O.K., this is going to be what I imagine is not the last of the lame posts this NaBloPoMo. A creative writing professor at the University is holding a series of classes for native English speakers. I just found out yesterday that it was tonight, and the day was already quite booked.
So, I’m running out the door with a pen and notebook in hand, hoping to learn something and be motivated to write more. And meet more English speakers. (I’m feeling very defeated by German lately and not particularly encouraged to widen my circle of locals.)
Hopefully tomorrow will be something more interesting. But hey, day four and still going.
I’ve had a blog post request. For bread. Good friends Ryan and Renate will be making it three years in a row by celebrating New Year’s in Innsbruck with us again this December 31st. It is so special for Markus and I. (And Annie has fun with them too, of course.)
Ryan and Renata work very, very hard, living in Victoria and flying to Winnipeg to work on a contract every week. Every week! One of the upsides to this, though, is airmiles. So they travel. And this year they are off to Kenya with stops in Switzerland and then Innsbruck. (Markus and I are hoping to join them in Montreux if we can work it out with the cafe and Annie.)
When Ryan read that I was posting every day, he must have been thinking about his upcoming visit because his request was for a post about bread. Because really, the bread here is something to look forward to. It is fantastic. And it is everywhere. I’ve found good bread in Victoria and Winnipeg and London (Wildfire, Tall Grass Prairie and the Portuguese Bakery respectively), but you have to look for it and sometimes go out of your way for it. Bread here is very important and very available. There are bakeries every few blocks. (They are like 7-Elevens in Winnipeg.) Even in the airport they have mini-ovens so that the bread can come out fresh for the tired travelers. It matters here. (I’ve never heard an Austrian talk about a low-carb diet.) This isn’t true everywhere in Europe either. Italy, home of fantastic food, serves mostly white bread. Tasty, but white.
When Ryan and Renata come, they slip out to the bakery every morning and pick up a warm loaf. One of Ryan’s favourites is a sunflower bread called Sonnenkraftbrot (sun-strength bread). It has a chewy crust and a soft but dense center.
Sonnenkraftbrot
We’ve also tried, and like, potato bread, walnut bread and even the Bauernbrot (farmer’s bread) is great with cheese and cold cuts.
Although I’ve branched out more lately, the first year I was here I was addicted to Wurzelbrot (“root bread” because of the shape), which I guess technically is a white bread but tastes so lovely. And it even tastes great toasted the next day, as bakery-fresh bread here does not stay fresh very long. No preservatives.
Wurzelbrot
Often times Austrians (including this little family) will have a simple dinner of good bread, cheese, and cold cuts. Delicious.
So we are looking forward to your visit Ryan and Renata. Your bread awaits.
Instead I saw this: “What is more important: peace or freedom?” This is a question that nations have been founded on and millions of words have been written discussing this topic. It is also a topic that I consider much more American than Canadian for some reason.
So what can I say about it in a short blog post? Well, that I am deeply, vastly grateful, that I have never been in a position in my life where I have had to chose, to give up one for the other. Because as left wing and peace-loving as I am, if I had to live in a world where I wasn’t basically free to wear or say or write what I wanted, I wouldn’t value my life very much anymore. For me, just being alive isn’t enough.
Of course, there isn’t such a thing as total freedom, and more than of course, even if I say or do or wear what I want, it isn’t consequence free. But I get to examine those consequences before I take action and mostly decide for myself if I can live with them. I’ve met and studied with people who have lost literally everything because they weren’t so lucky to be born in a country that values freedom. So I feel closer to this subject than I did a few years ago.
And still I have no idea what I would do if I was faced with the direct choice of peace or freedom. Could I kill someone else to keep my freedom? Or my family’s freedom? Would I risk my life or the life of my children to fight oppression? I now have people in my family history who fought for Hitler and who fought against Hitler. I have voted for people who had to make the choice between peace or freedom…or at least between peace or war. And they believed freedom was at stake, and maybe it was. I’ll never know. It is all so not black and white to me.
It certainly could be argued that I’m just passing on the decision, the choice, the battle to someone else. And that is probably correct.
So I am just going to thank every God imagined that I have been blessed with a peaceful life in a free society. And pray that Annie is given the same gift in her life. It is perhaps the greatest gift of all.
