Snowshoeing in the Roosevelt National Forest

As a change of scenery and to do a rare US-based entry, I wanted to post about my family's snowshoeing trip. In mid-January, my Idaho-living sister joined me in Colorado to visit my parents, and we all went snowshoeing in Northern Colorado. I admittedly like the idea of snow sports more than I actually like participating in them, but after I warmed up and escaped some harsh winds, it was lovely to romp through the snow. A downfall of living in Budapest is the lack of fresh air and sunshine, so this pristine change of scenery was so appreciated. And of course, the best part was having my family together.

 

  

 

Venice, at last ...

The meaning of my blog title is twofold. First, it is an apology to my steady readers for taking so long to blog about my January trip. Once I came back from the Italian excursion, I had house guests, then headed to the States, from where, as time has proven, I rarely blog. But, now I'm back in Hungary and ready to be a regular blogger once again.

On a literal level, the title of this blog expresses my excessive happiness that I finally made it to Venice, the city that's been my most pined-for European destination for as long as I can remember. Mike and I went at the very end of December and met up with his close college buddy, Ryan, and his friend Brad.

With its labyrinthine streets, countless bridges and serpentine canals that embrace the entire city, Venice was just as charmingly romantic as I envisioned. The majority of our time was spent wandering through the claustrophobic streets, avoiding the myriad crystal and tie shops, and relishing in the luxury of getting lost amid crumbling walls and rising waters. Although we didn't ride a gondola, we saw many gorgeous churches (including the San Marco bascilica, with its overwhelming amount of byzantine, gilded murals) and the Peggy Guggenheim museum, which of course I could not skip! The museum is in a palace right on the Grand Canal, and although its collection included gawk-worthy paintings by Pollock and Picasso, the views from its terrace rivaled any art inside.

Since we went in the winter, we were able to avoid droves of other tourists, but we were subject to flooding on a daily basis. Each morning, we awoke to a siren that signaled the flooding was about to begin. From about 6am to 11am, there was at least a foot of standing water outside our rental apartment that slowly drained back to the sea. Fortunately for my party-loving travel mates, sleeping in and avoiding the water was no challenge at all.

Since we were there to ring in the New Year, we weren't about to miss seeing the main celebrations at San Marco Square, despite the fact that it was underwater on New Year's Eve.

I decided to splurge on rubber boots to keep my feet dry, but the boys decided to go the more frugal route and wrap their feet in well-layered trash bags, leading to the Smurf effect you see pictured. They managed to stay dry for at least a portion of the time we spent in the square, but at the stroke of midnight, we fled the waters and headed to the bar where we had already become "regulars" with the Albanian bartenders. For a more detailed description of our New Year's Eve, visit my new creative writing blog:
http://marisa-musings.blogspot.com/


On the last night of our trip, Mike and I stayed at a gorgeous hotel called Molino Stucky, which is on Giudecca, an lilliputian island across from San Marco. To get to the landmark hotel, we took a chartered boat which Mike adored (his new life goal is to become a boat captain and a gondolier). The stunning,  brick hotel (pictured next to me) is in a refurbished, 19th-century flour mill, which was once run by Stucky, a notoriously tyrannical boss who was murdered by one of his employees in the hotel. Fortunately, I saw no signs of Stucky's ghost, just lovely artwork and beautiful view of the Venetian sky line.

While my dreams of more Italian travel are certainly not extinguished, I am so thankful I finally set foot on the soaked streets of Venice.

An Austro-Hungarian Christmas

For the first time in our lives, both Michael and I did not spend Christmas with our families and instead enjoyed a newlywed Yule Tide in Hungary. In order to keep some things normal, we bought a real Christmas tree from one of the corner tree lots that were set up around the city. Since we don't have any ornaments with us, we went the old-fashioned route and strung popcorn (a very labor-intensive process that confused some of our Hungarian friends) and designed our own ornaments and tree-toppers. I am quite proud of the fleet of dachshund ornaments I fashioned out of red construction paper.


Two days before Christmas, we headed to Vienna to visit the Christmas markets and enjoy the lights.


Instead of going to the big, commercialized market like we did last year, we tried to visit the smaller ones. These were all charming with wooden stall after wooden stall of handicrafts and food, but there seemed to be an overwhelming amount of vendors who sold Nepalese or Hindu type goods. So rather than the expected smell of mulled wine and bratwurst wafting through the air, we caught wiffs of patchouli oil and incense, which did make me slightly nostalgic for Boulder.


