Dublin

Dublin has been on our list of places to visit and when we got an email from Stacey asking if we wanted to go to Dublin for the weekend to celebrate Alex's birthday, we jumped on it.  Nate and I both had meetings in other cities a few days before (me in London, him in Helsinki) so we met up in Dublin on Thursday night.  It was perfect because we were both able to work from there on Friday.  We finished up work in time for happy hour and our first pub of the weekend.  The cab driver I had from the airport to the hotel on Thursday night told me that the Irish love their pubs.  When it's cold and rainy outside they say "Hey, it's too cold and wet to be outside, let's go to the pub."  Then when it's sunny outside they say "Hey, it's too warm out here, let's go to the pub."  The theme being, let’s go to the pub (and you will see this as a theme throughout our weekend there as well).

So anyways, we did happy hour, Nate had his first Guinness of the trip, me a Heineken (or Hoinegen as the Irish would say).  Nate said he probably drank more Guinness in those three days than he had in the last 3 years.  After our first pub we headed towards the Temple Bar neighborhood (which is apparently the place to go for tourists and locals alike).  On our way we stopped at another pub for some dinner.  We finally made it to Temple Bar and it reminded us a bit of Bourbon St. in New Orleans.  It was loud and busy, lots of people in the street and just had a feel of craziness.  That weekend it just so happened to be that Ireland was playing Scotland in a big rugby match at the stadium in Dublin.  So there were lots of Scots in town and they were all dressed in their kilts.  Everyone was so friendly and happy and all around in good spirits.  It was a good time!

After some time we headed back towards our hotel and another pub where we were meeting Stacey and Alex (they came in on a later flight).  We met up with them and finished the night out at the Hairy Lemon.

The next day we were up and about and ready to explore Dublin.  We had a few things on our list and the Guinness Storehouse tour was one of them.  We headed there first and found it to be more like a museum.  It was actually done really well and about 6 stories tall.  It was a self-guided tour that walked you through the Guinness making process, the history and even gave you a lesson on doing the perfect pour.  Because if you didn't know, there is a very special way to pour a Guinness....it's a two pour beer.  As you walk through the different levels, you end up at the very top in the tasting room.  Here you get your free pint of Guinness and are able to enjoy your beer while getting 360 degree views of Dublin.  It was quite nice!

We finally left there, grabbed some fish and chips and then headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Afterall, we figured we should do something non-drinking related during our visit.  St. Patrick's Cathedral is apparently the largest cathedral in Ireland and quite beautiful.  We finished up here and headed off to, you guessed it, another pub.  This time it was to watch the Ireland vs. Scotland rugby game.  The boys watched the whole game while Stacey and I headed over to Grafton St. (the main shopping street) for some shopping.  

After the game and a bite to eat we were off to a stand up comedy show which was recommended by a co-worker of mine that used to live in Dublin.  It was in another pub (of course) in the upstairs portion of it.  The room itself was quite small, with a small stage.  It was all really fun though and it was interesting going to a comedy show in a different country because obviously you aren’t all that familiar with all of the references they make.  But we still found it to be quite funny and it gave us a little more insight into Ireland and its culture.  

We left here and went to yet another pub (are you picking up on the theme here?).  We found a really busy street not far from where we were and went to this pub that was packed and had a guy playing his guitar.  We were having a great time and then it happened.  We witnessed a true Irish pub fight.  The only reason this was kind of cool is because we had luckily moved away from the area where it all went down just minutes before it started.  Otherwise it could have been quite scary.  So between that and a few more pubs, we were calling it a night.

Our flight on Sunday wasn't until 5pm so we had some time for more sightseeing.  We headed to Trinity College to check it out.  It was such a beautiful campus and reminded me of what an East Coast college campus looks like.  After walking around here for just a bit, we were off to the Jameson Whiskey distillery for our tour.  This was a guided tour where you learned all you ever wanted to know about whiskey making.  For instance, did you know that Jameson distills their whiskey three different times (the Scottish only distill theirs twice)?  Throughout the tour you definitely got the idea that they don't think much of the Scottish whiskey at all. At the end of this tour you also got to sample the product.  You had a choice to take your whiskey neat or have it with a mixer.  I am actually not a fan of whiskey at all but decided to try mine with cranberry juice and it actually wasn't too bad. 

