Our Austrian Adventure!

Yesterday, while millions of shoppers were fighting over XBox Games and trampling one another, we teamed up with another couple, Kendra and Drew Cawthon, and drove to Salzburg, Austria to go to their famous Christmas markets.

The day started at 8 am, when we arrived at the Cawthon's house since they were driving. Arron accidentally left their gate open and their skittish and somewhat new-to-the-family puppy escaped, leading to a 15 minute search around the neighborhood for her. Once she was back and in her kennel for the day, and we stopped at Burger King for some grub, we headed towards Salzburg. Luckily, we only took a few wrong turns on the way there, and none of them were too horrible.

The drive was about 4 hours long, including stops for the vignette you need to put on your car to drive in Austria and bathroom breaks. Once we arrived in Salzburg, we stopped at a gas station to fill up and ask for directions to the market. We figured, how big could Salzburg be? The wonderful, aiming-to-please gas attendant nods and says very excitedly, "Yes, you have a car? Ok, you go straight, and then take a left, then right, then left, then left, then right, then go through a small tunnel, then take a little right, another small tunnel, then left, then right, then left..." You get the idea. We wrote it all down, but figured it was a shot in the dark.

An hour and a half later, including switching drivers twice, and stopping at two more gas stations to ask for directions (neither knew English), I finally pulled out Kendra's brand-spanking-new iPhone 4S to ask Siri for directions. Folks, Siri does NOT have Austrian maps. Bummer! I Googled the Christmas markets and found out it was near the dome in the city--right near the first place we stopped for gas, and we only drove by it, oh, 8 times or so. Apparently the markets were inside the row houses and such. Ahh! So we finally park and walk into the market.

Or what we thought was the market.

There were cute little vendors in side streets, and the main streets had stores such as Swarovsky Crystals and Louis Vuitton, among others. We found a cute place to eat, and ordered. Arron and I both ordered goulash (his was goulash soup), and Kendra and Drew both ordered full meals. Our meals came out in 5 minutes, and Kendra's and Drew's took 45! Another difference between the United States and Europe--they bring out your food when it's ready, no matter if the rest of your table is waiting for theirs. It's not impolite to eat before your friends. But I digress...


We headed out into (what we thought was) the market after dinner and enjoyed the pretty lights...

We wandered for a good while--say, 2 hours, before stumbling upon the real Christmas market. It was quite clear that we just hadn't wandered the right way from the start, and hadn't gone down far enough. But it was a huge square full of vendors and Christmas trees and open-air ice skating and cold.

Did I mention it was cold? It was 34 degrees when we left!

But we meandered through the vendors, bought a few things, and laughed while drinking hot chocolate and hot wine. :)

All in all, it was totally worth the trip. It reminds me of a quote from Six Feet Under: ""Horrible and terrible are two of the most underrated qualities when traveling in a foreign country. Horrible and terrible often lead to fun and adventure." Some people may have said it was a crazy and horrible trip, but company always makes things better. Thanks Kendra and Drew for going with us! 

Ciao ciao!

Christmas lights + wine bottles = love

I am behind on writing posts, as we went to Salzburg, Austria's Christmas markets yesterday and I need to update everyone on our Austrian adventure, but I wanted to post a little something about what I just made. :)

I took this picture last December while visiting my aunt and uncle in Baltimore:

I thought it was an adorable work of art, but they were about $25 a piece! Crazy! So I took a picture to remember what it looked like, and how I thought I could make it. I mean, we live in Italy, the land of wine--I could make these with my favorite wine bottles and make them more personable to me.

Time passed, and Pinterest came into my life. :) And I saw something with wine bottles and Christmas lights and remembered the long-forgotten picture I had taken 10 months ago. I pulled it out, jumped on HobbyLobby.com, and ordered everything:

Wine bottles (I had them already) : 3 euro each, or $4
Raffia: 1 bundle = $2.99, I used about a quarter of a bundle for two, so make that $0.38
Grape cluster: $3.99 each
Christmas lights: $2.99 each, strands of 20
Hot glue: Can I put a price on two dabs of hot glue?
Time: 20 minutes each

That means that each one of the two I made cost me a grand total of $11.36 and 20 minutes each!

I like them much better than the store-bought ones, and I'm thinking about even making them as Christmas presents for some friends and family. Score!

Ciao ciao! I promise I'll update soon with pictures and storytelling of our Austrian adventure!

Pinterest and Heaven in my Mouth.

Today, after going to a BBQ at my friend Tessa's house, I found myself with nothing to do. Arron was playing video games and, to be honest, I was tired of staring at Facebook. So I went to a website I'd heard everyone rave about, Pinterest, and signed up. It was cool looking at all of the craft ideas, and it gave me a bunch of really cool ideas for our dream house, one day.

But as I was  poking around and getting the jist of things, I came across a recipe for Nutella Mug Cake. I thought, "Wow, that sounds good, and it would satisfy my chocolate craving... but I doubt I have all of the ingredients for a cake!" But I looked anyway. Oh boy... I had everything! (Except whipped cream to put on top... oh well.) So I set out to make it.

