Shopping list

And a last post, just for fun.

If you ever wondered what our shopping list looked like when we return, here it is:

milk

bananas

yogurt

apples

oatmeal

OJ

fruit

mac and cheese

nutella

pasta

imported parmesan cheese

And the only reason cereal wasn't on the list was that we brought back Schoko Müsli from Graz :-)

Short visit in MN

I think I already mentioned this, but Sue's sister, Sarah, agreed to watch Jed while we were in Graz.  Besides being a big help, this allowed us to spend a few days with Sue's family on the way back.  Of course, we were all jet lagged, which may have not made the best conditions for visiting with family!

We visited the pool, went to a movie, went out to dinner with Sarah in the Cities, visited with friend Kim Smith from Auburn days, and hung around the house for Wednesday through Friday.  I also tried to keep my newfound love for biking going.  I went on two bike rides.  The first one was on Sue's Mom's bike.  Let's just say that it didn't fit me well.  And that, combined with a few wrong turns turned a 20-mile bike ride into something close to 30 miles and well over 2 hours.  On a hot day.  With no water.  And a concerned phone call from Sue.  My next ride was on a bike rented at a local bike store.  I was much better prepared for a long ride and on a really nice, light road bike.  Added a few miles and was out less than 2 hours.  Much better.

The penultimate event of our time in MN was a party Saturday with friends from Sue's hometown of Morris, MN.  It was fun to have all the Gillis's (save Trevor), Beth, Nancy and Cheryl, and the Barber's, and to meet Erin's husband, Jo (pronounced "Yo").  Erin and Jo opened their house and their pool to everyone.  So gracious of them and fun for everyone.

We had to leave the party late in the afternoon so that we could drive home in two days.  We swung by PetSmart to pick up Jed (Sue had the great idea to have Jed shampooed and furminated while we were at the party; almost like free doggy babysitting).  We drove for four hours or so to Des Moines, IA.  The next day we drove home to Fayetteville, arriving by 4p or so.

Our (long) trip back

I said to Sue somewhere during the day, "I must block this part of the overseas experience within a day or so ... or else I'd never come back."  I hate the long flight.  And given that Graz is not a European hub and Fayetteville (or in this case, Minneapolis-St. Paul) is not a major US hub, you are guaranteed of at least three flights in one day.  A long day, for sure.

This particular flight was at least made more enjoyable because of the company.  We coordinated our return with Loulou's summer trip to the US.  So, Loulou and her son joined our family.  The kids had grand plans for rotating the seating (we had three sets of two seats right by each other), but it ended up being Grace and Loulou's son across the aisle from Henry and Sue with Loulou and I in the row behind Sue and Henry.  The kids watched lots of movies, snacked heavily and generally enjoyed the flight.  Loulou said that she's never had such a restful trip over.  All's good, right?  Well ...

Back in Graz, when we checked in at the airport, we received our boarding passes for the two Lufthansa flights (Graz -> Munich and Munich -> Newark).  We assumed they couldn't print out boarding passes for the United flight from Newark -> MSP.  Before we landed in Newark they made an announcement they would be handing out connecting boarding passes at the baggage carousel.  So, while we were waiting for our bags to come out with the other connecting flight bags, Sue checked in to get our boarding passes, but was told they didn't have them.  We thought that was odd and slightly concerning.  Still waiting for our bags, we checked our claim checks.  Our bags had only been checked through to Newark.  Uh oh ... not only did that mean we had to figure out why, our bags would come in the second wave with the non-connecting-flight bags.  Our 1.5-hour layover was looking rather short.

We finally retrieved our bags and made it through customs.  We went to the United service desk.  When I asked what was going on, the agent said, "we don't have a flight to MSP tonight."  What!?  She said that flight was taken out of the schedule, but she could rebook us on a flight to MSP tomorrow morning (we aren't already rebooked?!).  Glimpses of what it would take to find a hotel room in NYC (the night of the baseball All-Star game no less) flashed through my head.  I asked if they could get us to MSP tonight through O'Hare.  She said, yes, but you'll have to hurry.  She quickly called another agent over, we got our boarding passes, we asked a porter to make sure our bags got onto the belt (as I handed him $20), and we rushed to security and then to our departure gate.  We made it!

While on the flight to O'Hare, I looked at my boarding passes.  (For some reason, I was the only one that had a boarding pass to MSP.)  Our flight was due to arrive at 9:40p and then our flight to MSP was to depart at 10:00p ... a 20-minute connection in O'Hare?  Is that even possible!?  Oh, and our flight was about 20 minutes late in departing Newark :-(

I alerted the flight attendant about our predicament who, upon landing, made an announcement about some passengers having a tight connection and to please stay in their seats if they could so that we could get off.  This mostly worked, but with out flight arriving a few minutes late, everyone was a bit anxious.  When we got off the plane and oriented ourselves, I basically took off on a sprint in the hopes that I could get them to hold the flight to MSP.  It was a solid 10-12 minutes of running (Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 for you frequent fliers).  I arrived about 9 minutes before departure as they were making the "last call to board."  I explained what was going on and they said, "but you don't have seats -- you are on stand by."  Argh!  Luckily, they had room for all four of us and they printed our boarding passes while we waited for Sue and kids to arrive.  Finally I saw them round the corner and in a minute we were all on board and seated together!  It was a tough connection -- everyone was sweaty and tired, but it was worth it and we made it.

