Tomorrow (Friday) we are moving into a new place!
After lots of searching, we FINALLY found a place that was suitable for our needs. As in, decently priced with a huge kitchen INCLUDING a gas stove (if I never see another electric stove in my life, it will be all too soon). It is a two-bedroom townhouse that has recently been renovated and looks really nice inside. Pictures to come once we get it all in order!
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving!
Steve and I would like to wish you all a very happy turkey day (or tofurkey day, if that's how you do it). After a few days of heavy rain, the skies have been clear and the air has been crisp for the past two days. Being the day that it is, I wanted to touch on a few things that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving.
FAMILY & FRIENDS (The obvious one)
We are both very thankful that we have the support system that we do. It was great for us to be around family and friends while we were growing up and during the first part of the year, and it felt good for us knowing that when we were in Europe, we had people here in the States thinking about us and reading our blog and generally missing us. But there has been no time when we were more grateful for the relationships we have with our friends and family than when we came back from Europe. We received sweet "welcome home!" texts from friends who don't normally show affection, we had friends around to feed us when we visited and to get us job interviews, and we had our loving parents who most graciously let us move back into their houses as we have not yet found a place of our own. If it hadn't been for this great support system we have, we would either be homeless and living on the streets, or we would be spending all our savings on a place to live before we got the rest of our lives back in the States figured out.
HEALTH
This might seem like a silly one coming from someone who is less than two weeks out of knee surgery - but it is one that I've thought a lot about lately, particularly because of knee surgery. Let me start by saying that knee surgery sucks, and I don't recommend it to anyone (unless you've blown out your knee too, and don't have any other choice). But from a physical standpoint, things could be a lot worse for me. I know people who have been in serious pain after surgery--I'm glad that's not me. I have always been quick to recover from minor injuries like sprained ankles and pulled muscles, and in 2007 when I had my other knee done, I didn't have any pain AT ALL. So I'm lucky, in that perspective. I am fortunate enough to have a healthy, well-oiled, working body that can take on trauma like blowing my knee out and getting it surgically fixed with little to no pain after a couple days.
I am also grateful for Steve's health (as I'm sure he is too). Four months of walking around Europe without may opportunities for high-intensity contact sports like soccer mean that Steve's lingering soccer injuries (ankles, knees, etc) have all more or less healed. From a non-injury standpoint, I am thankful that Steve and I hardly ever get sick. Sure, we've both caught colds and the like, but never anything that a full day of sleep and a lot of tea/chicken soup couldn't fix. Our immune systems are happily chugging along, keeping us safe from all the pathogens floating around in the air.
Most of all, I am thankful that it was me and not Steve who blew out their knee and had surgery and is gearing up for the long, slow process that is getting back to the soccer field in full fitness. I have been through this before. I know what it's like. I know what to expect. And no amount of hearing it from others will ever adequately prepare someone for what you have to go through when you have a serious injury like this. Steve has heard all the stories from me, and will be there to partake in this experience second-hand, but of all things this Thanksgiving, I am so thankful that he doesn't have to personally go through it. I love the game of soccer, especially now that I have no choice but to sit on the sidelines, but Steve LOVES soccer. He is OBSESSED with soccer. And I am glad that he doesn't have to give it up - the past four months in Europe was long enough for him. I haven't played soccer (the CouchSurfing picnic notwithstanding) in EIGHT MONTHS. And this is just the beginning - I am advised to stay away from contact sports for a full year before getting back (although I will admit that last time I signed up for soccer class at CPP after nine months) so that the allograft (cadaver tendon) that has replaced my ruptured ACL has time to full integrate itself with my bones and blood vessels and body in general. So even if it only takes nine months to play soccer again, I will be terrible because I will not have played in a year and a half. If it hadn't been for our whirlwind trip around Europe, I could have had surgery months ago. I could be back on the soccer field at the beginning of next year (assuming, of course, that the world doesn't end next month). But that isn't how things happened this time around, and I am just at the very beginning of this long, miserable journey. I am happy to report that I have taken a few shaky steps around the house without my crutches, but I am a long way from running around on a soccer field again. I remember, last time, there were a lot of tears and a lot of moments where I was scared to do things for fear of re-injuring myself. There were a lot of dark days, and I don't expect this time to be any different.
I am retrospectively thankful to my friend Brandon (aka B-Dizzle): when I was preparing for my return to the soccer field, I decided to put together an indoor soccer team with some people from the dorms to mark my debut. A friend mentioned that this guy, Brandon, from the second floor had heard what I was doing and wanted to join the team. I didn't know this guy, but after a silly first meeting, B-Deezy and I became friends. Of everyone I had met my first year of school, he was probably the one I best connected with because he was the first person I had met who loved the game like I did. He grew up playing club soccer, the works. Even better, at the end of his high school career, he suffered a back injury (slipped disk I think) that put him out for a while and required the occasional epidural (yes, the same epidurals you give pregnant women in labor) even now. So really, this indoor team I was putting together was as much his comeback as mine. And he was just as excited about it as I was. I had found someone who loved the game like I did, who was used to the same competitive level of play as I was, who had an idea of what I was going through with my injury, and who helped (re)make me a better player. He dragged me to the dorm gym in the mornings to get me back in shape; he would kick a soccer ball around with me in the evenings. He was there to talk to about my worries. And we stayed friends all throughout college, still playing indoor together (though with a completely different group of people than at the dorms), and so he was there to see me become the player that I was before I blew the crap out of my knee that first time - a better one, even. My comeback as a soccer player was very successful and largely in part thanks to BranMuffin's support (yes, this guy has a lot of nicknames). It would have been so much harder for me to go at it alone. Looking back at that time, especially since I'm sitting here this Thanksgiving just waiting to be at that point in the rehab process again, I need to give him a special thank-you. So, thank you, B, for bringing me back.
And I am preemptively thankful to my husband Steve, who I know will be there to do the same thing this time around (and maybe more, since he won't be able to escape to his dorm room like Brandon could :P ). I have a long journey ahead, and you will be there for all of it. Thank you, Steve, for your love and support - I know I will need it.
CHOICES/BEING A WOMAN IN THE UNITED STATES
Kind of going back to the knee surgery thing: when I blew my knee out the first time, it was during the last tournament of my competitive playing career and I was kind of burnt out anyway. I figured I would take some time off playing soccer anyway... But everything changed with that injury. I found out the hard way that there is a HUGE difference between not doing something because you don't feel like, and not doing something because you don't have a choice. Once that choice (of playing soccer) was taken away from me with injury and surgery and the long rehab process, there was nothing more in the world that I wanted to do than to play soccer again. Even though I had been at the point where I didn't want to. So really, the injury gave me the excuse to not play - so why did I all of a sudden change my mind? I changed my mind because that is what we as humans do, but how does it feel to change your mind and find that the other option is no longer an option anymore? (I'm sure a lot of people feel this way about the election and the coming months, but let's not get into that here.)
We have the ability to make choices, especially here in the United States, where we have so much of everything, from brands of milk to clothing stores to schools to occupations, from what instrument you want to play or language you want to learn or sport you want to play. I think a lot of the time, we take that ability to choose for granted. In some countries, you don't have that choice. You can choose to do what the government tells you, or you can choose to die, in some cases! When we were in Europe, when I mentioned that I was a soccer player, EVERY SINGLE PERSON we told was surprised. Surprised like, "Girls are encouraged to play sports in your country?" What? Encouraged? Almost every single one of my female friends is an athlete, or was at some point. It never occurred to me until this summer that not everyone thinks like that. In almost every single country we went to, women were encouraged to stick to the traditional roles: taking care of the home and family. Now, I don't think there is anything wrong with that--my own mother was a stay-at-home mom for a long time when we were growing up. I know that it isn't a walk in the park; if anything, it is harder than working - it's not a 40-hour-workweek kind of job. But that was the choice she made. She didn't fill that role because she had to or because she was expected to; she did it because SHE WANTED TO. And when my brother and I got older and more capable to taking care of ourselves, she went back to work, BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO. Because, in the United States, you are allowed to follow your dreams and do the things you choose to do. When I mentioned that I was a soccer player to the girls who run the Discover Football program (a German organization that spreads awareness of the sport to women in less-accepting countries, like in the Middle East and Africa), they were all surprised - until they learned that I was American. And then they were like, "Oh, okay, that makes more sense." It was an enlightening moment for me - to realize just what it meant to be a woman with an American citizenship as opposed to a woman in Poland or Ukraine or Slovakia or Croatia or any of these places. It meant I could be a female athlete if I chose; I could be a career woman if I chose; I could be a stay-at-home mom if I chose. I can be, as a woman in America, anything I wanted to be. And for that, I am thankful.
(Last of all) AUTUMN
Did any of you think you'd ever hear me say that: I am thankful for a season that isn't summer? Well, I am. Things have changed. I don't mind the chilly air and the rain anymore, now that I don't have to lug a heavy backpack around in the rain and attend two-hour class sessions in wet clothes anymore. It's refreshing, actually, after living for so long in southern California, to see seasons again. There is a big maple tree in my yard, right outside my window, and all day it has been chilly but sunny (no more of that heavy rain we'd had the past few days) and the fiery red and orange leaves have been blowing off the tree and floating around so prettily. It isn't summer anymore here, which means our summer vacation is officially over. But while we are house-hunting and job-hunting and studying for the CPA exam and working to get back on our feet (for me, that is literally a goal), autumn is a beautiful thing to look upon.
So there you have it, a few things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. Steve says, when asked to name the first things that come to mind that he is thankful for, he says sunshine, me/Billy/family/friends, American craft beer, and comfy athletic clothing. Billy is thankful for pie.
