Community in Gaming

We've been living in Gaming, Austria for three months now and people often still ask how the transition is going. Honestly, it's been so easy and peaceful and I think it's due in large part to the University & LCI community here. There are four other families with children, single and married people, the four Friars/brother and four sisters, and the college students. It'll be hard seeing this group of students leave at the end of the semester - although I imagine the next group will be just as amazing. The families, professors, and staff who make up the "permanent" community are incredible. All have been extremely welcoming and generous, encouraging and inspiring, especially when it comes to living their faith. Love of God and your neighbor is truly lived out here. To give you a taste (no pun intended ;) of our community living - here is what our dinner plans were for the week.

Sunday

Our neighbors had us over for dinner. He is a professor, originally from Columbia.  His wife is from Hungary. They have two children, ages 4 & 7, who speak 4 languages.  They knew we were getting back from Greece that day and because the grocery stores aren't open on Sundays and we'd be tired - they wanted to cook for us.

Monday
Soup at home

Tuesday
Date night dinner at  "China Restaurant Wok Asia."  They have sushi and Chinese food - new owners started in July - and it's good!!  Brian made chicken for our awesome babysitter at home with the kids.

Wednesday
Dinner with the LCI professors and students at two of the professors' apartment at the Kartause.  The LCI students take turns cooking a meal once per week for their classmates and members of our community.  As we enjoyed soup, a potato and meat dish, and chocolate-covered fruit we got to really talk more to the LCI students who are here learning English - so they can better share the Catholic faith.  I sat next to a sweet girl from Ukraine and Brian sat next to a student from Kazakhstan - who is a lawyer and economist.  The kids enjoyed being passed all around per usual.

Thursday
Pasta and veggies at home.  Also, Brian Francis' half-birthday and first time tasting food!  Having a toddler to help with the feedings is amazing!!

Friday
We took three students to Chez Pierre's - a fantastic pizza restaurant in Lunz am See (a town a few km away) run by a master pizza chef from France.  We love this restaurant - the decor, food, and owners are the best!!   It was one of the student's birthdays - and she's extra special because she was in Brian's youth group before going to Franciscan!  The other two girls made her chocolate cake from scratch, which we all enjoyed back at our home.  Ellie especially loved the very sugary frosting...right before bed - thanks, ladies :)

The owner got this highchair for Ellie's baby doll

Saturday

Frozen chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner...yes, we're American and have a toddler...BUT lunch was AMAZING!!  We went on a 2+ hour hike with one of the other families (husband is a professor and the family is from England, they have 5 kids), one of the priests, and the two RDs.  The weather was perfect - 60 and sunny (after a week of cold and rain!) - and the changing leaves were gorgeous.  We stopped about halfway at this tiny town and enjoyed our picnic lunches while some of the guys ordered beers.  Perfect day.  Saturday night one of the priest came over to watch the Michigan State game streaming on our computer....not saying which priest ;)

We are not sure where she learned these dance moves

Sunday
Tomorrow night we've been invited over to another neighbor's townhouse (he is a professor from the U.S.) for a Mexican dinner made for all of us by several students!

So yeah, the community here is amazing -- as are all of the meals, except for maybe the frozen "Spar Budget" chicken nuggets - jk, those were good too :)

It's All Greek to Me

Hi!  While the students were on their 10 day break, Brian took a few days off from work and we went to Greece.  Here is our trip via photo-collages:

Day 1

Wednesday morning we drove to Vienna and then flew 2 hours to Athens.  We took the metro everywhere - which was really clean and efficient, and pretty cool to see the ruins preserved at some of the metro stops (pic lower left).  After checking into our hotel in Omonia Square, we went to The Plaka - one of the oldest neighborhoods in Athens.   

We saw a lot of beautiful ancient churches in The Plaka - and had dinner - and took the metro home from Syntagma Square.  Ellie loved the fountain that changed colors in front of the Hellenic Parliament building.

Day 2

Thankfully everyone slept great in our tight sleeping quarters and woke up smiling - especially this guy!

We metroed to Piraeus - the harbor and took a boat - the flying dolphin to Aegina Island about 40 minutes away on this high-speed boat.  

It was 80 and sunny all day - perfect beach day!  

Ellie went swimming while we ate at a restaurant on the water.