Funny thing, and I guess I should feel good about this if it would have been us, they waited about 10 more minutes for another family from our Newark flight to make it to the flight to MSP.  And then they announced that they were waiting another 20 minutes for some late-arriving bags.  So, maybe we didn't need to run after all!

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We retrieved our bags, the shuttle to the hotel near the airport was waiting for us, check in was smooth, and we were in bed and asleep in pretty short order.  I calculated that our trip was about 20.5 hours door to door (11a Graz time to 12:30a MSP, which was 7:30a Graz time!).  A long day indeed.

Serendipity

I'm sometimes amazed how something that ended up being really important was left to chance ... and it worked out just fine.

Upon arriving in Graz I realized that it was about 2.5 miles from my office to our apartment.  Last year that distance was a little less than 1.5 miles.  So, a 20-minute walking commute was going to turn into 30 or so minutes.

I thought, "it would be nice to commute via bike."  Graz is a very bikeable city.  For the most part it is flat, there are bike lanes all over the city, some nice trails, and most importantly, lots of others bike, which means that the drivers are used to driving alongside bikes and by all accounts are courteous.

So, I asked around at TUG and within a couple of hours, I had a bike to use during my stay.  It was sturdy, had a basket and fenders, and it had a light system in case I needed to ride it at night (more about that later).

I can't overstate how much I enjoyed having this bike and how much I used it.  I used it to commute back and forth to work.  I used it for my morning exercise, taking rides of about 20 miles pretty regularly and even had one 25-mile ride one weekend.  I also used the bike to go back and forth between the grocery store (the basket was a good size for that).  And then I used the bike to go back and forth between our apartment and Loulou and Renato's (so that I could drive their car for outings, say).  In short, this bike was important to enjoying my time in Graz.  And I didn't work out ahead of time how to get a bike, which bike, etc. -- it just came together once we arrived.  Nice.

p.s.  The most unusual use of my bike came when Grace and Henry had a sleepover.  We got the call that parents dread to get at around 1a.  I rode my bike to Loulou and Renato's, they let me borrow their car, I drove one of our children home, and when they awoke in the morning, I drove the child back to continue the sleepover with breakfast.  I retrieved my bike and headed out on my morning bike ride.

Our last weekend in Graz

Our last weekend in Graz was pretty much a blur of activity.  When you realize your time is almost over you tend to try to fit in all those things that you thought you'd have plenty of time to do when you first got there.  Friday was the kids' choice, Saturday we did something Sue had been wanting to do, and Sunday was my choice.  And almost all the activity was with our friends Loulou, Renato and their son.

Friday afternoon was a visit to the Children's museum, one of Henry's favorite activities.  The museum was organized around architecture inspired by nature.  I wasn't able to go, but Sue bought a book related to the exhibit and it was very interesting.

Friday night Grace and Henry stayed over with Loulou and her son.  It was Henry's first sleepover and it went great!  They had dinner, watched a movie and actually went to bed at a fairly reasonable hour.  In the morning they had breakfast, made a cake and had a puppet show.  Loulou kept them through lunch.

Saturday afternoon we went to a "sculpture park," which was pretty diverse.  Some were the typical "I really don't understand how that is art" (and that was from Renato, who is a musician, and for some reason I thought he'd cut the artists a little more slack!).  But some were pretty interesting (my favorite was a plane crash sculpture), but nearby there was this unusual balloon that inflated and then "popped" at regular intervals, all the while with a whistle like a plane coming down for a crash.  But the two sculptures didn't seem to be "related" in any way.  There was also a sculpture by Yoko Ono, but that was pretty much in the first category of "art."  But it was cool that it was a park in that in between the sculptures were some pretty large open spaces.  The sculpture park was near a very large lake.  So, after the park we for a swim.

Sunday we went to Kessellfallklam, which was a small waterfall hike, just right for our two families.  What made it really cool was that the hike involves climbing 40-some stairs and ladders to make it over the ravine formed by the waterfall.  It was a nice hike and there is an "adult" version in the same area of Austria that we will hope to hit next time.

Afterwards we did something that all the adults were looking forward to:  we went to a Buschenschank.  A Buschenschank is a small winery, where they sell their own wine and only serve platters of wurst, cheese and bread.  You can hear more of my raving about Buschenschanks in last year's posts, but suffice it to say that all of us like these.  And our visit almost didn't work out because the one that we usually visit was closed.  So, we sampled two others on our way to the one we settled on.  The determining factor was the Spielplatz (playground) for the children.  Has to be just right and not in the direct sun.  The place we ended up at met all the requirements, not only with its Spielplatz, but also the view and the look of the place.  You'll see when I post a picture.  And the weather was ...  just ... perfect.  A perfect ending to our last weekend in Graz.