Happy eating, everyone! Much love from us <3 data-blogger-escaped-br="br">
FAMILY & FRIENDS (The obvious one)
We are both very thankful that we have the support system that we do. It was great for us to be around family and friends while we were growing up and during the first part of the year, and it felt good for us knowing that when we were in Europe, we had people here in the States thinking about us and reading our blog and generally missing us. But there has been no time when we were more grateful for the relationships we have with our friends and family than when we came back from Europe. We received sweet "welcome home!" texts from friends who don't normally show affection, we had friends around to feed us when we visited and to get us job interviews, and we had our loving parents who most graciously let us move back into their houses as we have not yet found a place of our own. If it hadn't been for this great support system we have, we would either be homeless and living on the streets, or we would be spending all our savings on a place to live before we got the rest of our lives back in the States figured out.
HEALTH
This might seem like a silly one coming from someone who is less than two weeks out of knee surgery - but it is one that I've thought a lot about lately, particularly because of knee surgery. Let me start by saying that knee surgery sucks, and I don't recommend it to anyone (unless you've blown out your knee too, and don't have any other choice). But from a physical standpoint, things could be a lot worse for me. I know people who have been in serious pain after surgery--I'm glad that's not me. I have always been quick to recover from minor injuries like sprained ankles and pulled muscles, and in 2007 when I had my other knee done, I didn't have any pain AT ALL. So I'm lucky, in that perspective. I am fortunate enough to have a healthy, well-oiled, working body that can take on trauma like blowing my knee out and getting it surgically fixed with little to no pain after a couple days.
I am also grateful for Steve's health (as I'm sure he is too). Four months of walking around Europe without may opportunities for high-intensity contact sports like soccer mean that Steve's lingering soccer injuries (ankles, knees, etc) have all more or less healed. From a non-injury standpoint, I am thankful that Steve and I hardly ever get sick. Sure, we've both caught colds and the like, but never anything that a full day of sleep and a lot of tea/chicken soup couldn't fix. Our immune systems are happily chugging along, keeping us safe from all the pathogens floating around in the air.
Most of all, I am thankful that it was me and not Steve who blew out their knee and had surgery and is gearing up for the long, slow process that is getting back to the soccer field in full fitness. I have been through this before. I know what it's like. I know what to expect. And no amount of hearing it from others will ever adequately prepare someone for what you have to go through when you have a serious injury like this. Steve has heard all the stories from me, and will be there to partake in this experience second-hand, but of all things this Thanksgiving, I am so thankful that he doesn't have to personally go through it. I love the game of soccer, especially now that I have no choice but to sit on the sidelines, but Steve LOVES soccer. He is OBSESSED with soccer. And I am glad that he doesn't have to give it up - the past four months in Europe was long enough for him. I haven't played soccer (the CouchSurfing picnic notwithstanding) in EIGHT MONTHS. And this is just the beginning - I am advised to stay away from contact sports for a full year before getting back (although I will admit that last time I signed up for soccer class at CPP after nine months) so that the allograft (cadaver tendon) that has replaced my ruptured ACL has time to full integrate itself with my bones and blood vessels and body in general. So even if it only takes nine months to play soccer again, I will be terrible because I will not have played in a year and a half. If it hadn't been for our whirlwind trip around Europe, I could have had surgery months ago. I could be back on the soccer field at the beginning of next year (assuming, of course, that the world doesn't end next month). But that isn't how things happened this time around, and I am just at the very beginning of this long, miserable journey. I am happy to report that I have taken a few shaky steps around the house without my crutches, but I am a long way from running around on a soccer field again. I remember, last time, there were a lot of tears and a lot of moments where I was scared to do things for fear of re-injuring myself. There were a lot of dark days, and I don't expect this time to be any different.
I am retrospectively thankful to my friend Brandon (aka B-Dizzle): when I was preparing for my return to the soccer field, I decided to put together an indoor soccer team with some people from the dorms to mark my debut. A friend mentioned that this guy, Brandon, from the second floor had heard what I was doing and wanted to join the team. I didn't know this guy, but after a silly first meeting, B-Deezy and I became friends. Of everyone I had met my first year of school, he was probably the one I best connected with because he was the first person I had met who loved the game like I did. He grew up playing club soccer, the works. Even better, at the end of his high school career, he suffered a back injury (slipped disk I think) that put him out for a while and required the occasional epidural (yes, the same epidurals you give pregnant women in labor) even now. So really, this indoor team I was putting together was as much his comeback as mine. And he was just as excited about it as I was. I had found someone who loved the game like I did, who was used to the same competitive level of play as I was, who had an idea of what I was going through with my injury, and who helped (re)make me a better player. He dragged me to the dorm gym in the mornings to get me back in shape; he would kick a soccer ball around with me in the evenings. He was there to talk to about my worries. And we stayed friends all throughout college, still playing indoor together (though with a completely different group of people than at the dorms), and so he was there to see me become the player that I was before I blew the crap out of my knee that first time - a better one, even. My comeback as a soccer player was very successful and largely in part thanks to BranMuffin's support (yes, this guy has a lot of nicknames). It would have been so much harder for me to go at it alone. Looking back at that time, especially since I'm sitting here this Thanksgiving just waiting to be at that point in the rehab process again, I need to give him a special thank-you. So, thank you, B, for bringing me back.
And I am preemptively thankful to my husband Steve, who I know will be there to do the same thing this time around (and maybe more, since he won't be able to escape to his dorm room like Brandon could :P ). I have a long journey ahead, and you will be there for all of it. Thank you, Steve, for your love and support - I know I will need it.
CHOICES/BEING A WOMAN IN THE UNITED STATES
Kind of going back to the knee surgery thing: when I blew my knee out the first time, it was during the last tournament of my competitive playing career and I was kind of burnt out anyway. I figured I would take some time off playing soccer anyway... But everything changed with that injury. I found out the hard way that there is a HUGE difference between not doing something because you don't feel like, and not doing something because you don't have a choice. Once that choice (of playing soccer) was taken away from me with injury and surgery and the long rehab process, there was nothing more in the world that I wanted to do than to play soccer again. Even though I had been at the point where I didn't want to. So really, the injury gave me the excuse to not play - so why did I all of a sudden change my mind? I changed my mind because that is what we as humans do, but how does it feel to change your mind and find that the other option is no longer an option anymore? (I'm sure a lot of people feel this way about the election and the coming months, but let's not get into that here.)
We have the ability to make choices, especially here in the United States, where we have so much of everything, from brands of milk to clothing stores to schools to occupations, from what instrument you want to play or language you want to learn or sport you want to play. I think a lot of the time, we take that ability to choose for granted. In some countries, you don't have that choice. You can choose to do what the government tells you, or you can choose to die, in some cases! When we were in Europe, when I mentioned that I was a soccer player, EVERY SINGLE PERSON we told was surprised. Surprised like, "Girls are encouraged to play sports in your country?" What? Encouraged? Almost every single one of my female friends is an athlete, or was at some point. It never occurred to me until this summer that not everyone thinks like that. In almost every single country we went to, women were encouraged to stick to the traditional roles: taking care of the home and family. Now, I don't think there is anything wrong with that--my own mother was a stay-at-home mom for a long time when we were growing up. I know that it isn't a walk in the park; if anything, it is harder than working - it's not a 40-hour-workweek kind of job. But that was the choice she made. She didn't fill that role because she had to or because she was expected to; she did it because SHE WANTED TO. And when my brother and I got older and more capable to taking care of ourselves, she went back to work, BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO. Because, in the United States, you are allowed to follow your dreams and do the things you choose to do. When I mentioned that I was a soccer player to the girls who run the Discover Football program (a German organization that spreads awareness of the sport to women in less-accepting countries, like in the Middle East and Africa), they were all surprised - until they learned that I was American. And then they were like, "Oh, okay, that makes more sense." It was an enlightening moment for me - to realize just what it meant to be a woman with an American citizenship as opposed to a woman in Poland or Ukraine or Slovakia or Croatia or any of these places. It meant I could be a female athlete if I chose; I could be a career woman if I chose; I could be a stay-at-home mom if I chose. I can be, as a woman in America, anything I wanted to be. And for that, I am thankful.
(Last of all) AUTUMN
Did any of you think you'd ever hear me say that: I am thankful for a season that isn't summer? Well, I am. Things have changed. I don't mind the chilly air and the rain anymore, now that I don't have to lug a heavy backpack around in the rain and attend two-hour class sessions in wet clothes anymore. It's refreshing, actually, after living for so long in southern California, to see seasons again. There is a big maple tree in my yard, right outside my window, and all day it has been chilly but sunny (no more of that heavy rain we'd had the past few days) and the fiery red and orange leaves have been blowing off the tree and floating around so prettily. It isn't summer anymore here, which means our summer vacation is officially over. But while we are house-hunting and job-hunting and studying for the CPA exam and working to get back on our feet (for me, that is literally a goal), autumn is a beautiful thing to look upon.
So there you have it, a few things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. Steve says, when asked to name the first things that come to mind that he is thankful for, he says sunshine, me/Billy/family/friends, American craft beer, and comfy athletic clothing. Billy is thankful for pie.
Happy eating, everyone! Much love from us <3 data-blogger-escaped-br="br">
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Oops....
It has been quite a while since we last posted anything up here.
I'm afraid life hasn't been quite as exciting as it was when we were traveling (and even then it still took me a long time to post...).
