Advertisement
Published: March 2nd 2008
The first white morning!
Out the loungeroom window (that's our car in red...under white)I was about to start this blog with an apology that we haven't blogged all winter (I felt so neglectful) but then it dawned that pretty much no-one had actually commented (or noticed?) the lack of blogs. Or maybe you had noticed, but were still in the denial stage - in which case of course you wouldn't have complained about the lack of blogs because complaining would be acknowledging, which kind of goes against the whole point of a denial stage doesn't it? OK, probs not. Maybe you were just enjoying some blog-respite while getting some sun and watching the cricket...
Whatever the reason you haven't commented on the long blogless European winter we've chosen to ignore this and blog-on. And since summer is nearly over in Australia and the mercury is about to start heading south, we thought we get you in the mood by giving a recap of our first European winter. 😊
Brrr-brrr-brrr We were really excited about a genuinely cold winter (no more of this rubbish Sydney business of 17 and fine every day) and the season started off so promising. For most of December it hovered around or below 0 degrees. The first day
Nuremberg at Christmas
Steph in her 'pin-cushion' jacket that we had snow flurries (which we find fun to abbreviate to slurries) we just sat at the bedroom window and watched it, then took photos from every angle conceivable, then watched it from the loungeroom window, then took a video, then watched it from the bedroom window again. And if you think we sounded like a couple of kids in a toy store that day, you should have seen us the first (and only) day we woke with the city totally white. I've never seen Steph get ready so quickly so we could play in the snow before church!
About the coldest we were the whole winter was our visit to Nuremberg mid December (the bottle of water we'd left in the car froze solid). We went with our friends Beau and Kristi who are famous for being our weekly Survivor night buddies. Normally Anth, Steph and Kristi are in a couch alliance against Beau who tries to pause the show to 'discuss what just happened' too much. We had been intending for months to visit the Christmas markets in Hamburg, but at the last moment Steph jumped ship and formed a Nuremberg alliance with Beau and voted
Now, how do we get this home?
On the tram of course...a new experience! Hamburg off the itinery. But the Nuremberg Christmas markets (Christkindlesmarkt) are supposed to be the best in Europe, and it was really amazing (even if it did feel like there was the same 4 stands replicated 47 times).
Nuremberg's 'Dokumentationzentrum' is one of the most interesting museums we've been to in Europe. Nuremberg is famous for the role as a propaganda centre it played during the Nazi years, as well as the war crime trials afterwards, and this museum takes you through these events. While still horrific, you could start to see how Hitler brainwashed a whole country. The museum is built in one of the wings of this massive stadium that Hitler was building to hold his rallies, which after visiting Rome reminds me of the Colosseum (and given it's half finished, kind of looks like it too!)
Ho-ho-ho So onto Christmas, and it was a bit sad not spending it with fam for the first time, but it was also fun experiencing a different sort of Christmas. We can now understand why Europeans and Americans get so into Christmas - it temporarily distracts you from the fact it is freezing cold and dark at 4pm. So
Cheers!
Christmas lunch with Beau and Kristi (and Micah in utero) we threw ourselves into Christmas markets and decorations and for the first time permission was granted to get a real Christmas tree! Most of our friends had left town for the holidays, but since Kristi was 8 months pregnant her and Beau weren't going anywhere, and we were grateful to have good friends to spend it with. Despite being about minus 5 on Christmas day, no snow 😞 But we did have a turkey...and what a turkey! Having never cooked a turkey before, Steph had asked the local British store how big a turkey we would need for 4 people. 7kg they said. Boy did they see us coming. Or maybe they thought we said 44 people? Anyway, we managed to get the monster into the oven (we'll skip the unpleasantries associated with stuffing your first poultry) and the rest is history...really, really, really yum history!
We even had the traditional Christmas Day game of cricket out in the street to the bemusement/confusion of passers by. The game went as well as possible given that 1/2 the participants were female, 1/2 were American and 1/4 were pregnant, but the biggest challenge was getting to the pitch in the first
At the hockey...
