Our stuff finally arrived! It didn't seem to take that long for us since Brian came a month ahead of time and we spent that time on the East Coast, so it was great that we only had about one month to wait instead of two. Our stuff all came crammed into a short shipping container & it was really only about 2/3 full. We had a bit of damage, but not too much. My bike had some issues - bent off brake handle and bent front wheel, but all of the others made it ok. Some pictures were damaged and 2 items from the list didn't make it, but we're filling out the claim forms now. Our other casualty was our TV... Now I am ready to use my sewing machine, but am too scared to plug it in yet! Even with big transformers, the electricity rules are more like very loose guidelines.
On the weekend, we went for a drive in Austria. The mountains were pretty - made us more homesick for Colorado! And wishing for 4WD!
On the way home, we stopped at a shopping area (SCS - Shopping Center Sud) that was MILES long. They had a real "Toys-R-Us" too.
Then we plugged in "MEX" into our trusty Tom-Tom and it found us a REAL Mexican Restaurant in Vienna. Even the locals meeting there were speaking Spanish and there was a real Mexican band with live music! And, they had Margaritas!! Wonderful find! Restaurante Jalisco
On Sunday, we met the Pottingas (family of Hayden's friend Eiden) at the Crowne Plaza downtown for a lovely brunch. The food was beautiful and delicious and it was really great to get to know them better. The kids all got to play together as well! We've made plans to go to the kids jumping area together sometime soon.
Sunday evening, we went to a Halloween party in our little neighborhood. The Earls - who have a son, Alex, that is 9 & in Boy Scouts, and two daughters - hosted a wonderful party! It had all kinds of Halloween food and Halloween games! It was great to get to know them better and meet their friends. We hope to be able to see them more and invite them over for dinner/drinks. We even baked witch finger cookies to take - they turned out ok, but the sugar I used looked like powdered sugar, but wasn't sweet, so we added some extra regular sugar. For our first baking attempt, they were good. See more pics of the party on the last half of this album.
Last night, we went to the cemetery. Sounds strange, but was actually very interesting and awe-inspiring. Wikipedia has some good information on All Saints Day and a better picture than we could get. It really was beautiful. There were candles lit on every grave and the whole area was lit and packed with people. Another really good page (and you'll like her site in general - I have her book) is the one from "A Foreigner's Guide to Slovakia." I really liked the tradition and it was nice to see that everyone remembered their ancestors. It also felt nice to be a part of something like this and send out good memories of Gram since I missed her services. Check out the pictures on Wiki and the other Blog - it really was nice and serene...our picture just doesn't do it justice.
Suzanne, I'm really curious about the non-sweet powdered sugar. Did you ever figure out what was up with that? Sometimes European "icing" or caster sugar doesn't have cornstarch in it (used in the US to prevent caking), but it should still be sweet!
ReplyDeleteHi Heidi!
ReplyDeleteSo, the one that I used first was a shaker jar of "Wiener Zucker, Staubzucker Muhle" and had a picture of it being sprinkled onto a muffin & fruit dessert. It also says "Leicht zu vermahlen" on it. Those translate to: "icing sugar mill" and "easy to grind." But, it just wasn't sweet. Not sure why.
Anyway - Kala, our neighbor showed me the bag she buys here & I tasted it at her house. It says "Praskovy cukor" which means "Powdered Sugar." I bought some of it when I found it at our store here in Slovakia. The grinding mill I found in Austria.
Next I'm looking for Alum for a project for Owen....hahahaha. I sure hope I can find it! Maybe I'll have to go to the Korean store.