Key Updates:
KNEE SURGERY
I am about five days out of surgery and doing great. For those of you who didn't know for sure but picked up on the injured knee references in the blog during our Europe trip, I had ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament [ACL] playing soccer back in... Oh, I don't know, April? Maybe end of March? So after an upsetting visit to the orthopedic surgeon [OS] (who fixed my other knee, which I blew out a week before high school graduation) back in April, four months in Europe, an MRI and its follow-up visit, and six weeks of waiting after our return to the United States, I finally had a complete ACL reconstruction this past Tuesday. FINALLY, sheesh. I went in at 8:30am for prep for my 9:45am operation, then found out my OS was stuck in a previous surgery for longer than anticipated and my surgery was pushed back at least another hour. I think I finally made it into the operating room around 11:30am and by 3pm I was back home. My OS couldn't tell from the MRI before whether or not my meniscus had been damaged, so it came as a relief to me when I found out after surgery that my meniscus was fine - this means that theoretically I will be off crutches soon. I was extremely nauseous any time I sat up too fast or rode in a car, but that was really the only unbearable part of my first few days of recovery. My pain level has been very low for the most part. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being me screaming for the pain to stop, I was 3-4 during the day for the first two or three days. Nighttime was hard for the first two days because I couldn't get comfortable with the gigantic leg shackle weighing my leg down and pulling on the bandages, and because without fail, for the first two days, I would wake up at 1:30am with my leg feeling like it was ready to fall off. I was about an 8/10 the first night but didn't take any painkillers because I didn't want to wake up Steve to make me food and from what I remember of last time I was in this position, heavy-duty painkillers do not agree with me on an empty stomach. Night Two was even worse - at least a 9.5/10 - I was sitting up in bed ready to break down in tears when Steve woke up, took one look at me, and went into the kitchen to make me a midnight snack and fetch my painkillers. Surprisingly, since that night, my pain level has dropped both day and night (1/10, if that) and I haven't had to take any more painkillers (whoo!). I did have to go back in to the doctors office and get my bandages changed the day after surgery (more time in the car... ugh.) because blood and saline and general surgery goo was leaking out and my bandages were soaked through. Gross. But I am now able to bear 50-70% of my weight on my newly renovated leg (which means that I can get by with using only one crutch instead of two - double yes for the halved bulk) and I have an appointment in about a week to get my stitches out. Hopefully physical therapy [PT] will start the week after Thanksgiving.
CAREER TRACK
In January, I will begin work as a staff accountant at a CPA firm in town. Whoo! The timing is convenient for everyone, because the firm is currently in a bit of a lull before tax season starts and it gives me time to get back on my feet (somewhat literally) following knee surgery. I have sent my college transcript and application to the California Board of Accountancy and wait to schedule the CPA exam. More info on that as it comes; until then, I need to crack down and study because, as one of the partners at the firm reminded me, I won't have nearly as much free time once work starts.
Steve has kept an eye out for jobs in agribusiness in the area but so far no luck - which is convenient for me because I have a handsome, attentive nurse to look after me and drive me around while I recover from surgery. Once the holidays wrap up, then the serious job search will ensue.
HOUSING
We've been staying with my family for the past couple weeks since we moved up to Redding, but we have been on the lookout for our own place. My bedroom here was already full of wedding presents and all my old stuff, so when Steve set up a table for his computer, that took up most of the available space. *sigh* We've been back from Europe for almost two months (Two months?! What!) and we're still living out of a suitcase. One of the nice things about Redding is the lower cost of living - we've looked at places to rent in town that are almost twice as big as the place we rented in southern California for the same price or (usually) less. Awesome. We were originally going to try to find a place before Thanksgiving because a couple of our friends said they were going to come up, but at this point, that is very unlikely. With my surgery being last week and our friends flaking, it is more financially responsible for us to stay at my parents' house a little while longer. But stay tuned!
OTHER
Steve played in a full-field adult soccer tournament last weekend with some of our friends up here. He had four games, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. Watching soccer makes me a little sad because it has been so long since I've played and it will be much longer still before I play again, but Steve is so cute running around out there (although by the fourth game of the weekend, he was pretty tired...). He had fun (and burned some serious calories), which was good - it's been a while since he last played soccer, too. We didn't get many opportunities in Europe. He's also been playing on a 7aside team on Thursdays with my brother and some other friends of ours. If he wants to get his soccer fix, Redding is a good place to do it.
I'm afraid life hasn't been quite as exciting as it was when we were traveling (and even then it still took me a long time to post...).
Key Updates:
KNEE SURGERY
I am about five days out of surgery and doing great. For those of you who didn't know for sure but picked up on the injured knee references in the blog during our Europe trip, I had ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament [ACL] playing soccer back in... Oh, I don't know, April? Maybe end of March? So after an upsetting visit to the orthopedic surgeon [OS] (who fixed my other knee, which I blew out a week before high school graduation) back in April, four months in Europe, an MRI and its follow-up visit, and six weeks of waiting after our return to the United States, I finally had a complete ACL reconstruction this past Tuesday. FINALLY, sheesh. I went in at 8:30am for prep for my 9:45am operation, then found out my OS was stuck in a previous surgery for longer than anticipated and my surgery was pushed back at least another hour. I think I finally made it into the operating room around 11:30am and by 3pm I was back home. My OS couldn't tell from the MRI before whether or not my meniscus had been damaged, so it came as a relief to me when I found out after surgery that my meniscus was fine - this means that theoretically I will be off crutches soon. I was extremely nauseous any time I sat up too fast or rode in a car, but that was really the only unbearable part of my first few days of recovery. My pain level has been very low for the most part. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being me screaming for the pain to stop, I was 3-4 during the day for the first two or three days. Nighttime was hard for the first two days because I couldn't get comfortable with the gigantic leg shackle weighing my leg down and pulling on the bandages, and because without fail, for the first two days, I would wake up at 1:30am with my leg feeling like it was ready to fall off. I was about an 8/10 the first night but didn't take any painkillers because I didn't want to wake up Steve to make me food and from what I remember of last time I was in this position, heavy-duty painkillers do not agree with me on an empty stomach. Night Two was even worse - at least a 9.5/10 - I was sitting up in bed ready to break down in tears when Steve woke up, took one look at me, and went into the kitchen to make me a midnight snack and fetch my painkillers. Surprisingly, since that night, my pain level has dropped both day and night (1/10, if that) and I haven't had to take any more painkillers (whoo!). I did have to go back in to the doctors office and get my bandages changed the day after surgery (more time in the car... ugh.) because blood and saline and general surgery goo was leaking out and my bandages were soaked through. Gross. But I am now able to bear 50-70% of my weight on my newly renovated leg (which means that I can get by with using only one crutch instead of two - double yes for the halved bulk) and I have an appointment in about a week to get my stitches out. Hopefully physical therapy [PT] will start the week after Thanksgiving.
CAREER TRACK
In January, I will begin work as a staff accountant at a CPA firm in town. Whoo! The timing is convenient for everyone, because the firm is currently in a bit of a lull before tax season starts and it gives me time to get back on my feet (somewhat literally) following knee surgery. I have sent my college transcript and application to the California Board of Accountancy and wait to schedule the CPA exam. More info on that as it comes; until then, I need to crack down and study because, as one of the partners at the firm reminded me, I won't have nearly as much free time once work starts.
Steve has kept an eye out for jobs in agribusiness in the area but so far no luck - which is convenient for me because I have a handsome, attentive nurse to look after me and drive me around while I recover from surgery. Once the holidays wrap up, then the serious job search will ensue.
HOUSING
We've been staying with my family for the past couple weeks since we moved up to Redding, but we have been on the lookout for our own place. My bedroom here was already full of wedding presents and all my old stuff, so when Steve set up a table for his computer, that took up most of the available space. *sigh* We've been back from Europe for almost two months (Two months?! What!) and we're still living out of a suitcase. One of the nice things about Redding is the lower cost of living - we've looked at places to rent in town that are almost twice as big as the place we rented in southern California for the same price or (usually) less. Awesome. We were originally going to try to find a place before Thanksgiving because a couple of our friends said they were going to come up, but at this point, that is very unlikely. With my surgery being last week and our friends flaking, it is more financially responsible for us to stay at my parents' house a little while longer. But stay tuned!
OTHER
Steve played in a full-field adult soccer tournament last weekend with some of our friends up here. He had four games, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. Watching soccer makes me a little sad because it has been so long since I've played and it will be much longer still before I play again, but Steve is so cute running around out there (although by the fourth game of the weekend, he was pretty tired...). He had fun (and burned some serious calories), which was good - it's been a while since he last played soccer, too. We didn't get many opportunities in Europe. He's also been playing on a 7aside team on Thursdays with my brother and some other friends of ours. If he wants to get his soccer fix, Redding is a good place to do it.
Not much else has been going on with us. Steve and I have been in extreme Dinosaur Mode the last few days, watching all the Jurassic Park movies (twice... :D ) and reading the books (and adding Jurassic Park: Music From the Motion Picture to Spotify, discussing evolution, debating on which dinosaurs are the coolest/cutest/most vicious, etc). I've done a lot of reading and Steve has played a lot of video games. A plan to go down south and visit is in the works, but that probably won't happen till Christmas-ish. It will depend on when we get a place of our own up here and how mobile I can get ASAP (so that poor Steve won't have to do all the moving by himself). We're having Thanksgiving with my family up here, which I'm actually really happy about because I haven't had Thanksgiving up here since I was in high school. I will say, though, that Steve's family makes a mean Thanksgiving dinner. Seriously, delicious. It was on my list of things to eat when we come back from Europe. It will have to wait at least another year though... or we'll have to make their traditional foods ourselves!
Sunday, October 21, 2012
To-Do List.
Here is what's on the docket for the next few days:
- Apartment/house hunting
- Job interview (me)
- Follow-up appt with my knee doctor
- Soccer (Steve)
- Dinner with friends
- My mama's birthday!!!!
