Christmas Road Trip to Austria

This year we spent Christmas in Austria. In previous trips we have either taken the train or flown, this time we decided to take our first road trip in Europe. It was about 8 hours one way, complete with a bathroom break and a stop at McDonalds (which were ridiculously nice and clean for being on the side of the road). When we started in Brussels the weather was warm and dry and the road signs were in French. As we continued our drive the road signs changed to Dutch and then German and the weather got colder and wetter beginning with some rain and the finally snow. For most of Germany the roads are lined with thick forests of big evergreen trees perfectly dusted with snow. Eventually the trees turn into snow cap mountains as we get closer to Austria. It is seamless traveling through the countries, there aren't any passport check points (these went away with the creation of the European Union) and the roads are smooth and fast. Since much of German roads do not have any speed limits we average about 100-110 mph. Additionally what I love, love, love about Europeans is that they take the concept of driving in the left lane and passing only on the right seriously. You didn't see slow cars in the right lane holding up traffic for miles behind them. The last stretch of road to our hotel was a lot slower as it was snowing and the road up the mountain  was like big windy u shapes all the way up.

Our snowy view from our hotel

Austria was like a beautiful winter wonderland to us. We stayed in a small town near Seefeld Austria, which feels like it is nestled in the mountains. As we walked around the town we could see snow and mountains everywhere. There were plently of walking and skiing trials as well as down hill ski areas. We stayed at a family run hotel that felt more like a bed and breakfast. From our room we had fantastic views of the town below and the mountains. During our time in Austria Steve got to get in some cross country skiing. I also tried my hand at skate skiing by taking a few lessons (by the way it is so much harder than it looks). After skiing (or attempting to ski) we loved sitting in the hotels sauna. It feels so good to go from the cold cold outside to a hot sauna or hot tub. As a note we  the european swimsuit style has a lot less fabric.

Good morning...

...and good night

Look at all the cross country skiers

The town we were staying at

On our way back to Belgium we stopped by the Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. The castle was built in the 1800's by a king who only lived in the castle for a king for less than a year. According to the tour guide, the king was deemed as unfit to rule and then mysteriously died in a lake with his psychiatrist.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside, so I don't have any of those to share, but the outside of the castle is actually the inspiration for the Disney World castle in Florida.

We ended back in Belgium perfectly safe without any hiccups. We spent NYE in Brussels. Here they celebrate by shooting fireworks off at midnight. Its been awhile since I've seen any fireworks so it was a great way to celebrate the New Year. Happy New Year everybody!

Santa Claus vs. Sinterklaas

Instead of Santa Claus, Belgians have Sinterklaas. Said out loud the two sound very similar but from what I have learned from others here in Belgium they are actually quite different. From what I can put together Sinterklaas drinks a lot more, is a bit more fit and maybe a little racist:

Santa Claus: Comes on Christmas Eve
Sinterklaas: Comes on December 5th

Santa Claus: Is a fat jolly man in a red suit
Sinterklaas: Looks like a holy man (a bishop I believe) and doesn't look too fat. He wears a robe

Santa Claus:Comes on a sleigh with eight little reindeer
Sinterklaas: Comes on a white horse with two black servants* (You can't make this stuff up)

*Now I must say that they are now trying to change the story a little. Instead of black servants, they are becoming helpers, and they aren't really black, they are just dirty from going down the chimney to open the front door for Santa.

Santa Claus: Delivers presents into your stocking
Sinterklaas: Puts presents in your shoes

Santa Claus: Children leave Santa Cookies and milk (hence the fat part)
Sinterklaas: Children leave Sinterklaas something to drink. From the Belgians that I've talked to parents encourage their kids to leave him beer (so he's not fat from cookies, but is drunk from all the beer the kids leave him). Kids also leave carrots for the horse, the servants apparently don't get anything.

This is the best one.

Santa Claus: If you are bad, you don't get presents
Sinterklaas: If you are bad, the servants kidnap you by putting you in a bag and taking you to Spain

I think this is hilarious, I'm not sure what kids would be more afraid of, not getting presents or being taken to Spain.  I'm not sure where Spain came from, I wonder if its like how my parents told me they would send me to China if I didn't eat all my food at dinner. Merry Christmas everybody, we'll be in Austria this year instead of Minnesota, missing all our family and friends.

Finally starting to feel like Christmas

It has taken me awhile to get in the Christmas spirit here in Brussels.  I think we all have our ideas on what Christmas should be like or look like and I am no different. Being from Minnesota I expect to see snow outside, Christmas lights and wreaths in the malls in my home and around the neighborhood. As expected this Christmas season has been a little different, but the last week has certainly made it feel more like the holidays. We finally started seeing some snow in the last week. Not the white fluffy kind that makes everything pretty, but more of the wet rainy kind that sticks around for a night and is gone by the morning (if it even makes it till the morning). I'll take what I can get, it just doesn't feel like winter without snow.