Anyways, we had one more pub lunch and then were off to the airport.  Overall I'd say we had a great Dublin experience.  Everyone was friendly and there was this energy in the air everywhere you went.  If we end up going back though I'd definitely like to explore outside of Dublin to experience more of Ireland and its true beauty.  

Switzerland, Skiing, Salat, & Hammers

It’s often been said – Why does anybody do anything? And the answer is inevitably “Because they can”. So when you come across a picture of four 30 something professionals standing around an apartment at 2:00 am with Ski helmets and Goggles on and you ask yourself “Why are they doing that?”, well – Because we can!

And I give you night number 1 of ski week with our two close friends Matt and Louis who came all the way from U. S. and A. (thanks for bringing that Borat movie Lou!) to join us in Switzerland for a week of vacation, skiing, a little debauchery, and all around good times.

From the picture above you can pretty much figure out the first night’s events. Dinner, blah blah blah, few drinks, blah blah blah, some duty free cocktails courtesy of our international guests and BAM! wearing a helmet in the living room. The next morning after sleeping in and a few cups of coffee it was off to the train station, skis over shoulders to head off to Interlaken which is about a 2 hour ride from Zurich. If we haven’t mentioned before, the train system here is absolutely amazing.

Late afternoon arrival in Interlaken, some light snow falling and we’re off to see what this town is all about. It was a Sunday, which means pretty much everything is closed. We did manage to find a place called Riki’s which is a small random Portuguese bar with the only cheap beers and jukebox I think in the whole country. Needless to say we stayed here for a bit before finding a place for dinner. The restaurant recommended to us was closed. Shocking except that you remember it's Sunday. The place next door was open, looked like a good Swiss menu so we gave it a shot. Really glad we did if for no other reason than the gemischter salat (mixed salad) was probably the best salad any of us had ever had. When was the last time you found yourself talking about the salad for three days post-meal? If the answer is anything other than “never” either you are a vegetarian or you regret the menu choice you made that night. Really, this salad was amazing and you are probably bored right now from hearing about it.


Waking up the next morning to a fresh few centimeters (hey, that’s how they measure things here) of snow and on our way to ski at a place called Grindelwald. Interlaken sits at the base of 3 huge ski areas and the plan was to hit one each day. Hop on the train, make our way to the mountain and finally up the lifts which took longer than we expected. This “longer than expected” would unfortunately be a common theme for the next few days. Once up there though it was well worth the trip. Epic day of skiing, weather good for the most part on fresh snow, still fairly cold and some amazing views throughout the day.

After a full day, made our way back down the hill to town where we went on walkabout for 45 minutes trying to find a place for dinner. This was not a Sunday which led us to believe Interlaken was either super sleepy or we can’t read a map. We’ll go with the former. Finally ate, few beers and off to bed – it was a glorious but long day.

Pretty much rinse and repeat the next two days, more good skiing, long trips up the mountain, (talking like an hour+, so really not that bad) and back to town at night. Broke off for one day where Matt and I went skiing while Cleaver and Louis stayed in town to sightsee. We even ate chicken wings at an American chain restaurant one evening that will remain nameless however orange dolphin shorts were involved. We went back to Riki’s for a second time, this time emptying out their supply of Portuguese beer. Apparently in this town 4 people can result in more business in three hours than they get in a typical week.

After our few days in Interlaken we headed back to Zurich for two nights in the middle of the week to rest for a day and perhaps see some of the sights in Zurich. Completely by chance our friend’s brother-in-law Johnny who lives in Nashville and is a musician was playing a gig in Zurich of all places. He plays with a country / rock band name Scarletta and they were doing two nights in Zurich fairly close to our house at some country music festival that we had no idea existed. This ended up being a lot of fun.

Reasons why this was fun:

• The band was great, clearly professional grade and not a bunch of losers playing three chords in the garage. In fact one guy in the band was called the following week to play in the band on American Idol. Not a contestant but as a musician on the stage prominently featured.  Legit.
• No idea Zurich liked country music. Literally people with cowboy hats, boots, and a bunch of Harley Davidson’s lined up at the venue. They had a massive American flag on the ceiling.  They had two massive Confederate flags on either side of the American Flag. So massive that one guy in the band who is from Alabama claimed he had never seen the “Stars and Bars” in such a size. Only thing missing was the General Lee and Rosco P. Coltrane.