Things that have been crossed of last week's to-do list:
- Working in an office (me)
- Working outside (Steve and his brother painted his dad's house)
- Dinner with friends (who have two very well-behaved young children)
- A long drive up California
- 25 plates worth of all-you-can-eat sushi with Korea Steve
- Competing in Alehouse's Oktoberfest Flip Cup tournament (we did not win :( )
- Eating Filipino food
- Apartment/house hunting
- Job interview (me)
- Follow-up appt with my knee doctor
- Soccer (Steve)
- Dinner with friends
- My mama's birthday!!!!
Things that have been crossed of last week's to-do list:
- Working in an office (me)
- Working outside (Steve and his brother painted his dad's house)
- Dinner with friends (who have two very well-behaved young children)
- A long drive up California
- 25 plates worth of all-you-can-eat sushi with Korea Steve
- Competing in Alehouse's Oktoberfest Flip Cup tournament (we did not win :( )
- Eating Filipino food
Sunday, October 14, 2012
....Back at the Airport????
We have been home for almost two weeks now.... So what am I doing back at the airport???
We spent our first week eating avocados (maybe that was just me... I think I ate four in two days) and phò and barbeque, showing off our pictures and souvenirs, and spending time with loved ones. We had a busy first weekend back, driving around to see friends and family. We had a big reunion with our beloved friends from university, who can only hang out on weekends because, unlike Steve and me, they all have jobs. :P Staying up until almost 4am with those guys on Saturday completely negated any progress we'd made on getting our sleeping schedules back on track.
On Tuesday, my brother, who had been in LA, and I drove back to Redding for my MRI on Wednesday. For those of you who know my brother, I have something that will blow your mind: he and I talked NONSTOP almost the entire way home. Probably at least six hours of the eight-hour drive saw onenor the other of us chatting. And Peter did most of the talking! :) It feels really good to know my brother missed me.
Wednesday was a busy day for both Steve and me, even though we were on opposite sides of the state. I had an MRI for my knee (FINALLY!) and Steve had a job interview. My MRI was uneventful: 15 minutes in the waiting room peering into their fish tank and 15 minutes of laying down perfectly still (which was hard to maintain when that "Gangnam Style" song came on the radio in the room; seriously, why is that song popular here?? Hilarious, but.... ?????). My orthopedic surgeon should have been sent the results on Friday, so hopefully tomorrow (Monday) I will get a call from his office to schedule surgery.
Steve's interview, according to him, did not go well, but their next-day job offer begs to differ. After some discussion, however, Steve turned it down. We don't want to live in Santa Barbara. Yeah, sure, it's pretty out there, but it is also one of the most expensive places in California, fairly isolated from anything else, and neither of us are really beach people. It would have been a great career opportunity but in a crappy location. And since I have surgery and impending physical therapy coming up, as well as a prospective job offer in Redding, we will most likely end up at this end of California, at least for a while.
Now, what the heck am I doing sitting in a rocking chair at the Sacramento airport, waiting fornmy flight back down to SoCal?
Simple, really. I received a call from my old boss, who made me an offer I can't refuse, and now I'm on my way to two days of employment. Whoo!
Also, even though we spent almost EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of the last four months together, I very much miss my husband (we've been apart for over five days!!!) and didn't want to wait to see him again :P the work thing just makes it convenient.
We spent our first week eating avocados (maybe that was just me... I think I ate four in two days) and phò and barbeque, showing off our pictures and souvenirs, and spending time with loved ones. We had a busy first weekend back, driving around to see friends and family. We had a big reunion with our beloved friends from university, who can only hang out on weekends because, unlike Steve and me, they all have jobs. :P Staying up until almost 4am with those guys on Saturday completely negated any progress we'd made on getting our sleeping schedules back on track.
On Tuesday, my brother, who had been in LA, and I drove back to Redding for my MRI on Wednesday. For those of you who know my brother, I have something that will blow your mind: he and I talked NONSTOP almost the entire way home. Probably at least six hours of the eight-hour drive saw onenor the other of us chatting. And Peter did most of the talking! :) It feels really good to know my brother missed me.
Wednesday was a busy day for both Steve and me, even though we were on opposite sides of the state. I had an MRI for my knee (FINALLY!) and Steve had a job interview. My MRI was uneventful: 15 minutes in the waiting room peering into their fish tank and 15 minutes of laying down perfectly still (which was hard to maintain when that "Gangnam Style" song came on the radio in the room; seriously, why is that song popular here?? Hilarious, but.... ?????). My orthopedic surgeon should have been sent the results on Friday, so hopefully tomorrow (Monday) I will get a call from his office to schedule surgery.
Steve's interview, according to him, did not go well, but their next-day job offer begs to differ. After some discussion, however, Steve turned it down. We don't want to live in Santa Barbara. Yeah, sure, it's pretty out there, but it is also one of the most expensive places in California, fairly isolated from anything else, and neither of us are really beach people. It would have been a great career opportunity but in a crappy location. And since I have surgery and impending physical therapy coming up, as well as a prospective job offer in Redding, we will most likely end up at this end of California, at least for a while.
Now, what the heck am I doing sitting in a rocking chair at the Sacramento airport, waiting fornmy flight back down to SoCal?
Simple, really. I received a call from my old boss, who made me an offer I can't refuse, and now I'm on my way to two days of employment. Whoo!
Also, even though we spent almost EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of the last four months together, I very much miss my husband (we've been apart for over five days!!!) and didn't want to wait to see him again :P the work thing just makes it convenient.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Home.
We have made it back to California, safe and sound.
And exhausted.
Our flight from Dusseldorf was a little longer than eleven hours(!). They had some newer movies available, so I watched Snow White and the Huntsman, which wasn't nearly as good as the previews made it out to be, and I also watched Marvel's The Avengers. Twice. Even though I've already seen it.
*sigh* Whoever did the casting for all these characters is brilliant. I have never seen so many attractive people in one place, kicking ass and saving the world. Not to mention all the one-liners that I find hilarious. The Avengers is easily my favorite movie of the year. Maybe ever.
I didn't sleep much on the plane, maybe two or three hours, so when we finally landed, I was practically asleep on my feet. We breezed through customs (thank goodness, because now I can stop worrying about the horns not getting through!) and walked outside, and found out that even though we were back in the States, no one here (here being right outside the LAX Terminal 1) speaks English. We were surrounded by European tourists and Mexicans and Asians of all kinds. It was just funny to think about. :)
The highways were crowded and there were fast food places everywhere. We were definitely back in America.
I had originally wanted to go to Little Tokyo and eat some Orochon, but it was so warm outside and I was so tired that I wasn't really in the mood for it. I just wanted to sleep - after all, I'd only gotten about four hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. We ended up stopping at Tommy's and getting chili cheese burgers and fries for dinner (welcome back!). When we got to Steve's mom's house, we basically gave her and David hugs before knocking out and sleeping for the next nine hours straight.
And now we're back (and awake!)
And exhausted.
Our flight from Dusseldorf was a little longer than eleven hours(!). They had some newer movies available, so I watched Snow White and the Huntsman, which wasn't nearly as good as the previews made it out to be, and I also watched Marvel's The Avengers. Twice. Even though I've already seen it.
*sigh* Whoever did the casting for all these characters is brilliant. I have never seen so many attractive people in one place, kicking ass and saving the world. Not to mention all the one-liners that I find hilarious. The Avengers is easily my favorite movie of the year. Maybe ever.
I didn't sleep much on the plane, maybe two or three hours, so when we finally landed, I was practically asleep on my feet. We breezed through customs (thank goodness, because now I can stop worrying about the horns not getting through!) and walked outside, and found out that even though we were back in the States, no one here (here being right outside the LAX Terminal 1) speaks English. We were surrounded by European tourists and Mexicans and Asians of all kinds. It was just funny to think about. :)
The highways were crowded and there were fast food places everywhere. We were definitely back in America.
I had originally wanted to go to Little Tokyo and eat some Orochon, but it was so warm outside and I was so tired that I wasn't really in the mood for it. I just wanted to sleep - after all, I'd only gotten about four hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. We ended up stopping at Tommy's and getting chili cheese burgers and fries for dinner (welcome back!). When we got to Steve's mom's house, we basically gave her and David hugs before knocking out and sleeping for the next nine hours straight.
And now we're back (and awake!)
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
....And Even More Oktoberfest!
Even though we'd had Augustiner beer the night only two days before, on Friday we went to the Fischer Broni tent, which is famous for its fish dishes and serves Augustiner beer.
Let me tell you, that fish was delicious.
I don't remember what Steve and Scott ordered, but I asked for a "fish on a stick". These are whole fish cooked on a big wooden skewer, basically spit-roasted over a barbeque. There were a few different choices, but I chose the "salmon trout" - whatever that meant. I love salmon and I love trout, so I would be happy either way.
This is what that salmon-trout-on-a-stick looked like:
Sadly, it came to me wrapped up in paper rather than on a stick, but I forgave it once I had a taste of that tender, moist, delicious flesh covered in crunchy, salty skin. Mmmmmmmm!!!! On the outside it looks more like a trout, but inside that baby was alllllll salmon. SO GOOD.
Saturday was rainy and dreary and likely overcrowded at the Oktoberfest grounds, so we spent that day napping and hunting around for Bavarian souvenirs. Steve wanted to watch FC Bayern Munich play, so we headed into Hard Rock Cafe Munich to try and catch the game. Lemonade and milkshakes and potato skins and buffalo chicken wings? It was a nice taste of home.
Sunday was originally planned to be a rest day, but Steve's dad was craving fish again, so in the evening we went back to the Theresienwises, keeping our fingers crossed that we could find seats for three at the Fischer Broni tent.
We did, and along with our dinner we got some entertainment: this was our first actual evening at Oktoberfest and even though it was Sunday and I'm sure a lot of those people had to be at work in the morning, it was a huge party. People were running around yelling, people were standing on the tables singing, people were dancing in the aisles, and people were (of course) drinking lots and lots of beer. Unfortunately, all the videos I tried to take are really dark, so you must use your imagination.