Schwester Kim reflects on her visit to Graz and other places

This post was contributed by my sister Kim.  I saw her taking some notes while she was here and she compiled them after returning to the states.  I took a couple of liberties to edit them to fit with the overall tone of the blog (hey, it's my blog!).

Now, from Kim ... 

Well, my trip started off not so good.  After much planning to be ready on time, I got to the airport to find out the plane was delayed by almost 4 hours.  The website was not updated so I only found this out when I was in line.  This meant I would miss my connection from Frankfurt to Graz so I had to be booked on a later flight.  I already felt like I was missing part of my vacation.  As a work colleague pointed out, my ROI for the trip had already decreased.

We will skip the gory details about the ride over ... but let’s just say there was vomiting, screaming and very little sleep.  The screaming wasn’t me and I didn’t actually vomit on anyone causing them to scream but I am sure the screaming added to my vomiting.  We had a lot of babies and toddlers on the plane and there really wasn’t much time during the 8 hour flight that they were not screaming (this wasn’t a cry, it was like they were being squished in their small seats!) ... I think this added to my anxiety therefore causing the vomiting and lack of sleep.

So I land in Germany with low blood sugar, no food on my stomach and dehydrated.  I forced myself to pull it together and get some food/liquids in my body and got on my connecting flight to Graz on time (I was really nervous I would finally fall asleep in the airport and miss my connection so every time I dozed off, I woke up a few minutes later with panic running thru my blood and checking my watch).  I had a little food on the plane to Graz, caught some zzzzz’s, and felt pretty good by the time we were wheels down just in time to see Russ, Sue, Grace and Henry waving at me from the airport.  It was a very quick trip over to the terminal (they shuttle you back and forth from the runway quite a bit vs. getting dropped off right at the gate like I am used too), quickly thru customs and finally, I was there!

We took the bus to the apartment where Russ made a quick meal and I quickly scarfed it down.  He was super mean and forced me to stay up until 10pm which was 4pm my time at home ... a full day later.  So I had been up for almost 36 hours with just a few naps here and there.  Head hit the pillow at 10, was out by 10:01 and they let me sleep until 7 and I woke up feeling really, really good.  So that was getting there, here is how the rest of the trip went.

Spent the 1^st full day there all around Graz.  We took the bus into the center of the city (I won’t even bother with all the names since I don’t know them all but you can read Russ’s blog for specifics) but we walked, we ate, we saw a lot of cool things.  This was my 1^st trip to Europe so I was really soaking in all the scenery and the beautiful buildings.  The transportation system was really amazing too.  You can really get anywhere by just walking a couple of blocks and hoping on a bus.  But even with all the buses, there are also trains, trams, scooters, bikes, motorcycles and of course cars.  Very little cars so that they can fit down all the narrow streets.  And watch out for those scooters and bikes, they are everywhere!  And people on motorcycles ... CRAZY!  They are allowed to split lanes over there and I can’t believe we didn’t see someone get killed. And I just realized, this is going to take forever if I go into this level of detail so I will try a different format.  So in no particular order ...

How about things that I loved about my trip:

1)      The generosity of Russ to allow me to visit and even get a bed in their tiny apartment abroad.  And then to plan an entire vacation for me and his family.  The trip for me was only possible since they gave me a place to stay and got me around to all the countries free of charge :-)

2)      The scenery, no matter where you looked, there was something beautiful to look at.  Architecture, water, people, food, art, you name it, it was there.  Ice cream too.  They treat this as art over there so you naturally have to eat it every day since they put so much time into it!

3)       The buildings, I just love the architecture and all the details that are part of everything.  I bet behind some of those doors were some really cool apartments and great history of who came before you.

4)      How clean and safe it was not to mention how well maintained the roads, parks, etc. were.  Tax dollars at work!

5)      The look of Venice when you walk out of the train station.  You are up close and personal with the best view you might ever see.  It just takes your breath away to see all water, the buildings, the boats.  That right there was worth the train ride over (but hey, we rode 1^st class so the train ride wasn’t even bad!).

6)      All the in’s and out’s of the cities we visited.  It is just like you see in the movies, there are very narrow “alley’s” that are all hidden behind the streets.  You can get lost in them because when you are walking in them, you can’t see over the buildings so you might take a wrong turn, have to double back thru another alley.  There is laundry hanging high above you, you walk right past everyone’s front door, but you might also get to duck into a very quaint café or store.  It is like this maze that from the outside, you didn’t even know existed.  I experienced this both in Slovenia and Venice.  It was just very “European.”

