My Not-so-"International Bank of Amherst" rant.

So a second post for today!  I meant to add this into my last post, but I forgot... so I'll make it another post.  If you only want to read about happy things don't read this, because it's going to be a frustrated rant.

First you should know that while I have an Austrian bank account with a bank card (and more money than my American account), Austrian bank cards don't work like debit cards.  While I can use my card in any ATM here, and in most stores I wouldn't be able to use it in an American ATM- or really in the states at all.  Some European websites accept the use of a bank card, but most don't so it's pretty useless for online things.

A huge part of the reason why I even left my American account open was so that I could use my American debit card for online things- it's supposed to function just like any other MasterCard.  My Kindle is connected to it so I can buy books anywhere, I pay for my SmugMug account that way, and it's also handy for plane tickets, train tickets and hotel reservations.

The whole reason this rant came about was because my SmugMug subscription is due this month, but it had my old card information stored.  When I went to update it the site said there was a problem running my card.  I also bought a book on my Kindle, and then promptly got a message that my card is no longer working.  Of course I'm panicing, thinking that my card number has been stolen, or that the bank shut down my card for fraud or something.  After calling home, and then dad calling the bank, and then skyping with him I found out the real problem.  The "International" Bank of Amherst (the tiny privately owned bank I have my account with) has changed their policy so that their customers can no longer use their debit cards for international online sites.

So basically they're screwing me over, because now I can't use my card online at all, even when it's with an American company (like SmugMug and Amazon)!  They say I can use my card in person, but not online, which is pretty much the only reason I have it over here!

Their reason for the policy change is understandable- people were buying diet pills and other such BS medications from other countries online, getting ripped off, then the bank would have to refund their money, but the bank couldn't get its money back because of different international regulations.   However, they didn't notify their customers of this change, which pisses me off!

A further, more offensive rant:
I'd like to say a big "Thank you!" to all the idiots in Central Wisconsin who fucked this up for the rest of us... really? Buying meds online... get smart people (hmmm there's probably some sort of pill you can take for that).  We're not THAT far from Canada, just get in your car, drive there and buy the things yourself- then at least you know what you're paying for!

Alright, now that's out of my system... back to NOT booking my trip for next weekend since I don't have a card I can use... *#`$@%~*&#@

Just living life

Well it's been awhile since my last post... but there's nothing much to report!

I've been saving money, staying in Baden for the weekends, since I've got some long vacations coming up.  Last weekend for something to do I went into Vienna with my flatmate Liz.  We wandered around town, went and saw the Hundertwasser Haus and the Kunsthaus Wien (also by Hundertwasser).  If you don't know Hundertwasser you should.  He's probably my favorite architect, he built/remodeled all sorts of buildings here, and in Germany, plus he even worked on a public toilet in New Zealand, and he has some building out in California as well.  He didn't like straight lines or flat planes, he thought they were unnatural.  He used a lot of color in his buildings, and he wanted them to have a low environmental impact, so the roofs, balconies and window wells are often planted with shrubs, trees and grass. Click here to check out some of his stuff- beware, there are a few naked pictures of him on the site.  I took a bunch of pictures to reference while working at Waldsee this summer; I want to have another Hundertwasser Arbeits Gruppe so we can keep remodeling Baden-Baden (the outdoor shower house at Waldsee).

We also went to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the English cinema, I was a bit afraid that they would ruin the story and make it too Hollywood, but I was pleasantly surprised.  They stayed very close to the book, only changing a few things, and they actually gave more detail than the original Swedish film.  I think the characters were more relatable in this version, and the story is (still) excellent- well worth the money to see it in theaters.

This week I taught a fun lesson about crazy state laws in the US.  It was a fun lesson for me to plan, and the students also enjoyed debating which crazy laws were necessary and which ones weren't.  As a result Minnesota needs to keep their law preventing people from crossing state lines with a duck on their head, because they could be smuggling drugs or something inside the duck!  Also, I found that my mom's hometown (Marshalltown, IA) has a law prohibiting horses from eating fire hydrants.  Good stuff!

