An Eventful Trip Home

Well, as many of you know, my travel luck in the past has been pretty terrible... the bad luck had stopped for a while (starting with my 5 flight, 36 hour journey back home from Thailand for my grandmother's funeral), but this trip was a deja vu of the past.

I started out by getting up at 5:30am at my apartment in Amsterdam. I was so excited, I practically JUMPED out of bed! I needed to catch a tram to the train station at 6:00am, and thought I was there in plenty of time... the tram, however, never showed up, so I proceeded to haul my big suitcase, gigantic backpack, carryon tote, and purse to the train station. About 5 minutes into my walk, my tote decided to let go of its strap... I debated on whether I should just carry the broken bag, or go back and get a new one. After thinking about the long day I had ahead of me, I decided that getting a new bag was a smart idea. I finally made it to the train station, and my bank card wouldn't work in the machine (this could have been because I had sat on it a few weeks earlier, so it now has a nice crease in it... but I'm just guessing. ;)). Since it was so early, there was no one to buy a ticket from at the desk, so I crossed my fingers and got on the train to the airport without a ticket. If you are caught without a ticket, it's a 50 euro fine, which would have been a real bummer since the ticket only cost 2.30 euros. I had come up with all kinds of stories to tell the ticket collector, knowing darn well that they wouldn't care, but it made me feel better to know that if necessary, I had a good excuse. I spent the whole train ride (about 8 minutes) praying that I wouldn't get stopped... and I didn't, thank goodness.

Finally, I was at the airport, checked in, and everything was on time. We had a really smooth flight, and I was just thinking, "Wow, this has gone by really fast", when I hear on the intercom: "Is there a medical personnel on board? We have an emergency in row 32.". "Uh-oh,", I'm thinking. Evidently, an elderly woman was having some problems breathing. I was amazed that about 6 people were at her side within a few minutes. They got her stabilized, but we ended up needing to have an emergency landing in Ottawa, Canada (only 30 minutes from our destination of Detroit!). I was a little bummed out, because I knew I would be missing my connection, but happy that they take care of people like this. If it had been my mom or dad, that would have been exactly what I would have wanted them to do.

I did miss my connection, but they were super helpful at the airport with getting me on another flight... what they didn't tell me at the time was that they had HELD my connecting flight because so many other people from my flight were on that one. Que sera, sera, I got on another flight to Columbus, so everything was okay... or so I thought... until we sat on the plane for 2 hours waiting for "push-back" equipment to come and push our plane out of the gate. AHH! I was pretty frustrated, especially since I didn't have a cell phone to call my family... luckily, I met some very nice people that let me use their phones. I eventually made it to Columbus by 7:30pm (I was originally supposed to be in Dayton at 2:30pm). We scrapped the plans of our traditional Chinese dinner and midnight mass, and opted for take-out and opening a few gifts instead.

Despite the slight change in plans, there is no place I'd rather be. I'll update my blog later with more adventures from this trip, but just wanted everyone to know that I'm safe and sound, and re-charging the batteries here at home with my family.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours! :) xx

Merry Christmas!

Okay, so I'm sitting here in the office, with about 3 other people here... it's a ghost town! I am SO wishing I would have come home over the weekend, but, alas, I've used all of my vacation time on all of these fun trips, so I'm just using what Nike has given us. (very nice - as a "Christmas present", Nike gave us 2 days off, and asks us to take one - the office is completely closed from the 25th until January 5th).

I am SO looking forward to coming home to be with family and friends! If I don't get to talk to each of you in person over the holidays, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a New Year full of health and happiness!! I'll be at my parents' house, so if you want to get a hold of me, call me there (and if you don't have the number, send me an e-mail... I think Mom and Dad might not like their phone number in cyber space). :) xoxo

Tree Lighting in Gouda

Remember how I was saying that Europe is really beautiful at Christmas? Well, tonight it was really, REALLY beautiful!! My friends Leslie and Kristin and I trained it on out to Gouda (about an hour away) for the tree-lighting ceremony there. It was a really fun time, full of singing (same tunes as we know, just in Dutch!), gluwine, and frozen toes. The most beautiful thing was that all the families around the main square put real candles in their front windows, so the whole place is illuminated by candlelight. I know, I know, the alarm bells are going off in all of our safety-conscious American minds. But, maybe, just maybe, the Europeans have something figured out. There was just something so traditional about the whole thing that I just loved it (okay, and, yes, the whole time I was thinking, "Is anyone watching those candles??? What if one falls down? AHHH!) In the weigh building (where they weigh cheese to be sold at the market), they had a ton of candles in all of the windows. It was absolutely breath-taking:


