Long Weekend in Venice = Long Post About Venice

We were lucky enough to have a long weekend during mum’s stay so we took the opportunity to re-visit Venice, since it’s only 4 hours away.  I was there for a day on Contiki when I was young and free just over 10 years ago!  Maciek was also there for a day but unfortunately didn’t see any of it as he was too hungover and stayed in bed!  That was when his name was Barry most of the time.  Mum’s never been, so she was super excited. 

We decided on the scenic route, which is more km’s but same amount of time to get there, as we had been told many Germans and Austrians travel to Italy for holidays and we didn’t want to risk getting caught in traffic on the autobahns.  The scenery was absolutely stunning.  Unfortunately we could only get pics through the window but the road took us up 1500 metres to cross the border into Italy, and it’s amazing the contrast in the state of the roads and appearance of the housing from one side of a short tunnel where we were in Austria, to the other side entering Italy.  Even the sun disappeared!  That was weird!  Poor mum was stuck in the back in between the kids with the seatbelt buckle digging into her butt for five hours!  This includes the stopping time for lunch.  Our vision was to pullover at a beautiful lake and have our picnic, but instead it was a quick park rest stop with no benches or toilets but plenty of smelly bins and a stench of dog poo some of which Noah trod in and subsequently crawled along the car seats spreading it around!  The joys of travelling with children!  Luckily, or ordinarily as any mum would, I had wet wipes, which did the trick!  Gross I know.  The trouble with rest stops along motorways in Europe is that they are like a box of chocolates, as in you never know what you’re going to get!  A few hundred metres further on was a lovely one with a café and nice toilets and picnic benches scattered amongst the trees.  Oh well.

We had a good run, no traffic, and it wasn’t even difficult finding the campsite.  We booked through a British company so were greeted by our host on arrival and shown to our mobile home, which was lovely but unfortunately smelt like sick!  I had visions of a group of stags there the week before us, out on the drink only to arrive home in the early hours of the morning and not make it to the loo on time!  As it turned out it was the fridge.  It was on it’s way out and apparently that’s what they smell like?  So we received a brand new one and the problem was quickly rectified.  The campsite was lovely.  A short walk to the beach (nice but we are certainly lucky in Australia for our beaches, as they are definitely not the reason you visit Europe!), a lovely pool area and two playgrounds, a restaurant, supermarket, and a delicious ice-cream stand.

On Friday we drove the short distance to the port to catch the ferry over to the island of Venice.  (I always thought ‘Venice’ was just that island, but it includes all the other islands and the mainland aswell.)  It takes about 40 minutes.  We got the Marco Polo one.  After buying the tickets I stupidly asked ‘so where’s the ferry?’ and mum replied ‘It’s Marco Polo, you’ve got to find it first!’ (onya mum!)

We were greeted by hoardes of tourists and buildings that should have fallen down by now and it’s hard to describe but it has such a unique beauty that you need to see it for yourself to really appreciate what it is.  The first thing mum did straight off the boat was to buy a big floppy hat and in her white linen pants and apricot chiffon blouse and big sunnies she looked just like a rich American aristocrat!  I thought she looked lovely, but she reckons she’s never wearing that hat again.  We wandered, and came to St Marks square.  Unbeknownst to us the president was visiting that day so there was a huge area cordoned off in the square with security guards and men marching in traditional military uniforms and whatnot, which made it a slow process getting through (follow that tour guide holding the purple umbrella!) and not so pleasant for the Americans trying to squeeze through the crowds shouting ‘Excuse me, Excuse me’ as if everyone in Italy needed to know about it, with their huge suitcases going against traffic, aiming for the ferries back to the mainland.  Difficult to get a good view and pics of St Marks Basilica and the tower but we managed to get it later once the President had returned to his mansion!  Once we managed to shuffle through it we hit the tiny winding alleyways, canals, and connecting ornate bridges which is what Venice is made of. 

We were lucky with the weather; bit of rain; bit of sun; not too cold and not too hot.  Just right!  In one of the sunny spells we took a ride on a gondola (the boat kind not the ones that take you up the mountain!) starting at the Rialto Bridge.  Absolute rip off at 80Euro for 40 minutes but it was one of those things you have to do when you’re in Venice and that’s exactly why it is such a rip off.  But it was pleasant and gave us a break from walking.  Just before it finished the Gondolero Guy tempted us with a further 10 minute tour covering this and that for an extra 40euro!  Whhaaatt!!  But mum was sucked in and it was her treat anyway!  (you’re SUCH a tourist mum!) It was a lovely ride and we got to see the ACTUAL president speed past us with his entourage in his speed boat on the Grand Canal, causing great waves that nearly had us submerged!  And did you know, the gondola is meant to tip to the right?  When you get in the Gondolero Guy tells everyone where to sit to keep the balance.  But as we took off the boat was tipped so far to the right that Maciek and I went to get up and swap seats only to be told off!  It’s meant to be like that, apparently.