I also completed my application to come back here next year, all my teachers seemed surprised (but happy) that I would want to come back to the same schools.  They usually get British TAs, who only stay for a semester, so they're not used to having someone for so long!  I want to come back because it's a nice area, and it would be good to get to know my students more and not have to start all over again!  Anyway, I should find out in March or April if I'll be back in Austria next year, and if I'll be in the same schools.  One day after school this week I spent 20 minutes talking to a group of 3rd form girls (12 yr olds) in German, it was pretty fun to get to know them more and speak some German.  I really need to work on my German more...

The weather lately has been shifting between winter and spring- some days it seems to change hourly- which is to blame (I think) for my lack of sleep, strange dreams, and a headache that won't go away!  Hopefully this week will be better as far as sleep and my head goes.

Now to plan what I'm doing for my Semesterferien (the week off between semesters)- I'll probably go to one or two of the following cities next weekend: Lienz, Klagenfurt, Hallstatt or Salzburg  (I'm leaning towards Hallstatt & Salzburg).  Then I'll probably come back to Baden for a day or two, and then go down to Graz to visit friends!  Should be a good week off, and judging by how my students have been acting they need a break.

The new place

It's been a week of adjustments here for me!  I moved into a new apartment last weekend, so I had to unpack all my stuff and figure out where everything is here and on this side of town.  It was also the first week back at school from vacation, so that took some adjusting for me, the teachers and the students.

My new apartment is really nice! Plus there's the added advantage of everything working!  I have a flat mate now, she's another English TA from Britain, and we get along well.  We have a lot in common, and we have a lot of laughs, especially when we try to mock each other's accents.  By the time I come home I'll have perfected my awful (ever changing) British/Irish/Scottish (and sometimes Indian) accent, and Liz will be able to do the Sconnie accent with equal success!  I now live on the edge of town (nearly in Pfaffstätten), so it takes longer to get to downtown or the train station, but there are some other shops around here, and there's more to explore.  Around the corner from us is the race track (for horses); there are also a lot of schools in the area, of course we don't work at any of them... but whatever!  One of the schools near me here would've been the perfect school for my mom, it's for bakers, confectioners and dental hygienists.  Strange combination I know, but it would've been fitting for her, if she went to school here in Baden.

On Thursday night some of Liz's students from the Social Work school here in Baden (which is also a boarding school) invited us out to Karaoke with them.  The decided that we had to sing in German, and they would sing in English, so we sang 99 Luftballons, which was fine for the 1st verse, but after that neither of us knew the words and I just ended up laughing a lot.  We had a lot of fun with them, and saw some of the night life Baden has to offer, there's not a lot, but it is what you make it!

Friday I had to go to the city center and register where I live with the city, change my address at the bank, and run some general errands.  The whole time I was out and about the city was surrounded by dark storm clouds, but it didn't start until I got home again.  Then there was thunder, lightening and SNOW! It was the first snow here in Baden, and it actually stuck (until about noon yesterday).  It looked like those little styrofoam balls falling from the sky since the flakes were so big.  It actually snowed again yesterday afternoon/evening, so there was snow again this morning, but who knows how long it will last, and it's not very thick on the ground.  Some kids took all the snow (literally) in the backyard to make a snowman, which is now a sort of 1/2 melty slush pile filled with leaves, grass and twigs.

Yesterday my friend Johannes and his wife Amy stopped by after a shopping trip to Vienna.  We went to a Heurige in Sooß for some wine and a light lunch.  It was fun to see them both again, and to visit yet another Heurige in the area.  I didn't have my camera with me, but I wish I would've so I could've taken a picture of their sign.  One of the special things they were advertising was their Jungwein Denise (Jungwein is the new wine from this year), it was a Blauer Portugesier (a red wine), and I'm not sure why they called it Denise since that's not a common name, but I thought it was funny.

One drawback to the new place- I have limited internet (9 gigs per month), so you'll have to wait for photos til I can upload them at school.

