And we're off!

We are embarking on a 6 month adventure to Slovakia and couldn't be more excited about it! Doug earned a well deserved Fulbright grant and will be at Comenius University in Bratislava. We left home on January 16, 2020. We flew from Denver to Munich and then on to Vienna, where we will stay for 3 nights to explore the city.

This luggage is everything the 5 of us are bringing for the next 6 months -- not too shabby!




Before our van came to pick us up and take us to the airport, we went out for breakfast at the Urban Egg, one of our favorite breakfast places.

Our flights were smooth despite a delay in Munich. While no one got much sleep on the plane, the girls were excellent travelers and in great spirits for the duration of our trip.

The van met us at the Vienna airport and hauled us to the apartment we are renting. The apartment is lovely! 

That pile of crap at the bottom is all of our luggage. Hauling all of that up 6 flights of stairs was no easy feat! Particularly for Doug, who got stuck with all of the heavy pieces.

For operating on less than 2 hours of terrible sleep, I was pleased with how everyone did, particularly the kids. We unloaded our stuff, decompressed for a bit, then headed right out to explore a bit and find somewhere for dinner. 

Today we slept in, had a leisurely morning at home, and made breakfast here. We walked to Stephensplatz, named for St. Stephen's Cathedral, in the center of Vienna. We climbed the Sudturm (South Tower) to the highest point in the cathedral. It was used as a watchtower both day and night beginning in the 15th century right up until 1956.

These narrow spiral stairs led us all the way to the top!

That is Carys looking down at me and Orla.

This door led into the uppermost point of the tower.

This was the view from the top, where you can really see the famous glazed tile roof of the cathedral.

The day was rainy, foggy, and eventually snowy. We had been preparing the girls for the greyer winter skies here and explaining that in Slovakia (and other places we would likely be visiting, like here in Austria), the weather would not be the lovely sunny winters we are used to in Colorado. They proclaimed that the gloomy grey weather today "felt like night". I think maybe they might be starting to understand what we meant! 

We ventured out to a quirky cafe for a late afternoon apple streudel and some hot beverages. 

This was delicious apple streudel with a vanilla sauce and whipped cream.

The cafe was in the Hundertwasserhaus and it was a little wacky, in a good way. Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment building designed by an artist who wanted to incorporate artistry and nature in the building. Renters have the rights to decorate their window / surrounding area as they see fit. Orla referred to this as "freedom of window speech". Like, "freedom of speech", but with regard to decorating your window!

This picture below of Hundertwasserhaus is lifted from Google, not one I actually took, because it was dark.

Inside of the cafe, where the people were extremely kind and friendly.

A quick word about this blogging endeavor...I really want to capture and document our adventures, both as memories for us, but also to share with family and friends. This seems like the best way to do that. That being said, I am already hating blogging. It's a pain in the ass and this looks like a jumbled mess of photos with messed up text alignment. I am confident it will look this way throughout the duration of our trip, do not expect any improvement! Basically, I am setting the bar very low! Please do not have high expectations as far as aesthetics go. Just being real. :)