We walked all day.  The kids were brilliant.  Noah slept in the backpack for about two hours in the afternoon and Milly was happy as long as she got what she wanted!  A mask, three ice-creams, a broach, a handbag and God knows what else, I can’t remember, but anything to keep the peace!  We found a lovely place to eat lunch just off the Grand Canal (and thanks to Nana we discovered how to keep the peace at meal times when eating out, separate the little toe-rags!  Why didn’t we think of that?)  It was a nice change listening to the poetry of the Italian language after being surrounded by German for so long, and also nice to hear lots of English and Australian too! (Yeah-Nah!)
By the time we were ready for a coffee in the afternoon we were near the square again and although we’d been told to expect to pay 5euro for a coffee we still sat down on an outside table of a café smack in the middle of the square with a full view of St Marks Basilica, looked at the menu, noticed that a cappuccino was 8.20 and a piece of cake was 10.50, pulled a face, took a quick photo, and got up and walked away!  The waiter in his white tux didn’t appear too happy!

The island began with the first buildings in the 600’s and was declared a city in 1100 and something.  The population of the islands (there are a few apart from the main famous one that everyone knows about) is about 55,000 but no-one lives on the main island itself (or not many anyway according to the Gondolero Guy) they commute to it for work.  Not sure though as I saw lots of old toothless ladies leaning out of little windows taking in the sights and sounds of the day and many lines of clothing stretching from one window to another drying in the sun!  Can’t remember anymore facts and figures because I have a mummy-mush brain.  You’ll have to google it!  BTW - Gondolero-guy….I made that up.

We didn’t even cover an 8th of the island.  It’s a mass of tiny alleyways and canalways and so easy to get lost.  I would love to stay for a few days and really explore all of it.  We ended up staying until the 6pm ferry (the last one is 7pm) back to the mainland.  At first we couldn’t find it.  Turned out mum was right about the Marco Polo thing!  We eventually found a sailorish looking guy to ask and he told us which jetty it left from.  So back to the campsite for a big rest, kiddlies in bed, and a few glasses of wine! 

The next day we spent resting, swimming, eating ice-cream and Maciek got some kite flying practice in on the beach ready for kite surfing when we go back to Perth.  On our travel home we stopped in Vicenza where we caught up with Amber and her husband and little boy.  I haven’t seen Amber since I was five and she is a cousin of the once-twice-three times removed kind!  Not sure which!  It was such a lovely relaxing afternoon at a restaurant with a fantastic views over the city of Vicenza, and what was meant to be a one hour quick stop for coffee turned into 3 hours with wine and delicious steak (haven’t had that for a while, we’re starting to look like turkey schnitzels!).  It was lovely to finally meet up with Amber after so long, in Italy of all places!  We were almost tempted to ditch work the next day and stay overnight.  But no.  We took the normal route home and hit traffic at the Austrian border.  Not a bad place to be stuck in traffic though, amazing views!  But traffic is traffic and we were all tired and by this time mum had a permanent dent in her butt cheek!  Finally made it home for 10pm (we left the campsite at 10am).  Awesome weekend.  Very tired by the end.

Bit of dig at mum time.  We arrived at the campsite on the Thursday afternoon.  On Saturday afternoon we paid for internet access for two hours, so we’d had no internet for two days.  We logged on and found we had 6 new emails.  Mum logged on and – wait for it – one hundred and seventy five new emails!!  Whhaaatttt!!!  I’m telling you this mum because I love you and I care about you – YOU ARE ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK!  There is a new group called FBA (FaceBookers Anonymous).  I’ve signed you up.  You’ll probably get an email about it……

Nanna Lol

The pricey view of Salzburg

I feel the need for speed!