The Weigh Building - which, unfortunately in my picture, appears to be on fire! This was not the case, just beautiful! :)


The tree was finally lit after about 2 hours of standing in the cold... you can kind of see the candles in the windows behind it.

This has been one of my very favorite "dutch" experiences so far... while there are definitely a lot of things that are a major pain in the @$$ here, there is plenty to like and to learn from. I'm definitely ready for Christmas after tonight! :)

Good times, good friends

Wow! What a lucky girl I am to have made such nice friends here! What an even luckier girl I am that they are all amazing cooks! :) My Italian friend (and co-worker), Alex, had a little holiday party at his flat on Monday night. He made such an amazing dinner - seafood risotto, meat-filled canneloni, and, my favorite, Tiramisu. It was a really lovely evening, shared with really lovely people. Merry Christmas! :)

Yes, more food pictures - seafood risotto - yum!

Leslie and Eric, our newest additions from Portland :)

Fabio and Marty

Alex cooking up a storm!

Alex and I with the tiramisu - yes, I wanted to eat it ALL!! :)

Vienna

I spent this past weekend in Vienna, Austria. The city was absolutely amazing. :)

First, let me share a little observation... I've noticed that the smoke alarm goes off kind of a lot while I'm at the airport... which is kind of weird. While I was waiting for my flight to Vienna, the smoke alarm went off again... I finally figured out why. I went to the bathroom pretty soon after the smoke alarm went off, and it smelled terribly of smoke. I found a cigarette in the toilet. Lovely. The funny thing is that there are smoke detectors above every single stall, to prevent just this. Hello?? Anyways, so now I know why the smoke detectors are always going off. A lot of Europe still smokes, although they are trying to ban it slowly. There are still smoking rooms in some airports (Vienna included). I can't even imagine going into one of those places. I hate cigarette smoke to start with, but the smoke in those rooms is so thick that you can hardly see through them! Yuck! Anyways...

My flight was delayed two hours, so I didn't get in until after midnight. Usually, in new cities, I really enjoy trying to figure out the public transportation, however, at this hour, I felt like it might be a good idea to just spring for a taxi. I arrived at my hotel, the Johann Strauss Hotel (how cute!), and was really happy with the location and the accomodations. I've been SO lucky with hotels since I moved here (okay, except Sevilla - sorry, Michelle!).

I woke up around 9 the next morning, and went out to see the sights! The first thing I saw was the family crypt of the Hapsburg family, the royal family of Austria... for generations, they've all been buried in this underground crypt. Freaky, but kind of cool at the same time. :) The way that the caskets were decorated was amazing!


Example of one of the really elaborate tombs


Probably the most visited of the tombs - the big one was King Franz Josef's, and the one on the far side is his famous wife "Sisi"'s tomb

After the tomb visit, I spent a few hours touring the family home, Hofburg Palace. No pictures were allowed, but this place was amazing. I've been reading a lot of books from the time that this palace was in use, so it was super interesting to see the books come to life in the queen's old rooms and other places that have been mentioned in my books. :)

The outside of the palace

The highlight of my trip was the opera house. This place is one of the most famous music halls in the world. Unfortunately, it was heavily bombed during WWII, and only 25% of what is there now is original, but it is still impressive. I took a formal tour, and also went back later that evening to see a performance. I've never been to an opera, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. The cool thing was that while the opera was sung in its original language (Italian), there were translation boxes in front of every seat, so I knew what was going on the whole time. I saw Don Carlos, and ended up loving every minute of the 3 hour+ performance! :) It was amazing! :) I was pretty lucky in my seat companion - I sat next to an older woman who just happens to be an opera expert... she goes to the opera about 100 times per year. When she found out that this was my first time, she was shocked. She told me I had picked a really good night to come - this had been one of the very best performances she had ever seen. Well, lucky me! :)

