Week Two

The second week was much like the first in that we were still somewhat settling in: finding where the spatula was in the kitchen, finding the toilet bowl cleaner, figuring out how to buy a new dish rag in a store (hint: they don't carry them in grocery stores like our "super store" mindset in the States would have you think), learning to cook German food, where to recycle plastic bottles, etc. We also found ourselves trying to figure out how to get Anson to engage in things a bit more as we realized that Aaron, Rebecca, and I were often out and about and Anson wasn't always present. He and I have had walks and gone to the store together, but we really want him out in the culture more.

Sontag 16. März

Awesome, incredibly large pizza!

I realized I "covered" this day in the last post, but I had to add something about Sundays in general. That first night we were here, Rebecca ordered a pizza for dinner from a local delivery place (you can even order on-line). She ordered a "family" sized cheese (they call it a Margherita) and one called the Provinciale, which came with "Schinken, Speck, Mais, und Pfefferoni" I know Rebecca knows Schinken is ham and I think she thought the Pfefferoni was pepperoni. She got it so Anson and I would have a "meat" pizza. It turns out that Pfefferoni are pepper, much like banana peppers, but thinner, like a pencil, and long, like 20-30 cms! I also knew, though was surprised to find that Rebecca didn't that Mais is corn. It's an interesting pizza. Unfortunately, I really didn't like the Speck as I found it too undercooked. Couple that with corn on a pizza and it wasn't the best. However, we all liked the cheese pizza. So far, we've ordered one of these beasts every Sunday night and it's a tradition I could see continuing! It's only 13€ (currently about $17.81).

The pizza box is huge. I included some "everyday" objects in the picture for scale. I think the box must be 18 or 19 inches square. The pizza inside doesn't fit! So far, the three we've ordered have all been slightly folded-in on all four sides. They also don't pre-cut the pizza and the people we're renting from must not like it as there's no pizza cutter we can find. So, we use a pair of scissors to cut eight huge slices. There's not much sauce, but there is an awesome garlic smear they use. It's not the best for my Monday morning hard interval runs, but it's a price I'll gladly pay for such a delicious pizza. It's the only thing we've had that tastes just as good as "home." In this case, it might even be better! Their box says "Pizza vom Holzofen," which is a wood-fired pizza. It's really good!

I also needed to include a video of the cool display they had at the Natural History museum. It was two flat video screens, positioned like a table. There was a display of excavated bones and you "applied" various tests to the bones to help determine gender, age, diseases, etc. It was really, really cool!

Montag 17. März

Pick up the poop

Dog poop. I'm not sure why it's such a big deal here, but it is. We've seen it multiple times, on sidewalks, in the boulevard, in the street, etc. However, what I see more of are signs telling dog owners to make sure they pick up the poop or get fined for it. The saying on the sign, "Sind dir Wurst?" basically means, "Doesn't really matter to you?" The 36,- is indicating the fine will be 36€ (currently about $49.32). These signs are everywhere! They're in the boulevards, up against buildings, stuck on fences, ... everywhere. Rebecca and I were on a walk one day and saw three of them around one house's driveway area. I guess they really don't want people letting their dogs poop in their yard. 

The kids and I were talking about it and we're not sure if the signs have come out recently because the poop is a problem (it really is all over), or if people are simply letting their dogs poop and not picking it up more now in defiance of the signs and the potential fee. Regardless, it's an interesting cultural difference. 

Dienstag 18. März

I got out for my first real training ride today! It was fun to finally be back on the bike in a serious training way. However, I really need to figure out where everyone else rides around here. I'm fine with urban riding and can hold my own with traffic. However, ... I am in a foreign country and while I've paid careful attention to how other people ride bikes here, and how the cars respond to them, it's all just a bit different. I feel like it takes me a long time to get "out of town," and there are many stop signs and pedestrian walkways where I need to completely stop and wait. That's a lot of start-stop, both leaving and coming back in. There are some beautiful hills that I can see and I know, from Strava (see segment F, which includes segment A), that there are some really good segments where I can get some incredible climbing training in. These are the trail end of the Alps. I just need to figure out how to get there!

Bikes allowed?

There is an area west of town call the Lainzer Tiergarten. Tiergarten can mean "zoo," but here it means "nature preserve." It sits on a very nice, large hill that I was hoping to ride to the top of. I rode right up to the door and then stopped and stared at the various signs. I saw the one shown here. Clearly it indicates dogs aren't allowed. The other sign leads me to think that bikes are. So, I opened the door and walked my bike through. As soon as I mounted and started rolling forward, a woman stepped out of a gatehouse a little ways inside, and walked straight for me then stopped right in front of my bike. In German, she made it very clear that I wasn't allowed and had to leave immediately. She then walked past me, back to the door, and held it open for me. I only understood about 25% of what she said, but I knew I needed to leave. So, out I went. It was then that I actually snapped this photo. 

If you zoom in, you'll see that it says these are "Aufgrund der Besucherordnung ist verboten." I knew this meant it was the "rules" and what was "forbidden." I didn't take enough time scanning it to see the line that says, "das Mitnehmen und Benutzen von Fahrrädern, ..." which basically says,  "taking or using bicycles." I don't know if they have bikes in the preserve for rent, but they certainly don't want you using one. I'll have to figure out how to get to those other hills!

Mitwoch 19. März

Wednesday was a normal-ish day with Aaron at school, Anson and I doing home schooling and Rebecca in the office doing her work. She was home for the afternoon and took Aaron to the Music Museum where they had a fantastic time. Aaron got to "virtually" conduct the Vienna Philharmonic and did well enough to get a large round of applause at the end.