Maverick and Goose

Cathedral in Salzburg

Nanna Lol was due to arrive at Munich airport the day before Maciek’s birthday.  In preparation to collect my friend Peta alone in a few weeks time from the same place, I (or rather Maciek), decided I should have a practice at the 2 hour drive on the autobahn.  The right lane (slow) is for happily chugging along at 100kmh until there comes a time to overtake a truck or a caravan which is very often, and then you fling yourself into the middle lane flying along at about 130kmh until it’s safe to merge back into the ‘slow’ lane, but sometimes in the ‘medium fast’ lane there is a need to overtake again for example when one of the caravans or trucks originally in the slow lane decide they are feeling like a bit of an adrenalin rush and then it’s into the fast lane at above 150kmh until it is safe to merge back into the slow lane once more.  Needless to say my stress level was very close to a 10 and if I didn’t have Maciek sitting  next to me as my strategic advisor guiding me in and out of the traffic I definitely would have pulled over into a rest stop and thumbed my way to the airport.  So I didn’t drive on the way back.  And I will also be taking the train next week to meet my friend.  No more autobahn’s for me I’m afraid!  But we did eventually get there in one piece even though I was beginning to have black outs from panic attacks.  The first thing I did was to enquire at the train counter about train fares and timetables, and thinking I was being polite I asked the spotty sleepy looking attendant, in German, if he could speak English, rather than just assuming he could, which I’ve been told is very annoying.  (“Can you imagine,” said one of Maciek’s colleagues, “if I visited Australia and just walked up to a counter and started asking questions in German?”  Quite true. )  He responded by saying “of course I can, I must, I work in an airport, what a stupid question” which really threw me off and I forgot to ask half of what I intended after that.  Maciek was so angry when I told him that he went back to the counter and gave him what for!  Embarrassing.  Put a bit of a downer on the excitement of meeting mum.
But it was all forgotten when little old mum tottered out from the arrival gates with her designer suitcases complete with pretty pink ribbons so she could recognize them at baggage return (really mum?  But yours is the only red and gold tartan one amongst all the black ones?!) and Amelia ran up to her shouting ‘Nanna!’ followed by Noah who initially ran up but then decided he didn’t know who he was running up to!  Shame.  He gave mum the evils in the back of the car all the way home, sussing her out.  It has been a year, and he wasn’t even two when we left home, so that was understandable, but it didn’t take him long to turn on his cheeky!
Mum left the sunshine behind in England which she had brought with her from Australia especially for my cousins wedding (aww, it’s cute how old people think isn’t it?!) because she arrived here to temperatures of 10, and rain, and storms.  But that hasn’t stopped us dragging her out every afternoon after work for sightseeing after she’s spent the morning in doing my washing and ironing and surfing the net!  Her first Friday I left the kids at home with her, poor mum, but may aswell throw her in at the deep end!  It was Maciek’s birthday and we walked around town in the afternoon, the markets were on, and I overindulged with my cake purchases (for a special occasion so I can be excused) and after we went out for dinner, where we had a massive schnitzel and a couple of drinks and I crawled under the table looking for a Polly Pocket shoe that Milly had dropped, and then got trapped in by the waiter.  It all looked a bit suspicious!  Nevermind.  How come “Mr Bean’ scenarios always seem to happen when mum’s around?  Strange.
Saturday……..In the afternoon we walked around Schwarzsee, the lake with a fantastic view of the Wilder Kaiser (this is the mountain that Maciek has a love affair with with!), and participated in some of the ‘fitness’ activities, like throwing pine cones through the holes in the board, which actually we were all very good at!
Last year Maciek got a new Peugeot and a trip around Europe for his birthday.  This year he got to fly in a private plane with my friends’ father in law (he has a pilots’ licence) over the mountains.  Lucky bugger!  It was like Top Gun, only much slower, and not as cool! 
For the afternoon we were going to take a drive up the Alpine Road around the Grossglockner which is the highest mountain in Austria, but the clouds were coming in and we decided there wouldn’t be a view so no point.  Instead we decided to visit Salzburg.  It’s an hour drive from us and on the way the kids (including Nana Lol!) had a snooze in the back and we arrived in the city to blue skies and 28 degrees!  It was nice for us to see it in the sun without the crowds we experienced the last time for the Christmas Markets, and mum loved it until she decided to buy some souvineers for friends and family at home and was horrified at the checkout when it came to 90euro!!  So with her hands full of fridge magnets and keyrings we wandered around and enjoyed a horse and carriage ride, a visit into the cathedral that holds 10,000 people, some nice views of the fortress which began it’s life in the 600’s and took 500 years to build, and discovered a restaurant up on the hill where they must have been charging for the views and definitely not the food!  Next time we’ll go there just for a drink we think.  It was a long enjoyable day and after ice-creams and coffees in the afternoon we left for home at about 6.30pm.
(Apologies for all the cheeky digs mum, but we know you love it!)
Next post: Nanna Lol continued and the long weekend in Venice….