7)       The food!  I tried new stuff like trout (raw), octopus salad and anchovies (or were they sardines ... Russ questioned this so many times now I am confused too!).  And of course, we had some really good pizza, some really good pasta and who can forget the meat feast we had with Russ’s work colleague Tone in Slovenia.   He wanted to treat us to a traditional meal so he ordered some platters of food and we proceeded to feast until we had the meat sweats.  Which, if you don’t know what that is, it is your body reacting to all the meat and the fact that it thinks you are trying to kill yourself by ingesting so much food (glutton!).  But it was so good!  And we sure didn’t let it stop us from eating ice cream almost immediately afterwards and then off to Zotter’s chocolate factory where you can sample all of their chocolate bars along with eating from a chocolate fountain.  I don’t even want to think about my sugar or calorie intake that day!  Oh, I just remembered, we also had something (forgot the name) but it was a hotdog stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon and then fried.  Or at least that is how Russ made them and they were fantastic!

8)      The view of the Adriatic Sea from our hotel room in Slovenia.  It was again ... breathtaking (sorry Seinfeld, this is how you use the term “breathtaking”).  The weather was so good while we were there, not too hot, not too chilly, a nice sunny 75-85 degrees each day. 

9)      The laid back life.  It feels simple over there, less rush, plenty of time to eat, drink wine (or Radler’s) and visit.  Russ often noticed that I thought we should be moving along quicker so that was a hard habit to break.  I am used to the next person in line waiting for you to get out of the way, sometimes even nudging you.

10)    Time with the Meller-Hankins family!  It is always nice when you get to spend time doing things with family that are new experiences for all of you.  Even though some of the things we did, Russ, Sue and the family had done before, there was a lot they hadn’t so it was nice to be able to experience that with them and see everyone’s reactions, especially from the kinder :-)

Now for the stuff I didn’t really love:

1)      The smoking ... there's so much more smoking in public places that I've gotten used to in the US and I didn't like going back to the way it used to be.

2)      Not understanding the language.  When I looked at a building and there was a sign talking about the building, I couldn’t read it so I feel like I missed out on a lot of the history of what I was looking at.

3)      The long plane ride ... could they cram you in any tighter???  The only good part about the ride home was that that I was seated in the 1^st row of business class (not quite 1^st class but still better than economy) so I had a little extra room and they come around a little more often with drinks.  I had a much better trip home, stayed awake the whole time and watched movies so that once home that night, I was able to sleep and it was like I had never been in a different time zone.  Turns out I am not affected by the time zone at all both going and coming back.  John, the sweetheart that he is and after getting the “meltdown” call when I landed in Germany on the way there, told my brother to help me figure out how to get upgraded to 1^st class for the ride home.  Russ laughed and said “you know that is about an $8k flight right?"  Let’s just say, I didn’t pay to be upgraded so the “free” upgrade to business class was very much appreciated.

4)      When I got back, I felt “off” for about 5 or 6 days.  I don’t know if there is a word for it but my balance was off and I felt like I was always a little motion sick.  Maybe it was b/c I spent literally every day either on a plane, a bus, a train, a tram, a boat or all the miles we did in a car?  It was like I had a weird concussion from all the constant motion.  Russ did give those brakes on our car a pretty good workout and it finally passed so I guess I am cured.  Wonder if that is what I would feel like if I went on a cruise??

So, that’s is ... as you can see, a lot less that I didn’t like which makes it worth the long ride, the smoking and the motion sickness.

So, given this wasn’t a novel (an actual novel ... not just what everyone calls my emails) and won’t be published, I didn’t add all the commentary & details that I could have.  I could have talked about the fact that they still take baths over there, not showers.  They don’t have wash clothes ... weird huh?  The women wear pantyhose with their shorts?  You don’t buy an apt b/c of the apt, you buy it for the view on the roof.  You can take your top off at the beach and no one cares!  The beaches are rock, not sand.  Makes for a not so comfy day laying out in the sun.  The older women scowl at you ... I swear I didn’t do anything to provoke it, did I?  And people in Croatia are very pushy when you tell them “I am just looking.”  She may as well grabbed my money right out of my purse.  She literally told me I couldn’t leave until I gave her money.  She didn’t care what denomination either but I figured out later every time she did the conversion from Kuna to Euro and Euro to Dollar, she was robbing me blind.  And this is a bummer b/c those pants were made in Italy and were really cute.  But how you reward someone that just wants to rip you off?

All in all, a great trip and I hope to go back one day (with John too since he stayed home for this trip) and spend more time “learning” and not just seeing.  I think I only picked up a couple of German words b/c everyone speaks English to you when they see that you are American which is good but again, you don’t learn a lot.  But I hope you learn a lot from my “novel.”

Ciao~

Kim

Loipersdorf Therme

We just returned from a small vacation with another family (Miriam and Robert and their two children).  We left Graz around 2p and drove the hour east towards Hungary to visit the Loipersdorf Therme.  A Therme is a pool "complex" formed with water from a hot spring.  We visited twice last year in the winter and this was our first visit during the summer.  

