Budathanksmas

Happy Christmas! In spite of our resistance to celebrating so early, Christmas season has arrived in the UK, especially here in Birmingham where the German Christmas Market is in full swing. Normally, I’d stick to protocol and hold off on letting out my Christmas cheer this early and before Thanksgiving, but seeing as the Brits don’t celebrate our favourite American excuse to over eat, it seems acceptable to make spirits bright a bit earlier this year. Besides, it’s getting dark earlier and colder by the day, so I could use the help ridding myself of any preemptive bah humbugs. Best of all, it reminds us that we’ll be home for a visit oh so soon (25 days and I'm counting)! Before I get to discussing all of the fa-la-la-la-mazing that Christmas Market is, I’ll recap our trip to Budapest!

We didn’t know much about Budapest going in. We’d heard from Adam’s parents and our Turkish friends (who say it’s similar to Istanbul) that it’s a great place, and such proved the case. Hungarians are quite friendly and the city is very relaxed. Though it’s a popular tourist site, it never felt like it. We easily moved about the city (back and forth between the Buda and Pest sides) and enjoyed each stop. Most everyone speaks English (by choice, not because we asked) and welcomes you to the city. We knew it would be a good trip right from the start as we met a local who kindly showed us from the airport to our hotel and made some great recommendations for the weekend ahead.

We drove down to London-Luton airport and flew WizzAir having found good flight prices and times.  WizzAir, like RyanAir, has some strict requirements, but I’d also like all of my tall friends out there to know how small their seats are.  Seriously, our knees were against the seats in front of us. Anyhow, it was an easy 2 hour flight and upon arrival we purchased 72 hour passes for public transportation (bus, metro and tram all included). I don’t remember how many HUF (Hungarian Forint-national currency) the tickets were, but it was only about £10 and worth it. On that note, the HUF is not very valuable, thus making conversions quite tricky - about 450 HUF is £1 (which is around $1.50) meaning the cash we drew out came out in bills of 10,000s. It was weird! That aside, things in Hungary are actually VERY affordable. Our first night we enjoyed a meal of lamb and steak medallions and it was amazing! The restaurant was charming and close to our hotel (the Hilton, Pest side) and was a great intro to the city. We also really liked the public transports. The buses, trams and trains were OLD, but in a vintage way and they’re run quite well.

Friday morning we ventured into the Pest side passing through Heroe’s Square, Vajdahunyad Castle and made our way to the SzechenyiBaths.  We’d heard amazing things about these natural springs that have been turned into spas of sorts – you can lounge in these large hot tubs, and the water has natural minerals that makes your skin soft! It was amazing.  We spent the morning testing out each room/bath, stopping in a sauna or two along the way, and after freshening up (we brought swimsuits and rented lockers), headed back into the city.  We made a quick stop for lunch and continued our peaceful day by visiting St. Stephen's Basilica. It feels like we’ve seen dozens of cathedrals at this point, and we say we love them all, but this one was a top 3.  We’ve found it’s less about the décor/size/age and more about the feeling you get when you walk in, for us at least.  Some cathedrals allow pictures, have music playing, prohibit talking, etc - it just varies and all of this impacts your experience. We then went and checked into our hotel on the Buda Side and rested before dinner, which was on the Pest side in an area called Deak Ferenc which is a cute and busy road with several shops, restaurants and people milling around. 

Saturday morning we walked right next door (literally) from our hotel to see Matthias Church which is pretty on the inside, but actually prettier from the outside when you’re looking at it from across the river; it’s beautiful at night. We then decided to wander through some of the Hungarian markets.  There are several small shops with fun items on the Buda side, but we made our way back to the Pest side to check out the Central Market.   One of our favourite markets was in Madrid, and we made a point to visit the one in Budapest as well because you get to see lots of locals milling about and they usually have local snacks/treats.  We then took the tram up the river to Parliament, which is VERY cool.  The building is massive and there’s interesting history around how Hungarian government has been shaped over the years.  It looks like a palace, and houses the crown jewels, so is worth a look if you have time.  To finish off our day and trip, we went to the opera!

