Christmas with my family!

My time with my family this past week was really nice.

They arrived (only slightly delayed) on monday afternoon and we spent the afternoon walking around graz

showing them my house, having some glühwein at the christmas stands

(dad, (dad and i especially enjoyed the feuerzangenbowle)

and having a really good dinner at the Landhaus Keller, a traditional styrian restaurant. On the way to my house we bought a really cute small christmas tree so that when we celebrated christmas we didn't leave out the most important part! (actually christmas braid, our family's traditional bread is also really important, but we made that as well!) We also took a night walk through the Stadtpark which was pretty and covered in snow.

On tuesday we walked up to Schloßberg, where there was still quite a bit of snow from the snowfall of the previous few days.

Shanny and I had fun hitting eachother with snowballs and making totally awesome snowmen. We also went to the Volkskundesmuseum where we learned about the christmastime austrian tradition of Krampusse, the 'evil' counterpart to St. Nikolaus. It was a really cool exhibit with lots of interesting Krampus figures and information. Dad and I had more glühwein

Yummy flaming punch!

wwe had dinner at Michaela's (one of my english colleagues) house. She made some good austrian food, consisting of salad with potatoes topped with of course pumpkin seed oil, bread and cheese and meats, as well as some goulash for my family (and a mushroom soup just for me!) all topped off by a delicious topfen cake and plenty of wine as well. My family really liked her and she and her husband and son were very hospitable to us.

On wednesday we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel (very very good buffet style with fruits and veggies and cereals and bread and yogurt and coffee and lots of tea sorts) and then headed off too vienna. Shanny and I went to an international drink store before we got on the train where she got some Irn Bru

We got there in about 2.5 hours. we walked around the town a bit and went to the main Art Museum which had some cool renaissance paintings (and also a small christmas market in the plaza in front of it).

We had dinner at a restaurant called Plachutta, which we walked to from our hotel which meant walking through the main center of town which was decorated with lots and lots of decadent lighting for christmas.

I liked the big red balls and the huge bow the most.

We walked past St. Stephan's Cathedral which is a crazy and cool center of the city, although it seems to be going under lots of restoration. Dinner was great and we went back to our hotel for the night.

On thursday after another awesome breakfast we took a bus tour of the city and saw all of the main sights. We went to the main christmas marked which was filled with lots of people, perhaps too many people. I prefer the christmas markets in graz, although this christmas market had some really cool decorations that lit up in the trees at night.

WWe had some cake and coffee at a famous cafe called the Landmann where Freud apparently often went. Aww shanny is cute. We also had a nice dinner at a restaurant called Listaurant which was open on christmas eve. We saw some freaky animatronic thing in the park too. In Austria they acutally celebrate christmas on the 24th, so many of the restaurants were closed and most stores closed in the early afternoon.

Friday after breakfast we went to the Sissi Museum/Living quarters of austrian royalty, which was actually quite interesting, and then headed back to graz where we made the christmas braid (but didn't have time to bake it) and set up my room all christmas-y with candles and christmas music and then opened the presents that we got for one another.

I am really glad I got to spend this time with my family.

Shanny and I made christmas braid We had dinner at another styrian restaurant which was of course, really good. We had some GREAT food on this trip.

On Saturday we took a day trip to Riegersburg where there is a castle in the hills.

Unfortunately it was closed, but the taxi drive there was beautiful. It was a gorgeous blue skied day and this region was really nice and green.

We didn't get out of the taxi when we realized we couldn't go up to the castle, so we took it further to Blumau, where there is a thermal spa created in the 90s by this well known austrian architect called Hundertwasser. (we also saw some of his architecture in vienna and i saw a castle he decorated with sylvia when i went to the therma with her and her family about a month ago). It is very childlike and uneven and colorful, but actually really cool and environmentally friendly.

We had some lunch here and wished we could have gone into the thermal pools which looked relaxing, but had to go back to Graz that night. We walked to town where we thought the train station would be, but couldn't find it and I asked some locals where it was and they said that we would have to walk outside of the city center about 30 minutes to get there. We took a cab since it was dark and they weren't very sure of how to get there. The train station ended up being a small platform with a few seats and that is it. It was the most sparse train station i have seen in austria. the train came and we got on it and went back to graz where we cooked the christmas braid which had been rising in my house (its a yeast dough) and ate that for our dinner. Yum!

On sunday my family left back home. I know my sister was excited to see Isaac again, but I was sad to see them leave, but thankful that I have a family that cares about me and that I care about too. Thanks for a great time fam!

I am heading off to Turkey tomorrow morning to see Jen and Andrea! I will be there over new years and I am really excited to explore this new area.