Our two week break came and went in a flash. Between food and family filled gatherings in Linz, road tripping to Berlin, and a snowy organic farm near Salzburg, my days were filled... here are some photos of the highlights:
Christmas music
Real candles on our Charlie Brown-esque Christmas tree
Newest family addition
Fondue dinner
Cousins
Yes, that's a giant lego giraffe
Memorial for the Jews killed in the Holocaust, Berlin
New Years
Berlin wall
Keepin up the tradition
Amuhrcan gift basket found in Berlin. Can't say that seeing Cheese Zip makes me homesick...
Hiking near Vienna
While I'll spare you the details of what happened during every minute since I last wrote, I'll leave you with a story of a lesson in thievery: Franz had a friend who lived basically right across from the hut where were staying, so one night we went to visit him and knock back some beers and chat. In the wee hours of the morning, we walked back to the hut, the crunching of snow beneath our feet breaking the silence of the night. We approached the front door, eager to get inside to the warmth and coziness that our room offered, only to find that the room key does not fit into the front door lock. We're locked out. Unable to even consider the fact that we won't get inside before 6 am or so, when the farmer family probably wakes up, I offer to climb up to our balcony, where we left the door tilted open. For those of you who have had experience with the tilty doors/windows in Austria, they are impossible to open from the outside if they're only tilted open. But again, being stubborn and unaccepting of the reality of the situation, I was determined to try.
After getting a boost from Franz, I pushed and pulled and knocked around on the balcony for a good few minutes while Franz wandered around outside trying to find another way in. As I clumsily, noisily and uselessly bustle about, Franz finds the back door to be open. He comes upstairs, into the room and out onto the balcony to let me in.
I'm on the wrong balcony.
In fact, I'm on our neighbors balcony. Hastily, Franz goes back downstairs and outside to help me crawl down from our petrified neighbors balcony. We return to our room, never to mention it to anyone at the farm that we see before we leave the next day. I have an image in my head, however, of two germans in bed, quivering under the blankets, too afraid to move but hoping there is a large blunt object within reach in case the thief manages to get inside. Little did they know, the thief was a scrawny 24 year old woman who was only looking for a warm place to sleep.
I hope the rest of their night was as restful as ours ended up being.
Now, I'm back in Vienna, back to work, and back to my TA friends. :-) Tonight, I am opening the military ball at Hofburg. And don't you worry, it's being filmed. I will post the link to the video whenever it's up, just sit tight. Until next time, my friends.