I had to add a teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt to my flour, since it was all-purpose and not self-rising. It literally took me less than 5 minutes to throw everything in one of my big coffee mugs and throw it in the microwave for a minute and a half. When I opened it, this is what I found:

Apparently my big coffee mug wasn't going to cut it. I had to pour everything into a mug my BFF Jenny made me, and throw it back into the microwave since it was still runny... But ta-da! Nutella mug cake. :)

It was super delish, although it was really hot and I've been taking bites as I type this out. It would be wonderful with some ice cream, but I didn't have that either, and it probably wouldn't help the diet I've been trying to stay on anyway. I digress.

Anyway, this is totally amazing, but I would recommend splitting it with someone (unfortunately my better half doesn't like chocolate or cake), and make sure you have a big enough cup!

Ciao!

Our Prague Trip!

We got back late last night from Prague, Czech Republic. It was amazing!!

We left late Friday night (10 pm to be exact). The bus ride there was about 11 hours, and it left much to be desired. But what bus ride doesn't? We arrived in Prague around 9 am, and started our three hour guided tour. It was very informative and showed us around the castle grounds, along with around what they call "New Town" and "Old Town." 

After the tour, Arron and I, along with two of his friends (Hudicek and Talbert) went to lunch. We found a cute little pub that sold Czech cuisine. It was so good! I had goulash with bread dumplings and Arron had pork roast with mushroom sauce.

We did a little sightseeing until 2 pm, when the bus took us to the hotel to Czech in (get it? ha!). We got showers and about a 30 minute nap before meeting back up with Hudicek and Talbert to see the city. We left the hotel at 4:30 and didn't return until 2:30 am... you'll see why!

We walked to the Old Town Square, where the famous Prague Astronomical clock is located. It was designed in 1410 and is the oldest astronomical clock in the world that still works. Every hour, two blue doors open on top of the clock and the twelve apostles are seen in each window. Also, a skeleton representing Death to the right of the clock rings a bell as they pass.

Here's a really cool video of the 600th anniversary show of the clock. It's almost 10 minutes long, but the visual effects are stunning!

We did a bit of shopping Saturday afternoon, including a crystal vase, since Prague is known for it's "cheap" crystal.

This vase was 2,500 Czeck crown, so about $140. Considering Bohemian crystal is world-renowned and hand-carved (and gorgeous too!), it was just a matter of finding the perfect vase for us in the many crystal shops. :)

After sightseeing, what is the best way to get in with the locals? Why, pub crawling, of course! We hit up just about every bar we came across. I had the best strawberry mojito in a place called the Mojito Bar (I couldn't get anything else with a name like that!). It was made with fresh strawberries and a stem from a mint plant. Soo good!

While we were pub crawling, we got hungry, of course. So we were on the lookout for a hole-in-the-wall restaurant to have some more amazing Czech cuisine. Talbert found a restaurant down a dark alley, and we were afraid for our lives. We walked into the restaurant, which was below ground, and realized we had walked into a formal restaurant that was housed in a cave! Keep in mind, we were all wearing jeans and tennis shoes, along with sweaters or t-shirts and hoodies. But the restaurant owner/waiter didn't seem to mind, so we sat down to eat.

The last picture shows Talbert's appetizer, which is half a peach with chicken salad and whipped cream on top. He said it was good, but it just didn't sound appetizing to any of the rest of us...

Eventually we stopped at TGI Friday's to have drinks, and ran into another couple that was also on tour with us. They joined our group and that made 6 of us. :) Talbert talked the waiter into telling us the best clubs in the area "to find chicks" for Talbert and Hudicek. He directed us to the Bombay bar...

When we got there, the Bombay bar was dead. However, across the street was a bar that neither Arron nor I can remember the name of, but we called it the Rock Bar. After checking our coats and bags, we went downstairs to the bar to get drinks. While Arron ordered, another bartender who happened to be female was eating pineapple, and she offered me a piece. Success! The DJ was playing classic rock, like "We Will Rock You" and "Thriller," and we enjoyed dancing to something besides techno (what the Europeans love). After about two hours, we headed to our last stop of the night, a 5 story club that Prague boasts is the largest club in Central Europe. See for yourself...

We had a great time, although it was like a sauna inside. It didn't help that we were all dressed in sweaters to stay warm while wandering around the city!

After about an hour and a half in the 5 story club, we headed back to the hotel. We had been on-the-go since 9 am that morning, and by the time we walked back to the hotel and climbed in bed, it was 2:30 in the morning!

We woke up the next morning and ate breakfast in the hotel before checking out. The bus dropped us off at the center of town again around 10:30, and we were due to be picked up again at 2... which meant another lunch out on the town and a little bit more shopping to finish out the trip. Then we jumped back on the bus and got home at 1 am Monday morning!

To see the complete set of pictures, click here or here. I didn't want to overload this with pictures (since we took over 200), so feel free to look through them on my Facebook page. :)

On a completely different note, I figure I'll just use this blog to keep everyone informed of our life in here in Italy... our travels and whatnot. Any ideas on a new name? I can't really keep "Life at Home" since Arron's back... Right now I changed it to "Life in Italia" but that's so bland. Send me any suggestions per favore!