My friend, Maria, lives in Antwerp and plans to take her daughter back home to Canada to celebrate a real Halloween some year. I’m imagining her daughter (and Annie) discovering at an older age that there is this place where you are allowed to dress up, walk house to house and then people give you a pillowcase full of candy. It is going to seem like Nirvana.
In the meantime, we do the best we can.
For our Halloween there was pumpkin carving…
And dressing up in costumes…
And the traditional Halloween donkey ride…??
The restaurant where we met, Nattererboden, is a favourite for parties as it is quite rural (although only 15 minutes from town) and has an outdoor playground, indoor play area, petting zoo and occasionally the donky riding. All in a large traditional restaurant setting with fantastic food. (I know I’ve questioned this before, and I know there are exceptions, but why do restaurateurs in Canada so often think that “family-friendly” means lots of plastic furniture and processed food??)
The kids played in the playground despite it being rather crisp outside, carved pumpkins, made Halloween baskets from a pattern I found on a craft site, and ate candy. The trick or treating aspect wasn’t there, but the kids still had fun.
There are oodles of fun events throughout the winter in Austria, but I’m still glad I’m introducing Annie to my childhood traditions. I’m going with the belief that Annie will be an international child, instead of just confused. And of course for my girl, anything where there is sugar involved is a great event.
Well, I’m going to try, again, to post every day in November for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month.) I’m needing more structure in my life, so thought I could manufacture a bit through this system. I have a feeling these daily posts will be short, but as good friend Sue says…it’s MY blog!
It was a busy week this week so yesterday I ended up conking out when I put Annie to bed. I actually started to get sleepy while reading to her, so she turned on the bedside lamp and read to herself (and me) while I nodded off. That child can be so independent already. So here I am at 5 in the morning (which is actually 4 in the morning due to daylight savings time) wide awake and ready to go.
The grand opening of the square in front of the cafe on Tuesday went well. I was there for 13 hours helping out but that was nothing compared to Markus who ran around working and organizing from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. We were very worried about the weather, as the day before we had quite a bit of snow in Innsbruck. But the sun came out in the afternoon and, although cold, a few thousand people did show up. And most importantly many people came into the cafe who didn’t realize that it was there. Hopefully that will help business over the next few weeks.
Today a few expat families are forcing a Halloween celebration in this land where it doesn’t exist. We are meeting at a restaurant and carving some pumpkins and, most importantly, letting the kids dress up in costumes. Annie is pretty excited, as she wasn’t going to be allowed to wear the Ariel mermaid costume Mom brought her until Fasching, which is next February. When I told her it was only one sleep until she was able to dress up in it, there was a very big smile.
I’ll post some pictures tomorrow for your enjoyment…and so that I have a topic for Day 1 of NaBloPoMo!
Mom was here for a wonderful three week visit! This trip Mom and I decided to travel on our own for a couple of days and explore Venice. Neither of us had ever been there, and as it is only a 5-hour train ride from Innsbruck, it seemed like a great idea.
And was it ever! Venice is nothing like anywhere else I have been in the world. We had a spectacular time and can’t believe we packed so much into two days.
After the train arrived we walked through the station direct to the Grand Canal, which is the main water artery that snakes through Venice feeding into the smaller canals throughout the city. Here were our first visuals:
We managed to hop onto the correct ferry and made our way to the stop nearest our hotel.
Here you can see the ferry that is Venice's main transportation
Most of the sidewalks are narrow and windy, (does one call them “streets” if it is a city without cars?) but luckily we had a good map and a fairly straight-forward route to our hotel. The family-run hotel we had booked over the Internet worked out well. (Thank you Trip Advisor guest reviews!) I think due to our very last-minute booking, we were upgraded to an apartment that was in another building overlooking the canal. We didn’t spend much time in our spacious room, but it was fun to peer down on the gondolas and wake up in the morning to the chatter of boat operators as they hauled luggage and laundry and groceries throughout the city.
Love the high arched bridgesGondola passing under our windowIt amazes me that all of the necessary business of a bustling city is accomplished on these narrow waterways
As we were in the city for exactly 48 hours, we spent our first lunch going through brochures to plan our itinerary. Mom and I thankfully were completely of the same mind in terms of what we wanted to see and do. Touristy gondola ride? Absolutely! World famous cathedral? Only if we have time. (We have both been lucky enough in our lives to already have toured about 8 zillion historical churches and cathedrals.)