Socks n Sandals only in Europe

Amelia's Jean Claude Van Damme impression

One of these things is not like the others?

Good old See Saws!

Mel and mum in Salzburg



Views from the plane

Five sleeps till Papacino and Nanny Rita!

Happy Birthday at the Grander Schupf

 

And it went so quick that finally we were on our way to meet our first set of visiting family members from the airport!  If you’re wondering who Papacino is, it’s my Dad!  A nickname given to him before Amelia was born as he thought Grandad sounded too old so we suggested Papa as we already had a Poppy and as he loves going out to café’s for a morning cuppa, so Papacino came about and just stuck!  And Nanny Rita is self explanatory!  It’s a bit of a mouthful though.  Papacino and Nanny Rita.  Thought about combining them in the way that Tom and Katie became TomKat and Brad and Angelina became Brangelina!  So how does PapaNana sound?  Or The Cino’s?  Sorry Dad, had to give a bit of an explanation as it’s a unique name for a GRANDAD! But we couldn’t imagine you with any other!

Gorge Walk

Anyway, he hired a great little car, and all my anxiety about him driving on the wrong side of the road was a waste of energy as he handled it no problems, apart from very nearly sideswiping a few posts and kerbs which had me ducking for cover.  Amelia and Noah were so excited to see them and equally excited to open the bag of presents, which included a fairy that flies on her own (magic!) and lego for Noah.  They were straight to bed though as it was late and school next morning.



The weather was great while they were here, a couple of quite hot days, around 30 degrees, when they took the opportunity to visit the swimming pools and get some exercise and bath in the sun.  Rita’s birthday on the Thursday we took a drive into Kitzbuhel, a ritzy expensive little town with oldy worldy charm and really expensive clothes and jewellery but averagely priced coffee and cake in which we indulged.  In my excitement of having a long awaited day off without the kiddlies I overdid things by ordering a Café Grande, not expecting it to be served in a soup bowl.  Three coffees in one left me with a bit of a frown clutching my stomach and keeping a close eye on the whereabouts of the public loos.  That evening for Rita’s birthday we had dinner at the Grander Schupf restaurant, the very same in which we spent our Christmas, the one with the slide going down to the toilets.  I realized at this visit as my German has since improved that the slide is for people with ski boots on, as it’s pretty impossible to walk down steps, and you are supposed to sit sideways with your legs dangling over the side.  Now it all makes sense.  Bit disappointed in Nanny Rita though as she can speak German but still rode down 4 or 5 times, feet first, squealing all the way!  But her German did help us out with ordering, and she actually got something that wasn’t even on the menu and we were all delighted with our dishes even though it was an hour long wait! 



Rescuing Noah from the Kneipp

Knocked out after Dads Thai Red Curry

Poured of rain on Saturday but Sunday we took a drive out with the intention of spending a relaxing day at the second largest lake in the south of Germany, Chiemsee.  In the madness of preparing for the trip with two children Maciek had said to anyone listening, “It should be good, it’s got the longest beach on the second largest lake in the south of Germany.” which I later relayed as (remember I was running about like a chook without a head and hadn’t given this statement a second of thought) “It’ll be great there, it’s got the longest beach in the world!” and only as the words escaped did I realize that once again I’d been tricked by my husband into saying something completely stupid and nonsensical!  So back to the point, we had forgotten our Sat Nav, so failed to find ‘the longest beach in the world’ and failed to impress The Cino’s who were happy to sit in the warmth of a café with a cup of tea (just kidding!) and an apple strudel!  So after an hour of driving we changed our plans and headed to Innsbruck (“Is it old?” asks Dad, “No, course not, we’re smack in the middle of Europe and everything is completely brand new and modern.”  I replied.  He he he!) only to realize that Munich was half the distance so headed there instead.  And after all the kerfuffle of the morning, we ended up having a brilliant day in Munich, the sun came out, we wandered around, HAD A COFFEE, and finished the day in the Hofbrauhaus for steins of beer and giant pretzels and more apfel strudel and big brass band oompa loompa music!