I've also started to see Christmas lights around the city and the shopping areas. I've noticed a couple things about retail here. There is maybe one or two malls in Brussels, generally there are big shopping streets and of course the Christmas markets. The other thing about retail around here is that the Christmas push doesn't start until much later than in the States. In the States it starts right after Halloween, even more so the day after Thanksgiving. There is no Black Friday, Cyber Monday etc, I've only started seeing big pushes this past week. Even though the timing is a little late the amount of the Christmas lights in the streets and shopping area more than make up for it. There are Christmas trees and decorations everywhere.

Christmas Tree in Grand Place

Light show at the Grand Place

Grand Place

 We of course went to the Christmas markets here in Brussels as well. They had this huge ferris wheel that we had to go on. It had great views of the market, you could see all off the shops and the ice skating rink. It started to snow/rain while we were on it so our photos aren't great but it was still a lot of fun.

The view from the Ferris wheel

It started snowing/raining as we were on the Ferris Wheel

The Christmas market also had two of the best merry-go-rounds I have ever seen. These weren't your typical horses going round and round type of merry-go-round, they instead had a Pegasus, airplanes, lizards and one had a space ship that went through the roof of the carousel. If I were a kid I would have been out of my mind excited.

You can actually sit inside of this

You sit inside the spaceship and it goes through the top of the carousel

To end this post I'm going to share the holiday lesson that Steve and I learned this past weekend. Most of us have been to these holiday parties that include ugly sweaters or white elephant gifts. We all know that both of these traditions are ridiculous and just for fun. The uglier the sweater or the more ridiculous the gift the better. We were invited to a "white elephant gift" party this weekend. It was a lots of fun and we met some great people, however I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't get invited back. When we heard that we were suppose to bring a white elephant gift we went to the market and found ridiculous kind of tacky items. Steve's gift was a bear key holder with the peg in the most inappropriate spot, mine was a small wooden tray with little cats on it. These items were the wrong choice.

Everybody drew numbers and opened wrapped gifts in order. As people started opening gifts we realized that many (most) people didn't quite understand the White Elephant gift idea and had actually brought really nice gifts. We sat a little bit mortified as we watched people were opening nice boxes of chocolates, beer and jams. We felt ridiculous, and when one of the guests opened Steve's gift you could tell she was thinking WTH? Oh,  it was embarrassing. Luckily we didn't share who brought what, but I'm sure they knew it was us. So lesson learned some traditions just don't translate.

Survival French

Every Monday and Thursday morning I spend four hours in French class. I am in the beginner class, also know as "survival French." There are six of us in the class, two people from Finland, one from Russia, one from Italy, one from Lithuania and then me.

I very quickly learned that I am the only person that does not speak more than one language. Most everybody speaks their own language and then also English. There are some that speak even more than two. I of course felt the judgment of only speaking one language but I am very grateful that the one language in English. Knowing English is very helpful in getting around Brussels and in class as well. Generally the professor speaks only in French, however for more complicated subjects she speaks in English. I often wonder how the brain works when a person is learning a foreign language taught in another foreign language. Does the Russian women translate the French word into English and then to Russian? I can't even imagine.

I also wonder how difficult it is to learn French compared to English or any other language. I've found that the French language has all sorts of rules to it. Verbs change based on who you are talking about. There are masculine and feminine words, formal and informal words, one person or two people words. One verb can be written six different ways.  The other challenge in the French language is reading. In French the way you read a word is much different that how you say it. There are all sorts of silent letters, for example "parlent" (those men speak) "parles" (you speak) and "parle" (I speak) are all pronounced parl and "parlons" (we speak) is parlon. There is so much to remember, I wonder if other languages are this hard.

Way back when when I was in high school I did take some French classes. I have pretty much forgotten all of it, but it does seem easier to learn it the second time around.  I think I'm picking it up a little bit quicker. Just being immersed in the language has helped with my understanding. In high school, I would probably just spend as hour in class and then it would be over. Once my four hour class is over I still hear French on the streets or in the shops etc. Additionally to help me with my homework,  I've got this fabulous Google translate tool on my iPad. When I'm doing my homework and  I don't know a French word, I put it into my tool and it translates it into English for me and vice versa. I love it. I'm not sure how I ever got by without it.

I will say learning French sometimes makes me feel like a small child. The smallest accomplishment makes me so happy and proud of myself. The other day I was able to tell somebody what my hotel room number was in French and I was so proud of myself. It was three numbers, but you would have thought I just delivered a graduation speech. I also am amazed when I understand what somebody is saying in French. I imagine this is what it is like for children when they finally understand what their parents are saying to them. My professor also speaks to us more slowly like when you speak to children. I often leave class thinking "that's not so bad" but then when I'm out in the real world, I can't figure out what anybody is saying. I also think its funny that they call it "survival French" because there is no way I could actually survive with just knowing how to count and tell you what color my sweater is.

