A quick hello

I'm back from the women's retreat in Filzmoos and should probably be packing for the next trip, but decided to drop in and share a few photos from the week.

We stayed at the same place as last year, which was a little up the mountain overlooking the town of Filzmoos. It seems like it was pretty foggy most mornings and it was really cool to watch the fog lift.


It's such a nice town. There are cows with bells...

"Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!"

And cows without bells...


And other farm animals like baby goats and tiny ponies and a donkey. But I didn't take any photos of those animals. I did however take a photo of the coffee and cake.


In addition to the food and the farm animals, the rest of the retreat was great as well.

And now I'm off for another week.

Quick getaway

The day after my family left, Brian and I took a short trip with our teammates for our annual retreat. Last year the retreat was a lot of work because we had to take and prepare all of our food, clean everything before we left and we were miles from civilization. Our cell phones didn't even work! (I know, the horror!) But this year we decided to take it easy and we stayed a few days at a hotel in the countryside.

This place was a Kinder hotel, which means they have a lot of cool stuff for kids. And even though Brian and I don't have any kids, we can totally appreciate the kid-friendliness of the hotel. For example, there was a playroom connected to the dining room, so the kids could play until their food was served, join us at the table to eat their meal, then go back to play while we took our time enjoying the food and company. I think these were the most relaxing meals we've had as a team in the past five years.

And even though he's not really a kid , Brian seemed to enjoy several of the attractions. Here he is dominating the bounce castle,...


philosophizing with the pony,...


beating up the goat,...


and then making friends with the goats.


If it weren't for that one altercation with the goat, it would have been a perfect trip.

Photohunt: Yellow

I haven't participated in Photohunt lately because I haven't been snapping as many photos as in the past. (You may have noticed that my Almost Daily Vienna Photo blog has been sorely neglected until recently.) But when I saw this week's theme one of my old photos instantly popped into my mind.


I took this photo in May of last year. Brian and I were on a train traveling from Vienna to Zagreb, Croatia. It was such beautiful weather and there was so much gorgeous scenery. We passed several fields full of this yellow flower, but I had no idea what it was. I found out later that it was rapeseed (canola).

I'm really looking forward to the flowers blooming soon. Happy spring!

P.S. Check out more photos at PhotoHunt.

To treat again

Boy, it's been a busy week.

Last week I participated in my first church retreat since moving to Vienna. The retreat is for the women in the churches in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and it takes place in an Austrian village each fall. Oh, and did I mention that it's in German? To be perfectly honest, I was part of an English-speaking discussion and prayer group and there were at least half a dozen ladies from the U.S. there, so there was plenty of English. But the daily times of worship and the lectures were all in German. And there were actually women there who didn't speak English. And I actually spoke to (some of) them in German. And I spoke in German to people that I knew spoke English. It was a crazy week. I even explained how to play Nerts (the card game) in German. When I explained that everyone should play their Ace in the middle, the other native English-speaker at the table chuckled because, well, the German word for Ace is an English word for something completely different.

If you visit my other blog, you've already seen photos of the beautiful location. But in case you missed it, here's a shot that didn't make it on the other site. The village is in a valley and the hotel where the retreat was held was a little ways up a mountain. This photo was taken early on a foggy morning.


But there was more to the week than just an amazing view. The lessons and worship were encouraging and I really enjoyed meeting new people. Plus, I probably spoke more German during those five days than I normally speak in several months. Ok, that may be stretching it a bit, but it was a lot of German. Kim and I even participated in one of the worship times by reading a Psalm. I was pretty proud of both of us.

And I guess I'll finish this off with some more photos that didn't make it onto Almost Daily Vienna. It would be a shame for them to waste away in Flickr without having ever seen the light of day on the blog.

This one seems very Pioneer Woman-ish. Except she doesn't have mountains behind the horses in her photos. And she would have taken the time to edit the photo to make it look prettier. Ok, so maybe it's not Pioneer Woman-ish at all.

The church has an interesting cemetery. Most of the headstones are orante ironwork rather than the traditional marble or stone. Plus, the area in front is really small -- as if the people buried there were exceptionally short. (Just to clarify, these were grown people -- many I looked at were priests. The cemetery was gravel, but each grave had a small area in front of it with room to plant something.)

For some reason, this one makes me think of Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey.