ALSO: I got a beer spilled on me.
I guess that, since it was our fifth day on the Oktoberfest grounds, I should've expected it. :P Some guy from another table had come over to ours to say hello and clink glasses and talk about life; I don't really know what happened, but I heard this guy (Phil) and Steve's dad yelling something about the Blues Brothers, and Phil leaned down to give Steve's dad a hug, and one of their arms gave a hefty whack to the brand new, completely full beer on the table across from me, and a good portion of its contents ended up on my lap. AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! Madness. I think Billy got a little bit on his head, which was sticking out of my purse, and Steve got some on his arm trying to block the flood cascading off the table, but I bore the brunt of that liquid attack. And so my only remaining pair of pants and my only remaining longsleeved shirt and my only remaining jacket were soaking wet and covered in beer.
I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't be cold and rainy for our last day at Oktoberfest, and while it was slightly chilly, there was no rain. And once we got into the Hacker-Pschorr tent around 11:30am on our last day, you couldn't even tell that my pants smelled like beer.
For our last day, we still had two different breweries' beers left to try, so we headed out early so we could make it to both tents and back home alive. We started off at Hacker-Pschorr and sat across the table from these three German guys who were maybe a little younger than I am. We ordered our first beer and they proceeded to tell us that they had come by train earlier that morning and were already on their fourth beer. FOURTH!!! It wasn't even noon yet and these guys had already drank the equivalent of TWELVE REGULAR (American 12-oz bottles) BEERS!!!!!! Insane. And a few minutes after our beers arrived, a guy a few tables over stood up on his bench and, to the cheers of hundreds of Hacker-Pschorr patrons, he proceeded to HOLD HIS STEIN WITH HIS TEETH AND DRINK HIS ENTIRE BEER. With no hands! A liter of beer, in like five seconds! The stamina of these Germans is amazing.
After that no-hands beer-chugging feat, I was then unimpressed with every other person standing up to chug their beers because seriously, NO HANDS. I still can't wrap my head around that. It's hard enough for me to hold my beer with one hand, but to use my teeth??? Insane. Hats off to that guy.
Speaking of Oktoberfest insanity: one of the German guys sitting with us, Jonas, had gone to the bathroom or out for a smoke or something and met a Lebanese guy. Jonas then mentioned he could only say one thing in Arabic, which is inappropriate for me to put on this blog, and so he said it, thinking it would be a funny joke to share with the Lebanese guy. I guess this guy didn't understand when Jonas said "Please don't be offended, I don't mean it, this is the only thing I can say in your language", and so this guy PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!!!!!! In retaliation, Jonas kicked him and ran away.
I wouldn't have believed this story, except Jonas' lip was already starting to swell and he had a little bit of a red mark on his cheek.
WTF!!!!! Sillyness.
The rest of the day was uneventful compared to all that madness. We visited the Löwenbräu tent later that day, after Steve and his dad won me a little Bavarian lion in a beer mug stuffed animal while playing a shooting game at the carnival. Sadly, somewhere between the Löwenbrau tent and the Paulaner tent, which we revisited on our way out (I don't know why; we'd already had about as much beer as we could take), I lost the lion! So sad. We even tried to retrace our steps back to the Löwenbräu tent and to the other carnival games we'd been playing, but no luck. Lion in a beer mug was gone forever. :(
By the time we got back to the apartment, it was around 10pm, which meant we'd spent almost twelve hours wandering around Theresienwiese, where we drank too much beer and Steve and his dad playing carnival games and won me prizes, like fake flowers and a tiny Bavarian lin keychain and this creepy pink dragon-snake thing holding a little pillow that says "Love". It was a good last day in terms of getting the full Oktoberfest experience in, but a bad day in terms of "I'm exhausted and drunk now, but I still have to pack because we need to leave at 7am to get to the airport and check in for our flight." Steve and his dad went basically straight to bed once we got back, but I couldn't fall asleep. I tried to stay up and pack, but was too tired to get very far, so I went to bed, where I tossed and turned for a few hours before giving up and getting up again. I was packing from about 3am until about 5:30am, when I took a nap on the couch before getting up at 6:30am to take a shower. At 7:10am we are walking out the door and at 7:30am we find ourselves on a bus to the airport, where the bus driver is driving like a crazy man, going too fast on some slightly windy roads and I am trying not to puke.
We make it to the airport, check in, and board our plane a little before 10am. An hour later, we are in Dusseldorf, where we find out our connecting flight home is delayed an hour. Almost two hours after scheduled take-off, we leave the ground and say goodbye to Germany forever. (Or at least for a few years.)
Let me tell you, that fish was delicious.
I don't remember what Steve and Scott ordered, but I asked for a "fish on a stick". These are whole fish cooked on a big wooden skewer, basically spit-roasted over a barbeque. There were a few different choices, but I chose the "salmon trout" - whatever that meant. I love salmon and I love trout, so I would be happy either way.
This is what that salmon-trout-on-a-stick looked like:
Sadly, it came to me wrapped up in paper rather than on a stick, but I forgave it once I had a taste of that tender, moist, delicious flesh covered in crunchy, salty skin. Mmmmmmmm!!!! On the outside it looks more like a trout, but inside that baby was alllllll salmon. SO GOOD.
Saturday was rainy and dreary and likely overcrowded at the Oktoberfest grounds, so we spent that day napping and hunting around for Bavarian souvenirs. Steve wanted to watch FC Bayern Munich play, so we headed into Hard Rock Cafe Munich to try and catch the game. Lemonade and milkshakes and potato skins and buffalo chicken wings? It was a nice taste of home.
Sunday was originally planned to be a rest day, but Steve's dad was craving fish again, so in the evening we went back to the Theresienwises, keeping our fingers crossed that we could find seats for three at the Fischer Broni tent.
We did, and along with our dinner we got some entertainment: this was our first actual evening at Oktoberfest and even though it was Sunday and I'm sure a lot of those people had to be at work in the morning, it was a huge party. People were running around yelling, people were standing on the tables singing, people were dancing in the aisles, and people were (of course) drinking lots and lots of beer. Unfortunately, all the videos I tried to take are really dark, so you must use your imagination.
ALSO: I got a beer spilled on me.
I guess that, since it was our fifth day on the Oktoberfest grounds, I should've expected it. :P Some guy from another table had come over to ours to say hello and clink glasses and talk about life; I don't really know what happened, but I heard this guy (Phil) and Steve's dad yelling something about the Blues Brothers, and Phil leaned down to give Steve's dad a hug, and one of their arms gave a hefty whack to the brand new, completely full beer on the table across from me, and a good portion of its contents ended up on my lap. AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! Madness. I think Billy got a little bit on his head, which was sticking out of my purse, and Steve got some on his arm trying to block the flood cascading off the table, but I bore the brunt of that liquid attack. And so my only remaining pair of pants and my only remaining longsleeved shirt and my only remaining jacket were soaking wet and covered in beer.
I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't be cold and rainy for our last day at Oktoberfest, and while it was slightly chilly, there was no rain. And once we got into the Hacker-Pschorr tent around 11:30am on our last day, you couldn't even tell that my pants smelled like beer.
For our last day, we still had two different breweries' beers left to try, so we headed out early so we could make it to both tents and back home alive. We started off at Hacker-Pschorr and sat across the table from these three German guys who were maybe a little younger than I am. We ordered our first beer and they proceeded to tell us that they had come by train earlier that morning and were already on their fourth beer. FOURTH!!! It wasn't even noon yet and these guys had already drank the equivalent of TWELVE REGULAR (American 12-oz bottles) BEERS!!!!!! Insane. And a few minutes after our beers arrived, a guy a few tables over stood up on his bench and, to the cheers of hundreds of Hacker-Pschorr patrons, he proceeded to HOLD HIS STEIN WITH HIS TEETH AND DRINK HIS ENTIRE BEER. With no hands! A liter of beer, in like five seconds! The stamina of these Germans is amazing.
After that no-hands beer-chugging feat, I was then unimpressed with every other person standing up to chug their beers because seriously, NO HANDS. I still can't wrap my head around that. It's hard enough for me to hold my beer with one hand, but to use my teeth??? Insane. Hats off to that guy.
Speaking of Oktoberfest insanity: one of the German guys sitting with us, Jonas, had gone to the bathroom or out for a smoke or something and met a Lebanese guy. Jonas then mentioned he could only say one thing in Arabic, which is inappropriate for me to put on this blog, and so he said it, thinking it would be a funny joke to share with the Lebanese guy. I guess this guy didn't understand when Jonas said "Please don't be offended, I don't mean it, this is the only thing I can say in your language", and so this guy PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!!!!!! In retaliation, Jonas kicked him and ran away.
I wouldn't have believed this story, except Jonas' lip was already starting to swell and he had a little bit of a red mark on his cheek.
WTF!!!!! Sillyness.
The rest of the day was uneventful compared to all that madness. We visited the Löwenbräu tent later that day, after Steve and his dad won me a little Bavarian lion in a beer mug stuffed animal while playing a shooting game at the carnival. Sadly, somewhere between the Löwenbrau tent and the Paulaner tent, which we revisited on our way out (I don't know why; we'd already had about as much beer as we could take), I lost the lion! So sad. We even tried to retrace our steps back to the Löwenbräu tent and to the other carnival games we'd been playing, but no luck. Lion in a beer mug was gone forever. :(
By the time we got back to the apartment, it was around 10pm, which meant we'd spent almost twelve hours wandering around Theresienwiese, where we drank too much beer and Steve and his dad playing carnival games and won me prizes, like fake flowers and a tiny Bavarian lin keychain and this creepy pink dragon-snake thing holding a little pillow that says "Love". It was a good last day in terms of getting the full Oktoberfest experience in, but a bad day in terms of "I'm exhausted and drunk now, but I still have to pack because we need to leave at 7am to get to the airport and check in for our flight." Steve and his dad went basically straight to bed once we got back, but I couldn't fall asleep. I tried to stay up and pack, but was too tired to get very far, so I went to bed, where I tossed and turned for a few hours before giving up and getting up again. I was packing from about 3am until about 5:30am, when I took a nap on the couch before getting up at 6:30am to take a shower. At 7:10am we are walking out the door and at 7:30am we find ourselves on a bus to the airport, where the bus driver is driving like a crazy man, going too fast on some slightly windy roads and I am trying not to puke.