So after a walk through the main tourist plaza, St. Mark’s, we took a 30-min gondola ride. It was fantastic. The gondoliers are all male, dressed as you would expect in striped shirts, and exceptionally skilled. They can pass within millimeters of another boat or a wall without hitting anything.
Mom and I in head out in a 6-person gondolaView from the waterCreative marketing to the tourists floating by
From the gondola it is apparent how dilapidated the outside of the buildings are, wearing away from the constant movement of the water. It must be a huge adventure to even paint these buildings, never mind repair them.
We had been traveling since 5 a.m. (in order to take the more direct train), so after our ride we poked around the shops, had dinner and returned to our room.
The central city of Venice has a population of 60,000 people and I would guess 98.7% of them are affected in some way by tourism. I almost exclusively heard English during our stay here. Even our first night of meals in the touristy area was merely O.K., which surprised me because I’ve been to highway stops in Italy that produced tasty pasta and pizza. I guess when you know almost no-one is returning, you don’t try very hard.
I kept trying to image what this amazing place must have been like 150 years ago…or 500 years ago for that matter. A major center for trade and commerce and culture, filled with the riches of the world. A harsh life too at times, no doubt, subject to the weather in unique and challenging ways.
Our second day’s planned walking tour was flooded out. We were very lucky in that the day before we came there was over a meter of water covering the square. We just had a fairly shallow layer that only lasted until noon. There are table-like pathways set up to get through the plaza, staff wear rubber boots and some brave tourists even take their shoes off and wade through the murky water.
Waiting in line to see the BasilicaWaiters in tuxes and waders
Instead of our tour we spent a couple of hours taking the audio tour of the Doge’s Palace, which we were very impressed with. The Gothic architecture is awe-inspiring and the artwork is brilliant. Our only problem was as we were ready to leave, I took a wrong turn and we was sucked down into the labyrinth of prison cells that span the cellars of the building. A bit disturbing. My photos weren’t great of the Palace, so here are a few images from the official website:
This room was full of historic globes and mapsCourtyard
After a tasty pizza lunch we walked towards another area of the city where the Accedamia is located. The museum itself wasn’t our favourite, although of course interesting, as it housed almost exclusively large religious paintings. We were, however, happy to see a bit more of a residential area of the city with school children and babies in strollers walking by.
Then more shopping, buying Murano glass jewelry and embroidered linen, two things Venice is famous for. The next time I go back I’m going to take a tour of the Murano glass factory. I’m sure I’ll find it fascinating.
Before dinner we went up the bell tower in St. Mark’s Square, which at the time I thought was too expensive and something we probably could have passed on. However, now that I’m home I’m happy to have the pictures of the spectacular view.
Bell tower
All that and not a single car!Beautiful panoramaOne of the Venitian Islands
After a rest at the hotel we found a very tasty restaurant to make up for the night before and then talked and walked down by the water. Beautiful with all the lights.
Friday morning we didn’t leave until noon, so we actually decided to check out St. Mark’s Basilica and I’m sure glad we did! It, like so much else in Venice, was different than anything I’ve seen. There is tile everywhere and the religious depictions are all made from mosaic glass. Stunningly beautiful.
Then back on the train through the pretty Italian countryside and home to recover from our adventure. What a great time! And Mom and I travelled really well together, which is important since we are hoping to spend a week in Scotland to check out our family roots sometime in the next year.
For all the ups and downs of the last two years, I won’t ever regret this time living in Europe because of the travelling I’ve done. I feel blessed and enlightened and a better person for it. And I also know that even if we return to Canada, I’ll be brave enough to keep experiencing more of the world and be able to show it off to Annie as she gets older. And that is a real gift.
It was a rainy/overcast day on Sunday, and we seemed to just meld into the mood and had a very laid-back time. (This was probably a good thing, as two days later I was still recovering from my night out dancing, where I arrived home at 4:30. In the morning. I haven’t seen that side of 4:30 in, hmmmm, decades?)
