Finding 56 Muhldorf

So I have an address of some relatives in Austria - Margit Haager and her husband Gunther. Margit is actually my father's first cousin and she and her husband speak very little English. But they're family right, and we were right there in Salzburg, just an hour or so from their town, so how could we not visit?

Rewind...We left Venice the night before, headed to Salzburg with no place to stay and no orientation of the city ahead of us. We made friends with an Australian couple as we got off the train and planned to walk with them to their hotel, hoping there would be some extra rooms available. It was late and as were walking the 4 of us were stopped by a young man (Benjamin) on a bike coming our way. He asked if we needed help finding a place to stay and pointed out the direction of a few different hotels and hostels, then asked if we had heard of couchsurfing. Steve and I replied that we had and so he offered us a place to stay with him and his roommates. We took him up on the offer and followed him across town to his apartment. Which was a total mess. But what can you expect from 4 guys living together I guess. (Still, it may have been worse than 182 even at it's worst.) So we hung out with Benny and his 3 roommates and friends, Basti, Arni, and Reiny. We shared some beers and went out to a bar and then found our way back and had an interesting night's sleep on a mattress on the floor. The next morning Steve, Benny and Basti jammed on the guitar and piano. It was a fun time and it was great meeting them. We finally decided to get our act together and go to the train station.

Back on track...I asked the information desk how we could get to the Haager's address I had written on a tiny notecard. They gave us a printout with 2 transfers - we had to be on the train in 20 minutes so we decided we would just surprise them since it wasn't very much time to call ahead. We had only planned to visit with the Haager's for a few hours, then head to Munich. Plans changed once we arrived. However, arriving at the Haager's proved to be a challenge in itself. We made our connection to the small, one car train to the tiny Muhldorf station. The Austrian landscape was gorgeous, as were the tiny houses along the way. Arriving at the station, we were immediately lost. We asked a man walking his dog how we could get to the Haager address, and he pointed us in a direction along the river. Following his instructions, we continued along the river and asked a woman the same question. She, in turn, directed us back across the river and up over the hill... back where we started! Keep in mind that we're each carrying 40 lbs. of luggage stuffed into backpacks! We trekked up the path on the hill to a main road. Seemed promising! Following the addresses, we tracked down 56 Muhldorf with "HAAGER" written on the mailbox. One ring of the bell and we finally made it.

It was quite a surprise for Gunther and Margit (even for us), as we showed up very unexpectedly. We introduced ourselves to the two of them and Gunther''s mother, who spoke no English (except the words "New York"and "Mexico," we don't know why). They were surprised by how fast paced our trip was so far... Rome in a day, Florence and Venice in 3, and all the plans we had coming up. They highly recommended we slow down and enjoy the places we visited. After a little conversation with the couple, we learned that they were right. They live in the beautiful countryside of Austria with open spaces, green fields and ginormous mountains everywhere. Margit and Gunther took us out for scrumptious meals, showed us the countryside, and were ever so hospitable - a far cry from the hostel in Rome! Gunther works as an mechanical engineer and flies planes as a hobby. Margit is "retired" but does some work with Gunther, and also paints in her spare time. For Carly to meet family that live such interesting lives in a foreign country was very inspiring. They showed us how to slow down and enjoy the beauty of the place they lived, as well as the classical music that's native to their country. We also enjoyed fine food, beer, wine and whiskey.

Margit and Gunther were more than willing to drive us around Austria to see everything that we wanted. Carly wanted to see the area where her grandmother was born and grew up, so we drove to Passau and Haibach and even tried to recreate the photograph that has hung on her grandmother's wall since she was a child until today. (Unfortunately the viewing tower had closed minutes before we arrived). The next day we visted Linz, where Margit's mother lived for a long while. We even got to see the church where Margit and Gunther were married. Every city was beautiful with its own charm and delicious dishes.

The last night in town we had the chance to meet their oldest daughter, Michaela. An incredibly talented graphic designer (she had designed the menu for the restaurant where we were eating!), she spoke English very well and we talked and talked all night. Strange how you can feel so comfortable with people who are "family"even though they are strangers. It was a nice evening and we made plans to visit their other daughter, Martina, the next day in Vienna.

Vienna was really cool - very much a "big city"feel, but of course lots of history. Martina gave us a quick city tour by car and then by foot and then we had the biggest plate of wiener schnitzel that you can imagine. With ketchup, with jam, it was good no matter what. The next day we wandered around on our own, saw some strange modern art in a nearby museum and got some fruit in a large outdoor market before meeting Martina up for some cake at the famous dessert shop, Demel. We had Sachre Torte, a famous Viennese chocolate cake and then walked around and had 2 cones each of ice cream! We said our goodbyes to Martina that afternoon and then got on a train to Munich...