We make it to the airport, check in, and board our plane a little before 10am. An hour later, we are in Dusseldorf, where we find out our connecting flight home is delayed an hour. Almost two hours after scheduled take-off, we leave the ground and say goodbye to Germany forever. (Or at least for a few years.)
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Oktoberfest!!!
What does one even say about this? ;P
Opening day on Saturday was a bit anticlimactic, actually. It was pouring down rain, there were wayyyyyy too many people, and to get into the tent where the mayor was tapping the first keg as the official start to Oktoberfest, we would have needed to get there around 4am to wait in line until noon. No thanks. We ended up soaked and decided to head home and save the beer drinking for another day - we are here for two weeks, after all. A few minutes after we started weaving our way through the crowds to the exit, I realized Steve wasn't behind me anymore. Oh no! Since the plan was to head home, that's what I did and when I got off the subway, Steve came running up behind me - he was on the same subway but in a different car. :P
On Sunday night, Steve's dad came to join us for the Oktoberfest extravaganza and on Monday, we took a little Oktoberfest tour where we walked around with a guide who told basically told us that all the tents are very hard to get into without a reservation unless you come early in the morning. We took that as a challenge, and vowed to get into some of these supposedly exclusive tents in the coming days. At the end of our tour, we had a table reserved in the famous Hofbräu Haus tent, where we each had two liters of beer and half a roast chicken with the tour.
Let me tell you, two liters is a LOT of beer. It is six regular 12oz beer bottles, to be (within a few ounces of) precise. People were standing on tables chugging these liters of beer and doing other weird stuff like one guy who chugged one beer and poured a second on his head immediately after, and one guy who drank out of his shoe (gross.). The waitresses are amazing: they walk around in their dirndls carrying five, six, seven of these heavy glass steins filled with beer IN ONE HAND!!!!! That takes strength, people. I can barely hold one up to drink out of with one hand.
Our reservations at the Hofbräu tent lasted until 5pm, but we were one if the last ones remaining and we tapped out at around four. Steve and his dad drank a third beer, but it was all I could do to finish two. Steve refused to help me out, arguing that it was too early in Oktoberfest for me to not finish my beers. We wandered around Theresienwiese, the name of the grounds where Oktoberfest is held every year, for a little while before heading to bed around 7pm. Steve and I are renting a room out at a local's apartment and our host, Tarek, basically laughed at us because it was wayyyyy too early to go to bed - "That's not how it's done here in Munich." :)
On Tuesday we headed back out to Theresienwiese and managed to get seats at the Ochsenbraterei tent for lunch. There are only six breweries who serve beer at all the tents in Oktoberfest: the old, traditional Munich breweries who have to follow the strict requirements of the Bavarian Purity Laws. Hofbräu is one of them; the others are Paulaner, Löwenbräu, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, and Augustiner. No doubt some of you beer drinkers recognize some of these names. Among other things, the Bavarian Purity Laws declare that the beer served at Oktoberfest can only contain hops, grain, and water. The yeast is all natural yeast and there are no preservatives or any other additives, which gives it a much crisper taste than the imported bottled versions of these beers that we get in the States.
Spaten was served at the Ochsenbraterei tent, which is also famous for their roast oxen. Delicious. The tent was very colorful and a live band was playing. We had a beer with lunch before moving on to the agriculture fair, which is present at Pktpberfest every four years. We walked around looking at animals for a while before heading to one of the Paulaner tents for yet another beer, where three Germans tried to teach us how to properly pronounce the words to "Ein Prosit", which is kind of the cross between a toast and a song. Whenever the band begins to take up "Ein Prosit", everyone is supposed to clink glasses with their neighbors and take a swig.
We took a peek in the Hippodrom tent, which is supposedly where all the celebrities go and is supposedly impossible to get into. It has a circus theme inside, which was really cool, and almost immediately after we walked in, a waitress asked if we wanted a table. So much for being impossible to get into. But by this point we'd already had two beers, so we passed on the chance to sit at this elite tent. Maybe another time.
Wednesday found us at the Augustiner Brewery & Restaurant rather than at an Augustiner tent, where Steve booked us reservations for dinner. It was there that, alongside sausages and roast duck and pork knuckles and potato dumplings and other goodies, we were able to try Augustiner's Edelstoff beer. Fun fact of the day: Edelstoff is rumored to be the Pope's favorite beer. That's right - Edelstoff is on tap at THE VATICAN.
After three days of beer drinking, we took a rest day, which consisted of lots of sleeping and a trip to Therme Erding, the thermal bathhouse right outside of Munich. It has a Hawaiian/island theme, which was kind of goofy, but it was very relaxing. Plus they had a salt room where all the walls were lined with salt bricks. Way cool. Never seen one of those before.
And our days in Europe are trickling on by.... Still can't believe we head back to the States soon!
Opening day on Saturday was a bit anticlimactic, actually. It was pouring down rain, there were wayyyyyy too many people, and to get into the tent where the mayor was tapping the first keg as the official start to Oktoberfest, we would have needed to get there around 4am to wait in line until noon. No thanks. We ended up soaked and decided to head home and save the beer drinking for another day - we are here for two weeks, after all. A few minutes after we started weaving our way through the crowds to the exit, I realized Steve wasn't behind me anymore. Oh no! Since the plan was to head home, that's what I did and when I got off the subway, Steve came running up behind me - he was on the same subway but in a different car. :P
On Sunday night, Steve's dad came to join us for the Oktoberfest extravaganza and on Monday, we took a little Oktoberfest tour where we walked around with a guide who told basically told us that all the tents are very hard to get into without a reservation unless you come early in the morning. We took that as a challenge, and vowed to get into some of these supposedly exclusive tents in the coming days. At the end of our tour, we had a table reserved in the famous Hofbräu Haus tent, where we each had two liters of beer and half a roast chicken with the tour.
Let me tell you, two liters is a LOT of beer. It is six regular 12oz beer bottles, to be (within a few ounces of) precise. People were standing on tables chugging these liters of beer and doing other weird stuff like one guy who chugged one beer and poured a second on his head immediately after, and one guy who drank out of his shoe (gross.). The waitresses are amazing: they walk around in their dirndls carrying five, six, seven of these heavy glass steins filled with beer IN ONE HAND!!!!! That takes strength, people. I can barely hold one up to drink out of with one hand.
Our reservations at the Hofbräu tent lasted until 5pm, but we were one if the last ones remaining and we tapped out at around four. Steve and his dad drank a third beer, but it was all I could do to finish two. Steve refused to help me out, arguing that it was too early in Oktoberfest for me to not finish my beers. We wandered around Theresienwiese, the name of the grounds where Oktoberfest is held every year, for a little while before heading to bed around 7pm. Steve and I are renting a room out at a local's apartment and our host, Tarek, basically laughed at us because it was wayyyyy too early to go to bed - "That's not how it's done here in Munich." :)
On Tuesday we headed back out to Theresienwiese and managed to get seats at the Ochsenbraterei tent for lunch. There are only six breweries who serve beer at all the tents in Oktoberfest: the old, traditional Munich breweries who have to follow the strict requirements of the Bavarian Purity Laws. Hofbräu is one of them; the others are Paulaner, Löwenbräu, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, and Augustiner. No doubt some of you beer drinkers recognize some of these names. Among other things, the Bavarian Purity Laws declare that the beer served at Oktoberfest can only contain hops, grain, and water. The yeast is all natural yeast and there are no preservatives or any other additives, which gives it a much crisper taste than the imported bottled versions of these beers that we get in the States.
Spaten was served at the Ochsenbraterei tent, which is also famous for their roast oxen. Delicious. The tent was very colorful and a live band was playing. We had a beer with lunch before moving on to the agriculture fair, which is present at Pktpberfest every four years. We walked around looking at animals for a while before heading to one of the Paulaner tents for yet another beer, where three Germans tried to teach us how to properly pronounce the words to "Ein Prosit", which is kind of the cross between a toast and a song. Whenever the band begins to take up "Ein Prosit", everyone is supposed to clink glasses with their neighbors and take a swig.
We took a peek in the Hippodrom tent, which is supposedly where all the celebrities go and is supposedly impossible to get into. It has a circus theme inside, which was really cool, and almost immediately after we walked in, a waitress asked if we wanted a table. So much for being impossible to get into. But by this point we'd already had two beers, so we passed on the chance to sit at this elite tent. Maybe another time.
Wednesday found us at the Augustiner Brewery & Restaurant rather than at an Augustiner tent, where Steve booked us reservations for dinner. It was there that, alongside sausages and roast duck and pork knuckles and potato dumplings and other goodies, we were able to try Augustiner's Edelstoff beer. Fun fact of the day: Edelstoff is rumored to be the Pope's favorite beer. That's right - Edelstoff is on tap at THE VATICAN.
After three days of beer drinking, we took a rest day, which consisted of lots of sleeping and a trip to Therme Erding, the thermal bathhouse right outside of Munich. It has a Hawaiian/island theme, which was kind of goofy, but it was very relaxing. Plus they had a salt room where all the walls were lined with salt bricks. Way cool. Never seen one of those before.