A Dog's Life

This is taken from outside, but the dog is in the restaurant sitting by his owner

This dog was particularly stylish in a red fuzzy sweater

If I were a dog I think I would want to live in Brussels. From what I can tell people tend to treat their dogs like their children. On top of that it seems like the culture accepts that concept. Dogs are everywhere and are allowed almost allowed everywhere children are. I have seen dogs in the train station, on the actual  the train (and this was not a little toy dog, it was a black lab). They are even in the grocery stores and restaurants. The funny thing about dogs in the restaurants, is that they aren't just sitting outside by somebodies foot, but on the chair next to their owner. Its just so different to see dogs in the restaurants right were people eat. I also see the best outfits on dogs here and even better I see dogs in baby strollers. It's hilarious.

What i wish people did is put diapers on their dogs. There is dog poop all over, not just in the grass but smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk.  People don't really seem to know how to clean up after their dogs around here, I suppose doggie bags don't really go with the cute doggie outfits...

Turkey to brats: Germany

The day after Thanksgiving Steve and I headed to Cologne, Germany. By train Cologne is just shy of two hours from Brussels and we had heard that they have fabulous Christmas markets. We did not leave disappointed.

Within reasonable walking distance from our hotel there were about six Christmas markets. We ended up going to five of them. Each market had a little bit of its own personality. They are all different sizes, the booths are all different in each market and sometimes the market will have a specific theme. The first one Steve and I went to was right on the river and had a little bit of a maritime feel.  The vendors were all wearing captains hats and sometimes outfits. Some of the markets we went to had merry-go-rounds or Ferris wheels. One even had a pretty big ice skating rink.  Each market had a variety of vendors selling things like ornaments, candles, lace, jewelry, toys, candy etc.

What all the markets had were the traditional Christmas market foods like brats, pretzels, cheese and baked goods. They also all had beer and hot wine.  We of course took in more than our share of brats and hot wine. Each of the different markets have different vendors that are selling the hot wine. Beer and wine at the markets are served in plastic mugs or cups, instead they use proper glasses and mugs. Each market/vendor has its own unique glass or mug. They come in different shapes and sizes.  When you buy wine or beer, you also put a deposit on the mug. You can either choose to keep the mug or return it to get your deposit back. As you stroll through the markets, you see everybody walking around with these steaming mugs full of wine. It was fun to see all of the different mugs and beer glasses. We spent hours eating, drinking and taking in the sights of the Christmas markets.

Brats on the grill, the smell was intoxicating

It was a fun way to kick off the holiday season. Everybody seemed to be in great moods (I'm sure the wine had a lot to do with that) and everything was so festive. There were lights everywhere and you could almost always hear Christmas music (although in German). The only thing we were missing was a little bit of snow.

Happy Thanksgiving

At first we thought we'd be at home just the two of us eating a turkey breast or something completely unrelated to Thanksgiving, but we ended up having a wonderful thanksgiving. It was still a weird day, instead of being of being at the farm and having everything closed,  everything was open and nobody was planning for the big meal. Steve still went to work and I did my normal daily stuff.

Since we've been here we have made some new friends from the States so we decided to pull together a Thanksgiving of our own. I will have to give most of the credit to our friend Sarah, her Belgian  friend offered to host (which is key since the rest of us live in little apartments) and she took on the task of finding and making a turkey. Making the traditional Thanksgiving meal is a little trickier here just because some of the food isn't as easily available. Steve and I were suppose to bring a dessert and green bean casserole. At first for dessert I was going to attempt a pumpkin pie, I couldn't find condensed milk or a pre- made pie crust( of course I wasn't going to make a crust from scratch), so then I found a recipe for an apple type dessert. All I'm going to say is that it came out terribly. It might have been because I put it in the oven during dinner, but then didn't hear the timer go off for several minutes after it went off. Need less to say we didn't eat any of that dessert, and instead spent several minutes making fun of it and listing all the people who wouldn't eat it like stray cats, dogs etc.

To make the green bean casserole, I had to go to two different grocery stores to find cream of mushroom soup and only by luck (and three grocery stores later) Steve able to find crispy onions. The funny thing is he found them in the Asian section. I've had a lot of Asian food in my life and I'm pretty sure I've never had crispy onions on anything.

The group was a lot of fun. Overall there were 11 of us. Nine of us from the States, six of the nine from Minnesota(what a small world). Missed our family and friends of course, but loved celebrating Thanksgiving and making new friends.