I heart Mom and Dad

Since Prince Charming has been away in business this past week, I've had my wonderful parents come stay with me and baby S. Oh, how I love having them around, seeing them with my little girl and being able to show them some of my everyday life.

They arrived Saturday while P was still here. We picked them up at the airport (yes, I admit it was a relief to see that they a) made it to the airport in Gothenburg on time, b) got to take their bags on to the aircraft (stupid Wizzair and Ryanair for their idiotic rules concerning handbagage!) and c) weren't stopped by customs). I'm a worrier.. what can I say!? 

From the airport we went straight to the small village of Szentendre, where we enjoyed the classic goulash with beer, strolled around the souvenir shops and of course; went bananas at the christmas decoration shop! Love that place! I could literally spend hours and hours there, ooohing and aaahing over the glitz and glam. And finally I got to show it to Mom! 

Just gotta mention the dinner P cooked for us; wienerschnitzels so tender they melted in your mouth. And we topped it off with a bottle of the Amarone we bought on our trip to Italy this summer. Ahhh, la dolce vita! 

Sunday morning P, my dad and I went to the Széchenyi bath to soak. Not as shabby as it's rumour, I thought. It's a huge thermal bath, with both indoor and outdoor pools. We had a blast. They have a swirl pool, where they who enter it get swooshed around, lika a merry-go-round. I will never ever forget the image of my dad swishing by P and me, giving P a high five as he passed. He was like a teenager again. Heartwarming!

The rest of the week included shopping at the mall, a visit to the amazing Christmas fair at Vörösmarty Tér where we had some glühwein with high promille, taking baby S to the playground, having a delicious dinner at Café 57, checking out the Great Market hall and Vaci út with all it's souvenir shops, and a lot of window shopping for antiques...

When it was time for them to leave my heart broke... it was so hard to see them getting in to that taxi.. now I know how they feel every time S and I leave them. It got so quiet and empty here! Luckily we'll be together again in just a short month to celebrate Christmas.

Baby steps

Hi y'all! Why are parents so obsessed with getting their baby to walk!? Hey - I'm not saying I'm any better! I keep placing baby S on her feet, part begging, part threatening her in order to make her take those damned first steps.. I mean, the baby is eventually gonna walk. All by herself. All babies learn how to walk. Sooner or later. So what's the big fuss about? Three weeks ago baby S suddenly took five steps. Just like that. And never did it since. It was like she knew how bad we wanted it. Such a tease.. She would just look at me, begging her to walk, smile a mischievous smile and slowly sit down and start to crawl instead. Until yesterday. She just started walking towards daddy. Stepping up with confidence, 7, 8, 9, 10 steps. Maybe this was the breakthrough. And from now on we will never be able to fully relax again. What the heck were we thinking!?

Now I will go back to writing a wedding toast for one of my dearest friends who's getting married this Saturday. Hooray!!

Weekend in Vienna

My last post was kinda dull..  so today I'm gonna cover a more pleasant topic. VIENNA! Love love love this city! Since Monday was a national holiday here in Hungary, I packed up my little family and went across the border. Vienna is only a two hour drive from Budapest, so it's perfect for a weekend getaway. Such a beautiful city, and the shopping is to die for. Except the prices. Since I moved to Budapest I've become used to the lower prices here, and I find all other countries to be expensive.

We arrived in Vienna Saturday by lunchtime. We stayed at the same hotel as last time, a beautiful hotel with good location. After checking in we headed to the famous Figlmeuller to see if we would be so lucky as to get a table. No way José. The line went on for days.. But hey, we ended up getting us some of that schnitzel anyway, just at another resto. And then it was time for some serious SHOPPING. I always become a shopzilla when I know I don't have unlimited time for shopping. Poor P, I stress the living hell out of him, running from store to store, my eyes wide open and with a crazy look in my eyes.  To keep him sane and me happy, we usually split up. My darling man had his mind set on surprising me with a new wallet, a replacement for the beautiful one that got stolen. This would prove to be a difficult task. At one point, he snuck off to a tiny store on a backstreet. He had just asked the lady in the store for some assistance, when all of a sudden I stood outside of the store, staring through it's window with a hollow look in my eyes. At first I didn't even see him, I was focused on the nice bags in the store. But then I someone quite familiar standing there. So no wallet from that store. A few hours later he tried again, going back to buy a wallet that I had fallen in love with. This time he pulled it off, but upon leaving the store he saw me walking in! As I was walking around the store, looking at more bags, my hubby was hiding behind some shelves. When he finally made it to the exit, the alarm went off, and a security guard asked him to come back. Whispering, P asked the man for discretion.. Despite all this, I never noticed him, and was very surprised when he gave me the wallet! Such a darling, my P. I love surprises, especially thoughtful one's like this! My crazy day of shopping resulted in a fantastic pink purse! Love it!

We had dinner at this amazing thai restaurant called Patara. We had a tasting menu, so the tasty dishes just kept coming and coming.. yumm..

Sunday everything is closed in Vienna. I mean everything. But that gave us plenty of time to wander about and explore the city. We had brunch at Die Wäscherei. On the walk back to our hotel we stumbled upon a jazzperformance at a square, so we stopped and listened for a while. After kicking it back at the hotel we went out for dinner. Italian food at "Limes", so goooood! We said our salutes in some sparkling prosecco, mmmmm..

On Monday we went for some last minute shopping. I surprised P with a gift, and he surprised me with an early birthday gift from a very special jeweler...

Our weekend in Vienna was fantastic, can't wait to go again!