Aegina is on the Saronic Gulf, which almost always has perfect weather because it's sheltered from the wind.  Our day there was definitely perfect!

We visited Coloni, named for the column that remains from the ancient temple of Apollo.

We also visited several churches on the island.

We were back in Athens at 5pm and walked around Ancient Agora (Athens's commercial and civic center).  Here we had our first look at the monuments on the Acropolis.  Ellie particularly liked the park...and didn't really seem to notice the Parthenon behind her :)

We stumbled upon a fantastic restaurant that night near Monastiraki Square overlooking the Ancient Agora.  Enjoyed wine, a meat platter, Greek salad, and roaming cats.  Lots and lots of cats....Ellie's favorite - not so much Brian's.

Day 3

Friday was warm - mid-70s and a bit overcast, which was perfect for being outside visiting all the monuments.  First up was the Theatre of Dionysus.  Brian and I then took turns going up the Acropolis as the other stayed behind with the kids.  No way our stroller was going to make it up to top!

On the way up we saw the very impressive Odeum of Herodes Atticus.

Here's the Parthenon!  

Also at the top: Propylia (the monumental 5th-century-B.C. entryway); Temple of Athena Nike; Erechtheion; Pandroseion; and the Greek flag flying high.

After mom and dad had some individual site-seeing time, it was family train time!  We took "Athens Happy Train," a 60-minute train ride to see all the popular sites.  We got to see Panathenaic Olympic Stadium and Hadrian's Arch.  Ellie got to sing the Wheels on the Bus.  

For lunch we had gyros and souvlaki -- actually we had this for almost every meal -- so delicious and surprisingly cheap at most places!  Then we visited the New Acropolis Museum.  There were a lot of impressive exhibits and artifacts, and you could see the Parthenon out the window and part of the archaeological excavation under the glass floor, but our favorite part was the Acropolis and monuments completely built out of LEGOs!

We then walked to Areopagus Hill, where St. Paul preached to the Athenians (Acts 17: 22 - 34).  Brian and I took turns climbing up to the summit, while the other entertained the kids.  It's so amazing to know that Paul was here -- that we were in the same place talked about the Bible -- where people who had been worshiping so many other gods, yet knew of "an Unknown God" - and when they heard Paul talk about Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead they became Christian believers.

After some more park time outside of Ancient Agora, we walked around in the Agora.  I loved this moment of Ellie running to Brian in the Stoa of Attalos (an ancient civic building from the 2nd-century-B.C.)

We visited the museum in the Stoa's ground floor, which has finds from 5,000 years of Athenian history, including a child's potty seat that Ellie loved...know if only she would use the potty herself :)  We also saw the 11th-century church of Ayii Apostoli (Holy Apostles).  In the picture of Ellie above holding the flower, you can Areopagus Hill in the background.

Days 4 & 5 (flight home)

Here's a view of the front of our hotel.  By our last full day Ellie knew how to look at the map and tell "Buddy Francis" where we should go that day :)

We walked to the enormous National Archaeological Museum.  It is apparently one of the 10 most important museums in the world.  After Ellie got done pointing out all of the "naked people," she fell asleep in the double-stroller which gave Brian and me a chance to enjoy the museum.  My biggest surprise though, was how often we were stopped by the museum personnel admiring our stroller.  Apparently they do not sell double-strollers in Europe because people are constantly amazed by how we can have 2 kids in one stroller!

After lunch, of more delicious gyros, we went to the Byzantine and Christian Museum.

We then walked through the huge and beautiful National Garden back to Syntagma Square and metroed back to Monastiraki Square.

We walked down to the Cemetery of Kerameikos, where Pericles gave his famous funeral oration during the Peloponnesian War.  It is also the place where Ellie saw a turtle and built a "house" out of some of the ruins (not sure if she was supposed to have done that, but no one stopped her).

We then booked it back to the metro and went a few stops to find a Roman Catholic Church for Mass.  I didn't think we'd make it - but we did - and once I sat down in the pew during the homily (which was in Greek, of course) I looked up and saw my confirmation saint, St. Barbara staring down at me.  Thank you, St. Barbara!  After Mass, we met two English-speaking women.  One was originally from Washington DC and is married to a Greek man and now lives a few blocks from that church.  She was very nice and encouraged us to visit her our next trip back, she also gave us a recommendation for dinner.  It was our only meal where the restaurant wasn't catering to tourist, aka the menu wasn't in English!  But in the end we were able to successfully order meat and pita, so everything was perfect!  But that Greek language - defintiely not like English or German!  Ellie's favorite part of the evening was getting a Minnie Mouse balloon animal, which sadly could not come with us on the airplane ride the next morning.  But that's okay, the ride itself made up for it.  