And our days in Europe are trickling on by.... Still can't believe we head back to the States soon!
Friday, September 21, 2012
Final Countdown.
We have arrived in Munich.
It is weird to think that after four months of traveling around, we are finally almost home. In less than two weeks, we will be boarding a plane back to the States and life will return to normal. Whatever that means.
We arrived on Wednesday evening, which gave us a few days to explore Munich before the tourists start pouring in for Oktoberfest, which officially begins on Saturday. We wandered around and went on a free walking tour to learn more about Munich's history, and managed to abstain from drinking beer for those two and a half days because once Oktoberfest officially starts, I'm sure we will have more than our fill.
Steve has spent most of his time trying to decide what FC Bayern München merchandise he wants to buy (they seriously have it all here - not only can you buy the jerseys and shorts and socks, but you can also buy Bayern Munich shower gel, iPhone cases, and baby pacifiers, among other things) and we have spent a good amount of time just relaxing during the rainy parts of the day, but I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we will be going HOME soon. How are we even going to function when we get back? There are all sorts of things that we will need to do when we get back - my knee surgery, finding jobs, and looking for a place to live are among the top priorities (obviously) and we both have good leads as far as getting jobs go, but what happens from there? Normal life? How are we going to transition back into having to drive everywhere and not worrying about exchanging currency? Presidential elections are coming up soon after we get back to the States, but what do we know about what's going on? Sure, we read news online occasionally so we aren't completely in the dark, but I'm sure there are all kinds of other things that have happened that we just don't know about. We've been gone for so long... Wait, you mean I can order from this menu that is written in English AWESOME! You mean I have to start paying bills again? Notttttt awesome :P It will be interesting to see how long it takes us to really get back in the groove of things. And how difficult of a transition it really is - it could all be in my head, who knows. But I am excited to head home. We both are.
It'll be nice just to not have to lug around a heavy backpack anywhere. Whoo.
See you soon, everyone! <3
It is weird to think that after four months of traveling around, we are finally almost home. In less than two weeks, we will be boarding a plane back to the States and life will return to normal. Whatever that means.
We arrived on Wednesday evening, which gave us a few days to explore Munich before the tourists start pouring in for Oktoberfest, which officially begins on Saturday. We wandered around and went on a free walking tour to learn more about Munich's history, and managed to abstain from drinking beer for those two and a half days because once Oktoberfest officially starts, I'm sure we will have more than our fill.
Steve has spent most of his time trying to decide what FC Bayern München merchandise he wants to buy (they seriously have it all here - not only can you buy the jerseys and shorts and socks, but you can also buy Bayern Munich shower gel, iPhone cases, and baby pacifiers, among other things) and we have spent a good amount of time just relaxing during the rainy parts of the day, but I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we will be going HOME soon. How are we even going to function when we get back? There are all sorts of things that we will need to do when we get back - my knee surgery, finding jobs, and looking for a place to live are among the top priorities (obviously) and we both have good leads as far as getting jobs go, but what happens from there? Normal life? How are we going to transition back into having to drive everywhere and not worrying about exchanging currency? Presidential elections are coming up soon after we get back to the States, but what do we know about what's going on? Sure, we read news online occasionally so we aren't completely in the dark, but I'm sure there are all kinds of other things that have happened that we just don't know about. We've been gone for so long... Wait, you mean I can order from this menu that is written in English AWESOME! You mean I have to start paying bills again? Notttttt awesome :P It will be interesting to see how long it takes us to really get back in the groove of things. And how difficult of a transition it really is - it could all be in my head, who knows. But I am excited to head home. We both are.
It'll be nice just to not have to lug around a heavy backpack anywhere. Whoo.
See you soon, everyone! <3
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Act Like a Tourist - Use the SalzburgCard.
So pretty much every city we've been to in Europe has their own version of the SalzburgCard, which typically give discounts to museums, restaurants, etc.
The SalzburgCard? Everything is FREE.
That's right, free. Awesome, right? And there were a ton of stuff on the list of stuff in the brochure that we actually wanted to do, so we each bought 48-hour SalzburgCards and proceeded to act like serious tourists for almost all of those 48-hours.
BEGIN: NOON, Monday, Sept. 17
We spent most of the day up at Hohensalzburg, which is the big fortress/castle overlooking the city, one hill over from the Mönchsberg. We took the funicular up to the fortress and wandered around the fortress and the various museums. We stopped by one of the cafes and had cappucinos and Sacher torte (a delectable chocolate cake). We skipped most of the marionette museum because frankly, those things freak us both out. They were cool for the time, I suppose, but for today's day and age, they are a teensy bit on the creepy side.
From there, we went to Salzburg's Museum of Natural History. Natural history museums are Steve's favorite kind - he never gets tired of looking at animals. It was interesting just to see how they put together their natural history stuff versus how we do in the States - a lot of it is the same. Part of the building was also a hands-on science exhibit with machines and games that show people how things like balance, gravity and centrifugal force work. It would be a great place to take our kids someday. While we were there, a school had a field trip so there were pre-teens running around all over the place. It was still fun, even for us. I can't even imagine how cool it would be for a small child who doesn't yet understand how the world works to come to a place like this.
DAY TWO: Tuesday, Sept. 18
All public transportation is free with the SalzburgCard, so we took a bus to a mountain called Untersberg, which is about 45 minutes outside of the city. We took a cable car up the Untersberg - we went up 1853 meters, or a bit over one mile. From up there, we could see all of Salzburg and the surrounding area. There were little hiking trails all over the place where we could explore and see the view from different sides of the mountain.
)
The Alps are very pretty to just look at because they are so tall and jaggedy - not the sloping mountainsides like many of the mountains in California. Billy got to play in the snow for the first time, too.
As we were taking the cable car back down, I commented on how I wished we'd seen a mountain goat (like we did in Zakopane!) because they are so prolific here. Five minutes later, I look down and see TWO mountain goats grazing in a little patch of greenery on the mountainside! Steve and I both smile, happy we saw some, and I lamented the fact that we still haven't seen a mountain goat actually climbing the mountain. Two minutes later, Steve points out a mountain goat hopping from ledge to ledge up the mountain! At that point I decided I was the mountain goat whisperer and declared that I would like to see a mountain goat doing the macarena. FIVE MINUTES LATER WE SAW ONE!! (Just kidding.)
Our visit to Untersberg was followed by a visit to the Salzburg ZOO!!! We walk into the zoo and the first thing we see is a little red panda running around his little patch of land - Steve's favorite animal is a red panda! Other than manatees and cows and kitties, anyway. We saw many an animal, red pandas and (more) mountain goats and lynxes and tigers and MONKEYS ALL OVER THE PLACE and some pretty birds and fish and zebras and.... The list could go on. Most of the exhibits (they weren't even in cages! Just patches of land with high fences. Somehow I feel better about that than when they are in cement cages with glass windows.) had babies of whatever animal it belonged too. We spent the whole time oohing and aahing over how CUUUUUUUUUUTE everything was!
Soooo here are a bunch of pictures of cute animals!!!
YAY, animals.
For our last stop of the day, we went to the Hellbrunn Palace to see the trick fountains.
Something to note about many of the attractions we've seen in Europe: you ave to keep in mind that some of these things are tourist attractions because of how awesome they were for the time they were built. You can't look at a clock tower and think it is silly that they keep those creepy puppets that move around up there when we have better technology available. When that clock was built 500 years ago, those moving puppets were an innovation.
Same with these trick fountains.
They must have been way cool for the time, because everything is powered basically by the pressure of the water.
But seriously, the water show at the Bellagio in Vegas is cooler, and that isn't even that cool.
The grounds are very pretty though, and it was fun to watch people freak out when they got wet (some of the fountains sneak up behind you if you aren't paying attention). But overall, Steve and I both agreed that we were glad we had the SalzburgCard and didn't pay the 10euro each to see the fountains because they were pretty anticlimactic.
DAY THREE: SalzburgCard good until NOON, Weds, Sept. 19
For our last stop in Salzburg, we headed back out to Stiegl brewery in the morning to visit their brewery museum. It was pouring down rain once more, so when we checked out of our hotel, we put our stuff in lockers at the train station and took a bus out to Stiegl (rather than walking, like we did with Michael). The museum is half a how-to kind of thing about beer, and half a history of beer in Austria. After the tour of this three-story museum, we had the opportunity to try three of the Stiegl beers in the restaurant downstairs, and afterwards we both were given pint glasses as a thank-you gift for visiting. It was a very good final use of the SalzburgCard, even if it was before noon. :P
And then we took a two-hour train ride to Munich.... OKTOBERFEST, HERE WE COME!!!!!!
The SalzburgCard? Everything is FREE.
That's right, free. Awesome, right? And there were a ton of stuff on the list of stuff in the brochure that we actually wanted to do, so we each bought 48-hour SalzburgCards and proceeded to act like serious tourists for almost all of those 48-hours.
BEGIN: NOON, Monday, Sept. 17
We spent most of the day up at Hohensalzburg, which is the big fortress/castle overlooking the city, one hill over from the Mönchsberg. We took the funicular up to the fortress and wandered around the fortress and the various museums. We stopped by one of the cafes and had cappucinos and Sacher torte (a delectable chocolate cake). We skipped most of the marionette museum because frankly, those things freak us both out. They were cool for the time, I suppose, but for today's day and age, they are a teensy bit on the creepy side.
From there, we went to Salzburg's Museum of Natural History. Natural history museums are Steve's favorite kind - he never gets tired of looking at animals. It was interesting just to see how they put together their natural history stuff versus how we do in the States - a lot of it is the same. Part of the building was also a hands-on science exhibit with machines and games that show people how things like balance, gravity and centrifugal force work. It would be a great place to take our kids someday. While we were there, a school had a field trip so there were pre-teens running around all over the place. It was still fun, even for us. I can't even imagine how cool it would be for a small child who doesn't yet understand how the world works to come to a place like this.
