Budapest Opera -- Cosi Fan Tutte

After our great experience seeing Il Trovatore in Prague, Anna and I decided to go to the opera house in Budapest to go see another opera, this time something a little more cheery. We saw Cosi Fan Tutte, or rather we saw the first half. In Prague we had been spoiled with subtitles, but in Budapest the subtitles were only in Hungarian and we decided we didn't quite enjoy the opera enough to sit through the second half without understanding it. At intermission we headed to the cloakroom where the woman at the counter explained, "No finish. It's break." 

At least we were able to enjoy seeing the inside of the opera house and the impressive set and costumes.

Budapest Baths -- Szechenyi

If ever you go to Budapest, you must go to the baths. And get a massage. I think we all agreed that this was our favorite day of vacation. 

Budapest Sightseeing

Sightseeing in Budapest...

This sign made me chuckle

Our hostel

Il Trovatore, the Beer Tour, Communism, etc.

In Prague I saw my first opera -- Il Trovatore. The opera house was beautiful and I loved that I was able to follow along with the English subtitles on the screen above the stage. 

Prague

For whatever reason I just haven't been able to bring myself to really blog lately. I guess I've had too much on my mind. Anyway, here is a round of pictures from some of our time in Prague.

Travel buddies in the Lyon airport

Snowy view from our hotel room

Astronomical clock

Inside the astronomical clock tower

Anna in the clock tower

Nikki and Anna

A view of the city

Enchilada Wednesday

Whenever someone asks me what I miss about home, Mexican food always comes up somewhere between family, friends, and bagels. I bought a bottle of Tabasco sauce months ago, but I always feel a little silly busting it out at the dinner table -- it doesn't exactly go with quiche and salad. However, my presence has piqued my host family's interest in spicy food. 

On a shopping trip while I was out of town, S. (the 11 year-old son) convinced Mme. T. to purchase this handy enchilada kit. I was a little skeptical (especially since I was the one in charge of making them), but they ended up tasting pretty good. The kit included tortillas, enchilada sauce, and spices. Add chicken, shredded cheese, and voila!

Not my enchiladas, but they looked fairly similar.

I only added half of the spice packet (a drop of Tabasco makes S. chug several glasses of water) and that was plenty for the French family. Next time I'm thinking of going the veggie route and maybe whipping up some guacamole. Or Serrano's bean dip? Yum.

Lyon: Take Two

I'm finally back from my February vacation to Lyon, Prague, Budapest, and London -- it was a blast but it's definitely nice to be back in Bourg, if for nothing else but to stop living out of a dirty backpack and finally have clean laundry. 

One thing that I've learned about myself from this experience is that I do not take nearly enough pictures. I don't know if it was because my camera is too big or if my purse was just too crammed with stuff already, but I found myself rarely taking it out since I was traveling with three other girls, all taking pictures already anyway. Expect a post in the future full of the photos I was too lazy to take. First up, Lyon.

The reason I started this blog (almost four years ago) was to document my summer study abroad adventures in Lyon. When Anna came to France at the end of December, we resolved to return to Lyon to visit our favorite places and discover the city in the winter. The freezing temperatures and snow certainly changed the city. We spent most of our time going from cafe to shop to cafe to shop to cafe to restaurant, bearing the cold for brief moments in between. 

On our first night we bundled up and walked from our hotel in Guillotiere all the way to Vieux Lyon. In retrospect, this was not the smartest of ideas because the cold ended up getting Anna sick at the beginning of our trip (and later at the end), but we enjoyed our scavenger hunt for Mexico Lindo (it was closed, possibly for the whole vacation) and the Irish bars. We ate some kebabs before taking the metro back to the hotel, watching a movie, and going to sleep. 

Our first hotel of the trip

The Pink Tower

This was the weather last week. On Tuesday, I walked through a light snow to get to work at the school that I just happen to live the furthest away from. But it was charming. I seldom see falling snow, so it felt a little magical. It also didn't snow enough to actually create snowmen or anything, so that was a bit of a letdown but not a big deal. Now, here is the weather this week:

No amount of Flagstaff and snowboarding trips has prepared me for this cold. The worst is the wind.

This region of France is famous for "le mistral" -- aka evil wind that is merely annoying when it's sunny and messes up your hair, but is lethal when it's already freezing outside. You know how in Arizona the shade is always ten degrees cooler than anywhere else? Well here the wind does the same, but obviously not in a pleasant way. And it doesn't help when people start talking about how next week it will be "10 below" because I constantly forget that they mean -10 degrees celsius, not -10 degrees fahrenheit.

Starting Friday I'm off to Lyon, Prague, Budapest, and London for vacation... a very fun, but still very cold vacation.

Oh dear...

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Menton, & Monaco

I can't even describe how great it is to have a good friend in the same country as me, even if she is living five to six hours away. The boring train rides and rainy weather were worth it. Et comme d'habitude, she managed to post all of her pictures from this weekend long before me. :)

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Menton

Italy?

Me and Anna on our way to Ventimiglia... not.

We were going to check out the big Friday market in Ventimiglia, Italy but only got as far as Menton, France due to a strike in Italy. I guess strikes aren't just a French thing after all.

A Weekend Getaway to Nice

One of the best parts about being back in France is that my friend Anna is finally here! We decided to take a trip to Nice on the first weekend I was back in France. We stayed at a hostel called Hotel Meyerbeer Beach. If you ever find yourself looking for a place to stay in Nice, I would definitely recommend it. We did a lot of walking around, doing our best to visit some sights on foot and eat lots of great food -- not to mention do some shopping now that the sales season is here. 

Nice was a beautiful city and I hope to get back again sometime before my months here are up!

Our room -- I thought the Che pillows were a nice touch. Photo via Anna

A sunny day -- no jacket or scarf required. Photo via Anna

Note the little sitting men on poles. They change colors at night.

Ferris wheel

Me and Anna. Photo via Anna