Hope you're all having a good winter, stay safe & warm!

Post 3: Return to Austria, wandering and wining

After a 5 hour bus ride and a 30 minute train ride we arrived in Baden, we went on a quick grocery run and then out to a Heurige near my house.  There are a lot of Heurigen around here, and if you know where to find the calendars online you can go to one every day and enjoy local food and wine- so we took full advantage of this!  They're also rather inexpensive, at most of them for a meal and a few glasses of wine you can pay 10 Euro or less per person.  The one we went to on the first night had a good selection of food and some great new wines that we tried out, but it was really smoky!

The next day (December 30) we went on a walk/hike that went through the pedestrian zone at the city center, up into the Kurpark to check out Bellevue, around the hillside behind Baden to the Ruine Rauhenstein and then back to my apartment.  It was a long way- but we saw a lot of my favorite places around Baden and the weather was beautiful.

A picture I snapped on the hike up to Ruine Rauhenstein- Mom said she's going to use it as an Easter card since it looks sort of religious.

 After lunch and some treats from the bakery we rested and read at home until we decided to go out, see the town at night, and have dinner at a Greek restaurant.  The food was decent if a bit over salted, and there was a lot of it, but drinks were expensive and we needed them!  When we came back we watched The Holiday, which is one of the movies we always watch around the holidays.  Others on our list are Bad Santa, The Grinch, and Love Actually (of course!).

On the 31 we did another round of grocery shopping (including a stop at the Vinothek), since Sunday was a holiday all the shops were very busy!  After we put everything away at home we caught a bus down to Bad Vöslau so I could show my parents one of my schools, and then walk back through the vineyards.  We had another great sunny day!

Dad, Connie and I chilling with the manatees in Bad Vöslau

 It was another long walk, but at least it included stopping for lunch at a Heurige in Sooß!  This particular Heurige also has a lot of art done by local artists on display, no smoking, and they were playing some good music- not from the 80s!  It was a great atmosphere, and I can imagine sitting there for hours drinking wine and snacking, but the sun goes down early and we still had a few miles to walk to get back to my place.  

Our lunch at the Heurige in Sooß.

When we got back we rested and read for awhile, and then mom got restless, so we ended up playing a few rounds of UNO while having a light snack for our dinner and drinking a bottle of wine.  Some of our family friends gave me a UNO travel pack before I left, and this was the first time I'd opened it- those cards are tiny, so small that I couldn't stop laughing at them (of course it's not so funny when you've got so many tiny cards that your hand cramps up).

A little after 10pm we headed out to the Kurpark to see the fireworks.  We had been hearing fireworks since about 5, and mom kept asking when the fireworks started, but as it turns out, the city doesn't organize the fireworks like they do for the 4th of July in the US.  Instead everyone goes out and buys a car load of fireworks, and then sets them off from the time it gets dark (4:30/5 ish) until about 2 in the morning.  I seriously think that for every person in Austria (about 8 million) there were at least 2-3 fireworks set off.  Anyway, to get into the higher areas of the park we had to go in a side entrance since the main area of the park was all fenced in to keep the drunk kids with firecrackers from getting up into the rest of the park.  We sat up there for about an hour watching fireworks go up in Baden and in all the towns south/southeast from there.  There were a lot of really large beautiful fireworks both near and far away, not just the small usual personal fireworks (of course they had those too, but you just heard them, they didn't rise above the buildings).  At about 11:45 the park started filling up, our view was totally blocked, and I was freezing, so we decided to walk back home on back streets.  It was like walking through a war zone (or at least what I imagine walking through a war zone would be like).  There were fireworks every where- totally surrounding us, exploding overhead, being fired off across the street, and the firecrackers... they had HUGE firecrackers, and they set them off in the tunnels and under bridges to amplify the sound.  It was crazy, and once it hit 12 it was like being in a bag of popping popcorn.  I know I've never seen that many fireworks in one night!

