. Back then, the aristocrats lived in the upper class city of Buda whereas the commoners lived in Pest. Today, many of the historical buildings remain in Buda, but Pest is more vibrant with life.

We began our trip with a food tour that covered many Hungarian highlights in Pest.

The Great Market Hall thrives with locals looking for the fresh local products.
Its architecture was inspired by similar Parisian indoor markets in the late 1800s.

We took a shot of this national drink, Unicum.
This herbal liqueur tastes like cough syrup and hopefully gets better after a few shots.

Lángos is the buttery famous street food that you can actually find in many European street fairs.
The "s" is pronounced as "sh".

Look closely and you'll notice that Laure is sticking a cow tongue out of her mouth.

In Budapest, you can find many pickled goodies; some of which are shaped into faces or animals.

Sour cherry soup (Meggyleves) sounds like a dessert, but it's more like a snack.

This Seven-Layer Cake (Dobostorte) arguably has six layers.

Next day, we crossed the Danube river to check out the historical buildings in Buda.

View of the Danube from Buda.

Buda castle and the equestrian statue of King Sigismund.

Some of the newer parts of Buda strangely reminded me of Disneyland.

Buda has a nice promenade overlooking the surrounding area.

The historical area is very beautiful, but it is also overrun with busloads of tourists. So it is a great place to visit, but probably would not be a good place to set as home base for an entire trip.

We also checked out something called the Invisible Exhibition. Each group is led by a blind guide through a series of experiments to get a taste of the world as experienced by the visually impaired. In addition to teaching us how to use a Braille typewriter, our guide took us through a series of rooms in absolute pitch darkness. We felt around for the objects in each set up area, such as in a kitchen, or in a simulated traffic intersection (which frankly was pretty scary). Invisible Exhibitions exist in several cities, and we definitely recommend others to check it out.

The Invisible Exhibition.

By the way, Budapest has an excellent public transit system including an extensive network of subways and buses.

The Red metro line was built 35 meters underground during the communist days to double as a shelter from air raids.

Hungary has a dark past in regards to anti-Semitism; with anti-Semitic laws even before the Nazis. Jews were not allowed to live in the inner city for a while. During the Nazi occupation, the Jewish Quarter became a ghetto where the Jews were completely walled in without access to food or supplies. Today, many of the areas have been converted to memorials to honor the lives lost and to celebrate Jewish culture.

The Dohany Synagogue resembles a church and even has an organ.
It was constructed this way possibly to appeal to the Christian majority at the time.

This weeping willow sculpture is a memorial to the Hungarian Jews that died during the holocaust.
Turn this picture upside down and you might see the resemblance to a menorah.

The leaves show names of Hungarian Jews that died during the holocaust.

After the war, the Jewish ghetto remained largely neglected and many deserted buildings were condemned to be demolished. But then a new cool trend arose: people started retrofitting these old buildings as bars and dance clubs. Today you will find a couple of dozens of these so-called "ruin pubs" with a cool street artsy atmosphere.

Jelly fish lanterns sets a relaxing mood at this ruin pub.

Some pubs have really cool murals and street art.

This ruin pub seemed a bit Mexican to me.

As I understand, many ruin pubs come and go as trends constantly shift. But by far the busiest, craziest, and probably biggest one is undoubtedly the original trend setter named Szimpla kert.

One of many "rooms" of Szimpla kert.

Beyond providing a vibrant nightlife, Szimpla kert also hosts farmer's markets featuring local vendors during the day.

Farmer's market at Szimpla kert.

One of many local goodies.

Budapest has an amazing memorial of the Jews that were killed by the Arrow Cross, which was basically Hungary's version of the Nazi party. The Jews had been ordered to take off their shoes before being shot to flow down the Danube river. In order to save bullets, the Arrow Cross sometimes tied three Jews together before shooting only one of them in the head. All three bodies would fall in the river, and the remaining two alive would sink with the dead body and drown.

Shoes on the Danube Bank to honor the Jews killed by the Arrow Cross.

Amidst the atrocities of World War 2, there were also people that saved a lot of Jews. Perhaps most prominently, diplomats from Sweden and Switzerland figured out creative ways to basically smuggle thousands of Jews out of Hungary.

On our last day in Budapest, Laure and I visited the famous Szechenyi Baths with thermal spring water. The place is huge, and we pampered ourselves with a package deal that covered all areas.

Relaxation area.

The indoor thermal baths preserve some of its original architecture.

The outdoor thermal pool is huge.

Looking back, my favorite part of visiting Budapest was definitely the food. I was really impressed with the quality of food from the markets to the restaurants. To the foodies among you: I definitely recommend paying Budapest a visit.

Goulash soup (which is actually not so thick) and a cherry soup with ice cream.

Lastly, we had a few minutes to spare before heading out to the airport, so we stopped to make an unusual culinary stop: McDonald's. These Golden Arches have a special significance: they were the first of its kind east of the Iron Curtain. Towards the end of the Soviet Era, Hungary received more leniency than other communist countries and were able to open up American shops like this.

The first Golden Arches went up east of the Iron Curtain even before the hammer and sickle came down.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Our Cure for Homesickness

We consider ourselves lucky to have so many people in our lives that love to travel as much as we do. During our first year, we had several friends and family visit us in Switzerland or meet us in another nearby city. This made being far from "home" a little easier.

