With the Swiss Pass, you can easily catch the train and city hop your way across the country, but knowing my family, it was best to not go overboard with it. Instead, we chose a few cities to settle down and get comfortable in over the course of a week: Lausanne in the Western region, Gimmelwald and Mürren in the Bernese Highlands, and Lucerne in the Central region. So it seems that we didn’t go very far North, South, or East, but I’ve learned to make peace with the fact that I’ll never be able to see everything I want to, and this realisation has allowed me to soak in the present moments without stressing about the next destinations (at least, without stressing out about it too much). Vacation is meant to be enjoyed leisurely after all!
June
June was loads of fun; I read 11 books and visited 6 cities! Despite that, June’s recap is shorter than usual because I’m saving the details for full travel recaps that I’ll be sharing throughout July. I wish every day of my life could be filled with books and Hungarian lemonade, but alas, I’m back in Philly now and gotta figure out what I want to do with my life to be a productive member of society.
Budapest snapshots // summer 2019
Checked into our Airbnb • St. Stephen’s Basilica • Gelato Rosa • Beef goulash • Csendes Vintage Bar • Chimney cake • Parliament • Fisherman’s Bastion • Buda Castle • Coffee and lemonade at Vinikli • Gerlóczy Cafe
Vienna snapshots // summer 2019
Our Airbnb • Anker Clock right by our grocery store, Merkur Hoher Market • St. Peter’s Cathedral • Streets of Old Town • Hofburg, the Imperial Palace • St. Stephen’s Cathedral • Vienna State Opera • Schwarzenberg Plaza • Sacher torte and melange at Gerstner K.u.K. Hofzuckerbacker • Belvedere Palace
Switzerland snapshots // summer 2019
Stayed at Hôtel de la Paix in Lausanne • City views from our rooms • Wandered the streets of Old Town, looking for our next meals • Peonies at the market
May
This month’s month-in-review is a few days late because I’ve had a busy weekend and I’ve been busy in general! These last few days, I’ve been finalising plans for a family trip through a few cities in Switzerland, Vienna, and Budapest, and I’m off this Thursday! If anyone has recs or travel guides for Lausanne, Gimmelwald, Lucerne, Vienna, or Budapest, please leave ’em in the comments or shoot me an email!
I was going to say that I’ll be taking a break from my regular posting whilst I’m traveling June 6-24, but I haven’t really been posting regularly soooo… hehe. What you can look forward to is a roundup of iPhone snapshots as I leave each each country for the next (like I did for San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Cambridge, London, Paris), and in the weeks that follow, you can look forward to the full travel diaries!