The first morning of the new year was wet and foggy- in other words, typical.  We decided to walk through the vineyards north of Baden to Gumpoldskirchen for lunch at a Heurige there.  The trail was pretty much just a mud track with all the dampness, and all along the way we found evidence of fireworks from the night before.  With all the fog the scenery was very dreamlike- or Irish because of the damp (if they made wine there that is).  The Heurige we went to was more like a restaurant than the one's I'm used to (most of their food was hot, and you ordered it at the table instead of the counter).  It was also a little more expensive than other Heurigen, but the food was good and so was the wine!  I also ordered a dessert there of Burbon Vanilla ice cream with a rum cherry sauce- soooo delicious!

Our foggy walk through the vineyards to Gumpoldskirchen

After (just barely) catching the train back to Baden we started our UNO tournament with our own rules and scoring- it took us a few days to finish! Some stats: I never went under 100 points (after the first game), I also had the biggest drop in points (-170 some), and I won!  Dad never had a positive number, mom went back and forth between negative and positive, but ended in the positive, and our longest game lasted more than an hour (I have no idea how...).  When we got sick of UNO we watched Ratatouille and drank some more wine.

On the 2 we went grocery shopping again, and of course stopped at the bakery and the Vinothek again.  We were going to take a bus down to Berndorf for a hike, and then go into Vienna, but it was really foggy again and we had a pretty late start, so we just went into Vienna.  We missed the fast train, so we ended up taking the incredibly slow train into the city.  One of our family friends lived in Vienna when she was little, and she gave us her old address so we could go check it out and take some pictures for her, so that was our first order of business.  It's on the north side of town (but still on the west side of the Donau- or Danube in English), so it took awhile to get out there and back again- but it was worth it.  The house is big, and totally covered in vines, they also have a huge backyard, which is pretty special for Vienna.

Dad standing outside the house our friend Ann lived in when she was little in Vienna

 After seeing Ann's old house we went to the Naschmarkt- which is where I always seem to end up when I go into Vienna.  We were pretty hungry so we went to Dr. Falafel's for a great falafel sandwich (which is normally vegan, but we had ours with sheep's cheese).  Mom and dad both shopped for scarves, we found several manly scarves, but dad wouldn't buy any of them (despite saying earlier in the trip that he wanted one), mom found a few, and I (surprisingly) didn't buy any!  That's the first time I've been there and not bought a scarf!  Once we were done shopping we were cold, and wanted to go out for coffee and cake, since that's a very Austrian thing to do in the mid/late afternoon.  However, I don't really know the coffee houses of Vienna all that well, especially around the Naschmarkt, so we came back to Baden to check out a cafe here.  It wasn't cheap, but we had some good coffee, and tasty treats; dad had carrot cake (not as big as mom's), I had something like a cannoli- but filled with a nougat/chocolate pastry cream sort of thing, and mom had what's called a Marzipan Kartoffel (Marzipan potato)- don't worry there's not really anything potato about it besides the looks.  Then we went home to continue our UNO tournament, drink more wine and have dinner.

As it turns out, it's a good thing we didn't go to Berndorf on the 2, because the weather on the 3 was warm (alright, 40s) and sunny!  It's almost never sunny in Berndorf, so it was certainly a freak weather day, but that made it a great day for showing my parents my other school, the little town that Arthur Krupp built with his silverware factory, and hiking up to the Guglzipf.  All along the path up to the look out tower that is the Guglzipf there were signs to teach us about the nature surrounding us.  The signs were all written in the old German script, with some old German words as well, so that made them a bit hard for me to read and translate, but they were still pretty and informative.

Mom enjoying the sun on our day in Berndorf

 Once we got up to the top of the hill we still had to climb up the tower, and once we were at the top the view was amazing.  We could see the whole Triesting valley, and all the hills surrounding, as well as the flat lands east of Berndorf.  We saw Bad Vöslau, and we could just barely see a mountain in the distance behind the hills of the Wienerwald.  We had a picnic lunch up on the hilltop, and then dad decided we should just take the road down instead of one of the trails.  Little did we know the road would take us to the southern end of the valley, two towns beyond Berndorf!  It was still a nice walk back, through some countryside I may not have seen otherwise.  