We all cleaned and tided up the house and then Annie watched some TV while Markus and I tapped away on our computers and napped. Someone recommended a fun website to learn letters, so Annie and I spent some time with that as well.
In the afternoon the rain stopped so we hopped in the car and drove to Hall. Hall is a little town about 15 minutes away from where we live. It has a lovely old city center, which has been building up since the 1300’s. We walked around a bit until Annie pulled us emphatically to one of our favourite pizza places, Geisterberg. It is a really charming restaurant with thick walls and beamed ceiling. One of the things I love about this part of the world is that there are several “family friendly” restaurant that don’t sacrifice atmosphere to the children. Annie gets her own menu with a Memory game, which we play for a few rounds, and then she can go to the second floor where there is a small but well-equipped play room. Markus and I sit at the front of the restaurant to see if she comes down the stairs, but otherwise can enjoy at least half an hour of uninterrupted adult time. Plus the pizza is super.
We drove around a bit on the way home and then the evening was more of the same. I’m so glad that Markus has decided to keep the cafe closed on Sundays. Whether we have grand plans or a quiet day, it is so wonderful to know that we have this time together each week as a family.
After a very wet summer, fall has come early. There have already been several mornings with snow dusting the mountain tops. Beautiful…but wow! Hard to believe it is already here.
Overall, however, I’m glad for the change in seasons. This summer has been hard. I’ve been ridiculously low for the past several months. Like as in looooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I’m sure it was a combination of things that gave me the blues, (the financial instability of starting a new business, not having enough to occupy my brain, a very sore back so no exercise, etc., etc.) but underneath it all I’d have to say my being down stemmed from homesickness.
But the last week I seem to have got my mojo back. I’m organizing the apartment, doing some contract work for good friend Lesli in Vancouver, and even started flossing! (I’m one of those lifelong non-flossers, so this is huge.)
I recently read a blog post (can’t find it at the moment to link to…oh well) suggesting that it doesn’t matter where you live. You can carve a happy life anywhere you are and moving won’t necessarily solve your problems.
As someone who has often left a place or situation when things get rough, (my pattern is to either run fast or stay waaaaaaay too long) that column really got me thinking the last few days. What can I do to make Innsbruck feel like home? What would I gain if I moved back home to Canada? What would I lose?
All questions I can’t answer right now. But as the autumn progresses, I’m going to try to unravel some of these threads. Or tie them up, as the case may be.
And I sure have a lot to look forward to here, which is also helping to lift my spirits. Mom is coming for a visit at the end of the month and her and I are planning on going to Venice for a short trip. I haven’t been yet even though it is only a 5-hour train ride from Innsbruck. Then ski season starts, which I’m completely looking forward to. I think a few hours a week in the cold, fresh air swooshing down the ancient Alps is going to be a perfect antidote to any left-over blues.
And writing also helps me with my perspective on life, so I’m going to try to do more of that. A favourite blogger uses the Anais Nin quote on her header: “We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection.” Although I often find that true, I also find writing allows me not just to relive the same moments, but to reframe them from a different perspective. To see events as part of a larger whole, a longer path. In that process I am able to sort through some of the things that are muddled up in my brain.
So no promises, but I will try to post more often…and to keep flossing.
I just got back from lunch with the family, as we were celebrating Suzi’s birthday (Markus’ sister.) Someone reminded me of my two funniest language mistakes that I have made while speaking German…so far. (There are lots to choose from, but these are certainly the best/worst.)
My first was when I wanted to say that, for guests, we have two mattresses in Annie’s room. Instead I said, “Wir haben zwei Matrosen in Annies Schlafzimmer.” This translates to: “We have two sailors in Annie’s bedroom.” My single sister-in-law was kind of hoping this was true.
The second one was during a discussion about diet and food. I was trying to say that I think, most of all, that processed foods with preservatives and chemicals are what make people unhealthy and fat. I said “Die Lebensmittle mit Präservativ sind ungesund.” That means, “Food with condoms is unhealthy.” I would say so!!
The marketing line for Montenegro is “wild beauty”, and it is clear that this is a well-chosen descriptor on the first drive from the airport. The Black Hills are rugged with brush, cactus and the dusty green of olive trees. The roads are windy and steep, offering a spectacular view of the large lake, mountains and, of course, the ocean.