Donnerstag 20. März

Thursday was also a normal morning, then Rebecca went in to get Aaron, while I waited for Anson to shower, then he and I took the Straßenbahn to where we'd normally get off for Aaron's school stop. We then waited for Rebecca and Aaron and had a great Chinese buffet lunch at the restaurant right there on the corner. The food and conversation were good and then Rebecca and I took a big step and let Anson and Aaron go home on their own! I'd given Anson my phone, just in case, and keys and they managed to get home just fine. They took the Straßenbahn, got off at the right stop, and then walked home without incident. Rebecca texted at one point and Anson responded with, "I'll be baaaack!" Appropriate, I guess, since Arnold was Austrian. 

That evening, I got out for a run, having missed my Tuesday run to a bike ride and not getting up early enough in the morning. It was an incredible, break-through sort of run! Everything just came together: perfect weather, the beautiful setting sun, the "feel" of the run, etc. and I just went with it. Looking back on it, it's perfect timing for such a run and lets me know that my Boston training is likely working and going well. I hope to have more like it in the remaining month before the marathon. 

Freitag 21. März

Aaron on the new ferris wheel with the old on in the background

Friday morning was again "normal." That afternoon and evening, for our FFFF (Freitag Familien Fröhlich Fest), I had planned to go to the Prater, the site of the oldest known "amusement park" in the world. They have a ferris wheel built in 1897! Aaron and I (Rebecca and Anson stayed home) took the U-bahn there (15 stops and one transfer) and wound up having a fantastic time. We rode a more modern ferris wheel, banged into each other with bumper cars (which go faster and last longer than in the States), rode a kid-version roller coaster, had "burgers" (again, they aren't quite like burgers in the States) for dinner, went through a fun house, ate cotton candy, shot targets, and generally had a fantastic, fun time together. 

Selfie with the new ferris wheel behind us

The place is really huge. Think of your local state or county fair and then add sections to it. The whole place was fairly equally mixed with food, carnival type games, rides, fun houses, etc. so you didn't need to go to a specific place for rides, another for food, etc. There were certain rides, like the old ferris wheel and a new swing that, at 117 meters high, is the tallest in the world, that were clear "destinations," but really you could have fun in just about any area of the place you wanted to. By the way, about that swing ... Aaron and I walked to it and watched a group riding it. He and I discussed whether we wanted to ride it or not. I would have been fine too, but Aaron's excuse was that it was "too expensive" (at 4,50€, or $6.20, a ticket, it isn't a cheap ride, but it certainly wasn't expensive), which is why he didn't want to ride. Right. 

At the old ferris wheel

After quite a full late afternoon and evening of fun, we made our way over to the old ferris wheel, figuring we needed to give it a try. In this case, the tickets were too expensive: the sign I saw was 24€, or ~$33.10! I've since learned that was the price of a family ticket. Aaron could have gotten a ticket for 4€ and mine would have been 9€, which is much more reasonable. I'm sure we'll go back there, this time with Rebecca and Anson, so we'll be able to take a ride. 

Samstag 22. März

Rebecca and I started the morning with a nice long walk. I'm guessing we covered 10-15 km. Along the way, we went up to the Schwimmbad (pool) I'd found last week where I think I can train. Rebecca graciously asked some questions we both had about pricing, etc. and I now know it's a place I can use up until Ironman, which is nice. 

Rebecca went out to meet a colleague for a coffee and conversation and the kids and I just hung out together and relaxed. Later in the afternoon, I went out for another bike ride followed immediately by a run, known as a "brick" in triathlon circles. The bike was along the same route as before, though a bit farther out, and the run, again, was awesome. I was supposed to have done a marathon-paced half marathon training run that morning, but between the walk and the ride before, I figured I would do a slightly faster than race pace 10k and call it good. Hopefully it won't "hurt" my Boston training too much, and I know it will help my Ironman training. Hard to balance both of those. 

Sontag 23. März

Sunday was a cold and rainy day! I made a nice "traditional" breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast for all of us then Rebecca and Aaron went into town to a church that had what Rebecca had heard was some wonderful music. Turns out she heard correctly: she reports that it was fantastic and she claims the soprano was the best she's ever heard. Coming from someone who started as a music major for her undergrad, that's saying something! We wound up ordering another pizza for dinner (third one so far and a perfect track record), though our on-line order got "lost" and we wound up having to call, over an hour after we'd placed the order, and then waited another 45 minutes for the pizza to arrive. We were all starving! We also watched an "american" movie, one of the 80 or so I ripped from DVDs back home onto my laptop. This one was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." When we were in New Zealand in 2003, we noticed that movie was called, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." As we were watching it, I noticed that it's also on the shelves by the TV here, in German, and it's called, "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen," which is the "stone of knowledge." Interesting how culture slightly changes the phrasing, and maybe meaning or understanding, of the movie titles. 

General Thoughts

Well, we're definitely here and all settled in. I think the honeymoon grace period is over. It's official. This is where we live now, for the next several months. I like our little neighborhood and am very comfortable walking around the area, going on my runs, and, for now, my bike rides. Aaron is doing well in school and Anson and I are making our home schooling work too. Rebecca has mentioned she has interview lined up for her research so that seems to be going well also. I pick up bits of German here and there, but if left on my own for a conversation, I just don't have enough vocabulary to understand the other person all that well. I'm getting 25-33% of it and can usually get the gist, but miss nuances and some important things at times. I've been in several situations where it's just me, without Rebecca, and have been able to make do with my limited Deutsch and their limited English, which is all that matters I guess. I'm hoping over the next few months I just keep absorbing more and more. I'm seeing it in Aaron from his going to school and Rebecca blows me away with all that she's able to understand and talk about. We may end up being a multicultural and bilingual family yet!