A view of Berndorf from the Guglzipf.

We got back just in time to catch the "fast" bus, which was driven by the slowest bus driver ever, back to Baden.  We stopped at the bakery for a few treats for our last night, and then back to my place to see which Heurigen were open that night.  We ended up going to a Heurige just across the river from my apartment, they of course had more good local homemade food, and good wines for a great price.  It was a great last night with my parents!


The next morning (Wednesday) we got up really early and went to the airport together to say goodbye.  It was so good to have them visit, we really crammed a lot in to 2 weeks, and I loved showing them around my area.  While the holidays were really different this year, without all of our usual neighborhood get togethers with our group of family friends (that are more like extended family than just friends), they were still great and I'm glad my parents could be here!


In other news- I'm moving out of my apartment tomorrow!!! I think the only thing I'll miss about this place is that it's only a 10 minute walk to the train station, and a 15 minute walk from the shops.  I'm looking forward to my new place with a cool flatmate (Liz), and a working wash machine (hell, a working everything).


Happy 2012 everyone! Stay in trouble and keep on adventuring- even if it's not in a foreign land.

Post 2: Dresden and Prague Revisited

This is Dresden- old (rebuilt and restored) buildings galore

 So on the 27th we left Leipzig to go to Prague.  I figured instead of having a day of sitting on trains or busses it would be fun to take a few hours to see Dresden before continuing on to Prague.  It was nice to get a bit of a walk in, and Dresden is really pretty with all the old buildings.  A lot of the city burned during the fire bombings in WWII, but the alt Stadt (old city) has been pretty well restored, and some of it was spared from the fire.  I was surprised at how I remembered what many of the buildings were, since the last time I was there was 2008 with the Germs (as I call the group of our former German students).  We pretty much just walked around the old city, took lots of pictures of the old buildings, had lunch at an Irish pub, and then went to catch our train to Prague.

We arrived in Prague at about 6 pm and walked to the hotel we booked, but as it turned out there was something wrong with the room we had booked, so they upgraded us to a 4 star hotel up the street (closer to the old city).  We still paid the same price, but we had a really nice room, a big bathroom, and a pretty decent breakfast spread.  We were on the 4th floor, but even so the street noise was hard to sleep through; after about midnight people were going up and down the street drunk, or on their way to getting drunk, and then they'd all come back through at about 5am.  With all that noise, and the snoring from a certain family member I didn't get a lot of sleep in Prague!

The christmas tree and music stage in the old town square.

 After checking in we went out to explore a bit of the city at night and find something to eat.  The christmas market was still in full swing in the old town square, and they had a stage with live music plus loads of street food stands.  We got some Trdelnik, which is like a single layer cinnamon roll, to try, it was pretty tasty and also very tempting because anytime we walked by a stand we could smell it.  The street food stands are up year round in Prague, and I've heard that all their traditional specialties are quite good (potato pancakes- they smell super garlicy, fried bread that comes with different toppings are some of the others), but we only tried the Trdelnik.

We ended up going to the restaurant on the river where I went the last time I was in Prague (in early November).  This time our table wasn't next to the window, and we were seated in the warmest part of the upper deck, so I didn't have to wear my jacket this time.  We drank beer and ate some really great food- mom had an arugula salad (I'm not sure what all was in it, but it looked good) and rosemary-olive oil pizza bread (like a flat focaccia); dad had a salad with baked goat cheese (an entire round!), and some sort of risotto (I think I remember him saying it was the best he'd ever had); I had potato gnocchi in a garlic cream sauce with spinach and chicken, they were delicious little potato pillows- just like gnocchi should be!  Of course I also helped mom with the pizza bread and sampled dad's goat cheese.  After dinner we were feeling really full and in need of a walk before we went back to the hotel, so we crossed Charles Bridge and walked on the other side of the river for a bit before crossing back and heading to the hotel for a noisy night.