There were many fun things to comment on.  We rented a "fun car," or at least I thought a 2-door Mini Cooper would be fun.  I'm not sure the kids had ever ridden in a 2-door car.

We stayed at a place close to the Therme that had really great family rooms.  Two rooms (each with a double bed and a pull-out single) that shared a corridor that had a door that could be locked.  So, adults in one room, kids in the other, and our room doors open.  We also had a patio outside (where the four adults enjoyed conversation and wine that night).

But really, the Therme in the summer is great because it offers a lot of options.  Not only are there the "hot" pools, complete with slides (both with and without rafts), a pretty aggressive lazy river, etc.  But added in the summer is a large "cold" pool with a slide and diving boards (Grace went off the highest of the two, maybe 12 feet above the water?) and a wave pool (which was absolutely Henry's favorite; hanging off Dad the whole time it seemed!).  We bopped from pool to pool on Day 1 and Day 2.  And we spent time with a family that we got to know a little better.  

Our next-to-last weekend (already?!)

I cannot believe how fast this month is going!  

Saturday morning was spent with our friends Renato and Loulou and their child.  Renato and I have been talking about a hike while I was here and I've always wanted to walk up Schöckl.  So, Friday night at dinner with Renato brought up the subject, we decided to hike up early on Saturday and then have Sue, Louou and the three kids meet us at the top via a gondola ride.

The hike up went well.  It was about a 1500-foot climb.  Renato is in great shape and I managed to keep up (all my biking here is paying off).  It was great to be with him and chat as we walked up in about an hour.  As we made good time getting there and walking up, we had about an hour until our families arrived, so we explored the top and a few side trails.  We arrived at the gondola station about 10 seconds (I'm not kidding) before we saw the kids waving to us from the gondola.

The kids played on the Spielplatz (playground) up there, we ate Apfelstrudel mit vanille sauce (apple strudel) and pommes frites (french fries), hiked around to see the views (and some, in my view, huge dairy cows with big bells grazing up top), and ride the carts on track (see last year's post -- great fun and at least the feeling that the carts could come off the tracks if you were not responsible -- this is Austria!).

Sunday was spent in Vienna.  We caught the 8:30a train and were in Vienna by 11:00a (which means it was 2.5 hours of me saying, "wow, this is SO beautiful!" -- no kidding -- wow!).  The plan was to spend the day at Schönbrunn, the summer palace of the Habsburg's.  Sue and I had spend a day there when Grace was 15 months old and we didn't see it with the kids last year when we visited (cold and rainy).  We thought we might see the children's museum, go to the mazes and playgrounds and just explore the grounds.  We knew that we had friends in Vienna for the weekend, but what we didn't know was that we'd run into them at Schönbrunn!  As Robert said, we actually couldn't have coordinated this any better.  Our children played together (and led each other around in the mazes) for two hours.  It was quite fun.  In addition, we rode the "train" around the grounds and had a nice lunch.  We caught the 5p train back to Graz and were back in our apartment by 8:20p.  A long day, but I think I even heard the kids thank us for such a fun-filled day.

It's not all beer, brats and good times here ...

Had my first, making life complicated, story today.  ("Today" was actually a couple of days before Sue and kids arrived a while back.)

I left the house to do some grocery shopping.  Got to the check out and went to pay with my Bankomat card (a debit card from a European bank).  Entered the PIN and it said "PIN falshe" (PIN false).  I'm like, ok, I've done this 3 or 4 other times (without looking it up on my iPhone, which for the first time I did not have with me), so I must have just entered it wrong.  I enter the PIN again, with sweat forming on my brow.  "PIN falshe" again!  Ugh ... now I'm doubting that I have it right in my head.  But I slowly enter the same code ... "PIN falshe."  

I try to tell the cashier that I'll regroup and think about this.  She eventually calls for someone to cancel the transaction.  I try to block out the 4 people that developed in the queue while I was this series of events transpired (it was empty when I started).  I think, "surely I just switched the last two digits."  When the queue clears, she checks me out again (has to rescan everything).  The critical moment comes and I enter the new, I think, correct PIN.  It goes through!  Or does it, what's this new screen say?  I can't tell, she cancels, I try again.  Same thing.  Seems to take the PIN and goes further, but then gives me a new error ("Konto inaktiv" -- account inactive).  I give up, pack up my stuff to put aside until I return, decide to head home to get my phone so that I can look up the PIN and it dawns on me.  I'm locked out of my account due to the three errors!  So, I turn around and head to City Park (the local shopping mall that is nearby).  I find an ATM, take out money with our US debit card and head back somewhat triumphantly with cash!  I turned a 20-minute shopping trip into an hour of stress (and a trip to the bank tomorrow)!  I came home, put a warm Radler in the freezer, went out for a bike ride.  Came home, popped the Radler, and all is right with the world.

