Ringing in the new year with a bang

The folks of Vienna sure do like their fireworks. For the past month, we could hear the pops and bangs of small firecrackers almost as soon as it became dark -- which is between 4:00 and 4:30 these days. At times it sounded like a small battle was being waged at the park down the street from our apartment. But until today, we rarely saw any fireworks. Today we've been able to see and hear fireworks pretty steadily since about 6:00.

Apparently, new year's eve celebration (Silvester, as it's called here) is a pretty big deal in these parts. An article on Virtual Vienna Net, a website for expats in Vienna, explains why fireworks play such a big role in Austria's celebration.

New Year's Eve in Vienna is a loud and merry time. This is no accident, but the enactment of an established tradition: in the fourth century Pope Silvester, after whom the night is named in Austria, tried to purge the new Christian church of heathen customs, but the old gods proved to be extremely stubborn. They kept on returning in the form of scheming devils, evil spirits or artful demons, digging their way into people's souls until the man of God realized that one devil best drives out another and using the old believes announced that the only thing they couldn't stand was noise. This is the reason why the New Year is heralded in with pyrotechnics, firecrackers and loud bangs to make sure that it is free of dark spirits.

Hmmm... so those rowdy kids at the park who have been driving me crazy with the firecrackers every night are just trying to keep the evil spirits away? Whatever their reasons, I hope they run out of firecrackers soon.

Brian and I are having a peaceful evening at home this New Year's Eve. I did venture out to the grocery store earlier today -- along with at least 95% of the inhabitant within a 10 mile radius -- but we're not going to head into town. I'll just watch the fireworks from my window.

I wish you all a happy new year!

Downtown

Have you noticed the trend in naming posts after songs? I just can't help myself.



I'm not really sure where "downtown" Vienna is located, but I headed into the city today. Some might say, I went downtown. I don't know if I would say it. I think I have a bit of cabin fever and I just needed to get out for a while.

I've been thinking about sweet potatoes a lot lately and the only place you can find them is downtown -- no, wait -- at the Naschmarkt. This was my first visit since it's been really cold and I definitely noticed that the crowd was smaller. The last time I was there, the place was overflowing with sweet potatoes. You couldn't turn around without bumping into one. But this time they weren't quite as plentiful. I guess I should have bought them during the fall.

Oh well, there were enough. I loaded up on sweet potatoes and bought a new pair of mittens. I have gloves that I like, but I've been wanting a pair of mittens that have the top part that you can remove so you can actually use your fingers. I hope you know what I'm talking about because I'm too lazy to get the camera.

However, I did snap some nice photos at the Naschmarkt. They're not for the faint of heart. If you prefer a little mystery with the food you eat, maybe you shouldn't continue. because there's no doubt with this food.

I'll start you out with some cute bread -- just so you won't have to see anything you don't want to see. Unless, of course, you're just scanning through the photos. In which case, you get what you deserve.

The pig is a symbol for good luck, so you see all sort of pig-paraphernalia around New Years. One of the bakeries at the Naschmarkt was selling bread shaped like a pig's head. Pretty cute, eh?



But just a little further down at the butcher, you can find real pigs' heads. Notice the one on the right has a cigar in his mouth.



Have you ever had shrimp scampi and wondered what it looked like before it was on your plate? Wonder no more.



If you're more of a fish kind of person, here's your dinner. The one on the bottom looks surprised, the one above it is a little angry and the one above that one is just down-right sad.



If you're eating fish in Austria, it may not look much different when it arrives at the dinner table. I'm pretty sure they serve it with the head intact.

I've saved the most disturbing for last. This was actually the first thing I photographed at the Naschmarkt. I've never seen anything like it. I'm not sure what it was, but the hoof is still there!

Oh, I wish...

Are you singing it yet?

Sometimes I wish I had a really nice camera with lots of different lenses and could take all these amazing photos. But then I realize that I would have to actually learn how to use the camera and learn all that photography lingo like aperture and f-stop. And not just learn what it means, but how it affects the photo I'm taking. Plus, I'd actually have to get out and take photos! Not just hop off the u-bahn and snap some photos from the platform.

So I guess it's a good thing I don't have a nice, expensive camera. I don't think I could handle all that other stuff. Maybe one day. And my point-and-shoot does a pretty decent job most of the time.

Here are the latest photos that I took from the u-bahn platform. It's been pretty cold here for a while and the Alte Donau (Old Danube) is frozen over. It's quite a site to see.