We had a fabulous time in Greece!  I asked Ellie what her favorite part was and she said "the boat, the train, and the plane."  Someday maybe she'll look back and be glad she experienced a few other things!

Keeping Warm in Austria

Three and a half weeks ago, on a lovely day here in Gaming...

...our firewood arrived!

Incidentally, it was the same day Ellie fell off the balance beam at the park and chipped her tooth.  Brian took her to the dentist in Scheibbs the next day and all was okay -- thank goodness for baby teeth!

Our cooler fall weather arrived about two weeks ago and Brian lit our first fire.  The wood-burning stove is what will be heating our home all fall/winter long!  (We did get a smaller space heater for the baby's room because his hands feel ice cold at night.)  

The last couple of days it's been cooler and cloudy.  The clouds seem low to ground and cover the top of the foothills surrounding us.  We've heard the monks who built the Kartause (their monastery) picked this location specifically because it is tucked to the east of one the foothills so it blocks the sun for shorter/darker days for a greater penitential offering as they spent their days in prayer.

Here is Francis enjoying the fire today!



Today was our first day in a long time that we just stayed home ALL day except for morning Mass and individual prayer time for Brian and me at the Kartause.  Hence my really exciting blog post for the weekend :)  We've had the fire going all day; today it was a high of 57 and low of 43 - sunrise 7:12am and sunset 6:21pm.  Starting on Wednesday - through Sunday - they're predicting highs in the mid-40s and lows in the 30s with some snow...but unfortunately we'll be missing it as we head to Greece for those days!  Hopefully our upcoming trip will make for a more exciting post next time ;) 

Czech-ing out Česky Krumlov

Saturday we left Austria to visit the Czech Republic. We headed to one of "Bohemia's prettiest towns," Čzesky Krumlov - about 2.5 hours away.  It was the first time in 10 weeks that we were outside of a German-speaking country.  We're still not sure what language they speak; most of the people in the touristy town spoke English.

The kids are always incredibly easy to travel with in the morning - no crying from Francis, and Ellie is easily entertained by books and watching DinoLingo on the tablet. It's a beautiful drive through the countryside getting there. Our only minor difficulty was when we misread street closure signs on the interstate and drove at least 3 miles on a closed road - going slowly, on a totally abandoned road, with signs saying STOP but with no clear turn around...until we came to an exit with a huge cement barricade. I thought I was going to have a heart-attack as I imagined us trapped there forever...luckily Brian calmly put the car in reverse and backed down the ramp and then turned the car around and drove us back down the road (headed in the direction of oncoming traffic - but there wasn't any).  I put on our hazards lights - because we were the hazard apparently - and took pictures of the sign we should have followed. Brian got us to safety and we were back on our way. No one seemed to have ever noticed us - we will see if we get a ticket in the mail though. 

We were stopped at the border for a quick passport check - our first one since moving to Europe - and then drove about 30 minutes to Česky Krumlov. The small town is filled with Remaissance-era buildings and hasn't changed much since medieval times.  We parked right outside the moat surrounding the Château, the second largest castle in Bohemia. 

The weather was perfect - low 70s - so we spent the entire day outside. We ate outdoors at a small cafe - and paid in Kč (koruna - the Czech currency).

Then Brian carried the stroller up the cobblestone stairs to the castle. 

We saw one of the two brown bears outside the moat. 

We walked back down through the little town to the town square. 

Ellie took a nap in the stroller while Brian went to the torture museum (which he said brought back so many childhood memories ;) and I sat outside nursing Francis (which got a little exciting when a tour group from China came to take pictures near where I was sitting - thank goodness for nursing covers!)

We ended our day trip with ice cream and chocolate crepes and a wooden toy for Ellie. 

I'm writing this as Brian drives back (on non-closed roads).  The drives home are never quite as smooth with the kids. Currently Francis is crying and Brian is disciplining Ellie for beating the tablet with her new wooden toy. But we're holding onto hope, only an hour to go and we just found a McDonalds!