We spend the next day (the 28) wandering around Prague- seeing all the old buildings, admiring the views, we did a bit of shopping, took lots of pictures... typical tourist things!  For lunch we went to an Austrian restaurant under Charles Bridge, which is sort of funny since we didn't go to any Austrian restaurants when we were actually in Austria (besides Heurigen- but those aren't like the stereotypical Austrian restaurants with Wienerschnitzel and what have you).  After slowly making our way back to the old town square we decided to go have a siesta at our hotel before going out again.

Dad and mom by the modern art clock in the castle with the cathedral in the background.
My camera was doing a funny proportion distorting thing... but still a good picture.

One thing that I really noticed in walking around Prague with my parents was all the street musicians.  I don't know how, but they seem to be highly influenced by American blues and jazz musicians.  We heard one guy who sounded just like Lois Armstrong, there was another guy who sounded like an old guy from the middle of the Oasarks who had forgotten to put in his dentures, and a lot of well practiced musicians.  There was one guy in one of the bands who was playing a washboard and a cymbal with two whisks... he may have been my favorite.  All the band seemed to have a sign saying something to the effect that they play music inspired by the heart lands of America, or all the best classics.  If only the radio stations in Prague had stayed with those musical tastes... instead the rest of the city is immersed in terrible 80's and early 90's sappy bad pop music, which gets stuck in your head.

Street musicians on the Charles Bridge (can you see the whisks?)

When we went out again we headed down towards Wenceslas Square to see if they had some nice christmas decorations and shop displays.  As it turns out I like both ends of the square, but getting between them is a pain in the ass- there are so many people, and everyone is cutting across each other... not my favorite thing.  On the one side they had a small christmas market with some nice decorations and lots of food smells, and on the other is the statue of King Wenceslas and the National Museum.  The statue of the king was SURROUNDED by a sea of red candles and flowers in memory of Vaclav Havel. It was quite a sight to behold, and there were more people coming with candles and lighting ones that had gone out.

Memorial for Vaclav Havel around the statue of King Wenceslaus.

We continued our walk along the river to admire more of the city lights, we walked down to see the boats that cruise up and down the river all day and into the night, and then back to the same restaurant as the night before.  This time Dad and I both opted for pizzas and mom had the vegatable soup with bread.  My pizza had a spicy sauce and was topped with corn, salami and onions (plus I sprinkled some balsamic vinegar on- you all should really try that, it really brings out more flavors in the pizza); dad's pizza had anchovies and I can't remember what else on it...  Anyway, we were all three very happy with our dinners, although we were a little bit colder than the night before (thankfully there were blankets on the chairs for our use).  On our walk back to the hotel we were finally able to catch the astronomical clock on the hour (we always seemed to just miss it), and there was a Czech band playing some Irish sounding music in the square.

We left Prague on the morning of the 29 to take a bus to Vienna, but we had one last thing to do before we left the city.  I had asked mom to bring a copy of the Community Spirit (the newspaper of the Amherst  area in Wisconsin) with so that we could take pictures with it during our travels and possibly put one or two in the paper.  We forgot about it in Germany, and we also forgot to take it with us in Prague, so on our way to the bus station we stopped by one of the pretty old buildings (I think it's the town hall- or some sort of government building... I'm not entirely sure) and took a few pictures with the Spirit.  We didn't realize it then, but that was the beginning of our adventures with Connie Pitt (the poor unsuspecting elderly woman on the front page of this particular issue).

Anyway- more on Connie's trip to Europe in the next installment: Hiking and wine drinking in Austria!

Post 1: Christmastime in Germany with the Schultze's

(title to be sung to the slightly offensive tune of Springtime for Hitler)

Happy 2012 everyone!  Alright, so it's been two weeks of traveling, sight seeing, eating, drinking, hiking, and hanging with my parents.  There's a lot to cover- so my plan is to bang this out in three posts, but they probably won't all happen today!  My parents flew out early this morning, I went to the airport with them, and when I got back to Baden I saw the sunrise (to give you an idea of how early).  The first will cover our first four days in the Leipzig area, then Dresden and our 2-ish days in Prague, and lastly our five days in Austria!

