Four on Friday

Hi! I've been quiet here for a bit. For the past month or so, much of my day to day life has been influenced by my guys and what they've been up to. Here's a little catching up...

1. Nathan spent a couple weeks in Utah and western Colorado. Nathan volunteered to help at a paragliding competition (the Niviuk Red Rocks Wide Open) in Utah in the second half of September. He outfitted the Honda Element for sleeping/camping in and drove himself out there on September 18, then spent the next 8 or 9 days helping shuttle competitors around and getting to do some paragliding of his own along the way. He and the other volunteers camped at a dedicated site and enjoyed the time and community, learning from experts along the way, too. 

When the competition was over, Nathan then met fellow paragliders from his local training group and they had a field trip of sorts together in western Colorado for a few days. Again, there was learning and flight time involved and Nathan was happy. :) 

He drove home on October 1, having been away for two weeks.

2. Noah moved out. While Nathan was away, Noah and I held down the fort. On September 30, Noah moved out. He's currently staying with his old college roommate here in Fort Collins but is looking for a longer short term living arrangement while he continues to look for a job in mechanical engineering. He's open to moving anywhere for the job. Looking forward to seeing where his journey will take him!

3. Asher came home for a visit. A week or so later, on October 9, Asher flew home for the weekend. He had a three day weekend due to parent-teacher conferences and United has a surprisingly affordable and easy direct flight from Dodge City to Denver that runs twice each day. I picked him up from the airport and Micah took Friday off and Noah came home also, and all five of us spent Friday evening (after Nathan finished work) and all day Saturday just hanging out and playing games and being together. 

Yes, I made them all take some fall leaf photos together. They weren't the greatest fall leaf photos we've done but we weren't willing to take up more time than just walking around our neighborhood, so this is what we got. :) 

Saturday, Micah headed out after dinner for some friends' birthday party. The rest of us played more games and then scattered again on Sunday. Nathan went to the airport (more on that in a second), I drove Asher to the airport a couple hours after that, and Noah headed back to his friend's place.

4. Nathan went to New York for work. As I mentioned, on Sunday Nathan went to the airport. He flew to New York to meet up with the US based people he works with for a few days of team brainstorming and planning. He got home late Wednesday, exhausted but optimistic.

And through all of that, I've just been here...chilling and keeping up with my own stuff and helping others manage theirs. I've enjoyed the sometimes fall weather, stayed on top of home maintenance things, volunteered with The Matthews House, gotten people to and from the airport, and stuff like that. Still quiet. All good. :)

Thankful Thursday

So. Apparently it's September. I haven't posted in a bit. Here's a quick list of things to catch up on...that I'm also thankful for...(and two of them didn't even happen in September, lol)...

1. 14ers. Back at the end of August (the 29th, to be exact), Nathan, Noah and Micah joined Nathan's trainer at Valor Elite (the gym we belong to) and a few others to summit Mt Bierstadt. It was their first 14er (my guys, not all of the others). (For those who don't know, Colorado has 50-some mountains that exceed 14,000 feet in elevation, known as 14ers. It's a thing to summit them.) They stayed the night at a hotel nearer the trail and got a very early start.

Thankful they had this experience together...that I didn't need to go with them (lol)...and that everyone got home uninjured. :) 

2. Micah's work. The day before that, Micah had invited Nathan, Noah and me to his company friends & family picnic at a park near their office. We drove down and enjoyed the time with him, the food and getting to meet some of his coworkers. Also, they had yummy cookies...

Thankful that Micah's found a place he's happy at and where he's comfortable being himself. His coworkers seem to appreciate him, too!

3. Fall weather. After a very warm summer, I'm delighted that we may finally be seeing some fall weather (knock on wood). Yay!!

4. Asher's health. Thankful, too, that Asher's surviving his initiation to elementary education...and all the germs that go with that, lol. It's a month since students started school and so far he's survived a couple colds, getting poked in the eye, having a kid bleed on him, and pinkeye. Fun times. ;P

5. Quiet. Other than all that, it's been pretty quiet around here since we got back from Vienna. After the very busy previous six months or so, it's been welcome. I'm sure I'll find things to keep me busier soon; but, for now, I'm truly just appreciating the quiet.

And that's my list for today. I may or may not have more before October...

Vienna: Wrap-up

So. That was our trip. :) To wrap up, here are some random thoughts and things I'm thankful for that didn't get captured in the day by day recording...

