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!

The silence of the dogs

Brian, Sharkdog and I just returned from our first excursion out of Austria. We spent about a day in Prague, Czech Republic and about two and half days in Chemnitz, Germany. It was a lot of fun and I have a lot of photos and stories to share, but I'll just start with a few photos today.

Dogs are allowed on the public transportation in Austria (and other European countries), but they must wear a muzzle and a leash. Sharkdog's old muzzle apparently wasn't the right type and he was able to remove it in under 30 seconds, so we had to get him a new one. Doesn't he look so pathetic wearing his muzzle?


Sharkdog was supposed to wear the muzzle the entire train ride, but we took it off once we were settled on the train. He ended up sleeping most of the ride, but we enjoyed looking out the window for a little while as our journey started.

Who does number two work for

Last week, Brian and I noticed these signs popping up near our apartment.


I was quite excited because this is the same sign that is on the trash cans around the city where you can get free bags to pick up your dog's, um, mess. So I thought perhaps the city was going to place some of these free bag dispensers where the signs are located. (Currently, the closest dispenser is about 1/2 a mile away and the closest sign is right on our corner.) Then we noticed there were a lot of signs and I decided it must just be a campaign to remind everyone to pick up after their dogs.

The day after Brian and I spotted the signs, we saw an old lady spot the sign for the first time. She stopped in her tracks and burst out laughing. Then she looked at us to make sure we were enjoying the sign as well.

In case you can't read it, the sign says "Nim ein Sackerl für mein Gackerl." Brian said that it's more important to keep the rhyme than to provide an accurate translation, so I've been trying to come up with something similar in English. But I'm at a loss. The only thing I can come up with is "Take a scooper for my pooper." Can you come up with something better? The only rule is that it has to rhyme. I haven't been able to find "Sackerl" or "Gackerl" in any dictionary, so I'm pretty sure they are either slang or made-up. (The online dictionary includes slang terms, so that's why I'm throwing out the "made-up" idea.) Feel free to use made-up words, as long as they convey the meaning.

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In other "number two" news, Brian and I finished our first German course and guess who the number one and number two students were? If you guessed me and Brian, you're only half right. It was me and Rodika. Well, Rodika and me, since I was second. But you don't know Rodika, so really it was an unfair question. In any event, Brian and I both passed the class and that's what's important. Here we are with our little certificates (that we had to pay for).

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I'm going to be out of town until next week, so don't expect anything new until Tuesday. But now you have plenty of time to come up with a catchy slogan (in English) to remind us to pick up after our dogs. I'm going to be really disappointed if no one comes up with something.

A day of firsts

I made my first trip to the pharmacy today. You have to get practically everything related to medicine at the pharmacy, even if it doesn't require a prescription. I needed three things -- test strips for my glucometer (for which I had a prescription), something to relieve sinus pressure, and something for Sharkdog to help him calm down when he's nervous. It seems a little strange that you go to the same place to get medicine for yourself and for your dog, but that's the way it works.

I was all prepared to do this in German. Okay, so really I only had two sentences ready -- "Ich habe ein klein hund mit angst. Haben Sie homeopathic Medizin für meinen Hund?" I figured I could get by with gestures for the other two things. But I chickened out. I asked the lady if she spoke English and of course she did, so we did everything in English.

I did not, however, chicken out at the post office and confidently told the clerk, "Ich möchte eine Briefmarke," as I pointed to the place on the envelope where the stamp goes. I'm sure I looked like an idiot. Especially since I've spoken to this same clerk twice -- in English. And a moment later I had to revert to English to ask how long it would take for the delivery.

I also had my first haircut in Austria today. No one at the salon spoke English. When I walked in, a girl asked me to have a seat and I started trying to tell her what I wanted. That's when she explained to me (in German) that she only washes hair. I felt silly, but I've never had a shampoo-girl. I'm familiar with the concept, I've just never seen it in action. So she calls over the girl who is going to cut my hair and again I try to explain what I want. Fortunately, I also had pictures. I'm brave enough to go to a salon where no one speaks English, but only with backup. The rest of the hair-cutting experience was pretty much on par with experiences in the U.S. And when it came time to pay, I understood the girl when she told me the cost! I know it's a little thing, but it's still pretty exciting when you start to understand people.