Next day had a few beers with the whole band, saw a few sights with Johnny, and generally had a low key day which was nice. Nice because the next day we were off to Davos for some more mountain fun. Davos is a little more than 2 hours away and we arrived late afternoon. After a little searching we discovered more life here than Interlaken. Starting at the bottom of one of the ski slopes we had some après ski even though we did not ski this day. Why not right? The weather had warmed up a bit which is good for outdoor drinking, but not ideal for skiing. Had a few drinks and once the sun went down we wandered to a local establishment and much to our surprise / amusement / detriment to safety we discovered this bar had what we’ll call the “wood - hammer” game.

This little gem which for a litany of liability reasons would never be allowed in U.S. and A. consists of a giant stump of wood, nails, and a hammer. We found this to be everywhere in Austria a few years ago but had yet to see it in Switzerland but oh the joy when we saw it. The game is complicated and I’m sure there is a full Wikipedia explanation detailing all the rules but to the best of my ability here goes an explanation:

1. Tap three nails into the wood just so they no longer wiggle and are in there firm.
2. Try to hammer these nails into the wood one hammer swing at a time with the back “claw” side of the hammer.

And there you go. Complicated, dangerous, and the more libations on board the worse (surprisingly?) you get at accomplishing this task. So fun! Played that for a while, found dinner, and called it a night because we had snow to ski the next day.

Our last day of skiing which was a bit warm and slushy especially as you got lower down the mountain but still lots of fun. This is also where we decided to give Cleaver a nickname. At least when skiing she will now be known as “cheese grater”. Because all she does on the mountain is shred. A fourth great day of skiing in one week, great being pretty much defined at my age by leaving the hill with my body intact.

Back to Zurich that night for our final night in town which we spent at home with Durum Doners and more duty free drinks. No helmets though. Perfect way to end a great week with our friends in town. We had some great skiing, explored more of Switzerland, had a few beers along the way, and thoroughly enjoyed the time.

Next up – Dublin! If we see the blarney stone, a leprechaun, or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow we’ll be sure to update you accordingly.

Auf Wiedersehen!

The Real Matterhorn

What does anyone who lives in Switzerland do during the winter here?  They go skiing.  At least that’s what it feels like.  Almost everyone on my team loves to ski or snowboard so the question around our office come Thursday or Friday is “Where are you going skiing this weekend?”, “How does the weather/snow look for this weekend?” and so on.  I suppose that all makes sense being that we are an hour by train from the closest ski resort. 

For us, last weekend we were off to Zermatt!  It’s a little over a 3 hour train ride from Zurich with the last hour being quite scenic.  We took off early from work on Friday (again, totally accepted when you are heading skiing for the weekend) and met up with Stacey and Alex in Zermatt a little after 8pm.  First impression for me was that it reminded me quite a bit of Whistler.  It’s a cute village and no cars are allowed except for the shuttle buses and taxis that are all electric.  We headed out for dinner that night and a drink and got to experience a bit of the village night life.  If you wanted, you could be dancing until the early hours of the morning.  There are definitely plenty of options. 

In any case, we got up early the next morning ready to explore the mountain.  The one unfortunate part is that the weather was less than ideal.  It was snowing and cloudy which kind of put a damper on my excitement for getting views of the Matterhorn.  The skiing was ok in the morning but definitely by early afternoon it was tough conditions.  Kind of icy and flat light (which to me basically feels like I’m skiing blind).  But we still enjoyed ourselves, had lunch in a mountain restaurant and finished up our day around 2 or 3….ready for après ski.  We headed back into the village, found a great little bar and enjoyed a few beers after our day of skiing. 

The best view of the Matterhorn we could get

That night we headed out to Grampi’s for dinner which featured a one man band type of guy playing and singing to entertain the crowd.  I have to admit, he was an odd little man.  But we enjoyed that while we ate dinner and then were off to a country bar we had seen as we were walking to dinner.  Now I’m not quite sure what made them decide to call this a country bar as there was no country music playing inside (much to my disappointment).  But it had a pool table and dart board so was perfect enough to get a few more drinks before calling it a night.

