Steve and Laurie's visit

Uncle Steve and Aunt Laurie came to see us and to watch the kids play baseball and softball. It's always fun and refreshing hanging out with them!

Vienna, Munich - spring 2024

Robb and I were able to squeeze in a trip to Europe in the middle of a busy school and sports season, right in the middle of out-of-town softball and baseball tournaments and during Nikolas's ACT test. While all grandparents joined forces to help with the kids, we flew to Munich and then on to Vienna. The first weekend we spent with Aida Sisic, my old friend from elementary and high school. She showed us around Munich as only a local can do. On that beautiful sunny morning she took us directly from the airport to Englishes Biergarten, where we spent time catching up on the past 30 years while walking, eating and drinking, watching people swim in the river and sunbathe all over the park. We saw the small surf site on the river that I hadn't known about previously, and that was pretty cool. Then we meandered through downtown - through the farmers' market, past the new and old city hall, inside a couple of old churches, climbed one of the towers to get a panoramic view of the city, and briefly stopped to see the Octoberfest venue. Later in the evening we got to meet Aida's husband, kids and even her mom, my sister's elementary school teacher, which was an extra pleasant surprise since she was originally going to be out of town that weekend. After Munich we were off to Vienna. The train ride through some of my favorite parts of Europe was enjoyable on its own (why can't we have trains like this in the States!?). Our hotel was perfectly located near Rathaus and the Burggarten for easy walks around downtown. We could have used the trolley bus that passed by, but we took advantage of being able to walk and admire the surroundings at a leisurely pace. I couldn't remember much of Vienna from before, probably because architecture wasn't at the top of my list of priorities when I was younger and because I already had my fill of it from other European cities, but this time I was very impressed, and not just by the architecture, but also by the way all those buildings that were still just as antique and beautiful inside as they were on the outside, were used by regular people, regular companies, in everyday life. For example, the building that's used by an engineering firm during the day is used for world-class classical concert performances at night - like the one where my cousin Ana and her husband Mattei performed. What an amazing concert that was, complete with opera singers and ballet dancers. Every evening we'd meet Ana, Mattei, and their little girl for dinner and drinks. They took us to places where artists and performers liked to go as well as locals in general when they want good stuff but away from tourist traps. Thanks to them, we still got to have our Wienschnitzel and cake (well, we went for Sachertorte but opted for other cakes that looked even tastier), but we didn't have to wait in lines or be kicked out by rude servers when they wanted to vacate the table for the next round of tourists. While Robb was busy with the conference, I spent hours with Ana at Schloss Belvedere where they keep Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka's works and many others. Also fun was to see Messerschmidt's sculptures that were pretty unusual for his time. We walked through the gardens (no wonder they call this Viennese Versay) and enjoyed a beautiful sunny but cool day before it was time to head back. Walk itself meandered past TU, technical university in Vienna, where I happened to pass through the crowd of graduating students and their families, dressed in American style caps and gowns. An interesting part of the trip, both in Munich and in Vienna, was that I heard Slavic languages spoken as much as German in the streets. A good portion of the Slavic part was Serbocroatian. With that many people from the former Yugoslavia it was easy to find old familiar groceries even in the mainstreet grocery stores, which was a cute surprise. One time Robb and I walked into a store in the center of Vienna to stock up on Mozartkugeln, and there we ended up buying burek/pita for lunch and getting some Eurokrem for the kids back at home. Oh, and I can't help mentioning - some hotels including ours are apparently adopting this new style room arrangment with a standalone shower in the middle of the living area. I didn't know what to make of it.... we had this glass enclosure next to the bed. There was a curtain we could pull as a divider between the bed and the shower and, more importantly, to keep the shower out of the view from the windows. Ridiculous, really. Some designers had too much time on their hands....

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