But this mishap picked up the next day right where it left off.  I went to the bank and told them what happened.  The teller told me that I needed to find an ATM not in the foyer (this bank? any bank? I'm not sure) and if I enter the PIN correctly, that'll unlock the card.  So, I get on my bike and ride a few blocks to an ATM that is outside of a bank.  I enter the PIN and it goes through, but like yesterday, it says, "Konto inactiv."

I do back to the bank and tell my tale of woe.  She shows me on a couple of computer screens that my account is still active.  So she gets on the phone with someone at the main office in Wien (Vienna).  She is on for a while with a little back and forth.  She hangs up the phone and relays what she's been told.  Yes, when I made three mistakes yesterday they locked my account.  My account will stay inactive all of today (the day after).  Tomorrow, I get one chance to enter it correctly (at any ATM, even the ones in the foyer -- "they fixed that," she says).  If I am wrong, my account will be inactive the rest of the day and the following day.  I then get another chance on the next day.  If wrong, locked for the rest of the day and the next day.  She says, and by now, she is speaking more loudly with each iteration and attracting the attention of everyone in the bank, "you can play this game seven times.  If you lose all seven times, the card will be permanently locked, just throw it away."

And for the record, I didn't need to "play the game" seven times.  Once was enough and I now not only have the PIN memorized, but also a picture burned into my head of the pattern the numbers make on the keypad.  Which, according to my Austrian colleagues and friends, when you do that (have some other way to remember something) is called an "Esle Brüke," a "donkey bridge."  So, I at least got another Austrian expression out of this :-)

Kim's trip to three countries in three days

When we first started planning Kim's trip to Graz, Kim had a request.  As the first-time owner of a passport, she wanted to get some stamps while she was here.  But one of the downsides of the European Union is that such a request is harder to fill (all of the neighboring countries are part of the EU, if not the Euro Zone).

Giving up on that request, we still wanted to plan an excursion while she was here and we convinced Kim that Slovenia would be a good country to visit (beaches, mountains, great infrastructure, lots of English spoken, etc.).  What's more, the Slovenian coast is small and wedged between Italy and Croatia (Izola, Slovenia is a half hour away from both Trieste, Italy in one direction and the Croatian border in the other).  And our friend Renato is from Izola and so Renato and his family would come along and be our tour guides.

As it turned out, Renato's son had a fever and they couldn't join us.  But we still departed on Friday morning for Izola.  We stopped in Maribor, Slovenia for lunch at a great pizza place and made it to Izola by early afternoon.  We basically spent the afternoon exploring our hotel room (that had a huge balcony looking out over the bay).  And although Renato wasn't there to play host, he recommended a restaurant for dinner that served local fish.  It was a quaint place and it was fun to get Kim and Sue to try octopus salad, sardines (or were they anchovies, I can never remember), and some excellent raw trout.  (If you are wondering what our picky-eating children had for dinner at such a place ... bread and they convinced us to get them nutella "candy coins," which are like Ebel skeevers, but with the nutella on top vs. inside.)

Saturday we decided to visit Venice, Italy.  To be honest, I was a bit skeptical of all the hype.  Everyone said that we *had* to go to Venice given that we'd be *so* close.  We chose the train over the ferry, just in case the water would be choppy.  We drove over to Trieste and took the two-hour train ride, arriving in Venezia (that's how the rest of world spells it) at 11a.  I can't describe it, but when you walk out of the train station, right in the middle of the city, the sight of the city takes your breath away, a spontaneous "wow" moment.  We spent the day riding the water "bus" around the city first (cruise ships, tankers, container ships, etc. making for many pictures for Henry) and then through the Grand Canal later.  We did very little walking, but enough to see just how hard it is to get from A to B in a city with canals as streets.  And Grace kept remarking on how their were front doors to houses that "led RIGHT TO THE WATER!"  A tiring day and we all want to go back someday.

Sunday we decided to go for country #3, Croatia.  We drove to the border, got our passports stamped and then headed for a small town on the coast (Umuq) to change money and see what there was to see.  We had a second breakfast of a traditional dish of Palachinke, which are pretty similar to crepes.  We then returned to Izola to hit the beach.

The beach in Izola was a "rock beach" instead of a sand beach.  At times it was a little hard on the back, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  And the advantage, for us OCD types, was the lack of sand :-)  Anyway, the water was cold, but I convinced Grace to head out and put our faces under the water to look for fish and to be carried away by the waves.  All of this with a magnificent view of the Slovenia/Croatian coast in one direction and Italy in the other.

Monday we traveled back to Graz.  We again stopped in Maribor for lunch.  A colleague of mine works at a university there and he was in town and wanted to host us for lunch.  Here is my review from TripAdvisor:

Our second trip to Maribor in a few days and we had a local host that took us to this restaurant. He reserved the table and ordered ahead. He wanted us to have traditional food from Bosnia and Sarajevo. We had one meat platter of each for four adults, which was way, way too much for lunch (and dinner)! But everything, including the special bread was just excellent. I can't remember the name of the meat that has something like salami and cheese inside of it, but it was fantastic. And the chicken was so moist and tasty and I usually avoid chicken when traveling (too much of that at home). The "meat on a stick" also, thankfully, had some peppers so that we could keep the meat sweats at bay for a few minutes longer. And our service was excellent.