Sunday we were up again early with the goal of going to the Italian side of the mountain to explore over there.  That’s right, Zermatt has both a Swiss side and an Italian side….it’s quite big.  It took a while to trek over to that side and by the time we did, Nate and I had a chance to do one “Italian” run.  Now we can technically say we’ve skied in Italy.  We said goodbye to Stacey and Alex and started making our way back to the Swiss side so we could catch our train back.  Sunday was definitely better weather-wise.  We got to ski on powder, the light was slightly better and we got to get a glimpse of the Matterhorn!  All in all a good day.  I definitely feel like I need to go back though to get better views.  Perhaps we’ll make our way back in summer time, which I’m sure would be fun as well, where we’ll be guaranteed a view of the Matterhorn.

Who uses the phrase “Tuckered out"?

Let me answer that – two people: Your Grandpa if you are over the age of 25. And me. And why wouldn’t I be (and Cleaver too!) after this whirlwind Holiday season!

We last left you after Paris and the warm up for Christmas with the 4 of us. 1 me, 1 Cleaver, and 2 Kliewer’s in Zurich for Christmas. A pretty relaxed few days actually. Wrapped up the year at work on the 23rd, went to church on the 24th, exchanged a few gifts, watched football and ate all day on Christmas day. Very nice. Definitely different than at home if only because we are in such a different place, but a very enjoyable Christmas.

Zaragoza

Then comes the 26th. Wake up call at 4:00 am and off to the airport we go for a week in Spain ending with NYE! So plan is to get the first flight to Barcelona, rent a car and hit the road. First stop Tarragona! It’s about an hour or so from Barcelona on the coast. We get there a bit before lunch for a quick site seeing trip and some lunch. Neat little town, had some Roman ruins and a nice old part of town. Was a sunny day a bit warmer than Zurich and a nice way to start the trip.

After a few hours in Tarragona we were back in the car and on to Zaragoza for the night. After a few adventurous laps through town we finally park the car and get to the hotel, freshen up and hit the town. Zaragoza turned out to be quite the find. We spent the evening doing what the Spaniards do and went from place to place eating tapas and enjoying a beverage. There were quite a few people out and apparently the norm is for people to roll the stroller / kid right on into the establishment and join the party. Nothing like having your 4th beer next to the Maclaren with a screaming 9 month old in it. Time for the next place I think.

Next day before moving on we did a few of the highlights in town which included the church of course. Little did we know that the church in Zaragoza would be absolutely amazing. A rare unexpected “Wow” moment. Just enormous in size and beautifully decorated. A few more things to see in town and back into the car we go.

Pamplona

Next stop is about 2 and a half hours away in Pamplona. Along the way is a little old town called Olite with a giant castle which we stopped at and did the self guided tour. Was pretty cool and had some great views, a perfect little stop.

We then arrived in Pamplona for a few days of eating, sightseeing and bull running. Pamplona turned out to be fun with several streets of nightlife, restaurants and of course tapas. We wandered around the old town, had some good food and wine and enjoyed our first night in town. Next day we set out to see the town. Started off with a tour of the Pamplona Cathedral which was interesting then decided to walk the “red” line on our free hotel map. This red line indicates the route of the running of the bulls which we had to do. Start to finish it’s probably about a half mile maybe so not too long and winds through the old town ending at the Plaza del Toro. The Plaza del Toro is the bullfighting ring which is a huge stadium that apparently holds about 19,000 people. A few more sights, a few more tapas and off to Barcelona for New Year’s!

Park Guell

We drove back to Barcelona, dropped off the car, and were on to the hotel for 3 fun filled nights. First order of business, meet up with our friends Ben and Carolyn who had been traveling through Spain for the holidays. After meeting up, we found a great little local restaurant with some traditional Catalonian food which was excellent. Then we went out on the town and had the first of 3 also traditional late Spain evenings.

Barcelona we had been to before and seen some of the main sights but it was still so much fun to walk around and explore. One good find was the Mercat La Boqueria which had all sorts of food stands and these great little packages of cut up fruit, which was delicious. Oh, and we went to McDonalds once, well twice if you count the airport. So good. One other cool find was the Park Guell which is a big outdoor park with all sorts of Antoni Gaudi designed structures and a pretty amazing view across the city and the sea.