Unfortunately Praha Slavia lost place. You see it was also the birthday of the Ukrainian that works in the gallery downstairs, and he was insistent that every time we went past we would have a shot (or 4) of Ukrainian vodka with him to celebrate. (And with New Year, and Ukrainian Christmas the following week it became quite problematic getting out of the building sober.)
Auld-Lang-Syne New Years was about different from our Sydney experiences as possible. Anthony (Hillier) and Liz (Aussies living in London) came to visit for NY. So we replaced sunglasses with scarfs, cricket with ice hockey and the beach with ski slopes and pretty much just had a really great time. With most of our friends back in Prague we decided to host a NYE party. Actually, we were nominated based on the fact we had a view of the bridge and fireworks. Our experience with NYE parties is that that generally turn out a little anti-climactic but this one surprisingly turned out to be very fun. Some of you may have seen an incriminating video of Anth dancing to Mika circulating the net, but those who laugh are just jealous they can't perform moves like the shopping trolley
View from the Chairlift
An extremely beautiful Czech mountain sunset and lawnmower with such passion.
Of course the coolest thing about winter in Europe is being able to ski A LOT...and not having to drive 6 hours and take out a bank loan to do it. Over the course of winter we took just about every opportunity we could. There is a ski field about 2 hours north of Prague which made it possible to sometimes even drive up just for the afternoon. Most of the ski fields aren't very big - about 4 or 5 lifts each, but at least the snow is real. It does really suck though if 3 of the 4 lifts are on wind hold though as it makes the lines at the one that is operating very long. And the whole time you have to stay on guard to make sure you keep moving in line. Seriously, I never met people with such disrespect for line etiquette as the Czechs. If there is a spare 6 inches between your skis and the persons in front, they'll find a way to jam their skis in. But in the process we amuse ourselves with reading the 'Czechlish' signs. Our favourite is about 'give ski pass
to the left pocket' ... (!?)
Warm-Blah-Blah February is not meant to be 14 degrees in Prague!!!! So Prague under snow remained a 'strictly one time only event' although secretly we still hope for a sudden cold snap in March. Damn you global warming - maybe if Johnny H. had signed Kyoto earlier this winter would have turned out differently!
So we did the only thing that could be reasonably expected of us and headed to the Alps for a week skiing. Even more exciting than that was the fact that my brother Glen had arrived for a few weeks, and it was so good to see him - and not just for the entertainment he provided on his new snowboard. After numerous falls his ribs were quite sore, so the challenge become trying to make him laugh as much as possible (and face it Glen - you're an easy laugh!). On top of this Steph had a very unfortunate run in with a box (ski jump), resulting in a bruised shoulder bone and very big thigh bruise (photos upon request), so she was out of action for a couple of days. So incredibly I managed
View from the top
Steph and the Alps to be the last man standing on the ski slopes for a change - torn ligaments and a generally lack of ability preventing that in the past.
As a result we took a day off and spent it in the small Austrian town of Kitzbuhl; eating strudel, browsing shops, looking for public toilets and getting parking fines. It was our second parking ticket in Europe, and not any easier to understand than the one we got in Danish. We spend a few hours on the day we left trying to pay it. Apparently it said we needed to go to that town’s police station. Fortunately there were signs all over town directly to the police station. Unfortunately, none of them led anywhere near the police station. We did find it eventually, to be told that we need to pay this fine at the Local Police Station and clearly this was the State Police Station. It remains outstanding...
So skiing is over for a another year, Steph's back at work and
Glen's going home 😞 It's not all sad though because Spring is on it's way and that means
Whacking Day is almost here again!
Blog ya later...happy winter Australia 😊
Anth
Advertisement
Tot: 0.343s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 21; qc: 72; dbt: 0.0831s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Scott McDonnell
non-member comment
The long wet summer and our discontent
I'm glad to see a partial return to form. I am saddened that your travels "down under" didn't rate a mention in the blogosphere. As always I am impressed at the manner by which you manage your spousal relations in the blog - whacking day should indeed be an event highly anticipated by all.