After lunch (and a little bit of ice cream, if you can believe it), we headed to the Zotter Chocolate factory in Austria.  It's one of our typical stops when showing folks the area.  Not only is the experience of eating pieces of chocolate bars off a conveyor belt a good time, anytime, but there's also a great castle in the area that we also visit.  Sort of old Austria meeting new Austria.

And if that wasn't enough, we stopped on the way back to have dinner with our friends we were supposed to travel with (son now fever free).  So, a four-day trip with four countries (three new for Kim) and countless good times!

Meine Schwester kommt

My sister Kim arrived yesterday in Graz.  Her flight out of Detroit was delayed by four hours, which put her on a different plane into Graz out of Frankfurt.  She arrived here 6p local time, which was noon body-clock time with very little sleep.  She was pretty darn tired and we had to entertain her quite a bit to keep her up to 10p.

She slept really well and today we've had her out walking seeing the sights of Graz:  the Mür (the river through Graz), Augarten park (right across the Mür from our apartment), Jackominiplatz (central point of transfer), Herrengasse (our Miracle Mile), Hauptplatz (main square), the Inner Stadt (the old city), Stiegenkirche (the oldest church in Graz?), Doppletreppe (double helix staircase), Scholssbergbahn (the funicular train up to the top of Graz), lunch overlooking the city with Berner Wurstle (cheese-filled brat wrapped in bacon), Spatzle, Pommes (french fries), and a Radler, ice cream, and bus and tram rides to get around.  She's now napping before dinner :-)

I hope she continues to hold up.  We head to Slovenia, Italy and Croatia for the weekend!

Fun with friends

One of the biggest blessings of living abroad is the deep friendships that you are able to form in a short amount of time.  That was certainly the case for us and we were able to reconnect with two sets already this weekend and have another event tomorrow that is likely to fit the pattern.

Friday night we had dinner with Robert and Miriam and their two children (a girl two years younger than Grace and a boy two years younger than Henry).  We met our usual restaurant (my favorite place for pizza) and for once, it didn't rain (inside joke:  it has rained every single time we've met them for dinner, once when we were seated outside and rain wasn't even forecasted!).  We went back to their apartment to meet, Mia, their pet hamster and for the kids to play and the parents to talk about the challenges of having children that don't fit the mold for today's educational system.  These were pretty deep conversations and it's amazing in some ways that we've able to pick up where we left off even though we only knew them for about six months before leaving.

Cultural note:  I wish either of us had our camera last night.  There was a little festival to coincide with the beginning of spring at Hauptplatz (the main square).  They took down the May pole (which is a VERY tall tree "pole") and had a band and traditional dancing.  It was great to see the kids trying to mimic the steps together!

And today (Saturday) we went to a local lake for a swim with Loulou and her son, who is just a year behind Grace (and then two years ahead of Henry).  We spent SO much time with them the last half of our year here, and when I come here for business I always stay in their second apartment.  We even planned our return to the US to coincide with the start of their vacation there so that our kids can hang out on the flight together.  We do so much with them while we are here (they just left; after returning from the lake we had them over for a Mexican dinner) it is always amazing that our best buddies are half a world away from us.

Cultural note:  Sue took a picture of me out on a paddle boat with the three kids.  I said, "did you get a bunch of the naked kids in the picture so that we can explain that apparently girls don't wear swimming tops until they are 6 or 7."  And Sue said, "and did you see that woman that didn't have a top?"  I guess you won't have to think very hard to arrive at the answer I gave for that one (of course I saw her!).

Tomorrow we are going to the Graz Opera.  Our friend David (an American from southern Missouri -- just how does he do it!?) is performing, what he says are, beautiful Schönberg pieces (see cultural note below).  He invited us on Friday night and within two hours I had a sitter lined up.  How's that for taking advantage of the familiar?  It sometimes takes me longer to line up a sitter in Fayetteville!  We hope Meredith will speak German with the kids.  So far they have not heard very much.

Cultural note:  The composition of "Songs of Gurre" took place over a period of eleven years – an unusually long time for Arnold Schönberg. Yet when he completed them in 1911, he felt that his work followed a composition style from which he had subsequently departed: “This work is the key to my entire development. It shows me from sides that I now no longer show myself from or, indeed, from a completely different basis. It explains how everything had to come as it did later, and that is enormously important for my work: that both me as a person and my development can be followed from here.”