Topping off the week was New Years Eve. We had made reservations at a restaurant rather than try to find something and fight the crowds and this turned out to be a great decision not only because it gave us a plan, but the restaurant was amazing. They planned out a fixed menu, just one dish after the next, champagne at midnight and a Spanish tradition where everyone eats 12 grapes at midnight. We had a great experience and stayed there until about 2:00 am. You might then be thinking wow, 2:00 am, must be time to call it a night, right? Nope. Off to another local bar for some more drinks, some weird blue shot thing, and a rousing serenade of Cecilia sung for the first time in 2012 to Mrs. Kliewer of course! (for those who don’t know, she is not such a big fan of this song, but we didn’t let that stop us.) Finally somewhere around 4:30 or 5:00 am we called it a night.

We got a few hours of sleep, went back to the airport (where as mentioned we hit McDonald’s again) and were on our flight back to Zurich.

We had a great week and a great New Year’s Eve. For me Spain is just amazing with great food, culture, weather and scenery. I think I could very easily live in Spain forever. Yo corazon Espana.

NYE Dinner

More Visitors

It’s been a whirlwind week as we’ve had more visitors here in Zurich.  My parents arrived last Tuesday and just two days later my cousin Catherine arrived.  That meant Christmas vacation for me as I finished up work on Wednesday not to return for a little over 3 weeks.  We of course had to tour around Zurich and see all of the main sights.  Then we were off to Paris for a weekend.  We kept quite busy in Paris doing a wine tasting class, the Louvre, shopping on the Champs-Élysées and Eiffel Tower at night.  I loved the Eiffel Tower at night….it was something I hadn’t done before.  And it was fun learning more about French wines.  Apparently 2005 and 2009 were great years for French wines.  All in all a quick but very fun weekend in Paris exploring. 

Then Monday we were off to Flumserberg for a day of skiing in the Swiss Alps.  It was only about an hour and a half away by train from Zurich so quite perfect for a day trip (much better than that 4 hour drive to Tahoe, that’s for sure).  It was also the same day that we had snow falling in Zurich.  Our first snow here!!!!  (A girl from California gets very excited about these things)  

We got up to the mountain and it was snowing quite a bit up there.  Lots of snow and gray skies which made for a challenging day skiing but it was our first trip out and overall a good one.  And we left the mountain with no injuries which is better than our last attempt at skiing in Europe. 

In the interest of trying to do as much as we could, Tuesday we were off to Konstanz for a taste of a true German Christmas market.  It was recommended by some co-workers of mine and was exactly what I was hoping for.  It was a little town with snow on the ground and in the air and just really cute.  The Christmas market itself was quite large and took up a good portion of the main part of town.  The items sold there seemed to be more unique and handmade compared to what we have seen in the Zurich and Paris markets.  Overall a great day….but cold!!!! 

Now Catherine has left and my parents are staying to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with us.  We’re looking forward to our Christmas celebration here in Zurich (hopefully with some snow) and then we are off to Spain for a week!

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Well it’s one of my favorite times of year now….the holiday season.  Usually that starts with Thanksgiving, which was a little bit strange for us this year being that they don’t celebrate it here in Europe.  I think the strangest part about it was working that Thursday and Friday and then knowing that everyone at home was gathering together to eat delicious turkey meals and celebrate the holiday.  Google did serve some turkey, sweet mashed potatoes and chestnut stuffing for lunch on Thursday though.  Nate came over and we had our Thanksgiving meal that way.  It definitely wasn’t the same as home but it was nice to get a taste of some turkey.  That Sunday, Nate made a pseudo-Thanksgiving meal by roasting a chicken and making mashed potatoes and then some stuffing from scratch (Stovetop doesn’t seem to exist here).  It was quite tasty!  Although our Thanksgiving was a bit different this year it’s all part of the experience and we have so much to be thankful for that I can’t really complain.

Zurich started putting up decorations and lights the weekend before Thanksgiving.  You’d start to see the Christmas stuff come out in the stores and decorations go up throughout the city.  On Bahnohofstrasse they have lights that they put up every year and those were “officially” lit that Thursday evening after Thanksgiving and that’s when I feel like the Christmas season really started around here.  The stores are playing Christmas music, and there are decorations and lights all around the city.  I just love it!!!  This also means that the Christmas markets have started as well.  For those that may not know, a Christmas market, from what I can tell so far, is basically like an arts and crafts fair with food and of course glühwein.  Glühwein is a hot spiced wine that is sold at every Christmas market you go to.  Zurich has a few Christmas markets around the city which start at varying times during the season.  They have one at the main train station which Nate and I checked out.  It actually wasn’t all that interesting to be honest.  Perhaps being that it’s inside and at the main train station has something to do with that.