The Hungarian State Opera House is one of the prettiest buildings I’ve ever been in.  We had very cool box seats (thanks to Adam) and felt this was the right way to have our first opera experience, sans black tie attire.  We thought were set to see a classic, yet got quite the surprise performance (at least to us, we wonder if our fellow opera go-ers were better informed).  I guess it was a modern interpretation, so the opera was the same, but the costumes, and I imagine some of the acting were quite different than expected.  Having read the synopsis, I expected togas and lightning bolts – Greek mythology type stuff.  What we got were futuristic costumes and an overlying theme of the evils of consumerism.  Nonetheless, it was a very cool experience! All in all, Budapest was perfectly lovely - we'd definitely go back and I'd say for anyone considering it, that 3 days is plenty of time to spend there.

The following weekend we made a trip down to Watford (north of London) to the Harry Potter Movie Studios and had the best time! Adam and I are both fans of the books and movies and we made a day of it with our fellow expats after each refreshing our fan-knowledge through a week-long movie marathon.  Warner Bros has preserved most of the sets, props and costumes and did a really nice job turning it into a tour experience.  I had some major fan-girl moments, particularly on Diagon Alley.

Our friends followed us back to Brum so we could have our first proper outing at the Christmas Market the next day.  It was opening weekend so there was a nice crowd, and we were really impressed.  Birmingham’s German Market is supposedly one of the best in the country and the downtown High Street is flooded with vendors selling all kinds of goodies – the most popular of items being mulled wine, German bratwursts, knitted hats and a new favourite of mine, hot chocolate with Bailey’s. Our market here lasts 5 weeks, so I imagine we’ll be back several more times and we’re also going to try to venture out to some of the other UK Christmas markets over the coming weekends.

Last Saturday we ventured down to Guilford (south of London) to our expat friends’ house to see their new place and meet some more fellow expats.  Besides the good southern food our host filled us with (and her insanely kind host manners she shows us every time we stay), it was fun getting to talk with others who understand the transplant life. It was a much needed fix of good food and company.

Our office cafeteria is making a Thanksgiving Meal for the few Americans in the office (I think there are 4 of us total) and my team is excited to dine with me and hear all about my home traditions.  I’m sure I’ll try to whip up a few traditional items for Adam on Thursday night, but we most look forward to face-timing with family and living vicariously through all of you as you enjoy your time off from work. It’s been pretty cold here, including some snow flurries last weekend, so you’ll probably find us bundled up on the couch this weekend watching what American football we can stream and sipping on warm drinks.

I think that’s plenty from me for now! As is Thanksgiving custom, I’d like to share some of the things I’m thankful for..

Good family, friends (old and new), health (mine and those dear to me), technology, wool fabric and Sainsbury’s chocolate spread 

Gobble gobble, everyone.

Ocupados

Hi friends! Long time no talk, sorry about that (again, this apology is directed at our most loyal followers, our moms). Things have been fairly busy since they Haywoods left. As I mentioned in our last blog, we found a new place and since the move we've been without internet. In other news since my last post, I GOT A JOB!

It so happens that my job is with Adam's firm. For those who don't know what I do (I know this includes friends and family who've never quite understood), I'm in Business Development meaning I work on client recruitment and retention. The firm's office here is quite large and it's been a very experience thus far. I don't see Adam often as he spends most of his time at clients' offices, but I'm sure we'll be visiting our office cafeteria for some fish & chips together soon enough.

I started working two weeks ago, a whole 36 hours after we moved, and to say I was too exhausted after work to update the blog would be an understatement. Six months off can really take a toll on a girl. Since becoming a working gal again, I've learned to manage and appreciate public transportation (I take the bus) and now find myself using words like "blimey" and "buggar." I'm sure there will be more to come as I dive deeper into British life. Things feel entirely different now that I'm working and with us being in our new place (which we love and will get a separate blog post). I can't believe we're 6 months in and 1/4 the way through the secondment (British term for Adam's rotation/contract here which has an original and initial tenure of 23 months-no concrete thoughts on if we'll extend at this point).

Prior to all of this fun, though, we went to Madrid! To be honest, Madrid wasn't high on our list of places to go. We've been interested in Spain (Barcelona is on our list), but neither of us could think of any monument or famous site to see in Madrid. However, we found very cheap flights from Birmingham and a Hilton requiring minimal hotel points. We'd been looking for cheaper trip options to save funds for moving later in the month so we thought, why not? Also, upon planning I realized Madrid was known for two of my favorite things in life - tapas and sangria. End result - very pleased.