DAY TWO: Tuesday, Sept. 18
All public transportation is free with the SalzburgCard, so we took a bus to a mountain called Untersberg, which is about 45 minutes outside of the city. We took a cable car up the Untersberg - we went up 1853 meters, or a bit over one mile. From up there, we could see all of Salzburg and the surrounding area. There were little hiking trails all over the place where we could explore and see the view from different sides of the mountain.
The Alps are very pretty to just look at because they are so tall and jaggedy - not the sloping mountainsides like many of the mountains in California. Billy got to play in the snow for the first time, too.
As we were taking the cable car back down, I commented on how I wished we'd seen a mountain goat (like we did in Zakopane!) because they are so prolific here. Five minutes later, I look down and see TWO mountain goats grazing in a little patch of greenery on the mountainside! Steve and I both smile, happy we saw some, and I lamented the fact that we still haven't seen a mountain goat actually climbing the mountain. Two minutes later, Steve points out a mountain goat hopping from ledge to ledge up the mountain! At that point I decided I was the mountain goat whisperer and declared that I would like to see a mountain goat doing the macarena. FIVE MINUTES LATER WE SAW ONE!! (Just kidding.)
Our visit to Untersberg was followed by a visit to the Salzburg ZOO!!! We walk into the zoo and the first thing we see is a little red panda running around his little patch of land - Steve's favorite animal is a red panda! Other than manatees and cows and kitties, anyway. We saw many an animal, red pandas and (more) mountain goats and lynxes and tigers and MONKEYS ALL OVER THE PLACE and some pretty birds and fish and zebras and.... The list could go on. Most of the exhibits (they weren't even in cages! Just patches of land with high fences. Somehow I feel better about that than when they are in cement cages with glass windows.) had babies of whatever animal it belonged too. We spent the whole time oohing and aahing over how CUUUUUUUUUUTE everything was!
Soooo here are a bunch of pictures of cute animals!!!
YAY, animals.
For our last stop of the day, we went to the Hellbrunn Palace to see the trick fountains.
Something to note about many of the attractions we've seen in Europe: you ave to keep in mind that some of these things are tourist attractions because of how awesome they were for the time they were built. You can't look at a clock tower and think it is silly that they keep those creepy puppets that move around up there when we have better technology available. When that clock was built 500 years ago, those moving puppets were an innovation.
Same with these trick fountains.
They must have been way cool for the time, because everything is powered basically by the pressure of the water.
But seriously, the water show at the Bellagio in Vegas is cooler, and that isn't even that cool.
The grounds are very pretty though, and it was fun to watch people freak out when they got wet (some of the fountains sneak up behind you if you aren't paying attention). But overall, Steve and I both agreed that we were glad we had the SalzburgCard and didn't pay the 10euro each to see the fountains because they were pretty anticlimactic.
DAY THREE: SalzburgCard good until NOON, Weds, Sept. 19
For our last stop in Salzburg, we headed back out to Stiegl brewery in the morning to visit their brewery museum. It was pouring down rain once more, so when we checked out of our hotel, we put our stuff in lockers at the train station and took a bus out to Stiegl (rather than walking, like we did with Michael). The museum is half a how-to kind of thing about beer, and half a history of beer in Austria. After the tour of this three-story museum, we had the opportunity to try three of the Stiegl beers in the restaurant downstairs, and afterwards we both were given pint glasses as a thank-you gift for visiting. It was a very good final use of the SalzburgCard, even if it was before noon. :P
And then we took a two-hour train ride to Munich.... OKTOBERFEST, HERE WE COME!!!!!!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Officially Part of the Family.
I have officially become part of Steve's family.
Salzburg has a special place in the hearts of everyone on Steve's mom's side of the family: his mom and aunt have spent time studying abroad here when they were in school, his grandparents on that side have been here, his cousins have been here, he and his brother have been here.
And now I have, too.
I can officially say that I am part of this family now. :)
When we arrived in Salzburg the other day, it was POURING DOWN RAIN!!!!! Good thing I bought a coat :P an good thing our hotel was a five minute walk from the train station. Nevertheless, we got soaked!!! Since we are in Salzburg for almost a week, we decided to take it easy on that first day and have a true Austrian dinner of Stiegl beer (Salzburg's oldest and most famous brewery) and wienerschnitzel.
When we were planning this trip, we decided that, since originally we were going to spend almost two months straight on WWOOF farms, we would splurge when we got to Salzburg and stay in a fairly nice hotel. Well, as you may know by now, plans changed and we ended up hanging out at the beach and hiking around national parks in Croatia instead of working our buns of at another farm. Soooooo we get to stay at a nice hotel after three weeks of leisure. Woot.
Needless to say, we spent some time that first rainy day relaxing in the hotel saunas and steamrooms while Billy pigged out on Mozartkugeln.
Our second day was a beautiful, clear, slightly chilly day. Salzburg's Old Town is about a fifteen minute walk from our hotel, and we spent the day just wandering around the Mirabell gardens and laying in the sun by the river. At some point, we also hiked up the Monchsberg, a big hill on top of which is the place Steve, his brother, and his mom stayed when they came to salzburg about ten years ago. I got to see where my mother-in-law lived and spent time when she was studying abroad in Salzburg. It was a beautiful, tranquil wooded area with a small fortress and cow pastures.
In the past, whenever Steve mentioned anything about his previous trip to Salzburg, he would inevitably mention these "two skinny bratwurst in a bun, with onions and curry powder, that was sold at a tiny hole-in-the-wall kind of place where [he] ate all the time." Guess what? HE FOUND THAT PLACE!!!!!!! And those things (called bosnas) are delicious. I can now personally attest to that.
We spent the rest of the day basking in the sun by the Salzach river and admiring the silly displays of bread and beards in the shop windows on our walk back home.
On Saturday afternoon, MICHAEL CAME TO JOIN US!!!! You all remember Michael, right? The Austrian guy on the farm with us? Yup. He came to visit us and we had a splendid time walking way too far to Augustiner and Stiegl breweries that evening, eating delicious vegetarian Nepalese food, meeting up with another friend of Michael's and going to a bar because of COURSE we hadn't had enough beer yet, and engaging in all sorts of shenanigans, one of which involves me getting stuck in a hotel's revolving door -.-
That silly yellow thing on my finger? That's Kristofferson. He says hello. You don't want to know what he is or where he came from.
Also, when we woke up in the morning, I discovered that somehow a Mozartkugeln (Salburg's famous marzipan chocolate candy ball) had found its way into the bed and I slept on it. Chocolate was everywhere. We couldn't stop laughing. The world had gone mad. :)
Salzburg has a special place in the hearts of everyone on Steve's mom's side of the family: his mom and aunt have spent time studying abroad here when they were in school, his grandparents on that side have been here, his cousins have been here, he and his brother have been here.
And now I have, too.
I can officially say that I am part of this family now. :)
When we arrived in Salzburg the other day, it was POURING DOWN RAIN!!!!! Good thing I bought a coat :P an good thing our hotel was a five minute walk from the train station. Nevertheless, we got soaked!!! Since we are in Salzburg for almost a week, we decided to take it easy on that first day and have a true Austrian dinner of Stiegl beer (Salzburg's oldest and most famous brewery) and wienerschnitzel.
When we were planning this trip, we decided that, since originally we were going to spend almost two months straight on WWOOF farms, we would splurge when we got to Salzburg and stay in a fairly nice hotel. Well, as you may know by now, plans changed and we ended up hanging out at the beach and hiking around national parks in Croatia instead of working our buns of at another farm. Soooooo we get to stay at a nice hotel after three weeks of leisure. Woot.
Needless to say, we spent some time that first rainy day relaxing in the hotel saunas and steamrooms while Billy pigged out on Mozartkugeln.
Our second day was a beautiful, clear, slightly chilly day. Salzburg's Old Town is about a fifteen minute walk from our hotel, and we spent the day just wandering around the Mirabell gardens and laying in the sun by the river. At some point, we also hiked up the Monchsberg, a big hill on top of which is the place Steve, his brother, and his mom stayed when they came to salzburg about ten years ago. I got to see where my mother-in-law lived and spent time when she was studying abroad in Salzburg. It was a beautiful, tranquil wooded area with a small fortress and cow pastures.
In the past, whenever Steve mentioned anything about his previous trip to Salzburg, he would inevitably mention these "two skinny bratwurst in a bun, with onions and curry powder, that was sold at a tiny hole-in-the-wall kind of place where [he] ate all the time." Guess what? HE FOUND THAT PLACE!!!!!!! And those things (called bosnas) are delicious. I can now personally attest to that.
We spent the rest of the day basking in the sun by the Salzach river and admiring the silly displays of bread and beards in the shop windows on our walk back home.
On Saturday afternoon, MICHAEL CAME TO JOIN US!!!! You all remember Michael, right? The Austrian guy on the farm with us? Yup. He came to visit us and we had a splendid time walking way too far to Augustiner and Stiegl breweries that evening, eating delicious vegetarian Nepalese food, meeting up with another friend of Michael's and going to a bar because of COURSE we hadn't had enough beer yet, and engaging in all sorts of shenanigans, one of which involves me getting stuck in a hotel's revolving door -.-
That silly yellow thing on my finger? That's Kristofferson. He says hello. You don't want to know what he is or where he came from.
Also, when we woke up in the morning, I discovered that somehow a Mozartkugeln (Salburg's famous marzipan chocolate candy ball) had found its way into the bed and I slept on it. Chocolate was everywhere. We couldn't stop laughing. The world had gone mad. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)