Therefore last Saturday we were off for a day trip to Strasbourg, France for a true Christmas market experience.  I had read and heard that Strasbourg has one of the oldest Christmas markets in France and is quite nice.  We met up with our friends Stacey and Alex for the day.  I must say, it was quite nice!!!  Very Christmas-y indeed.  And definitely a much better market than the one at the main train station.  It was outside which was a step in the right direction.  The glühwein was tasty as well.  It was quite crowded though, which I guess is to be expected when you go to such a well known Christmas market.  But that didn’t impact our experience.  We walked around the market, had a good lunch and even strolled around the town looking at the shops.  All of the streets we walked down were decorated for Christmas and so fun!  And it was cold too which just added to the experience.  I mean, it wouldn’t feel right if we couldn’t be bundled up in scarves, hats and gloves, right?  Once we had had enough, we hopped on the train and headed home.  A great way to spend the day!

I must say, so far Christmas in Europe has not been disappointing!

Amsterdam

On the short list of places to visit that we had not been was Amsterdam, so the natural thing was to look for a time when there was work to be done in town, Google came calling and off we go for a weekend.

I mean a lot of bikes!

You hear about the canals, the red light district, the “coffeeshops”, museums, and general party like atmosphere of the place.  Sure sounds like fun and if nothing else interesting and different.  Amsterdam lived up to all of the above. What I didn’t realize was the bikes.  Wow, a lot of bikes.  And a very aggressive nature of those riding the bikes, cars and walkers are second class citizens in this town.

 Arriving on Friday afternoon, finishing up the week's work and looking for something to start the weekend of sightseeing.  The Anne Frank haus is in town, sounded both interesting and busy on a Saturday so we took the opportunity to check this out on Friday night before dinner and were glad we did.  Small-ish exhibit but quite interesting, you see the small hidden rooms two families lived in for several years trying to hide before they were ultimately found as well as a big display of many of Anne’s writings while living there.  Highly recommend making the trip if you have never been.

From there, time for a drink and some dinner.  We walked around a nice little neighborhood, found a neat little hole in the wall place serving Belgian beer and Nachos (yeah, nachos.  And have to say the Salsa was good.  Probably from a jar), then stumbled upon a little Ductch place for dinner which we enjoyed thoroughly.  From there we wandered slowly back to the hotel and called it a night.  It was a work week after all!

Saturday morning – let’s get some breakfast, and walk around some more.  Did some shopping, saw the flower market, and eventually found a littler corner café where we got a drink and sat outside.  (was cold, but not crazy cold!)  And this is where we witness the wrath of the bikes.

People about to get DINGED!

In Amsterdam they have roads, sidewalks, and specific Bike only lanes.  Problem is that for out of towners, these bike lanes look, well, just like a sidewalk.  So people across the street from our café kept walking in the bike lane and getting “dinged”.  “Dinged’ in the urban dictionary refers to walking in the bike lane while being given a warning “ding” by the person on the bike who is about to hit you.  One of those little bike bell “dings” that you would have had on your bike if you were a 5 year old girl.  Now the adults have them along with a right-of-way and they are pissed.  DING! “this lane is for bikes!”.  DING! DING! MOVE.  “DING” then give a stern head shake as you pass the walker who jumped out of the way just in time.

We watched this for about 20 minutes, it was very entertaining.

That never got boring but we did have to move on.   We decided to Visit the Dutch Resistance Museum which covers World War II from the Dutch perspective and what life was like while the Germans occupied the country.  Was again quite interesting and had lots of interesting artifacts and stories.  Not too big either but very well done.

Then off to dinner where we found a little Thai place, which was nice to have some variety.  And from there spent the rest of the evening  walking around including parts of the Red Light District which was far more circus novelty feeling than anything else.  It’s like it’s set up so that people can come “see” it but no way anyone would actually walk up and make a um.. purchase?    Not the most charming part of the city, that's for sure but something you have to go check out.

Overall a great visit and I know we'll be back.