Hotels. We had two. Normally when we travel, we opt for AirBNBs since we prefer the privacy and flexibility. This time, Nathan's work covered the first hotel. It was fabulous! We had a corner room just a block away from the Vienna Opera House. It was spacious and air conditioned and lovely. It was definitely nicer than anything we usually get for ourselves and we appreciated it.

The first four pictures above are from that hotel. The bottom three are from the second hotel that we booked ourselves for our extra time in Vienna. For that stint, we again opted for a hotel rather than our typical AirBNB for convenience, two things in particular. First, given our schedule, we knew we'd be checking out of the first hotel in the morning and then taking a train to Bratislava. Generally, there's a gap between standard check out times and check in times. With that gap, we'd need somewhere to store our luggage since we didn't want to lug it around Slovakia with us. Hotels will let you store your luggage before you check in. Not all AirBNBs can accommodate that. Second, the location of our second hotel was important. We were only using it as a home base and needed something near the train station to make that easier. I honestly don't know that we could have done much better for location. We literally walked across the street and through the door to the train platforms. That saved so much valuable time!

(Note, our second hotel did have its issues, though. Unfortunately, the AC in our room was not working. But, given the timing of our outings, we didn't discover that until too late the first night. We had them look at it the second day while we were out but weren't able to confirm that it still wasn't working until late that night so ended up just getting permission to open the window fully (instead of just at the top) and made due. In the end, we made it work. It was a bit frustrating given that AC was something we'd specifically made sure of ahead of time but you really couldn't beat the location.

Further note, air conditioning is wonderful! We take it for granted some here in the US but it was really something to be appreciated in Europe as it's not as common. Also, it reminded me that I don't like humidity, so there.)

Public transportation. LOVE! Aside from the Uber when we first arrived because we were just tired after such a long travel day, we relied solely on public transportation. (Well, okay, Nathan used Uber to get to the office site...but only because he and his coworkers were traveling together and that was their plan.) Public transportation in and from Vienna was so easy and inexpensive. Thanks to phone apps, too, I was able to just take care of everything from my phone and in English and using Apple Pay...sweet. I used one app for Vienna public transportation (buses, trams and metro)...one app for trains out of Vienna's central station...and one app for public transportation in Budapest (we just used the metro at the start and end of the day to get from/to the train station, which wasn't near the main areas). Awesome!

Relatedly, the trains, themselves, are wonderful...so much better than trains in the US. They were generally on time and straight-forward and so, so convenient. We've experienced this before in Italy and other parts of Europe...could easily see ourselves traveling throughout Europe on the train systems. 

(waiting for a train in Vienna--you can see our hotel in the background...inside the train station in Budapest...the outside of the train station in Budapest...us on our way back to the airport (via train))

Other random things I'm thankful for:

• people who don't wear too much fragrance on planes and public transit
• people who actually stop and move to the side of walkways rather than blocking the middle (this also goes for groups with enough awareness to not walk completely side by side and fill an entire walkway)
• people who speak English (always so very impressed by people who speak more than one language and so thankful for people who can speak English since I don't speak any other languages)
• credit cards (so much easier than local currency, especially given that Czechia and Hungary don't use the Euro)
• pockets (pockets are a requirement for all my travel attire...I need pockets to stow my phone and keep loose coins...zippered pockets are even better!)
• farmers carry exercises and other training at home that makes me strong enough to carry all my own luggage up and down stairs (I think if you can't carry your own luggage you've packed too much, lol...saw numerous people unable to manage their own bags onto and off of trains. Also, being able to just pick up your carry on and take the stairs is almost always faster than standing on the escalator.)
• being fit enough to walk and climb and carry as much as we do on vacation (I get that it's something to appreciate)
• the walkability of all of our destinations (we walked most everywhere...in excess of 20,000 steps every day...which makes the multiple desserts okay, lol)

Nathan's work. And let's not forget the thing that made this all possible...Nathan's job. Very thankful for this new company and this opportunity!

(with partners after work on Tuesday night near the office site...almost the whole company working at the office site)

And, with that, I'm going to officially wrap up these many posts about our trip to Vienna. :) I know there's stuff I missed or glossed over. If you have any questions, please just let me know. I'd love to chat with you!

