Christmas in Hoi An

Happy Christmas! Buon Natale! Feliz Navidad!

We are celebrating our Christmas in Hoi An this year. The city is so so pretty, with Chinese temples, lanterns and old houses.









By pure chance, it was also a full moon on the 24th of December so, in Buddhist tradition, most of the businesses and houses had little altars with offers outside.



We celebrated Christmas's Eve with a bit of DIY dinner: mackerel hotpot! They cook it for you but you have to add your own vegetables and noodles, we also had roll-your-own shrimp and pork spring rolls!



Christmas day was spent on the beach - about 6miles from Hoi An, lies An Bang beach... One of the most beautiful one we have seen in Vietnam. Fried rice on the beach makes an odd Christmas dinner but we were able to sunbathe and go for a swim...

The Paris of the East

A long week end in Budapest was a nice mid-winter break (not to mention a brief honeymoon!) 

Budapest is a city over the Danube river - its unification goes back to November 1873. Buda is on the west bank of the river and Pest is on the east bank.

We could taste a lot of nice hearty and food at the Christmas Markets on Vörösmarty square - I think this is a pork skewer with some cabbage!

This is the Hungarian Parliament Building (I took a picture while "cruising" on the Danube) - it is the largest building in all of Hungary and the tallest in Budapest. 

 My favourite part was absolutely the Széchenyi Thermal Baths - only a few minutes outside the city centre... the water comes from 2 different thermal springs. The outside pool is 38°C and the outside temperature was about 4°C - you can get massages, go into the Finnish sauna and run ice on yourself before you go back to the the hot pool!

 

Night view from the Danube River

Christmas food!

For the first in two years, I nipped home for Christmas - it was a quick one but just in time to have some Italian food for the holidays... and a browse around the market in Bologna!

But also come back on time for my first English Christmas dinner - featuring turkey, gravy, Yorshire puddings, roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy. Missing from the plate are Brussels sprouts (can you blame us?) and pigs in blankets, sausages wrapped in bacon.