(Sorry if this one was confusing - Steve and I switched off writing!)

P.S. Happy (Belated) 30th Wedding Anniversary to the Habenschuss'!
AND...Happy Wedding Day to AK and Beth - we can't wait to hear every detail and see all the pictures!

We're a little backed up now on posting, but we are in Paris now and head to Barcelona tomorrow so soon enough we'll be back!

How much gelato is too much gelato?

From Rome we headed to Florence. Other than walking around, all we really did in Florence was eat. Which is not necessarily a bad thing by any means. A delicious sandwich made at the local grocery by pointing at the bread, meat and cheese that looked good was a perfect lunch. After some gelato at Grom, a local favorite chain that makes all organic gelato (!) and more walking around, we hopped on a train to Empoli to find our couchsurfing friend, Samuella. Empoli is about a 1/2 hour by train from Florence, and her apartment was a short walk from the station. She lives with her boyfriend, but he was out of town in Rome. She was incredibly kind and hospitable. We had our own guest room with a big bed and lots to look at on the walls. I think that we would be very good friends with Samuella and Marcello if we lived in Empoli. Samuella was very interested in fair trade, local, organic foods and environmental concerns and we learned that Marcello was an artist - both a painter and photographer, and loved music (his brother is even in a Kiss cover band!). She cooked us dinner and then showed us around Empoli and her favorite gelato spot in town. She bought us each a cone and we walked around and asked her a million questions. Then we headed back to her apartment for the best sleep either of us have had yet. When we woke up, she gave us bread and her mother's plum marmelade and some tea. It was a really great experience to get to know her.

We headed back to Florence and walked around with our huge packs on our back (not very enjoyable) and then headed to Venice in the afternoon. We stayed in a hotel on the mainland (Venice is an island only accessible by train, bus or boat) in a city called Marghera. It was a quiet neighborhood with lots of friendly people volunteering to help us when we stood dumbfounded looking at the map. We ran into a middle-aged man in orange pants who pointed us in the right direction when we got out of the train station. Needless to say, we got completely lost and about a 1/2 hour later, we ran into orange pants again and all had a laugh. We made it to our hotel though, and it was the nicest place we have stayed at yet (other than Samuella's). We went into Venice that night and just walked around - it really is a beautiful city - especially when you just get lost on the streets and bridges at night and get away from the touristy centers (which there are a lot of). Of course we stopped for gelato almost every time we saw it, too (twice a day for every day in Italy!). The hotel's card said that we should take the number 6 bus in the day and 2N at night. So we jumped on the busy 2 bus to head home at the end of the evening. We kept riding and riding and nothing seemed familiar. We asked a nice italian woman where we were on our map of the area and she pointed to the opposite end of town. We discussed if we should get off now or hope that the bus circles around when 2 italian men looked at the map and we pointed out where we needed to be. They told us we needed to get off right away and there we were miles and miles from our hotel at a bus stop for a bus that we didn't have a ticket to ride. We walked for a long time looking for a taxi station and finally gave up and stopped in a hotel to ask. She called us a taxi and 15 minutes and about 15 euro later, we were back. Phew.

The next day we took the train into Venice for the day. We at least knew how to get to and from the station to our hotel. More walking, and no church sightseeing since our clothing was not appropriate - (you must cover your knees and shoulders in all churches). We found a little wine place that sold us a liter of rose wine for 4 euro that the man put in a used sprite zero bottle. Hey, you take what you can get for 4 euro. We had dinner at the worst place in Italy. A cute little cafe with outdoor seating and cheap prices, we were quick to snag the last outdoor table. Toast with tomatoes and cheap cheese was the bruschetta and Steve's spaghetti and steak looked like a school lunch. Well not every decision can be a good one. Gelato to follow up that meal was a good one though. Always a good one.

There is a film festival going on in Venice right now, and they were showing a film outside in one of their larger squares, so after trying to make sure it had english subtitles by asking the italian information booth, we bought some tickets. It was a German film with an English title (Soul Kitchen) and Italian subtitles. Well it was a learning experience - it's funny how much you can follow a film just through images. But it would be nice to see it again with some English involved.

A HUGE outdoor market in Marghera started our day today - clothes, produce, junk - lots to look at, nothing worth buying. And now to Salzburg to (hopefully) visit my relatives, although I haven't heard from them recently, so who knows. Nothing booked and their home is an hour from the train station, so hopefully we get lucky. But we are staying with Kilian in Munich! (He was a foreign exchange student at my high school senior year).

Ciao!

