Dinosaurs, Wild Boars, and Stuffed Dogs: The Components of Any Good Family Trip to Vienna

The past couple of weeks have been hectic as we prepare to return to the US.  Suitcases and rucksacks need to be packed, our money needs to magically turn from Euros to USDs across the Atlantic, our little apartment needs to be cleaned, etc.  We'll be accomplishing most of these tasks within the next couple of days, but let's talk about some adventures we've had, shall we?

Earlier this month, we met our cousins in Vienna for a day of dinosaur exhibits, Vietnamese food, laughter, and complaining about the Viennese weather.  (Does the precipitation ever stop?)  It happened to be International Museum Day and Mother's Day too. 

My cousin Haakon is a dinosaur-enthusiast.  When we visited Budapest, he showed us his favorite dinosaur book, and laughed at me when I guessed "Stegosaurus" for every picture he pointed at.  This time, his arsenal included a backpack filled with mini-dinosaurs, a dinosaur T-shirt, and a wild distrust of my dinosaur knowledge.  Basically, he was well-prepared.

So off we went to the Naturhistorische Museum Wien (the Vienna Natural History Museum).  But first, some tourists posing, full-on photo-shoot style!

Interesting things abound in every direction, yes? :)

       
Once we arrived at the museum, we decided to opt out of seeing the featured Body exhibit, figuring that it might be too scary for the children.  Instead, we proceeded to the normal exhibits, the first of which was this little, not-creepy-at-all dog. 

Did we make a good choice?  Natalie didn't seem scared; maybe the doggie was just sitting really still.

While she was very brave, I was less so.  Exhibit A: The Wild Boar

My father is a bit obsessed with wild boars/feral pigs for some reason, and he was overjoyed when Ben sent him this article about wild boars in Berlin.  Of course, I had to see what all the fuss was about.  I didn't like it very much.

Exhibit B: The Whale

  
Weird Fact: I'm terrified of whales.  My weird phobias could be a blog post in itself, but suffice it to say, my expression of discontent is real.

 Here's Ben being brave

 

and excited.  The museum itself is beautiful, as you can see in this picture.

Next, patriotism and two surprises:  

Even the baby gorilla had to use its Mom to protect itself. 

Finally, the Dinosaur Hall!

 
Out of nowhere, this dinosaur roared and swung his tail!  Haakon was a little scared of his dino-pal, but Mom protected him. 

Besides feeding Natalie to the disembodied dino skull, we also touched a dinosaur bone and dino-poo.  What more could you want in a dino exhibit?

We finished up the museum by checking out the Meteorite Hall, which had an impressive selection of meteorites of all sizes and compositions.  Ben, being a space-enthusiast, loved it, and he could have been content roaming amidst the display cases all afternoon, however, we needed food.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the delicious Vietnamese food that we had at Saigon.  Check out the online menu for the number of dishes you could try - how do they stock their kitchen!?  I never had Vietnamese food before that week, and I somehow ended up having it twice.  Trending? 
      
It truly has been so nice having family a train ride away and being able to meet up several times since we came to Austria.  It's something that I'm going to miss.  Dear cousins, thank you for a wonderful day in Vienna, and we hope to see you soon in the States!  

A Thanksgiving in Budapest

This Thanksgiving differed from all the rest.  

Thanksgiving isn't one day, but five. Yes, five.  Five days off from school, be it high school or college or graduate school.  

The schedule?

Wednesday is for traveling and relaxing.

Thursday is for dinner at my mom's house with food food food and relaxing because of the food food food.  The past few years, Thursday has been for an additional dinner of food food food at Ben's grandma's or mom's house.  And sweatpants.

Friday is for my brother to pester me to go Black Friday shopping with him, and me occasionally relenting.  Friday is also for my mom to say, "Isn't it time to put up the Christmas tree?" and for my brother and I to spend a good portion of the afternoon rearranging the living room to make room for said tree, and for carrying cardboard boxes filled with tree parts up our narrow basement stairs.  And turkey sandwiches.  

Saturday is for a get-together with my oldest and dearest friends.  We usually pick for our Secret Santa, eat cookies, pose for mini-photoshoots, and talk A LOT.

Sunday is for packing, driving, and preparing for the next week of school.

But, as I said, this Thanksgiving different from all of the rest.

How?

I could go on and on about how it was my first Thanksgiving spent without my immediate family, in a country that doesn't celebrate the holiday (obviously), without having a reunion with friends, etc.

It was, however, our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and my first Thanksgiving traveling!  And, we are so fortunate to have family close by.  A six hour train ride and this Thanksgiving was spent with my cousin and her family in Budapest, Hungary.  

Some Budapest highlights:

At the Christmas Market, we shared a Kürtőskalács.  It's a traditional pastry from Transylvania, which used to be part of Hungary.  It was warm, cinnamon-coated goodness, and plenty for all of us to share.   

Street performers entertained us.  The white bird, the gold guy, the xylophone player... What can I even say?  After the xylophone player finished playing a little Mozart (we can't escape him), my little cousin yelled to the crowd, "Give him mon-ey! Give him mon-ey!"  I loved it.  And, some people listened.  Also, I love the two girls in these photos.  The one looked at the gold guy so thoughtfully and the other in the white hat couldn't take the noise.  She may have affected how much money people gave.