Oh yeah, and there is one thing that I've found that you typically get in the pharmacy section in the U.S. but can find in grocery stores in Austria -- glucose tablets (for low blood sugar). And where can you find the glucose tablets in the grocery store? Why, in the candy aisle, of course. I always knew that glucose tablets were just candy posing as medical supplies -- probably so the manufacturer can charge more for them!

I heart public transportation

Culture shock can make it hard to appreciate the good things in a new culture. When you're missing home, it can seem like everything in your new country is backwards and terrible and everything in your home country is wonderful and easy. To help combat these thoughts, I'm going to write about some of the things I like about Vienna. Hopefully, this will give you a little insight into life in Austria and will help me to appreciate my new home. I won't promise a post on this topic every week, but I hope to do at least a couple each month. Click on the "I heart Vienna" label on the sidebar to see all of the "I heart" posts.

In honor of World Carfree Day, I thought I would tell you a little about the public transportation system in Vienna. The city has a great system of trains, u-bahns (subways), strassenbahns (trolleys) and buses. The transportation is reliable, generally clean, safe and easy to use. (My stroller-pushing friends may not completely agree with this last part because the old strassenbahns have several steps and the doors are not so wide. But passengers will usually help if asked.) The lovely pictures below are courtesy of Julius Silver because his pictures are just nicer than mine. Check out the website for fabulous pictures of Vienna -- and a lot of other places.

Honestly, I have a love-hate relationship with the public transportation. I love the fact that it's available and it's a lot cheaper than maintaining a vehicle. But it takes a lot of work -- or really, just a lot of time. A trip that would take about 15 minutes by car can take an hour by public transportation. And sometimes you have to wait a long time and occasionally you have to walk somewhere because of a problem with the u-bahn or strassenbahn or whatever. But overall, I'm glad to have it and glad to use it.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Before we moved to Vienna, Brian and I decided to hold out as long as possible before buying a car. Really, we have no intentions of buying a car, but we're not saying we won't ever need (want) a car. That's not the secret. The secret is that I've become kind of nuts lately about the environment and climate change and all of that. I know that I'm not doing enough to decrease my carbon footprint, but I'm becoming more aware and making small changes. For example, I only run the clothes dryer for about 10 minutes and then hang-dry our clothes. (The 10 minutes help the clothes to dry faster and keeps them softer so I don't have to iron everything.) When I'm shopping for groceries, I try to buy food that is locally grown or produced. These are small steps, but even the small steps help.

I know some of you think this is hokey and/or don't believe that climate change is a real issue. Some are probably paralyzed by the magnitude of the problem and don't know how to respond to it. It's good to start small so you don't become overwhelmed. For example, if there are rooms in your home that you do not use, close the heat/air vents and keep the door closed. Rather than just turning off appliances, unplug them -- at least the ones you don't use often. Carpool to work, church, or where ever. All of the suggestions will not only decrease your carbon output, but will also save you a few bucks. And no one can argue against that, right.

I told you I had become a little nuts about it.

Okay, now for something a little fun. Friday was the last day of the first German course. Rather than having a lesson, the class took a little walk to a nearby cafe. As we walked through part of town, we were greeted by these huge blue thingamabobs. I wish I had my camera out at the time. The 12 of us in the class saw these big blue things and about the same time, they saw us. And they all just descended on us. I think we all laughed out loud. It was the funniest site I have seen in a long time. Unfortunately, I just got a picture of them from behind.

So what are these blue blobs? Why, they're carbon dioxide molecules! They actually have CO2 written on the front, but as I said, I didn't have my camera out soon enough. At first I thought they were protesting something going on because it was pretty obvious that the city was preparing for some kind of event in this area. But then I realized they were advertising a new line of electric scooters that have zero CO2 emissions. Pretty cool. Check out those solar panels.

Cue the music to Star Trek

We've been told that any religious group that is not Catholic or Lutheran is often referred to a cult in Austria. When we were in Vienna a couple of years ago I heard a couple of people refer to us as a cult, but it wasn't in that you're-a-weirdo-who-lives-in-a-commune-and-believes-in-flying-saucers kind of way. It was more like the first definition from Dictionary.com and not intended to be offensive.

Today we found a little slip of paper in our mailbox. I think these people definitely fall into the number six definition.

In English:
We love you and want to help you.
Conversations with instructions from friends from space.