Go with the Flow of the BBQ

the day after biking (see post: liking or disliking biking) we had a flow house barbeque! my dad and John made burgers and sausages, my mom made drinks, we all put out salads, chips, sodas, dessert and more! we invited Doc.O, our art history teacher, and we partied! they were delicious burgers, and wonderful desserts! it was fun to hang out on the back porch with all the students!!!

liking or disliking biking?

 On Friday the 26 of April, we went on a Long bike ride. my dad and I rode a tandem bike, because he was worried I would get tired biking for about 3 hours, and that I wouldn't be able to reach the petals. I could barely reach them! Anyway, I got a helmet, which you can see a student decorated, and we rode on! enjoy the pics!

the monastery, Melk! this is in the town Melk, that we trained out to, and rented the bikes at!

Me and my decorated helmet. the yellow on top is dandelions that Sarah put in!

the Danube! we saw many sights on our bike ride, this one one!

the next few photos are sights seen on our ride!

here is Gabe, or as some call him Maximilian, gibber, or Gabuh!

Brooke! the one who made it all happen!

here is John on his bike!

And George!

This is John Roberts, my moms godfather.

the sign says Willendorf. this is where the Venus of Willendorf was found! and here we are passing through! if you don't know about the Venus, then check my post about the natural history museum, called NaturXocolat!

And another beautiful view!!!

we have decided. did we like it or dislike it? you tell me! it would seem like it! all the wonderful views! but there was one problem... the next morning. all of us waking up, barley able to move our legs! we were all so sore! despite that, I think we can all say that it was totally worth it! I hope the students would agree; WE LOVED IT!!!

Buda or Pest?

Pest. We were on the pest side of Budapest. Budapest used to be split into 2 halves, the city Buda, and the city Pest. Now they have joined together, but if we had come a long time ago, we would be on the Pest side.
We just returned from Budapest. It was a trip with all the students! We went a day early though. Budapest was really nice, our hotel was great, our beds were terrible, it was sunny and warm, and over all, really fun! But all the architecture was Neo, meaning new, so it wasn’t really old, it was just a copy of what things would look like. For instance, Neo Gothic, would look like a Gothic style building, but would really be built recently. There is a lot to say, but it will probably be covered in my mom’s blog “Interwhits” or my brother’s blog “G Whit Witty.” What I am going to blog about was the first night, the night some of you know about from my mom’s face book page….

The dreaded Doop night:

So we are in the taxi, just gotten of our train, and heading to our hotel. I pull Doop out of my bag, and Gabe wants to hold him. Recently, I had found a piece of sea glass, Doop sized, so I put it in him as a heart! Gabe wanted to feel the heart, once he did; I placed Doop in the cup holder in the taxi.

We are in the hotel, I open my bag…… Doop is not there. My dad goes and looks through the hotel, he’s not there. We come to the conclusion that Doop is in the taxi. I’m upset, and we go out to dinner. Okay food, still upset. Driving back to the hotel, still upset. At the hotel, still upset, my dad gets a taxi guy to take him down to the train station. My dad gets there and sees the taxi we were in pulling away! He goes up to a line of taxi people and tries to ask them if they could get the guy to come back. Soon an English speaker comes, and says that the guy who drove us would be back soon.

My dad walks in the door with Doop in his pocket!!!

 

The Best of the Rest of Buda and Pest!

St. Stevens’s church: Doc. O. is there giving us a tour! It is a big church, really pretty! We see a choir singing, and then we go to see the mummified hand of St.Steven! It was cool, and weird!

The hot pools: we went to hot pools! My mom and dad stayed in the sauna, while Annie, john, and Olivia took us around! There were lots of different pools; it was fun to jump in the really hot one, then jumping into the freezing cold one! The most fun was the whirl pool! It was a spinning circle, with jets that pushed you around, SUPER FAST! I’ve been in lots of pools that spin, but none were close to how fast this was! Plus, the water was warm!!!

Dinner with Doc.O and herb: We took Doctor O. and herb (our art history, and history teachers) out to dinner! It was really good food, and fun to be around them!!!

Positively passionate, pleasantly peaceful, perfectly peculiar, powerfully pretty, precious PIRAN!

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED Venice and Rome, but Piran was something else.

My mom and I escaped to Piran, Slovenia for 10 days! It had everything: beautiful ocean, delicious sea food, wonderful views, lots of animals, and most importantly, SUN! We have had a lack of sun here in Vienna, so we took a small vacation from our Viennese vacation! This is going to be a long blog about some of the best 10 days in my life! Let’s begin at, well, the beginning!

The train ride was long and boring, like most train rides, but at least we had a pretty view! I don’t want to make this blog even longer by talking about a train ride, but let’s just say we got to Piran an hour late. It was 8 pm and we were tired, but our hosts, Vasija and Mira, kindly showed us around despite the fact they had a 2 hour drive to get back to their home in Ljubljana (pronounced loob-lee-on-uh, even though I say it la-joob-la-jon-uh). The apartment was nice, but small, and we slept well! The only problem was that we had no Wi-Fi! For dinner we went to a place with great pasta, and seafood pizza! It was pizza with mussels, clams, and other seafood on it! 

