"If you come from Paris to Budapest, you think you are in Moscow, but if you go from Moscow to Budapest, you think you are in Paris." - Gyorgy Ligeti

So that promise I made about posting every week quickly fell through. Oh well, new year, new resolutions! Except that I have sneakily figured out a way to turn back "blog" time to December 3rd. While this may be confusing, it helps alleviate some of my guilt so tough luck to those who like timely and accurate posts!

Us with "Buda" behind us. This view reminds me a lot of Prague Castle. 

Since the last post, we have spent a weekend in Budapest, Hungary, Phil has traveled to Bangalore, India, we've frequented the Stockholm Christmas Markets way too many times, and we also had a 3 week holiday respite in the U.S. But first things first, Budapest!

"Autumn is a Second Spring when Every Leaf is a Flower." -Albert Camus

After Munich, we had several weeks at home in Stockholm before we headed to Budapest. Below are a collection of photos from sort of "everyday" life here. I didn't start work at Karolinska until about 2 weeks ago, so a majority of my everyday life was spent trying out new recipes, as the food photos indicate. We also both got sick, with Phil getting hit pretty hard (see photo below). What else? We continued decorating the apartment (our tree made its big debut!), did a little pumpkin carving, and tried to take in as much of the fall leaves as possible. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

One of our recent apartment additions

Dinner ingredients!

"Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, Der Gemütlichkeit!" ("A toast, A toast, To cheer and good times!")

I hope the long break in blog posts is a good indication of the intense experience that is Oktoberfest. It has taken close to a month before I've felt ready to reflect and revisit our time in Munich. =)

There is a lot to catch up on. This past month we traveled to Munich and Budapest. I'd also like to do a brief update on life in Stockholm. So with that in mind, this next post will be Munich and I promise another post will go up this time next week!

Let's get started! 

Munich is a beautiful and historical city in its own right but I can't lie and say that Oktoberfest wasn't the main draw for us. The festival ground is like a typical fair ground with carnival rides, street food and souvenir stands. The tents are situated in make-shift avenues among the games and food. While technically temporary buildings, I think the word "tent" is severely self-deprecating for these beer behemoths. Several of the tents we visited had upstairs, full dining rooms, chandeliers, etc, all the extravagances that a typical "tent" is sure to lack. The luxury of the tents is fitting, however, when you consider that Oktoberfest started as a royal wedding celebration for Bavarian Prince Ludwig, later King, and Princess Therese in 1810.

Tallin, Estonia - “There are no FOREIGN LANDS. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

 

We spent Sept. 15th - 18th visiting the capital of Estonia, Tallinn via overnight boat ride. 

"Remember tonight... for it is THE BEGINNING of always." -Dante Alighieri

After 12 hours of traveling, I arrived in Stockholm to an embarrassingly large bundle of flowers. (Pat and Phil, I think you can take some of the credit here.) While the flowers delighted me, I think they were unappreciated by the locals who were frequent victims of unintentional flower to face contact due to the size.