Munich

We forced them on a short hike, you have to do it while you’re here!  Not far, just down that path and round a bit and up that hill!  Very nice, along the river and into a gorge.  And after we ended up in the village hotel/restaurant/café for a … can you guess?....Wrong!....Icecream!  Again a long wait but worth it in the end as it was absolutely massive.  Imagine the biggest icecream fruit sundae you’ve ever had and triple it!  After that we walked to the Kneipp.  A kneipp is a shallow pool fed by water running down from the mountain, and words can’t describe how cold it is!  The purpose is to go hiking and then do a lap in the Kniepp, great for circulation and general health.  Apparently.  It really hurts!  Half way round if feels like your legs are going to drop off!  Well impressed though with PapaNana, then both did it without complaints, even twice if I remember correctly! 



Munich

It was all over too quickly.  Only five days.  But lovely to see family again, it’s been a whole year since we left home!  And it was a lucky escape too with their suitcase packed for Phuket and one jacket just incase, as the next day it snowed!  Great bit fat fluffy flakes of it!  From 30 degrees to snow in the space of four days!  So Dad and Rita, you’re almost home sweet home now.  Hope you had a fantastic trip and we look forward to seeing  you again sometime soon! xxxx

Hooray Shoulders!!




K

Random April

A Day in Zell am See

So not many punters on the Pippi Longstocking hairdo then?  Except for one (not sure who it was?) who was close – but the answer is – Pencils!  I stuck pencils into the lackies closest to her head.  So there you go.

Since then, Maciek started back at work as a tiler.  As expected it knocked us about a bit and we were all tired and grumpy for a couple of weeks, earlier starts, longer days, kids missing him as they’d gotten used to him being around in the afternoon.  For about two weeks Noah was asking him if he had any chocolates when he came home from work, as he used to nick them from the hotel!  But now we are used to it again and I just have to make the effort to take the kids out in the afternoons or they go crazy in the apartment and drive me insane!  But the good side is Maciek is now occupied and is not ‘ghosting’ me around the house wondering what to do with himself! (er did the washing, cleaning the bathroom or vacuuming cross your mind???)  No, he did make pretty good house husband while it lasted, but wouldn’t be making a career of it!

Pool party in April

Cake in style

We were invited to our first Austrian kids party, one of Noah’s little friends from the Kinderkrippe, turning 2.   Bit of a stress as we were running late as usual but then found the road we needed closed due to roadworks with no diversion on offer, no Sat Nav, and it was then I realized I had also forgotten my phone!  The alternative route would have taken us maybe 45 minutes at least but Maciek was having none of it and so took a punt on a tiny turn off heading up into the mountain and God knows how but we got there but we did, and arrived at a grand place with a huge front terrace with stunning views and an infinity pool, only not really an ‘infinity’ pool as it doesn’t continue into the ocean but you know the ones I mean?!  Very different from our typical Australian kids parties.  It started at 3pm with a slideshow of pics on the big screen (creatively put together to music) of the little boy from baby till now, followed by the presentation of the cake and blowing out candles and Happy Birthday songs, then cake and coffee consumption, and after that mingling while the kids played and swam.  The barbeque was then cranked up and we ate great food around the table on the terrace drinking champagne with the sun setting.  More like a civilized dinner party than a kids party.  No pass the parcel, no musical statues, no lolly bags, no buffet table full of sweets and fairy bread, no gathering around the birthday kid for the ceremonious opening of presents (these were just ripped open randomly as people arrived).  So a very different experience for us but we had a fantastic afternoon, not sure how we keep ending up at houses that look like they belong on ‘cribs’!  And we weren’t even the last to leave at 8pm. 

Just a couple of ‘Maciekisms’ to finish:

Zell am See

Maciek sat next to me on the couch, and offered me a plate with the last piece of cake on it.  He continued to stare at me while I took the slice and bit into it, and then he said “That was a rhetorical question.”

One evening once the kids had finally gone to bed I suggested we watch a movie.  We had recently gotten a hold of that one based on the books by Stieg Larsson.  And so Maciek said “Let’s watch The Girl with a Tattoo of a Dragon on her Back.”  Hahahha!!

Next post:  Dad and Rita’s visit J

Schwarzsee and the Wilder Kaiser

Easter

 

Bit late for a post about Easter.  Perhaps I should save it and combine it with Christmas and do a ‘Celebrations of Jesus’ special!  Or not.