The best part of our one-night stay (besides eating delicious schnitzel and visiting two microbreweries) was ogling the Christmas lights. The city center of Vienna simply dazzled - lights were strung everywhere, and some buildings were shrouded in so many lights, they looked like wrapped presents.

My favorite lights were hung from large circles, so they streamed down like octopus tentacles.


Back in Budapest n Christmas Eve, we watched our favorite holiday movies, baked a lot of sweets and allowed each other to open one present, just like at home. On actual Christmas day, we didn't want to cook a big meal for just the two of us, so we went to the Marriott Hotel to feast on their delicious buffet, which was every bit as good as their Thanksgiving display. Maybe we'll make that a tradition ... That day I also went to mass at Budapest's most famous church, St. Stephen's Basilica. Although I couldn't understand the mass because it was given in Latin and Hungarian, it was such a beautiful experience to sit in this immense cathedral among strangers full of Christmas joy and wonder how many people had also been to mass in the same spot and stared at the same stunning frescoes over the last few centuries.





On Christmas night, our good friends filled our apartment, drank my mulled wine (even though I accidentally added peppercorn instead of cloves into it) and were holly and jolly into the wee hours of the night.

International Birthday Wishes

Besides missing holidays, a downside to living this far away from home is missing celebrations for my friends and family. In particular, my oldest, dearest friend Jennifer (whom I've known since I was just a little over one year old) turned 25 today. I can't remember missing any of her previous birthday parties, so I was sad to miss this one and wanted to do something special for her, so I decided to make a video. A group of my international friends banded together to create this video for her, and I hope she loves it.

Bardroom Pics

Here are some photos from my reading at the Budapest Bardroom last week (see previous post). There was a great singer from the UK at the event, and her boyfriend took these shots at Treehugger Dan's bookstore in Budapest. The picture above is of the hosts Steve and Kalman.


I performed my opening piece with Rachel, the musician.



Rachel performing.


My friend Aubrey reading from his book.

Budapest Bardroom

Since 2001, the Budapest Bardroom - which hosts performance nights for the city's English-speaking literati - has hosted many writers and musicians from across the world. Last week, I was honored by being the featured poet at this winter's reading, where I performed a selection of my writing. Another American expat friend of mine, Aubrey Ramage-Lay, read his fiction, while an English/South African woman sang and played guitar. The whole combination was great, and I loved reading my work again. When I was in college, I co-hosted a weekly open-mic at a Boulder cafe, and I hadn't realized how much I missed participating in literary readings! I hope I can participate in more open-mics in the future. A large group of my friends here came out to watch, and I felt really lucky to have so much support.

I'm featured on the Bardoom website now too:

My profile on their website.

Dentistry Denied

Today, I was sent home from a Budapest dental office because my teeth were "too clean." Yes, this is a true story.

Usually, dentists and dental hygienists are a tough crowd to please. Even if I flossed daily, brushed multiple times a day with the softest bristles possible and never let sugar touch my lips, there is always room for improvement (like last year, when I was chastised for over brushing). However, my experience today has made me rethink my dentistry assumptions.

After months of procrastination, I finally found a reputable English-speaking dentist to visit in Hungary. Since this region is known for dental tourism and attracts Western Europeans to their experienced and relatively inexpensive facilities, I had no qualms about skipping out on my life-long Colorado dentist. Everything was fine when I arrived at the modern clinic, and a friendly English translator welcomed me back into the exam room. Before she explained the treatment, the clinic's hygienist did a precursory exam of my teeth so she could recommend a specific cleaning. After the brief look-see, she told the translator that there was no need for plaque removal, and a regular cleaning was not necessary. Since I am used to six-month treatments and it's been awhile, I couldn't believe the diagnosis. Even after I protested, they told me to come back in a few months and sent me on my way without paying a forint.

Now, I don't think this would ever happen in a Western clinic. Even if my teeth were as clean as they say (which I guarantee they are not, despite my golden flossing habits), who would turn away a paying customer? But, I will relish the dental compliment, because it will probably never happen again. When I return to my US-dentist, I am sure he will scold me for waiting so long between dental cleanings and tell me I'm under brushing this time.

**Editors note - After retelling this story to my American editor, he said the same thing has happened to him. Apparently, you have to be very firm with dentists here and demand that your teeth be cleaned.