We flew into Madrid on a Thursday afternoon, checked into our hotel and found our way to the metro (subway) fairly quickly. It was pretty easy to navigate (clear to read map, nothing like that of NYC, which I abhor), and very cheap - 2 euros to get all the way into the city, which was about a 30 min ride. We walked down Gran Via (Madrid's shopping central) to Plaza Mayor for some wine and people watching. This area is fairly central and has people milling around constantly - it's like a town square, very cute. We then made our way to La Latina quarter where we browsed some local shops and grabbed dinner. We went with local favorites - I had oxtail and Adam the suckling pig (he won in the food contest that night). Madrid life is LATE. Lunches aren't until 1pm or later and dinners at 9pm. This took some getting used to, but we enjoyed sleeping late in the mornings to compensate.

first Taco Bell we've seen out of the US - no, we didn't try it

Plaza Mayor

Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel (shout out to Hilton Honors program for the freebies) and made our way into town to the Palace. The Spanish monarchy is still active (their royals are quite young and chic) and this palace is stunning. It's updated and very well maintained. The art and decor are amazing and it's incredible how many rooms you actually get to tour! I say this having been to Buckingham and having been a little disappointed when I was only allowed into approx. 3 rooms. We then made our way to San Miguel Market which was a favorite of mine. It was loaded with locals and tourists and the rows were lined with savory snacks and sweets galore. Oh, and the best sangria I've ever had.  I could've stayed there for hours. We wondered around town a bit more before making our way to El Retiro Park. This is Madrid's version of Central or Hyde Park, etc. There's a large man made lake in the middle where you can rent row boats and listen to local musicians. We sat in a cafe on the edge for a while and enjoyed the weather and the culture. For the evening we made our way to the Literary Quarter which is known for live music and night life. We didn't find a particularly lively music scene, but we did stumble into one of the meat markets to taste some of the fresh pork (pigs legs hang literally everywhere in Madrid) and found a local bar with Spain's futbol match on (Ronaldo and the Real Madrid weren't playing that wknd).

Royal Palace

Royal Palace

El Retiro

Fresh meat

Saturday was our favorite part of the trip. Since we didn't have much we were dying to see in the city, Adam had the idea to train out to a neighboring town for the day. We somewhat randomly selected Avila, which was about an hour out. It was utterly charming. The city is known for being home to Spain's oldest Roman and Gothic architecture and to this day it's surrounded by a gate that you can walk along and enjoy amazing views of the city. The cathedral was massive (biggest I've been to date) and stunning. It's walls consisted mostly of a stone called blood stone. As you can imagine, it's reddish in color, but each stone has several shades and varies so when placed side by side, it's gorgeous.

Enjoying roasted chesnuts in Avila

Avila Wall/Gate

Avila Cathedral

The Spanish are extremely friendly and welcoming. Adam can speak a little Spanish, but even when at a loss for the words, they kindly helped us get what we were looking for.  The culture is also very relaxed. No one seems to be in a hurry to get anywhere or to do anything so it felt like a true vacation/city break for us. Sunday we caught an early flight back and had the day  to recover before commencing packing (and my last week of freedom).  We do a lot of 4 day trips as we've found 3 days is often just the right amount to sight see, building in time for travel.  We also do our best to not have to leave at the crack of dawn and try to get back on a decent hour when returning so we can rest and prep for the week ahead.

As I said, I'll post soon on the new place and new neighborhood. After that, I imagine I'll have plenty to write about as we have a few fun events planned for November. We'll be visiting Budapest, Hungary this week and are so excited! Adam's parents went while here and loved it, so they've given us some travel tips. The weekend after that we'll be getting together with our two sets of American friends and going to Harry Potter studios! Finally, November is when the Christmas Market in Birmingham opens and we can't wait to do some holiday shopping, plus it's a favorite of Brummies as it puts all in the Christmas spirit.

Daylight savings ended last weekend (a week earlier than in the states) so it's getting dark around 5pm.  Britain is known for it's short/dark days in the winter and I've been dreading it's approach with each day that passes. However, we have less than 50 days now till we are back in the states for a visit. Time flies when you're having fun! Till next time... Cheers all!