The story of King Waldemar and his love for Tove, who is murdered by the jealous queen, is part of Denmark’s treasure trove of national legends. In the course of its numerous reinterpretations, the legend was extended to include the motif of the restlessly wandering king and projected onto King Waldemar IV, who died at Gurre Castle in 1374. This version became the template for the poems of Jens Peter Jacobson. Published in 1868, they fascinated Schönberg with their concentration on the subjects of nature, God, love and death.

The Vienna premiere of "Songs of Gurre" on 23rd February 1913 under Franz Schreker marked Schönberg’s greatest lifetime success. In fact, one hundred years would pass before this major work of the late romantic period finally found its way to Graz.

Family arrives

Sue and the kids arrived today, on time.  That's not to say that all their flights were on time, but you know, all's well that ends well, right?

There is nothing quite like the simultaneous energy of catching me up on things and the profound tiredness of a transatlantic three-legged trip.  One minute to the next, you can see the emotions come across their faces.  It is something to see!

Sue crashed soon after we got to the apartment.  Henry and Grace ate a very light lunch and then we went to get ice cream and some food at the grocery store.  And now Grace and Henry are napping.  I'll wake them up in a bit and then walk over to the city pool.  Today is/was the hottest day of the summer (we hope!).

After being without my family and into my own thing for 12 days, it's going to be an adjustment to get back into the swing of things family wise.  But I look forward to trying!

Back to Graz

I am back in Graz this summer.  It's a little complicated why.  When I was here for my sabbatical, I went after some research funding from the European Commission (EC).  You can't use EC funds to pay an American.  But you can use EC funds to pay a part-time Austria resident.  So, I'm here to pick up my paycheck for work I've been doing through the year.  Oh, and to enjoy our Austrian "home."

I arrived last week and left almost immediately for a research meeting in Roma (why do we call it Rome when everyone else calls it Roma?).  I then came back to Graz and have spent the past three days getting our apartment setup (in the meantime, I've been staying in the "extra apartment" of our friends Loulou and Renato).  As I type this, Sue and kids are on a (delayed) flight from MSP to DC (hope they make their connection!).  I'll pick them up at the airport, hopefully on time.

Fayetteville living

Seems like we need a post about how life is now that we are back.

First, it was great to have the party on Thursday night.  Sure, it was only the second day after we arrived, and yes, we were still a big jet lagged, but there is something very nice about having 50 or so folks stop by to say, "glad you're back."  It's nice of folks to say that.

Second, the sabbatical book that we've used for advice said that most folks would like a 25-word response to the question of, "how was your year in Austria?"  I'm not sure if it is the folks that I've been talking with or I've just plowed on, but I've been able to tell quite a few of our stories to various folks.  It's been fun and I've learned a lot about experiences of other folks that lived abroad. 

Third, I can see that the biggest challenge will be returning to a car-based culture.  Sue and I have both gone for walks in the morning just to get some exercise and think it's so hard to do that after we used to walk miles every day just in the course of our daily lives.  It just seems pretty pointless to "just walk."  I've already considered quite a few options for parking my car along the way to work and then walking the remaining distance.  It seems a little odd to do that, but that's the best plan I have so far and the trail is nice from the library to the campus.

Fourth, the second-biggest challenge will be avoiding processed food.  I never even thought about this in Graz because most things weren't.  But in the US, a lot of stuff is.  So, I've started shopping at our organic market (ONF), which takes about 20 minutes round trip vs. Harp's, which takes less than 10 minutes round trip (and most times I still have to go to Harp's -- so, it really adds a half hour or so to shopping).  But ONF is about 2-3 times as expensive and just because it is organic does not mean that it is not processed.  We've also tried a local farmer's market, but it's just so small and limited as compared to the farmer's market in Graz we went to.  So, we have a partial solution, but not a full one for this challenge.  On the bright side, I've enjoyed cooking things that we didn't cook in Graz.

Fifth, I like that although we are back we've pretty much stayed to ourselves.  Outside of the party and a play date for Grace, we've been hanging out at the house and the pool a lot.  I really appreciate that we became closer as a family in Graz and it's nice to see that we are still tightly knit.  Henry and Grace continue to play with each other for hours on end, which is great to see (sure, there are some fights in there, but they keep coming back to each other is my point).

Sixth, we are really taking this moving in process pretty gently.  We are trying to integrate all of Russ/Sue's stuff and postponing the kids' stuff (i.e., the toys they returned with).  The upstairs is packed with kids toys and a majority of the boxes in the bonus room are stuff that we don't need/want/etc.  Unfortunately, they are in front of boxes that we do need (e.g., all of Sue's and my clothes are in boxes in the way back -- we should have had those things packed up last!).  So, we do a few boxes every day, tossing lots of stuff as we go.  We may never finish, but I think we can live with a de-cluttered downstairs and a cluttered upstairs for a while, right?  Eventually we'll rent a dumpster, put it in the driveway and push boxes out the window ... at least, that's my dream :-)

I'm sure I'll think of other stuff to add as time goes on ... let me know if there is something particular you'd like me to comment on.

Russ