Rome in a Day

Well we did it. From St. Peters to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, to the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum, to Piazza Navona and Campo di Fiori, then the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps...and our feet hurt! It was a fascinating day learning all about the ancient Romans. We ate well at restaurants recommended by our taxi driver and Rick Steves. We had gelato at Old Bridge (thanks, Tara! - delicious!) and then had some more at Giolatti (I had Riso, Caroline - delicious!). We took a hundred million photos of religious images of which we had no understanding (but they were pretty) and listened to Rick Steves audio guides on our ipod as we saw the most amazing history before us. It has made Carly suddenly interested in watching the movie Gladiator. On to Florence for our first couchsurfing experience with Samuela - she said she would cook for us tonight, too!

Goodbye Santorini

We're here at Hotel Babis on our last evening in Santorini, gearing up for our flight to Rome tomorrow afternoon. The island has been incredible! It is very easy to get around and the ATV has really made it that much more amazing. There are small, cramped towns, beachy areas, and very tall mountains. The churches are so tiny!! Every once in awhile you'll see a larger one, but it makes you wonder how they fit everyone into those little buildings. The local transit is made up of luxurious busses that are more like tour busses than the COTA. There are stray cats and dogs everywhere! They come up to you while you're eating looking for scraps and make us miss Fiona & Jezebel - Collin you better be loving them for us.

You are not supposed to throw your toilet paper in the toilets in public bathrooms - they have little signs above the toilet paper roll with an X through a picture depicting a strip of TP falling into a toilet. They provide a little trash can for your used tissue.

A little watermelon (their local fruit) is served for dessert after almost every meal, on the house. Speaking of meals, if you ever plan on ordering the "fresh fish" - they aren't kidding. If it were any fresher it literally would be swimming considering that they didn't remove the eyes, the scales, or the tails, not to mention the bones. Let's just say that Carly is glad they served bread before the meal and followed it up with some watermelon.

We went to a few museums including the Archealogical museum of Santorini which showed ancient pottery and wall paintings from an ancient civilization that some believe to be the lost city of Atlantis. The paintings were beautiful - so many colors and images, it was incredible to think they did it so long ago. We also made it to the wine museum - a little (ok a lot) cheesy, but very informative none the less. Life size fake people moved and "made wine" in the basement of an old winery as we listened to the history of wine in Santorini on our handheld headsets. Vin Santo is made by the grapes drying on rooftops for 2 weeks and then made into wine - Jeni's sundae anyone?

Today we took a boat tour to the volcano. It dropped us off at the National Park which you had to pay to enter. It was a LONG HOT walk around lots of black rocks to see...more black rocks. Carly gave up about 1/3 of the way, but Steve continued to see what may have made the trip worthwhile - the smoking pits of the volcano.

Santorini is full of ups and downs - there are SO MANY stairs! We have definitely got a work out for our first week but we are looking forward to the fast paced cities and countries where we may (or may not) be able to say more than 3 words in the native language. Until Rome...

We have survived almost being knocked off the cliff by donkeys and the top speed driving by the locals as we crossed the island on an ATV. The color blue that you see on the doors and roofs of all the buildings is impossible to find anywhere - no souvenir shop does it justice. Greek salads, yoghurt with honey, and grilled feta and the Greeks LOVE their sweets. I'm pretty sure I was meant to live here.

Santorini!!

We're here in Santorini! It's a small but incredibly beautiful island. Our first day we took a bus to the top of the island, to a town called Oia. We waited to watch the sunset and searched for a spot among all the other tourists to catch a good view. We started climbing down the hundreds of stairs to find a less crowded spot and met Toula, a Greek Austrailian who lives in London. She suggested a wonderful restaurant at the bottom of the town right along the water and we all had a liter of wine together and talked while we watched the sunset disappear into the water. What a perfect way to start off the trip. Today we visited a black sand beach at Perivolos and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We had calamari and pita at a nearby restaurant and just relaxed. Everytime Carly sits down for too long, jet lag catches up and she's asleep - at the table at the restaurant and every bus ride. English is common, but we are trying our best to use as many Greek terms as we can learn. The owner of our hotel, Babis, is incredibly nice and very accomodating. A few more days here then off to Rome!

P.S. This computer isn't letting us post photos right now, but we have a ton so hopefully we can post soon.

Here we go...

Well it's midnight before the big departure. During the final stages of packing, the ghettobird (or helicopter with a very bright search light for those that don't live in Columbus) started a search around our house for a burglar. Cops were crawling the yards and alleys surrounding us as the searchlight shined in our windows. And people keep telling us to be careful in Europe. Hope we didn't forget anything...talk to you again from Greece :)

Carly & Steve