A trip to Croatia

Or, The most awkward train ride ever

------------

I like traveling by train. I like gazing out the window to watch the countryside pass. I like the steady rhythm of the train. I like how almost every passenger and employee who passes by smiles at Sharkdog. But I've learned an important lesson on this trip to Croatia. The train ride is only as pleasant as the other passengers around you.

Brian and I make seat reservations when we travel because we don't like having to try to find a seat with Sharkdog. On our trip to Croatia, we had seats in a small compartment that had six seats. When we found our compartment, there were already three people in there. So much for the empty compartment I was hoping for. But I didn't really mind, the other passengers looked nice enough. That is, until two of them started sucking face. I kid you not, these two kissed for the first half hour or so and intermittently through the rest of their journey. I felt bad for the third guy in the compartment -- who was traveling with these two lovebirds -- because at least we only had to watch the make out sessions while we were on the train together. They got off in Graz, maybe two hours into the trip. Three girls joined us in Graz and traveled in our compartment for about half an hour before getting off the train. Then we had the cabin to ourselves the rest of the trip (3.5 to 4 more hours).

On our way home the next day, we were in an open train rather that one with small compartments. That part wasn't bad. But the girls sitting across the aisle from us where awful. They talked (loudly) the whole time. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, they were so pretentious. They went on and on about their future travel plans and when they're going to get married and have kids. One of them talked about how she was looking forward to her babymoon -- you know, like a honeymoon, only right before the baby comes. The other girl talked about her scuba diving team, hiking Mount Machu Picchu as a teenager and her trip to the Galapagos Islands. ("In my defense," she said in reference to her visit to the Galapagos Islands, "it was years ago before there was a waiting list visit the islands.") Finally about two hours before we arrived back in Vienna I realized that I should just turn on my iPod. I had to turn the volume really high, but that did the trick.

Despite not having the best luck in seating arrangements, I still enjoyed the trip. We spent about 13 hours on the train and 15 hours (mostly sleeping) in Croatia. But this wasn't really a pleasure trip and it served it's purpose.

Enough talking, here are a few photos from the trip.


Sharkdog found this nice cozy spot under the train seat. He was under here during one of the passport checks. He was very sneaky. But he came out before the next passport check, so he's not really that sneaky.


There was a festival in the town square and these old folks were really getting after it. They were the only ones dancing, but there were quite a few people sitting around watching them and enjoying the music.


In another part of the town square, there was more music from these Hare Krishna practitioners.


Brian and Sharkdog enjoyed watching the scenery.

And here are some of the lovely sights taken through the train window.

More photos

I wrote earlier this week about our trip to Schwarzwaldeckhaus last weekend. We went with the Haskews and the Hayes family and a two individuals from the Inzersdorf congregation. Alex, one of the Hayes' boys (the middle one -- after all, the middle child is often the most talented, right?), took some amazing photos. There's a little sample below. Click on the links to see the full shot and check out his other photos on his Flickr account. He has several photos of sites in Vienna, but also some other interesting subjects.

1. a dash of hope, 2. Fairyland, 3. transience, 4. reliance

By the way, all three of the Hayes boys seem to be quite talented, not just Alex. Movie editing, photography, piano, classical guitar, cooking -- between the three of them just about everything is covered.

Weekend update

Fall is my favorite season. I love the food, the smells, and the chill in the air. I love long sleeve tees and hoodies and boots. Oh, and the holidays -- I love Halloween and Thanksgiving. But it feels like we completely skipped over fall in Vienna. Bundled up in my coat, scarf and gloves. No Halloween specials on TV. No trick-or-treaters. No pecan pie. It's a little sad. But I'm looking forward to Christmas in Vienna. I've heard that the Christmas Markets are marvelous. And they're already selling roasted chestnuts on just about every corner. And maybe we'll get some snow.

Speaking of snow, check out what I've been looking at the last couple of days.


This is the view from a cabin located in the mountains outside Vienna that is owned by the churches in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The cabin, which can sleep about 50 people, is used as a camp. We went there with the Haskews and a couple of people from the Inzersdorf congregation to clean, paint, do some maintenance work and prepare the building for winter.

The night before we left, the Haskews asked if we had any snow gear. Being from Texas, I didn't even understand the question. (Because we don't get snow in Texas, not because people from Texas are slow -- just in case you were wondering.) Fortunately, one of the families from the church had an extra pair of boots that I wore and some waterproof thingy that Brian wore from his knees to his ankles. I don't remember what these things are called. So anyways, we headed up there on Friday morning. We arrived in the general area of the campsite and parked, got into our snow gear and started to head towards the campsite.