Vienna: Monday

On Monday, August 24 we flew home. It was a very long travel day. :P We got up and showered and somehow managed to pack everything back into our carry ons, walked across the street and took a train to the airport. We got through security and found our gate area then had a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant, bought a couple snacks and a book and filled our water bottles. We eventually boarded our short flight to Munich where we then made our way through the new EES (Entry/Exit System being used by the EU) and finally made it to our gate with enough time for a small snack/drink before boarding our 10 hour flight to Denver. During the flight, we passed over Greenland during clear weather, which made Nathan's window very popular. Nathan watched four movies. (One of the movies we watched together/simultaneously on our little seat back screens.) I watched two movies, read an entire book and managed a short nap. (The seat next to me was empty so I was able to lay down a little bit.) Arriving in Denver, we had to circle for a bit before landing due to weather but luckily did get to land before the evening storm. Noah picked us up and I managed to keep Nathan awake until a reasonable (but early for us) bedtime to try to get back on the right schedule. (Technically when we landed in Denver it felt like 3am given the time difference.) Whew.

(Drinks at the airport in Vienna...tiramisu for dessert at lunch...boarding our plane to Munich...saying goodbye to Vienna...overlooking Greenland)

And that was our trip to Vienna. I'll be back with one more wrap-up post...

Vienna: Sunday

Sunday, August 23: On Sunday, we boarded a train for Budapest, Hungary, arriving about 11:30 after a 2.5 hour train ride. We found the metro and, having downloaded the app and purchased tickets ahead of time, took that west to the Buda side of the Danube. (Did you know that historically Budapest is a combination of two cities...the hilly Buda on the west and the flat Pest on the east?) We walked out of the metro station to a stunning view of Parliament just across the river then found a lovely restaurant just a block away for a traditional Hungarian meal. After lunch, we walked back to take pictures of Parliament and also took a moment other check in for our flights (hooray for smartphones and apps!).

We then walked to Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church (both of which were simply amazing--we didn't get pictures that do them any sort of justice). At this point, we got a bit derailed from our "plan" for the day because we discovered a huge vendor fair on the grounds and surrounding area and succumbed to browsing and shopping for a good bit, lol. 

(The rather grand train station in Budapest...our lunch of traditional goulash with Parliament in the background...us standing on the west side of the Danube looking across at Parliament...at the base of Fisherman's Bastion...in the courtyard by Matthias Church, enjoying the vendor fair...a number of booths had these ceramic flowers which were so beautiful! (unfortunately, I didn't think I'd be able to pack them well/safely so didn't get any)...looking across the Danube from Fisherman's Bastion...more vendors along the wall outside the Matthias Church area)

We eventually (and reluctantly) left there to continue south to Buda Castle before crossing Chain Bridge to the Pest side of the river. We wandered through Liberty Square and had a yummy Greek dinner and then went to the Shoes on the Danube memorial and Parliament before making our way back to the train station. 

(a giant fountain at the castle...an arch into a courtyard of the castle...a roaring lion statue under that arch...the east side of the castle grounds...looking across the Danube and Chain Bridge...a statue of Ronald Reagan in Liberty Square with Parliament in the background...Parliament...the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial to the 20,000 some Jews who were shot into the Danube during WWII after having been instructed to remove their shoes (as shoes were valuable and could be resold after the massacre)...Nathan photographing the memorial along the Danube)

Along the way, on the Pest side, we stopped at this unique Pop & Roll art toilet, where you paid to go inside and got to then select from 18 different toilet stalls (well, really just 9 depending on whether you went into the men's or the women's side). (The cost was maybe double what a normal toilet in Europe had been costing and these were really clean and, obviously, intriguing.) I don't know what the stalls in the men's side were like because Nathan opted not to use the facilities.

(Scenes from the strange Pop & Roll art toilets)

Also throughout the day, we sought out the miniature bronze statues by Mihaly Kolodko. The artist began creating the miniatures in 2010 and continues to add more. Each little sculpture has its own back story and it was fun to find those that we did. (Of course now I want to go back and find the rest!)

(These were the eight miniatures we found based on Instagram posts and Google maps. Afterward, we learned that there were a number more that we were very near and could have also gotten to. Drat. These were the Rabbit with the Checkered Ears (he's looking out toward the river with a telescope)...Dirty Fred, the Captain...Balloon Dog...Lunar Roving Vehicle...Money Blower...The Axe...Kermit the Frog...and Ushanka Returns (a Soviet winter hat with frog legs))

We made it back to Vienna around 11:20pm. It was another long day and we definitely felt we'd only scratched the surface of Budapest.