We especially loved that we had a few repeat visitors.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

First Year Sampling Switzerland's Hiking Trails

With the Alps in our backyard, I'm surprised we didn't go out hiking more often during our first year in Switzerland. We made it out five times for day hikes:

Zürich's Üetliberg
Five Lakes Classic Trek
Hike around Lauterbrunnen Valley
Liechtensteins Drei Schwestern Trail
Hike to Äscher Mountain Hut

Afternoon hiking excursions from Zürich.

Zürich's Üetliberg

We had a month between landing in Switzerland and departing to Peru to squeeze in a couple last minute training hikes. Üetliberg is the local mountain that overlooks Zürich. It is a popular spot for locals catch some fresh mountain air.

Even those not interested in hiking come up here for a nice view of the city on a clear day.

Our GPS track shown on Strava. See higher resolution in Swiss Topo.

We started our hike at the edge of a neighborhood and headed straight upward. Once along the ridge, we walked several kilometers gradually moving up and down through forests and farmlands. Along the way we passed several huts serving warm meals, a small castle ruins, and a look-out fort. We got a bit carried away with the mellow terrain and we ended up heading home after dark.

Not exactly the type of hiking we're used to.

Remains of a small castle.

Last stop before turning back was the Look-Out Fort.

Our reward before catching a bus back home.

Five Lakes Classic Trek

This was our second hike in preparation for the Inca Trail. With the help of MySwitzerland, we found this alpine trail.
Much of the elevation is gained by riding a gondola and chairlift up. This worked well for us since we were working on getting our bodies more comfortable with thin air.

Crystal clear alpine lakes.

Our GPS track shown through Strava. Higher resolution in Swiss Topo.

From the trailhead, one must head in the opposite direction from the rest of the trail to visit the first of five lakes. Since we got a late start and were now racing to catch the chair lift before closing time, so we skipped this first lake. Much of the terrain was gray and rocky with patches of greenery peaking through. As we headed further up in elevation, there were remains of last winter's snow... or maybe they from this fall.

Getting a jump start to our hike with a gondola ride up.

Packed random heavy stuff into my pack to better train for our trek.

Clear enough to see Germany.

We saw four of the five lakes.

Hike around Lauterbrunnen Valley

We were familiar with this area from a prior snowboarding trip and heard this region is especially beautiful for hiking in the spring and summer. Even on a wet autumn afternoon, the views were very colorful.

Fog lifted just long enough to catch the view of some of the 72 waterfalls in the valley.

Our GPS track shown through Strava. Higher resolution in Swiss Topo.

There are numerous ways one can hike around Lauterbrunnen Valley. The route we chose started with a tram ride to the Grütschalp Station. From there we walked along the cliff wall to the village of Gimmelwald, down to the valley floor, passed waterfalls, through farms with grazing cows, and back into the town of Lauterbrunnen. If one arrives early enough, Trümmelbach Falls is another site along the way to Lauterbrunnen. Once back in town, there are numerous restaurants to choose from to replenish all the lost calories. We chose to treate ourselves to fondue and Glühwein.

Starting and ending point: the town of Lauterbrunnen.

Between the villages of Murren and Gimalwald

Weather turned on us.

Moving through the valley farms.

Liechtensteins Drei Schwestern Trail - Liechtenstein's Three Sisters Trail

I have a dirty secret: I wanted to hike in Lichtenstein because I wanted to add another country to my count. Yes, I'm a country collector. Lichtenstein is very similar to Switzerland. The similarities include currency, language and its dramatic mountain scenery.

We allotted five hours to do this hike, which is the suggested time according to some websites. Unfortunately, Q mistakenly loaded the GPS tracks of a longer version of the hike, which forced us to turn back early. With looming thunder storm clouds in the distance, we wouldn't dare to extend our pre-determined turn back time. Despite not making it to our predesignated turn around point, taking the long cut on the way to our destination made the hike more interesting with its high meadow of wild flowers. I would encourage others to add a couple hours onto the hike and take the long cut on the way up. I hope to finish the trek in the future. The landscape was breathtaking, especially with the spring flowers in full bloom along the long scenic trail. Here is where one can find the original trail Tourisum.li.

Views of Austria, German, and Switzerland from the mountains of Liechtenstein.

Our GPS tracks shown through Strava. Better resolution through Swiss Topo.

The hike started off passing through a farm (near some intimidating looking steers), through wildflower filled high meadows, along cliff edges, down loose rock paths, along knife ridges, and back down slim paths hugging the rock cliff wall. Some points of the terrain require a bit more care. The loose rock paths made the trek more difficult as we were in constant fear of losing our footing and taking the fast way down - on our butts. Other portions were along cliff edges that would make one's head spin from looking down.

The hills are alive with the sound of music.

It was late spring and the wildflowers were in full bloom.

Before turning back we were in dramatic mountainous terrain with steep unguarded cliffs.

The way back was in grey rock terrain, which at moments was not for the faint of heart.

Hike to Äscher Mountain Hut

Photos of this Hut inspired me to get out and explore Switzerland. I was thrilled to end our first year in Switzerland by visiting it.

The Äscher Mountain Hut is tucked into the rock face high above the valley.

Our GPS tracks shown through Strava. Better resolution through Swiss Topo.

This 9.3 kilometer trek to Äscher Mountain Hut takes one through alpine farms, by crystal clear lakes, up forested hillsides, by mountain huts, past a cave church, through a cave, and finishes off with views during the tram ride down back to the valley floor. Even though much of the trek is uphill, according to MySwitzerland, this is the least technical direction. Äscher Mountain Hut is shortly before one reaches the tram, providing a nice opportunity to reward one's self with a long lunch of Swiss Rösti topped with egg and alp cheese accompanied by wine or beer all while enjoying the valley view far below.