Annie and I went to Montenegro in the middle of August to spend a week with my friend, Ana. Ana was born in Montenegro, grew up mostly in Belgrade and lived the last 16 years of her life in Russia. (Her family knew the writing was on the wall when Milosevic came to power.) Ana has a place in her birth-land and kindly invited us for a holiday.
Ana has set her apartment up to have her own main living area and then a separate guest apartment with a kitchen, bath and balcony. What luxury!
Here is the view from “our” balcony, nearing sunset:
The beaches are rocky, instead of sandy. We did travel one day to a sandy beach and it made me appreciate the stones…no sand in clothes, food, or cameras (yikes! Thank goodness I was able to blow it out of the lens over a couple of days.) Although of course Annie loved the swimming and playground!
The first day we just enjoyed the beach near Ana’s place. We borrowed a car floaty thing that was perfect for Annie to swim around with. The water was colder than I had anticipated, which I was very thankful for as every day was between 33 and 37 degrees.
Ana in the sun
The next day we caught a boat and went to an area called Sveti Stefan (St. Stephen), which was near a small island that had been built out entirely for a hotel.
Sveti Stefan from the water. I love the way the rocks look layered.And from the shoreCute Annie and lookin' good Ana hamming it up.
After a couple of hours in the sun we took a walk over to the former royal summer residence, also now a hotel. It was a beautiful walk through a more lush woods ending in the manicured lawn and sheltered cove that was well-chosen by the royalty.
Me in my cover up and big floppy hat to ward off that evil sun. No wonder I have to take vitamin D drops!Former royal summer residence with private beach
The following day Ana’s mom and niece, Zorka, came to visit. Zorka is 5 years old and Annie was happy to have a playmate. Zorka’s family lives in New York but they spend the summers at her grandparents summer home on the other side of the shore from Ana. The girls had some squabbles (Zorka has three older siblings and Annie isn’t used to being teased) but overall it was awesome for her and me that she was occupied with a friend.
A rousing game of the Serbian version of Ring Around the Rosie.
Ana’s mom is absolutely lovely (although we really couldn’t speak to each other) and an amazing cook! I now know where Ana gets her culinary skills. Did we ever eat well over the week. (The other reason for the full body cover up!)
We also took the opportunity to learn a few words in Serbian, which of course Annie picked up much easier than me and could pronounce with no problem.
Zorka and Ana's Mom
The last night we went for a drive around some of the shoreline. We decided to go for dinner at a restaurant that Ana has been going to with her family since she was a child, called Stari Mlin (Old Mill). It is nested in the trees by the water and specializes in, as expected, fish. There is a trout pond that elicited a delightful story from Ana. Many years ago when someone ordered the trout, the father or mother would call to their daughter “Marica, two trout.” Marcia, as wee lass at the the time, would run to the trout pond, grab her net, scoop out the trout (never missing) and crack their heads over her knee. Now that is fresh fish. The trout pond is still there, but I understand the on-request catching no longer happens.
Trout pond
We had a spectacular meal and then headed off to walk through the lit streets of Kotor. On the way we passed the old mountain wall, 16 km snaking up the hill.
Kotor is a city with roots back to 168 BC. The buildings and walls and narrow streets are from the Middle Ages. It is best to go at night with the lovely lights sparkling off the water. My step-father Drew also went to Kotor on a side-trip during a volunteer stint in Belgrade and has very fond memories. Sometimes the awe of what is man-made can grab me just as much as natural wonders.
On the other side, though, there are parts of Montenegro that are still very much developing. The shoreline is well built-out, especially in the last few years with Russians purchasing a great deal of property. But the local people are still coming to terms with what it means to live in a free market economy. They sell land off, mostly to Russians, and then take the money and build large three-storey homes more in-land. Except the money runs out before the house is finished. We frequently passed these half-finished homes, obviously not worked on for months or years. (Oh wait, spending more money than you have? Maybe they have caught on exactly to the free-market economy.)
The rest of our trip was relaxing on the beach, going for late-night walks on the very bustling boardwalk, and eating amazing food, both home-cooked and at restaurants (totally delicious pizza! As good as anything I’ve had, even in Italy).
Ana, I hope we didn’t wear out our welcome, as we would love to come again next year!