The outside of the opera house

One of the orignal rooms of the opera house

Vienna, and I should really say ALL of Europe, is absolutely gorgeous at Christmas-time. The picture below doesn't really do it justice, but there are beautiful Christmas lights hanging everywhere! It really is getting me into the Christmas spirit. :)

Christmas lights at night

Before the opera on Saturday night, I toured the Belvedere Palace, which was a prince's palace in Vienna (man, people sure had money those days!). Anyways, it's been converted to an art museum, so it was a really cool setting to get to see some amazing art. There were some pieces by the French sculptor, Rodin (the guy that did "the Thinker"), which I really enjoyed.

Outside the Belvedere Palace

I got back pretty late from the opera, so I just crashed. Sunday morning, I got up around 9 again (oh, how my internal clock has changed since I moved here - no more 6 am weekends!), and hit the town. I started with the Kunsthistorische Musuem, which has all of the Hapsburgs' art in it... the art was impressive, but I enjoyed just the actual building even more. Here are some pics:

The entryway... it had a hole that looks up to an interior dome, kind of like the Parthenon in Rome... very beautiful!

I was kind of a bum after that and just walked around... I ran into the famous Lippizaner stallions. These horses have been bred for centuries, and each has a family tree that goes way back... they were absolutely beautiful!

As I got to the stables, they were leading the horses out (for what, I don't know) so I got to see them up close and personal! :)

After the horses, I thought it was time to try the famous Viennese sacretorte... I have no idea what that means, but it's basically chocolate cake... dry chocolate cake. My momma knows that this girl only likes MOIST chocolate cake, so I will not be recommending sacretorte to my friends. I managed to eat the whole thing (hey, it was still chocolate). :)

Hot chocolate, a good book, and chocolate cake - pure heaven for this girl! :)

Last stop for me was St. Stephen's Cathedral. This church had almost survived WWII when a spark set the original wood roof on fire. The citizens of the country all donated money to fix the roof, and so now it is mostly restored. It's gothic style, which I've seen a lot already, so these pictures probably are starting to look pretty similar... :)

Exterior of St. Stephens

Interior... I switched to B&W by accident, but I liked the effect! :)

So, all in all a great trip. The highlight was definitely the opera, but I did enjoy myself. Travelling alone is not quite as daunting as it once was, although the company of others is always nice. :)

A Nice Reminder

So, a lot of you know that I used to do the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program when I was in Portland. I mentored a little girl named Kayla for 3 years, starting when she was 8. Over the years, we did a lot of really fun things, and got to know each other pretty well. I helped her read, she helped me have fun. It was a good balance. :)

This week has been a pretty rough one, so I was so happy to get a nice hand-written letter in the mail from Kayla. Here are a few of the sentences that absolutely brought me to tears:

- "I really miss you living here. Now that you are gone it is kinda more mellow."

- "Weather here is horrible sometimes. It's like you're a rainbow that makes a day better after it rains. So that means when you were here it was awesome and now that you're not it isn't that great."

- "Have you tried any foods that you think are good? Have you tried any foods that you think are gross?" (if only she knew...)

The whole thing was very cute and very sweet, and it made me feel really good to know that maybe, just maybe I was able to touch the life of a young one. Definitely reminds me how much I left behind and everything that I have to come back to.

Kayla and I at a BBBS event a few years ago

A weekend of Celebrations - Christmas Markets in Germany and a Baby Shower for Fareeda!

Remember how last week I was talking about what great friends I have in Portland? Well, this weekend is about the amazing people that I've met here in Amsterdam. Once again, I feel the need to comment that I am a lucky, lucky girl. I would be no one without the love and support of my friends. So, thanks! :)

This weekend started with Bond... James Bond. I realize that I'm a bit behind the times, but so was my friend Kristin, and so we had a date on Friday night and went to see the movie, followed by dinner at a (semi-touristy, but okay) Italian restuarant. Although we hardly ever have a chance to hang out these days, I enjoy spending time with Kristin. She's such a positive, optimistic friend, and, as she's a designer, and I'm an accountant, we're just different enough to always have something to talk about. :)