Easter tree at school

A few differences between Australia and Austria for Easter.  Australia:  aisle after aisle full of hundreds of brightly wrapped chocolate eggs in all shapes and sizes in various brands, mostly packaged in elaborate boxes accompanied with a toy or a gift of some sort at ridiculous prices, adorning the shelves just after Valentines Day.  Austria:  Milka or Lindt.  Small, medium or large bunny.  Couple of options for small individually wrapped chocolates in packets in the shape of eggs, chicks or bunnies.  Making an appearance a few weeks before Easter.  And that is all.  Australia:  Kids going hunting on Easter Sunday with a huge basket filling it with dozens of foil wrapped chocolate eggs and then receiving a massive egg with toy from every member of their immediate and extended family and even some from friends resulting in a pantry full of chocolate which makes mum fat and spotty and has to be used up in muffins before it goes off and before it’s added to at Christmas.  Austria:  kids with homemade basket the size of an adults cupped hand running around looking for coloured hard boiled eggs which they pile together in one big basket and then sit down together and eat one with a piece of bread for morning tea.  Accompanied by a tiny bunny (Lindt) and one gummy sweet given by the teacher.  Good Friday:  Australia:  Everything is closed.  You can only eat fish (fish and chip shop here we come).  Everybody chillaxes and eats and drinks and drinks.  Austria:  Everything is open.  You can’t buy fish, except a whole fish, scales and head and eyes and all, and there are no fish n chip shops.  Everyone goes to work, normal day.  Easter Sunday:  Australia:  Get together with family, eat chocolate, eat and drink and eat.  Do nothing.  Austria:  Go to church.  Eat boiled eggs.



We had boiled eggs coming out of our ears!  As with every season or occasion in Austria everyone puts homemade decorations at their doors and in their windows.  It’s a bit naff, but I like it, but then I am a bit naff myself.  Before Easter and at the start of Spring you can pick thin branches that grow by the water that bud little fluffy white things that resemble rabbits tails.  I can’t remember what they’re called but they’re lovely and everyone hangs decorated eggs on them.  Both kindergarten classrooms had one and each child had to bring in 3 blown out eggs to decorate to hang on it.  I had never heard of blown out eggs and so I asked the teacher to show me how to do it as Amelia needed to take some in.  If you don’t know, you get a pin, and carefully poke a tiny hole at each end (not as easy as it sounds) and then literally blow the gucky stuff out of it (not as easy as it sounds).  So this is what I did at home, and I felt like I was giving birth but trying not to, if you know what I mean.  Next day I went in to work where the teacher was preparing some eggs incase some children forgot to bring them in.  She used a little contraption not unlike a bike pump especially for blowing out eggs.  Well, why didn’t you tell me that before??  But I was impressed with the way she decorated them using marble paint, then threading through ribbon and beads to hang them on the tree.  The week before Easter we took the class out into the woods, had a picnic, and each child collected a stick with two prongs which we then took back to the classroom to make easter bunnies with, by adding two googly eyes and some fleece for the body.  Pretty cool idea. 

Easter hike with obstacles

Good Friday (school was closed and Maciek was unemployed) we enjoyed a bit of a sleep in (unusual) till about 7am and woke to a deer meandering across the field below us, from one bit of forest to another.  It was a wet and cold weekend, misty across the mountains, and we went out for a walk in the woods and a little picnic under the shelter of a tree.  It’s awesome in the woods on days like that, feels like being on the set of Lord of the Rings.  We had to negotiate our way around huge fallen trees, and all the debris caused by the heavy snow.  Easter Sunday the kids hunted for eggs, miniature kinder surprise ones individually wrapped in a packet is all I could find, and in all the excitement we didn’t even notice that it was snowing!  Nooooo!  We all said.  Amelia had been so excited about the prospect of being able to wear a dress and sandals, and we’d just packed away all our winter gear.  But it was pretty, and it didn’t last.  The next day it was gone. 

"Noah's got more than me!!"

Since then it has warmed up, so much so that for the past few days it has been 30 degrees, and this week it will be mid 20’s.  So Milly has realized at last her dream of wearing a dress again.  Also since then we have welcomed into the world our new little nephew and cousin, Lucas, born on Thursday 26^th April.  Congratulations Jo, Andrew, Jakson and Ollie!  Looking forward to meeting little Lucas soon.  XXXX

p.s  here is a pic of Milly dressed up as Pippi Longstocking.  Prizes for guessing how we got her hair to stand up like that!

Pippi





Spring has Sprung

 

The snow has almost all disappeared apart from a few die hard patches here and there.  The mountains are still holding on to it although even that has become patchy in the last few days and I think it’s probably the last of the snowsports.  Maciek has even packed his gear away (whaaat???) and has started out on his mountain biking already. 

