Mein ball ist auf dem Hoff!--Woche 5

We had so much fun last weekend.  We took the kids downtown to city hall.  Despite getting semi-lost (the GPS took us to Stadt Halle, which is a direct translation of city hall, but it is where you go to concerts.  It is not the official "city hall").  The official city hall has an outdoor ice skating rink.  It was a beautiful day and we spent some time skating in front of a beautiful building.  It would have been more romantic without the kids, but it was still a lot of fun.  Not only do they have a big rink in the front of the building, but they have trails of ice all around the front park and around the fountains.  It was neat.  Dan said that in the summer, they truck in tons of sand, and it becomes a beach. 

Danyon is feeling much better, this week, and is back to his usual self.  He enjoyed the day, even though he didn't get to skate.  There is only one more weekend to skate and the ice was already pretty slushy.  There are several food stands to buy anything from roasted chesnuts, to crepes, to kebabs, to burgers and potato wedges.  You can rent lockers and spend the entire day there.  Right across the street is "die Burg"--The national theater in Austria.  Three of Mozart's operas premiered here as well as Beethoveen's 1st Symphony.  (The building was mostly destroyed in bombing and fire during the war, but was obviously restored).

Die Burg

Yummy warm fries!

After a morning of skating, we were famished.  We wanted to explore downtown some more, but we needed lunch.  Dan has free parking at his office and there are several restaurants near by, so we decided to head toward his office.  The GPS got us into a little trouble on the way--again.  We ended up right in the middle of downtown, on a road that is only for taxis and emergency vehicles.  Luckily, our car is big enough and we had enough people in it that we looked like a taxi.  Thus, we were able to dodge all police officers until we were able to get off that street and turned around.  After that brush with the law, Dan was eager to get into his garage with the door shut.  We made it safely there and headed to a pizza place for lunch.  It was voted the best pizza in Vienna (six years ago).  Despite the long time since the award, it was still very yummy.  If you put enough fresh garlic on anything, it's good!  Since we were parked so close to a grocery store, we decided to pick up a few groceries before heading back into the downtown.  Half way through the shopping, Dan realized that he left his pass to get back into the garage in the car.  We were locked out.  He tried calling several of his colleagues, but none were answering their phones on a Saturday afternoon (can't blame them).  After trying all the people he could think of, and after banging on the door several times, with no answer, we decided to take public transport home.  Luckily, Dan is familiar with the transport near his office, so we didn't have any problems finding our way home.  Not having a car is not a big problem, but we had tickets to a talent show at the kids' school that night.  We were bringing lemon bars.  So, back to public transport for the hour long trip to the school.  We all made it there, and even the lemon bars (Dane was in charge of them) made it fairly intact.  The talent show was fun for the kids.  It ended after 9:00 and we had a long trip home.  It was a big day for the kids and Deagan fell asleep on the ride home.  With late night transport though, we made it home in 40 minutes.  That was a record.  The busses don't have to stop at all the stops if no one is there and no one is getting off.  The trolleys and subways have to stop at all stops.

 

We had to take public transport to church.  We had to leave early, but it was a beautiful morning.  We missed one subway, and ended up 10 minutes late for church.  Dan was able to finally get someone from work to meet him at the office to free his car--which we would have left until Monday, if we didn't need it Sunday afternoon.

 

We had a surprise this week.  I got a call from one of Dan's third cousins.  She and her family are living outside a village in Hungary.  We talked for about 10 minutes and she invited us over for dinner on Sunday.  We were happy to accept the invitation and thought Sunday dinner in Hungary sounded great!  We left right after church so that we could see the countryside as we drove.  We didn't know what to expect at the border.  We slowed down for a man with a flashlight and he waved us on.  Apparently, that was the border.  And it was the same returning to Austria.  We didn't even have to open our windows.  Hungary is beautiful.  The skyline of all the villages is made up of trees and church steeples.  It's cool.  Dan's cousins, Lisa and Laslo, have 5 children who are close to our kids ages.  They had so much fun together.  We had a wonderful evening and are planning to get together again.  We'll invite them to Vienna after we get our furniture.