If you look at the last one closely, you can see three people on the ice. There are areas where you can ice skate when the river freezes over, but I think these people just went out on their own. I imagine they're wearing shoes -- I doubt you could skate with the snow on the ice. I can't believe they're in the middle of the river! I hope the ice is thick.

Happy Christmas

So this is Christmas.

According to my mom, some people are feeling sorry for us because we're spending Christmas all alone in Vienna. Brian and I thought about capitalizing on this situation and finding a pathetic-looking Charlie Brown tree and posing for a Christmas photo. You know, to get more sympathy. But then we didn't, so I just photoshopped one instead.


But really, there's no reason to feel bad for us. Brian's sister sent us a lovely package, the contents of which allowed us to celebrate The Tradition on Christmas Eve. It wasn't the same without family, but it was still nice.


And then today, we enjoyed lunch with the Haskews. So you see, we weren't alone after all.

Even Sharkdog had a jolly Christmas.


Merry Christmas!

Christmas eve hijinks

It looks like Sharkdog has found someone who enjoys looking out the window just about as much as he does.

Around Christmas, my family always has sausage balls in the house. Despite my struggle with making peanut butter balls in Austria, I decided to continue with the tradition of making sausage balls. In the U.S., it's quite a simple recipe -- breakfast sausage, Bisquick and sharp cheddar. But everything is a bit more difficult here. First, I've never seen breakfast sausage. Second, I've never seen Bisquick or other biscuit baking mixes. (Or biscuits for that matter. Even KFC doesn't have biscuits!) And finally, I've never seen sharp cheddar -- though I have heard it's available.

So what's a girl to do? I imagine you can guess -- I went over to All Recipes. I used this recipe to transform ground pork (which is readily available and quite inexpensive) into breakfast sausage and this recipe to make biscuit mix. As for the sharp cheddar, I replaced it with mild cheddar, which (gasp) I had to shred myself.


The sausage balls turned out pretty tasty, though not exactly like the ones from the U.S. All in all, I'd call it a success.

Animal kingdom

Yesterday I had hippos on the brain. I know -- hippos -- it seems a little strange. But I ran across this website and had the song stuck in my head the rest of the day. I remember loving this song when I was younger. I can remember listening to it in the car. I'm pretty sure my dad sang along.

So yesterday when I saw cute pink hippos at IKEA, I was seriously considering buying one. But then I saw sharks and decided to get one for Sharkdog. Normally when Sharkdog gets a new toy, he's very hesitant about it at first. He'll dance around it, trying to sniff it without getting too close, and eventually he'll start playing with it. But when I showed him the shark, he tried to grab it immediately. And he played with it for quite a while. He even brought it to bed last night.


In other news, the Rushers started celebrating the holidays a little early. Check out Sharkdog's blog to read about today's happenings.

How lovely are your branches

Sharkdog really enjoys looking out the window. Especially when it's snowing. I'm glad our apartment has floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room.

We didn't get a Christmas tree this year. I kind of wanted a tiny tree just because I like miniature things. But Brian said no way. The conversation went something like this:

A: [kind and innocent tone] Brian, sweetheart, can we get a Christmas tree this year?

B: [loud and mean tone] No, wicked woman. No tree, and that's final.

A: But honey, it's Christmas. Just a small tree.

B: I said no tree. But I'm in a generous mood. You can have a branch.

Ok, so maybe that is a bit of an embellishment. But I do like all of the tiny Christmas trees. And Brian did tell me that I could have a branch. This is probably closer to the real conversation:

[walking past the Christmas tree lot after German class]

A: [casually] Those tiny trees are cute. Do you want to get a tiny tree?

B: [casually] No, I'm not really interested in a tree this year.

[We notice some branches laying on the ground.]

A: What about a branch? Are you interested in getting a branch?

B: Hmm... I like that idea. Yes, you can get a branch.

But I didn't get a branch. I'm pretty sure the guy would have given me a branch, but I didn't want to carry it all the way home on the u-bahn. Plus, I didn't want to try to have the "can I have a Christmas branch?" conversation in German.

Since we don't have a tree, I decided to decorate our crazy lamp. In Austria, Christmas trees are called Chirstbaum (baum = tree), so this is our Christlampe.


Every year, Brian and I get a new ornament. We haven't bought one yet this year, but I'm hoping to stop by a Christmas market tomorrow afternoon. This is the ornament from last year. I think it's my favorite.