Peter (on the balcony) and Christof lighting the candles on the Christmas tree.

My parents arrived in Frakfurt on the 22, where our former exchange student Christof lives.  He met them at the airport and they all rode the train to Leipzig to meet up with the rest of the Schulze family (Marie, also a former exchange student; Karin and Peter, their parents).  I don't really remember the details of everything they did on the 22 and 23, but I know they toured Leipzig, went to the Battle of Nations Monument, visited the christmas market, drank Glühwein (mulled wine), and went to hear the Thomas Kirche Choir perform.  I had a long day of traveling on the 23- I left Baden at 5:50am, took a bus and a train to meet a friend who was driving up to Jena, Germany.  From Jena I took a train that ended up being a little over an hour late (and we were maybe a 30 minute walk from the station when we stopped), so I arrived in Leipzig at 5:45(ish).

When I got there our other exchange students Basti and Micha were also there with Marie, Christof and my parents.  Basti's sister Suzi and Christof's girlfriend Melli (hope I'm spelling that correctly) were there too!  It was so great to see everyone again, we spent the evening wandering Leipzig and catching up.  We went to this water basin where you can make the water jump if you rub the rails just right, and I actually got it working, last time I visited I couldn't get it at all.  We went to a cafe/bar and had some snacks and drinks to warm up a bit after walking around in the cold (but there wasn't snow), and then we decided we'd just go back to the Schulze's house have dinner, more drinks and continue our conversation.  I don't know how much of this my parents understood because we were all speaking a lot of German, with a bit of English thrown in, but I had a really good time and I'm going to have to visit Micha and Basti (or they'll have to visit Austria so we can catch up more!

On the 24 we had a pretty late start, since we had gone to bed late, but we did finally get in gear after a delicious German breakfast.  It was just my family with Peter and Karin as our guides as we drove to several small towns near Leipzig, where we saw some typical German castles and walked around the castle grounds.  It was windy and wet, and in driving from place to place I really started noticing some differences between eastern Germany and my area of Austria.  It's clear that there's a lot less money in that area of Germany, you can see it in the houses, the cars and the cultural landmarks.  Here in Baden there's a lot of money, so everything is well kept, and they spend a lot of money on making their towns appealing to the eye with parks, trails, plantings, interesting shops and buildings.  Of course I also noticed that there is very little trash, cigarette butts or dog crap on the streets of Germany, and those are all big problems here!

I swear we were eating every two hours in Germany, and all the food was good it was hard to decide what to put on my plate, I wanted to try everything!  For lunch that day we had a nice hot goose noodle soup (we ate the goose for Christmas the next day), and for the life of me I can't remember what we did that afternoon... but in the late afternoon Christof and Marie came over.  The guys lit the candles on the Christmas tree (that's right, real candles), and we exchanged gifts.  In Germany and Austria it's traditional to do Christmas gifts on evening of the 24th- not the morning of the 25th.  Then we had our dinner of potato salads and sausages with drinks of course.  I think by the time dinner was over I'd had two beers (the German .5 liter beers) and two shots of schnapps.  Then their neighbor always plays Christmas music with his two sons from their living room (they open the window) and the neighbors all stand outside drinking Glühwein, champagne and singing christmas carols.  I think they played more English songs than usual because they knew there were some Americans in the crowd, and we did seem to be the only people singing for those songs (besides Marie of course!).  We all had a few more drinks, and then it was time to walk to church for the christmas service.  That's right- get tipsy & go to church.  I think I like this tradition!

