5 Year Wedding Anniversary!

Well, tomorrow is officially our 5 year wedding anniversary. Hurrah! We actually celebrated last weekend though, hence the flight and the lost luggage (ps. we got it back!). I won't be blogging about our ultra-romantic, sexy, carefree and fun trip in detail (sorry, some things are better left unblogged...), but you can be sure a Blurb book will follow, and heck, I will tell you where we went as a teaser... in the form of this picture. Any guesses?! Happy Anniversary to me, and Happy weekend to you all.

Love reading profiles about me?

Here is another questionairre, profile, life story about me... as posted on the Expatica website. Feel free to leave your feedback here and let me know if I really look that pink on your monitors, too, in the Lucern photo! :)

Happy reading. :)

Fasnacht Dilemma

So here is the situation... Fasnacht is wrapping up this weekend. What's Fasnacht you ask? Well throughout February all around the world people have celebrated with fancy costumes, parades, and dancing in the streets from Fat Tuesday in the States, to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, to Carnival in Rio, to Karneval in Germany... and the southern German and Swiss equivalent is called Fasnacht.

While I have already eaten my weight in fried disks, which is a celebration in itself, even if only for one, the real event has been taking place all over Switzerland for the last few weekends now (check out Luzern's from Towe and Anders!), and is culminating this weekend in Basel and Urdorf, to name a few locals. I will watch the parade on Saturday in Urdorf, but the big question is do I go to Basel - where the real shebang is, but the parade starts on Monday morning... at 4 am!

While I would generally throw caution to the wind and pull the all nighter for a cultural event such as this, the Fasnacht Umzug, or parade, happens to coincide with the biggest launch of the year and I will be expected to be awake or at least alert throughout the day. So the question is... do I act like I only live once and take the train at 3 am to Basel... or do I sleep in and do the right thing and get rest before the big day. Decisions, decisions... ;)

Ps. The first Swiss Blogger Meet-Up will take place on Sunday, April 26th - so mark those calendars. I look forward to meeting you all!

Costa Cruise Day 6: Cyprus

Editors's note: Um, just in case you don't follow this blog religiously (Hi Mom!) and have no idea why I am suddenly blogging about a Costa Cruise and a trip to Cyprus, please feel free to reference the posts from December in which I promised to highlight my Christmas cruise... um, yes, I am still going. ;) And we all want to see Egypt, right? Which means we have to talk about Cyprus first, patience, patience.

On our sixth day of our cruise, and our second to last departure point, we went to the island of Cyprus. Everyone knows that Cyprus has a very varied history, so it was interesting to be able to visit a country that up until recently was divided by a wall, marking the northern Turkish boundary clearly from its southern Greek neighbors. We stayed in the Greek part during our trip, and visited some of the major tourist sites... one thing to note here though is that Cyprus, at least when we visited it, was not very pretty. I mean, sure it was nice - great beaches, clear blue water, vineyard covered hillsides. But during one of the worst droughts on records, Cyprus became a little lack luster. In the end, the culture and village charm brought out the country's charm.

We visited this area of ruins for starters, called the Temple of Apollo. It was nice, but after all the ruins in Athens I was a bit ruined out if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, it was nice.

Then after the Temple of Apollo, we took a short drive to Kourion, the main historical attraction of the area with its ancient ruins, thermal bath, Roman theater and beautiful mosaics of the 2nd century A.D.

Here I am sitting on said amphitheater and below are said mosaics. I don't lie.

The theater's accoustics were incredible and you cannot beat that view. Imagine watching a performance here! Wow!

Oh yeah, and this is the remainder of the baths... it is not much now, definately not like these baths, but they were something special at one time, no doubt... (so over ruins... sorry for the lack of enthusiasm!). I am amazed though by two things - how they made this and that it still stands. That counts for something, right?

Afterwards, we drove to the traditional and picturesque village of Omodos, which was a welcome site after more miles of barren wasteland - er, I mean Cyprus countryside in the midst of a severe drought.

When in Omodos, repeat after me, EAT THE BREAD. You cannot miss this Greek speciality. I cannot really describe it but it is like a cross between a bagel and a sweet bun, more sweet really, and the sesame seeds and honey flavor did it for me. Oh boy. I was stuffed with carbs for the bus ride back, indeedy.

Omodos is also well known for their wine and for lace. Oh how I would love to be into lace in Omodos, but I am a more modern typ. But the handiwork is incredible.

If you have time, go for a wine tasting at one of the local shops and take a stroll through the narrow streets. We did not have much time in Omodos, but we enjoyed shopping and strolling and stuffing bread in our faces.

Again, I cannot help but think that Cyprus would live up to its flashy tourist commercials more in the summer time - with the beaches, lush vineyard filled countryside, and tropical oasises to be had. However, the culture is interesting and if you are not ruined out it is a great place to soak in the history as there are said to be ruins around every corner in Cyprus - that is if they dug them all up!

I promise to highlight the last location of the cruise next week - Egypt!
Boy was that an experience... ;)

What's in my wallet? - IKEA Family Card

In these tough financial times, you need to save every little bit you can. So if that means pulling out the IKEA family card every time I visit my favorite home goods supplier just to get a free espresso from the IKEA restaurant - there is no shame. And so what if it accompanies a mandatory slice of Princess Cake (Pricessatorte auf deutsch, my mouth is drooling just typing it.... Princessssss...wiping chin...) and happens to be followed by an obscenely overstuffed shopping cart, filled with items I will be unable to carry on the bus home, or justify buying at a later date. These are tough times people - you gotta save where you can! ;)

You can get an IKEA family card in any IKEA store or online. They really are good for savings (I mean, goodness, have you seen furniture prices in Switzerland?), beyond the coffee, but don't forget the coffee... and the Princess cake for goodness sake. It's the green one. I also get a cool quarterly magazine, coupons and sale info via email, and it gives me entry into the VIP lounge out the back of the store where you learn how to give a Swedish massage, translate the assembly instructions, and make those yummy Swedish meatballs... um not really, just checking that you are still reading. :)

It is worth it though - and it's in my wallet. Happy shopping, er saving, folks!

And PS. Did you know that one of the most read articles on this blog is about IKEA... have you read it?
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You are such a Diptych...

Learned a new word - Diptych.

What do you think of this effort? I actually do this a lot, without knowing the word for it, with my Blurb books.
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