yo - my streets are narrower than yours

if little european countries can talk to each other, i would imagine they'd be having a street narrowness battle, yaknowwhattamsayin?

quick side note.  it's really cold.  i'm drinking hot water with lemon and honey right now (out of tea!).  i should drink hot water more often.  it's as cold here now as it was in salzburg when we were there (segway not intended! lol)

and then there was cozy little salzburg.  cozy, and yet so vast (see pictures below with alps foothills in the background)...and little cobblestone streets and stairs leading through very old buildings/neighborhoods. or castles.  and in case you were living under a rock like i was - or just never happened to watch the sound of music, that's where most of the movie was filmed :)  i didn't do my homework and watched the movie AFTER we came home from the trip - it made it so much more special.

we didn't spend too much time there so all of what we saw was touristy.  the streets were filled during the day, but they emptied up pretty quick come evening.  places close up shop earlier there which was surprising to us.  wes and i wanted to go out for a drink or something, but the it was pretty sparse by then.









that's us keeping it real






these fellas were playing THE most romantic music i ever did hear.


at the sound of music park (sorry i know it has a name! so naive)


everyone was posing for pictures running through here.  at the time i thought it was so lame, but now i wish i did it tooo.  










the cathedrals are always so full of beautiful detail


i didn't see the sign where i was supposed to pay....for lighting a candle.


life supply of cheese at the market




up inside the castle at the very top of the hill.  it used to be a little town back in the mid-evil days.






one of the views from the top.


that's us in front of the view from the top, lol.  excessive much?


just another phone pic i never instagrammed.


and of course there's always more here.  next up is vienna.  actually vienna happened before salzburg - i kind of lost track.

have a good night!

ps. i started at my job as an official stylist this last saturday.  so cool! one of the original purposes of this blog was to track my progress from the very start (i.e. deciding to go to beauty school).  very happy i stuck to it ya know.  makes this so rewarding.

budapest

very large city - lots of night life, youth, and culture. i found this city to be most relatable to my own russian/uzbek culture over all the other places we saw (well prague too, haha).  of course it was a part of ussr at one point as was where i came from (uzbekhistan), so that would make sense.  tons of history - pride in their country and gorgeous architecture.  castles everywhere.  

of course we also had the great advantage of mike being a native so he really showed us the ropes (so to speak).

i felt particularly nostalgic walking through the street market.  we were on our way to the luxurious bathhouse  when we stumbled upon this bazaar of sorts. 

alla and i were freaking out about these little puppets

not sure if i remember what is on this bread - it looks like an eggplant spread which is something my ma used to make. it also made me think of a snack my dad made when we were little - he used to spread butter on toast, and put salt and pepper on it.  and that's it.  

we had breakfast at this great jewish restaurant called spinoza. i was ecstatic when i saw they served granola with yogurt and FRESH fruit. and to top it off, they had a pianist. and black coffee!

this is the ceiling at he bathhouse mike took us to.  it's the fanciest thing ever! they have several naturally heated pools outside, tons of saunas and mineral baths inside at all sorts of temperatures.  saunas and bathhouses are popular in hungary.  but this particular one peeps come to from all over the world. 

of course we didn't' take our camera in with us, so i borrowed this pic from the national geo website

we also had to see the famous new york cafe.  it's quite fancy to say the least (i mean look at the ceilings!).  eating at a place like this would cost a fortune in the states or paris even. here it was pretty reasonable. 

the boys entertaining ideas of making head statues of themselves.  to pass on to our children (lol)

kids were enamored with the man's puppet show.  everything about this is cute, but the look in his eyes.  

some great people we met through alla and mike.  they came out to hang with us despite the rain and gloom

a castle

alla walking in front of the parliament building.  the construction going on in the background and the grey weather really are doing no justice, but this building is gorgeous.  

bad weather definitely put a damper, but we tried to make the best of it.  

thanks for stopping by! here's more of budapest.  anywho, next up is salzburg! 

brussels!

loved brussels!
the pace is slower than in paris - lots of little pubs everywhere in case you want to take a little beer/cider break.  somehow such breaks seemed more welcoming here. it's smaller, and more compact, but has the most amazing city square! i could spend a good chunk of time sitting outside studying the deets on those buildings (and staring at the people!). anyway,

according to wikipedia, food-wise it's known for it's waffles, beer, french fries, and chocolate.  i tried three of these.

their waffles are seriously the tastiest i've ever had in my life.  i'm sure they're filled with tons of butter/sugar, but they're perfectly crispy outside and soft inside and i now want to make some here.  if possible a healthier version of them, but mimic the taste EXACTLY.

also had lindmans pecheresse (peach cider) - a new fav! i'm on the lookout to get some for myself at home

had just a small taste of the chocolate in one of the shops, but didn't take it too much farther.  somehow there were chocolate shops everywhere, it was kind of turning me off from caring about it much.  sounds crazy - but i think the waffles were a good enough distraction.


alla and i just about passed out when we found a healthy restaurant option after passing up nothing but pub food, waffle and sausage options.  it was such a relief to see fresh salads and fruits, hot soup, beet sandwich?

























this park had tons of chestnut trees so i gathered some  to bring home in hopes of "roasting chestnuts on an open fire"


outside the city center.  more of a "real" neighborhood.




that's brussels.  btw, this was all in two(ish) days.  kind of a first world problem, but you can't see much variation in my outfits - i packed light, but i did switch things up.  good thing that i happen to love my trench coat/fur hood/booties, they totally saved the trip for me weather-wise.  like i said, fwp ;)

ok - next up is budapest!