It was another late night- which meant another late start to our day on the 25, but it's vacation, so it doesn't matter!  We spent the morning and early afternoon touring two or three man made lakes in the area.  Their located where they used to mine brown coal (it's near the surface, so they can just dig it out), and now they're trying to make these areas into resorts.  One (or it may have been two- I'm a bit fuzzy on that since we visited 3 spots, but it seems like it was 2 spots on the same lake...)  of them isn't full yet, so you can still see mounds of soil and small trees popping up all over in the lake.  I think Peter said it would be another 5 years until it is full, but they already have a big sort of "port" area, lots of housing being built, a big museum and restaurant... basically they want it to be a big tourist attraction, but right now it just looks ridiculous.  The one we visited that was finished was pretty nice, it had sort of a North-Sea Shore theme, and it's surrounded by parks and bike paths.  I'm sure there are a lot of people there in the summer, and I know I'd rather go there than the other lake we saw!

We went back to the house at about 2, and Marie came over with her boyfriend Yves for the big traditional goose dinner.  I've never had goose before, and I liked it quite a lot, although there is a lot of fat on there!  We also had Kartoffelknödel (potato dumplings) and mashed potatoes, red cabbage and white cabbage, and there was more that I'm not remembering but I'm sure it was good!  Then we had cookies and schnapps for dessert- I thought we would sit at the table forever eating cookies, but we did eventually move on to working on a puzzle.  Then Christof and Melli came over with more cookies, so that started another round of cookie eating, and at some point we also went for a walk around Mölkau (the suburb of Leipzig where the Schulzes live).  I'm pretty sure we ate some more later, but I have no idea what!

The 26th was our last day in Leipzig, and it was also the day of the big family christmas get together and dinner.  We had what Peter calls Frühmi (not a real word, so I'm not worried about spelling), and what the rest of us call brunch, with Christof and Melli.  Afterwards we (mom, dad, me, Christof and Melli) went to the Panometer museum at Melli's suggestion, and it was great!  The exhibit was all about the Amazon river basin, all the plants, animals and insects that live there and how they co-exist and how humans interact with that world.  The guy who arranges it all wants to immerse people into whatever the exhibit is, so you're surrounded by images specimens, videos, and information, plus there's a constant soundtrack of noises you would hear if you were actually in the rainforest.  It's a lot to look at and take in, so we were there for quite some time!  The whole thing ends with a round central room where the walls make up a full 360 degree picture.  We stood in there up on the observation platform (it's a tall room too) for what amounted to a whole day.  We saw the sun rise, the forest come to life, the sun set and a storm in the distance at night.  It was incredible!  They have different exhibits throughout the year, they have ancient Rome, ancient Greece, Mount Everest and more I'm sure.

After the Panometer we met Marie at the art museum in Leipzig, Christof left, and we went to see the Max Beckman exhibit.  Max Beckman was a German painter, but beyond that I can't really tell you much more.  He had some issues with women- cheated on both of his wives, and his style of painting was rather childish.  It was interesting to see some German art, but by the time we all made it through the exhibit I was ready to go.  We went back to the Schulze's and had coffee, tea, cookies and cake while sitting around talking.  Mostly we talked to each other and Marie, Yves, Melli and Christof, while the rest of the extended family talked amongst themselves.  Then our end of the table made its escape to the kitchen where we started drinking beer and hungrily awaiting the real food.  Dinner was finally served after what seemed like an hour of hanging out in the kitchen, and it was worth the wait!  We had fresh baked ham, a goose and sauerkraut dish, red and white cabbage, Semmelknödel (another type of dumpling), two different gravies, cheese, bread and some different vegetable salads.  After everyone had their fill with dinner more drinks were passed around, and a lot of the extended family left.  This was a problem since Christof and Melli had made 5 pans of tiramisu!  They had planned on serving about 25 people, but in the end I think there were 10 of us.  Melli ran home to get her parents to help us out, but even there were 2 pans left at the end of the night.

The next morning we left continue our adventures, but we had a lot of fun in Germany, and I was grateful to be able to spend another holiday with the Schulzes!

Tomorrow's installment: A few hours in Dresden, and wandering through Prague again.
Also check my smugmug for all the pictures from vacation.