Budapest at night is beautiful.  We had a delicious dinner at Vár A Speiz in the Castle District.  Now, I can confidently say that what Americans call goulash is not goulash.  Forever, I thought I hated it, but now I know better. And the paprika sauce? So indescribably good.  And, I even tried the grey stuff from this song.   

Before dinner, we walked to Fishermen's Bastion to see the city lit-up.  Next to us rose Mathias Church and across the Danube stood imposing Parliament. 
 

  

The next day, we did the Hop On-Hop Off bus tour of Budapest, opting not to do the exclusive, private boat tour they also offered. :) It was terribly grey outside during all three days, so my photos didn't turn out well.  Like, the glorious Parliament building:

A bit more impressive at night.

The highlight was hopping off to go to the Bazilica Cafe and Restaurant for some good margherita pizza and good conversation. After, we visited St. Stephen's Basilica.  

 

 That led us to a flea market with some interesting wares.   

But, my favorite part of the long Thanksgiving weekend may have been playing with the kids, and watching Ben play with the kids.  When Ben played Pushing (an anti-bullying game) and Blue's Clues (complete with the handy, dandy notebook), my heart may have grown a little bit larger.  

They cooked us a full Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night.  The ingredients for the meal aren't the easiest to come by in Hungary, but somehow they made it happen.  I didn't get any photos because I was too busy feasting, but trust that it was delicious.

Although we are far from New York, we aren't far from home after all.

Family Visit and The Sound of Music

Recently, we had some visitors.  My aunt from New York and my cousin who is currently living in Hungary spent a few days in Salzburg.

On the first night, we visited the Augustiner Bräu.  The Augustinian Monks began brewing beer in Salzburg in 1621, after resettling from Bavaria.  A monastery continues to hold majority ownership of the brewery, and of course, they brew their beers according to the Purity Law of 1516.  As I'm not a fan of beer, I had a Coke made with real sugar instead, and let me tell you, it was so good.  Simple pleasures, man.

For food, different vendors had stands along the outside perimeter of the beer hall.  As is tradition, silverware was optional.  We had delicious pork and chicken, and several types of salads: carrot salad, Greek salad, and a Bologna/Extrawurst and onion salad.  If you come to Austria, be prepared to increase your vinegar consumption.  Most salads like these are full of it, and you either love the flavor or hate it. 

My cousin in all of her feasting glory.

Beautiful picture of mother and daughter - it was so nice to see familiar faces!

I love the person holding all of the mugs over Ben's shoulder.

   
The next day, we decided to do the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour.  We were given terribly uncomfortable ear buds, a map, and we were off!  As a teacher, I appreciated the differentiation available on the bus; if you wanted to hear about the historical sites around town, tune to Station 2 for audio in English, and if you want to learn about the connection of the sites to The Sound of Music, tune to Station 10.  Several other languages were offered, making it very tourist-friendly.  We were all able to get what we wanted out of the audio, and it was interesting to compare what the audio said in German to what was said in English, suggesting that what German-speakers found important was sightly different than English-speakers. 

As this is Salzburg, many of our stops included Sound of Music shooting locations.  And now for an embarrassing story: when we found out that we were coming to Salzburg, people's reactions were either:
1. Oh, moving to Germany is really exciting!  Enjoy the beer and bratwurst!
2. Where?
3. Oh my God, Sound of Music, Maria Van Trapp, xoxoxoxo!

Although many, many people love The Sound of Music, Ben and I are just not fans.  I didn't grow up on it, like many people.  My musical of choice was, and has always been, The Music Man.  If we went to the real River City, Iowa, I would be a picture-snapping freak (is the movie based on a real place, by the way?), dancing in the library, looking into the billiard hall and hiding things in the corn crib, and singing about women with questionable morals while a little girl looks on and laughs (if you don't understand, please see the movie).  I understand the hysteria, but mine is directed elsewhere.

Anyway, we tried watching the movie last spring, and after the "I Have Confidence in Me" number, Ben gave up.  We have since watched half of the movie (thank you, intermission), and admittedly, it was exciting to see places around town in the movie.  Here are some of those places.

This is Leopoldskron, the fictional residence of the Captain and his children.  The tour guide said it was closed to the public, but that link there shows that you can visit!  You can hold your wedding there or come for New Year's Eve.  I can speculate at the cost of renting the place.  On a thriftier note, seeing the palace from across the lake takes about a five minute bus ride from our apartment. 

And the famous glass gazebo, now located at Hellbrunn.  (It was moved from its original location at Leopoldskron.)  This is a few miles from our apartment too, and we can't wait to see the trick fountains in the spring. 

        
So, you know in the movie when Liesl jumps from bench to bench while singing about being sixteen going on seventeen?  Oh course you do!  Well, some tourist decided that he or she was nimble enough to jump as if he or she was sixteen, and broke his or her hip.  They have since locked up the gazebo, but Ben tried anyway.

Thank you, dear family, for visiting us in Salzburg!  Seeing family so far away from home was indeed magical!