Saturday, I had made plans with my friends Dana and Kevin Tastet to drive to Cologne, Germany to tour the cathedral and to walk around the Christmas market there. Dana and Kevin were friends of mine in Portland, and Dana also works for Nike. They moved here about two months ago for a new assignment for Dana. They live just around the corner from me, which has come in handy for both of us for borrowing things (US measuring cups? spices? You'd be amazed at the things you can - and can't - find here in Holland). We left my place at about 8:30 in the morning, and arrived in Cologne around noon. Dana and I were starving by the time we got there (Dana has a good excuse - she's pregant... me, not so much, I'm just always hungry!). We ate at a really cute German restaurant, which turned out to be listed in Rick Steve's guidebook, which we hadn't even checked. I think I'm turning into Rick!! ;) We enjoyed some very delicous food (and even more delicious German beer!), before walking through the market. We did our best in translating... what Dana thought was half a bratworst ended up being half a chicken, but... it was still good. :)


Dana and I at our lunch stop - note the tiny little beer glasses...


Dana and Kevin with one of the several Christmas trees in Cologne


Kevin and I with our first glasses of ghluwein... a sort of hot mulled wine that they serve at Christmas time here - VERY strong!

After wandering around the market and having a few glasses of mulled wine, we made our way to the famous Cologne Cathedral. Now, if you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I went there in May, and was so bummed to not get to tour the cathedral because mass was being said each of the three separate times that I went to try! They say a lot of mass there, I guess! :) Anyways, Kevin had arranged for a private tour of the cathedral, which was pretty good, even though we kept losing our tour guide because she was only about five feet tall! :) After the tour, Dana took a Starbucks break, while Kevin and I climbed all 502 stairs to the top. Now, last post I was talking about how sick I had been, and that pretty much continued all week, so I haven't had a workout in now almost two weeks. I thought I was going to have a heart attack!! We did make it, however, and were rewarded for our work by seeing the beautiful Christmas Market below.


The inside of one of the church spires - it's made like a doily with cut-outs... very cool to see close up.

View of the Christmas market below with the tree in the center

After the climb down (and getting my legs to stop shaking!), we continued wandering around the market. I didn't really buy anything - I was thinking it was going to be all German-made wooden things, but it ended up being a lot of international goods, which I didn't really feel were "authentic". But, the experience was what I was really going for, and that was AMAZING! :) We took off around 8, and, after a minor mishap finding the car, made it back to Amsterdam by about 10:30 pm. Trust me, I slept well that night! :)

View of the market with the Cathedral in the background

Random Craft and Food Stalls at the Market

So, this morning, my friend Karyn arranged a baby shower brunch for our friend Fareeda. Fareeda had her little one, Alexander, nearly three months early. At the time, he was only about two pounds, and his lungs weren't fully developed. Now, he's up to four pounds, and, while he's still at the hospital, he's eating from a bottle and doing much better. We hadn't seen Fareeda since she had had him, so it was a real treat to see her smiling face. Even under extreme stress and uncertainty, Fareeda has one of the most positive and upbeat attitudes of anyone I know. She's certainly an inspiration for me. :)

Fareeda opening one of her many gifts

Side story: for the shower, we all made something to contribute to the feast. I decided to make my mom's yummy egg and sausage casserole (actually, I think it was originally my Aunt Jane's... regardless, it's delicious!). One small problem - they don't sell ground sausage here (let alone BOB EVANS sausage, which is what I really wanted!). So, I looked up on-line how to MAKE my own sausage. And, oh yes, it can be done! Now, finding the right spices to season the ground pork was a bit of a challenge, but, in the end, I had ground sausage! :) Second issue - I had asked Mette, the hostess, if I could just bake the casserole at her place to make sure it was warm for the shower. Now, my mother always bakes it in our large U.S. oven in a 9 x 13 pan. Heck, we could probably fit FOUR 9 x 13 pans in that oven. Well, in Europe, the ovens are pretty tiny... like, EXTREMELY tiny. Luckily, I had thought of this beforehand, and brought not only my huge 9 x 13 pan, but also two 8 x 8 pans. Guess which one just barely fit? Well, in the end, it was all yummy, just took twice as long, but here's to my mama's family recipes! :)

Countdown to Ohio... 16 days!!! Yippy!!