Dane had his first experience asking for something from a real German speaking person.  He accidentally kicked his ball over the fence into the Beethoven House yard.  The door has no bell and it was not open.  The next day, we looked up how to ask for a ball back--"Mien ball ist auf dem Hoff", and Dane went over to get his ball.  He did a great job and the guy understood what he said!  Dan and I were a little put out as no one ever seems to understand what we try to say in German.  It is kind of surreal that Dane lost his ball in Beethoven's back yard.  It is fun having that next door.  I might regret it in summer when there are more tourists, but for now they are under control. 

 

I did hear some Beethoven music playing in the yard yesterday and it was nice to hear.  Some tourists were more interested in looking over the fence into our yard, to see what was next door than looking at the Beethoven house.  The kids had a nice visit with some Japanese tourists over the fence.  I guess that puts sunbathing in the nude by the pool out for summer.  Dan was hoping that I would at least go topless, like all the rest of the Europeans.  Well, now, there's really no chance--at least during visiting hours.  I told the kids to get some dirty clothes and some bandages for their arms and go sit out there, holding out their cans for change.  I can only imagine how many people we'll have banging on our door during our BBQs, as there two heurigen (local restaurants) on the other side of us.  People will mistake our yummy smells for restaurant food.  Maybe Dan should open shop.  We just have to get some good beef here.  He's already suggested that I should take pictures for people at the Beethoven house and then print them quick while they are exploring, frame them in a decopage frame made with Beethoven sheet music and have them ready when they leave--all for a meager 50Euro.  Maybe when I speak enough German, I'll have the courage to ask if I can do it.

 

We are finally permanent residents of Austria!--well, most of us.  We had appointments to go down to the office to pick up our residency cards.  Dan, Allynn, Deagan, and Danyon all got theirs!  Dane and Dyllan needed to have fingerprints taken and they will get theirs next week sometime.  It was an exciting day for the kids, as we pulled them out of school for the morning to go get our cards. 

 

We spent the rest of the week preparing for Dane's birthday.  The school does not have the same restrictions on homemade food as the schools in Indiana do and we can send in treats for birthdays.  I decided to make brownies for Dane's class, as I don't have cupcake tins yet.  Everything was a go, until Dane came home from school and said he needed a vanilla option too, because a kid in his class does not like chocolate.  I told Dane to take a sucker to school for that kid;  As it took me most of the day to make one pan of brownies--they were the layered kind with mint and chocolate frosting.  It was a daring move for me, as I have tried unsuccessfully to make these brownies about five times, all of which didn't turn out as expected.  I figured this time I had a tried and true recipe.  I used the BYU Mint Brownie recipe from the BYU magazine.  Maybe I have broken the curse.

The brownies were a big hit at Dane's school.  Except that because they don't sell powdered sugar in large amounts (they might have it at the Metro which is a warehouse store like Sams, but we haven't been over there yet), the filling and frosting were a bit gritty.  Dan thought that they were still pretty tasty.  Dane thought that the little crunches tasted like little peppermint candy bits crushed up in it. 

As I didn't have any cake pans, they don't sell frosting or cake mixes, and my 9 x 13 had brownies in it, I didn't make Dane a cake this year.  Instead, after Dan got home, we went out to dinner.  Dane has really wanted to travel to Greece.  There happens to be a Greek restaurant, Athene, 2 blocks away.  We walked up, and had a great time.  The food was excellent, the wait staff was incredible (especially for Viennese standards).  They didn't ignore the children.  They acknowledged them, gave them suckers, and played with Danyon.  They even held Danyon while I put on my jacket.  We came home and Dane got to open his presents.  He was thrilled with his new Lego.  He had all sorts of new candy to try, and he had no problem agreeing to share the new Wii U with his siblings.  Our old Wii is not compatible over here, but we're hopeful that the games will be.  It seemed like a weird birthday, not having traditional cake and ice cream, or friends or extended family around to celebrate with, but I think it turned out okay.  We're going in to downtown today and will stop at a Cafe Konditerei, where they sell all kinds of sweet confections, and Dane can pick out a cake.

Kids with their new favorite drink:  Almdudler