What the experienced people failed to tell us is that it was a 45 minute hike to the camp -- 45 minutes in good weather. We were working our way through at least a foot of snow with several inexperienced hikers. What I failed to mention to the experienced people is that I'm diabetic. So, about 15 minutes into the hike (which I still had no idea was at least 45 minutes), my blood sugar level drops. I was in the back of the line with two other people and we all stopped so I could eat and wait for my sugar to return to normal. This is when I found out the camp was still a good ways off and I decided that I needed the car to come back and pick me up. (There was one car with snow chains that took all of our luggage and Amanda and Abby to the camp.)

We couldn't get a signal on any of our cell phones and as we were trying to decide what to do I saw Brian heading back our direction. He asked if everything was okay and I told him no, that I needed the car. I was close to tears. I had plenty of food with me and had been eating it all along the way, but I can be a little irrational when my sugar is low. I was convinced that they were going to make me hike the whole way and I was going to collapse and die right there on the mountain. But as soon as I told Brian that I needed the car he said he would go for it and took off running towards the camp. He was my hero.

Meanwhile, the three of us still there decided to jump a fence and sit on the porch of this little cabin along the trail. I was feeling a little better, but my sugar was still too low to start hiking again. That's when Josef, the man who had driven the car to the camp, showed up. I think he still had the keys with him because I later found out that when Brian got to the cabin no one could find the keys to the car. Josef was coming down to retrieve a snow plow thingamabob and he offered to give me a ride on the snow plow. So this is how I made it up to the cabin.


Now you may notice that there's really only room for one person in that seat. And no, I didn't drive it. See the little grater thingy right in front of the tred? Well, I straddled the backhoe arm and stood on that grater thing facing the driver (Josef). It was a long, bumpy ride. But there was only one time I feared for my life, so all in all it wasn't too bad. As we were making our way to the campsite, Brian made it back to tell me they couldn't find the car keys. Poor Brian must have been chilled to the bone by the time we finally made it to the cabin for the last time.

Aside from the life-threatening hike to the cabin, the weekend was really nice. I got to know a couple of people from the church better and enjoyed a little time away from the city. The three families that went (us, the Haskews and the Hayes) all brought our dogs along, so Sharkdog had a blast. It was so much fun to see him running through the snow. He doesn't get off his leash much, so I think he really enjoyed it. Here's some more photos from the trip. You can see all of the photos on my Flickr account. I'm working on adding descriptions to the photos in Flickr, so if you want more details on a photo you might be able to find it there.



Here are the links to the original photos:
1. road to cabin, 2. road to cabin 2, 3. sharkdog and daisy 2, 4. schwarzwaldeckhaus, 5. mountains 9, 6. abby and daisy, 7. daisy and sandy, 8. sharkdog and daisy, 9. brian and sharkdog, 10. abby, 11. mountains 5, 12. sharkdog and daisy 3

Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it yet, I'm loving fd's Flickr Toys right now. You can use it to make the cool mosaics that I've used in several posts. It's free, easy and a great way to add lots of photos without taking up lots of space.

Riding the rails - Part 2

After our rainy day in Prague, we hopped the train for our next destination -- Chemnitz, Germany. During my college years (oh, so long ago), I spent most of my summers in Chemnitz working with LST campaigns. This was my first visit in five years and the first time Brian (and Sharkdog) visited Chemnitz. There's too much to share here, so I'll just hit the highlights.

We happened to visit on a weekend when several things were planned with the church. The church is always busy, so it's hard to visit on a weekend when something isn't happening. On Saturday we attended the 50th birthday party for Larry Sullivan, one of the missionaries who works with the church. On Sunday, there was a potluck after the worship service, so Brian and I had a chance to chat with some of the church members. On a side note, while we were waiting for lunch to begin, Brian asked me if I was worried there might be a lot of cabbage dished. I told him that I wasn't worried and sure enough, there wasn't a bit of cabbage. However, we weren't so lucky at dinner.

Happy birthday, Larry!