Bye bye snow

It’s like the snow never was.  Hard to believe that a month ago the place was hidden behind walls of ice, and when the first bits of grass started to peep through it was quite exciting, as if we were seeing it for the first time!  People have been out sorting their gardens, all fences and fields, rooftops and rivers are fully visible and the first white flowers have lifted their heads to the sun.  I even had my first frightening encounter with ‘the first bee’ a month ago when everything was still buried deep in snow which was weird.  It ambushed me as I left the bank, waiting for me it was, the wicked little wasp!

Speaking of pesky insects, spring brings out the ‘ticks’ which live in the long grasses and in the forests.  They can carry a virus infects the brain and makes you very ill and I’ve heard of people who have died from it.  It’s apparently worse in other areas of Austria and not so common here, but everyone I speak to says they are becoming more common in this area and as we intend to spend time hiking and playing in the woods in Summer needless to say this has me worried.  There is an immunisation you can get to protect you against this virus but trying to find out the ins and outs such as side effects etc is difficult with the language.  But I have asked around as many people as I can and so we’ll be off to the doctors next week to get it.  I thought we left all the dangerous insects back in Australia!

The local brew

We have a birds nest in the eaves between our balcony and our bedroom and every morning with the first of the light one of them sits on our sill and tweets away.  Some might find this annoying but I love it.  It’s either that or Amelia and Noah fighting over a toy to wake me up, so I choose the bird!

The weather has been beautiful, a bit cold still in the mornings (-1, and we only have to scrape ice off the windows some of the time!) but warms up during the day and some days it’s reached as high as 20 degrees!  We walked through town on Thursday with some friends after school and bought ice cream, great value at E1.00 each for a delicious big scoop.

Damn you POO!

One thing that’s not so good about spring is that the farmers are back with a vengeance with their ‘cow poo spraying machines’!  The field directly below us was sprayed on Friday which meant we couldn’t even open our windows to air out the house let alone sit out on the balcony for our afternoon coffee.  I had to work late last week and to save maciek having to round up the kids again and pick me up, I decided to walk home, plus the sun was shining and it’s not like I couldn’t do with the exercise after months of hibernation!  Maciek warned me that it might not be so pleasant as the farmers had been out. ‘Meh’ I shrugged, and all was great until I reached the last leg of the hill that leads to our place!  Seriously, it’s like a cow has literally walked up to you, turned around, and farted in your face!!

On that note I shall leave you with greetings for a Happy Easter! Hope it’s enjoyable and delicious.  Until next time…..

Maciek boarding with Aussie mates

hot choc at mid station

The garden at school

The Native Speaker

Kids dressed up for carnival day, school in background

view from my classroom

It’s been three months now since I started my job.  I am really enjoying it although there are a few too many hours which left me exhausted at first.  The first week was great, I was a novelty.  Second week the novelty was beginning to wear off as the kids began to realize I couldn’t really understand them, and some of them became curious to see how far they could push the limits.  The third week was terrible!  If the teacher left the room, it was chaos!  It was like I was invisible, and mute!  They completely ignored me, and it was a real struggle with the language barrier.  In the first few weeks one little girl cried every morning about coming to Kindergarten – all because of me!  Because I only spoke English and she didn’t like me!  She gave me the foulest looks!  And one little boy wouldn’t even look at me when I tried to approach him, and apparently only referred to me as ‘that woman’!  It’s almost impossible to build a rapport with the children when you can’t speak their language.  Things slowly improved as the weeks went on.  I am picking up more words and phrases every day which has made a huge difference, but still half the time I have no idea what they are saying to me, and it must be frustrating for them if they need help with something, or have a problem with someone and I can’t help to sort it out.  There are 19 in the class, 3-6 year olds.  Some of them still ignore me if they are up to no good and I am trying to put a stop to their behavior, which is incredibly frustrating, but I think I am slowly winning them over with the gymnastics every second week in their P.E class, again extremely difficult and I am having to demonstrate much more than I am actually physically capable of at the moment having not exercised for months!  And miming and silly facial expressions and speaking broken English with a funny accent all seem to help!

Every second week during the winter we took the kids Eislaufen (Ice skating) at the outdoor rink.  This entailed helping 19 children put on all their snow gear including helmets, (this took 30 minutes), traipsing to the ice rink in town, helping 19 children take off their snow boots and put on their ice skates (all have different types of clasps and buckles etc which I am now an expert at!)(this also takes 30 mintues), being the tea and snack lady on the sidelines (beats making a donkey of myself on the ice!), and then helping them all take off their ice skates and put their snow boots back on (this takes another 30 minutes), and then traipsing back to Kindergarten, before helping them all get their snow gear off again and get ready for lunch.  All this for 20 minutes on the ice.  And I always broke a nail!