On Sunday night we decided to try a new Mexican food restaurant. I had mixed emotions on this one. The last time I had Mexican food in Chemnitz was at El Taco. I should have had my doubts based on the name, but I gave it a try. I was served something that tasted like a pancake with a bit of ground beef, lots of beans, corn and a stack of cabbage. I think I ordered a burrito. On Sunday, I figured the worse that could happen is I would get a good story about German-Mexican food. So we gave it a try -- and I was very impressed. I'm not a huge fan of Mexican food, but I would place this as my second favorite Mexican food restaurant. Take a look at our tasty food.

When you think of common foods included in a Mexican dish, cabbage probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But apparently, it's a requirement for Mexican food in Germany. The nachos were delicious once we removed the cabbage and the rest of the salad on top. I had burritos (there's cabbage here too!) and Brian had wings. I'm not sure that really counts as Mexican food.

We also got the chance to play Wii. The boxing was definitely the funniest to watch, but I didn't try playing it.

I love the way Seppel is pointing and laughing in the first photo. But he ended up looking pretty silly too.

And, of course, we took Brian and Sharkdog on a tour of the sites of Chemnitz, which consist of a huge head and some penguins.

That's one big head! Including the base, this monument of Karl Marx is approximately 25 feet tall. It was erected in 1971, during which time the city of Chemnitz was called Karl-Marx-Stadt. The city decided to keep the head as a reminder of the socialist period. The huge plaque behind the statue says, "Workers of the world, unite" in four languages.

The plaque on the ground says that if you walk in a straight line all the way to Antarctica, you'll run into the largest colony of penguins -- or something like that. I don't really remember, so I may be way off. In any event, we enjoyed taking Sharkdog's photo with the penguin colony in Chemnitz. There were several parents there trying to get photos of their kids with the penguins. Silly parents! They'll take pictures of anything!

Sharkdog, as always, was a big hit. Everyone loves Sharkdog.

Karen and Sharkdog - Karen, Sharkdog and Seppel - Dirk and Sharkdog

Riding the rails - Part 1

As I mentioned yesterday, Brian and I just returned from our first trip outside of Austria. First stop: Prague, Czech Republic. We arrived in Prague on Wednesday night around 11 and left Friday morning, so we really only had one day in the city. And it was a rainy day. But that didn't keep us from going out and enjoying the sites. There were only a few things I wanted to see -- the Church of St. James in Old Town, Charles Bridge and Lennon Wall.

Brian ran across something about the Church of St. James several years ago and we've been curious about it ever since. When you enter the church, hanging from the ceiling immediately to your right is a mummified arm. That's right, an arm. Legend has it that a thief tried to steal the jewels from a statue of the Virgin Mary and the Virgin Mary reached out and grabbed the man. She held on so tight, they had to cut off the man's arm to free him and they hung the arm in the church as a warning for other would-be thieves. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed in the church, so we weren't able to capture an image of the gangly forearm. If you want to see a mummified arm hanging from the ceiling of an old church, you'll just have to make the trip to Prague yourself.

The next stop was Charles Bridge. This bridge is best known for it's role in the opening sequence of Mission Impossible. Okay, so maybe that's not what it's best known for, but that's how I know of it. Here's Sharkdog with the Charles Bridge in the background and me and Sharkdog on Charles Bridge. As you can see, the weather wasn't great. It started raining soon after these photos were taken.

Our last stop was the Lennon Wall. When John Lennon was killed in 1980, some young people began a memorial by writing lyrics and drawing pictures on this wall. Lennon was a role model for peaceful resistance to the young people in this communist nation. For some time, the police tried to paint over the graffiti and arrest people who wrote on the wall, but eventually they gave up. By the end of the 1980s or the early 1990s, it became legal to write on the wall. The wall has been painted several times and new graffiti is always appearing, so it's look is always changing. It's a shame that the original messages and drawings are long gone.

By the time we left the wall, it was raining quite a bit. We headed back to our hotel for a nice afternoon nap. Later in the evening we headed back to Old Town for a traditional Czech goulash dinner.

Doesn't Sharkdog look so well-behaved at dinner? Don't let this picture fool you. The picture below is a more accurate portrayal of the evening.

And here's just a few more photos of our day in Prague.

Prague's most famous citizen is Franz Kafka and you'll see references to him around the city. But "Hotel Metamorphis"? Is this really a good name for a hotel? I'd be afraid of there might be cockroaches.

Sharkdog loved the bed at our hotel. I found him curled up on my pillow soon after I got out of bed.

And later in the day, he settled in for a nap. This dog knows how to sleep!