Everyday they play out in the garden (again during winter this entailed helping them all get dressed up in snow gear which takes about 20 minutes for a 20 minute play!).  The garden was under nearly two metres of snow.  The boundary, in the way of a fence, was invisible.  So much of the time was spent making sure kids didn’t wander into the carpark.   One of the weeks some areas completely iced over, and I went over on my bum a couple times.  Somewhat embarrassing!  And then the snow began breaking up and becoming unstable once March arrived, and most of us became half buried if we took a step in the wrong place!  This was funny because is happened to everyone and not just the silly ‘English’ teacher who had no water proof pants (that would be trousers for ‘English’ readers, not underwear!)  Speaking of pants, there is a doctor nearby called Dr Pantz.  And whatsmore, his wife works with him, so they are a ‘pair of pantz’!  As you can imagine this had me in a fit of hysterics when if first heard about it! (and while we’re on the subject, there is a law firm also called ‘Schlapper and Fuchs’!!)

So back to Kindergarten - Amelia had trouble at first with me being there and not being able to see me whenever she liked, and there were a few tears to begin with, also from Noah who could see me from his classroom when I was in the garden, which broke my heart!  But then Amelia’s ‘English’ teacher told her she was the luckiest girl in the kindergarten because nobody else’s mummy worked there, and after that she was great!

A few things are hard to get my head around, there are things that go on which in Australia and England would be unacceptable and leave me wide eyed and speechless, but it’s hard to know what is simply cultural difference (which I have to leave alone) or what is actually unacceptable only nobody is doing anything about it!  I am constantly asking ‘is that okay?  Is that allowed?’  Some examples:

·         Lunch is cooked at the school, lovely fresh organic food (my favourite part of the day) and sometimes during lunch the food runs out, and little 5 year old Annie (not her real name) is sent down to the kitchen to fetch a refill, carrying a hot casserole dish for which she was told to pull her sleeves down over her hands so she wouldn’t get burnt.  Another time 6 year old Susie (not her real name) brought up a steaming hot heavy pan of soup, which she was just about to drop before she laid it on the table.  The kitchen is two flights of stairs down, by the way.

·         In the snow filled garden kids use ‘slidies’ which they sit on to slide down little hills formed by the snow, one of which ended with a wall.  No-one told the kids they shouldn’t do this, or that it was dangerous, until one kid actually smacked into the wall which ended in tears, but the activity was still allowed to continue.

·         At gymnastics the kids are allowed to run around in the gym hall in socks, which has resulted in quite a few slippages!  They also played a game in the classroom where they ran around with their slippers on and at certain signals had to remove a shoe, the removed shoes being left where they were taken off, resulting on kids tripping over left right and centre.

·         We went to the park and six kids had climbed up a big tree at once.  I don’t think kids are even allowed to climb trees in Australia anymore?

·         ‘Kid A’ aggressively bit ‘Kid B’ and I jumped into the situation making out that ‘kid A’ was in serious trouble.  I took them to the teacher so that she could sort out the problem only to be told ‘well that’s because ‘kid B’ was waving his photo in ‘kid A’s’ face and ‘kid A’ doesn’t like this, so, that’s what happens’.  And that was it.  Whaaat??

Some of you may read that and think so what, not a big deal, but it’s a struggle for me after working with kids for such a long time in a place overrun with health and safety do’s and don’ts!

Anyway, I’m grateful to be able to work here instead of cleaning toilets in a hotel!  Apart from a few frustrating bits I really enjoy it.  My job is to expose them to as much English vocabulary as they are ready for and as much as they want to learn.  Some kids are really interested and want to do the English work all the time.  For a bit of fun I might start to teach the ‘How Now Brown Cow’ and ‘The Rain in Spain’ stuff, just to see if they can say it, and for even more fun I might teach them Maciek’s favourite – One smart fellow, he felt smart, two smart fellows, they felt smart, three smart fellows, they felt smart, and they all felt smart together!  Too inappropriate? (If you don’t get it try saying it quite fast!)

P.S  The little boy who wouldn’t look at me and called me ‘that woman’ at the beginning of the year, actually blew me a kiss the other day as he skipped out of the classroom to his mum!  Which was nice!

my little English section!