En Dan (day one (in Slovenian language))
Piran is small. People say to get lost in Venice, because you never really are lost, but Piran is even smaller, and all paths lead to the main square, or the water. We lived right next to the square and close to the water, so we went on lots of walks while we were there. Today was a super sunny day, but it was very windy! The first walk was up to the castle walls, which were old roman walls, no real castle still exists. These walls soon became my favorite place; they had a beautiful view that was looking down on the little peninsula of Piran!  We walked back to a restaurant near the rocky beaches and ordered sandwiches! My mom got a tuna one, and mine had lettuce, cheese, and the famous ham from that region, the karst ham! I am almost positive that my mom will mention karst and all that geographical stuff in her blog, but I am not as interested in it so I’ll leave it to her. We also ordered a giant plate of olives, ham, more ham, cheese, and tastiness!!!  That is also what we had for dinner! But before dinner we had a long windy walk to the border of Piran, and Portoroz (a place you will hear more about!)  
After dinner we went down to a place called Hotel Piran, which had a good cafe! Unlike in Vienna, the sun set really late in Piran, so we watched it every night! Mom ordered their house red wine, and I got hot chocolate. When we asked for hot chocolate, the waiter asked, 'Hot chocolate or hot cacao?' We asked what the difference was, and he said that hot cacao is what we would call normal hot chocolate, but hot chocolate that the hotel makes is like hot pudding! Of course, I ordered hot chocolate!
The sunset wasn't very good, but my drink sure was!!!

 Drugi dan (day two (in slovenian language))
Today we went to Portoroz just to check it out! We spent the whole day, wandering around portoroz, just hanging out, walking in the sun, and relaxing! We ate lunch at a little place, my mom got fried squid, and I had 4 cheese gnocci. It was okay, nothing exceptional.
When we got back we went down to hotel Piran's cafe and got the same drinks as last time and watched a not so good sunset!


Tridnevni ( day three )    
The most relaxing day ever! We went to portoroz, and went to a sauna park! You were wrapped in giant sheets and would wander into different sauna's! Different saunas were different temperatures, and had different specialties! One had salt to rub on you, and some had oils dripping so you could smell them while you relaxed! Some were wooden, and some were tile. There was a steam room, and a finish sauna that was 94 degrees! There was also a hot pool section! We were allowed to spend 4 hours in there! The pools weren't very hot, so we spent most of our time in the saunas! When we left the sauna park we were so relaxed! It was so peaceful and awesome! We went down to our usual spot (Hotel Piran's cafe) and got our usual drinks (wine for mom, hot chocolate for me)

Stiridnevni ( day four )  
 Today we had a lazy day! We ate at Cafe Neptun ( a cafe with delicious, homemade juices!) then for lunch we ate at a place called Pri Mari! After dinner in the apartment, we went up to watch the sunset up on the castle walls! Still not the greatest sunset, but you know how I love those castle walls!!!

 Peti dan  (day five)
So today, Gabe, Dad, Rachel, and George are coming!  Rachel is my art teacher, who has been in my art blogs, and George is her boyfriend and also an awesome student! Speaking of my art blogs I have posted more pictures so go check them out in the post: 'Sketchtastic!'  Anyway, my mom and I went to the aquarium in the morning! Now normally we wouldn't go to an aquarium, but this was supposed to be cool, because all the animals are local, from that area. I don't think I will ever see an aquarium cooler than the one in Atlanta, Georgia, but I liked this a lot! Oh, Doop liked it to! Look for him in the pictures!
Then my mom and I went back home and relaxed for a little while, until it was time to go to meet everyone at the bus station! When that time came we went over to Cafe Neptun, a cafe nearby the bus stop they would get off at. Soon, they arrived, and we all shared stories! After the students settled down in their hotel, and Dad, and Gabe settled into our apartment, we all met down at bar Danoi, (where my mom and I had the big plate of ham, cheese and so on) And my dad wanted to order the big plate of ham, cheese, and so on for the four of us to share!
Then the students came to dinner with us, and we had good meals, at place called restaurant Neptun (owned by the same people as cafe Neptun!)
When we left the restaurant, it was dark, but my dad wanted to go somewhere, so we took them to hotel Piran Cafe! We ordered hot chocolates and my dad didn't realize it would be pudding although I told him ten thousand times! He took a big gulp and made a weird motion. When he finally got it down he said,"it was like hot chocolate lava pouring down my throat!"

Dan sest (day 6)
It was a dark and stormy day in our sweet little Piran, so we hired a driver, and he drove us to an old church with frescoes from 1490 in it!   It was about a 45 minute drive to this church in the village called Hrastovlje. Our taxi driver had never been in and we insisted he should come see the frescoes, but he insisted he didn't want to, so he didn't come in! We climbed up a hill to the church and waited for 10 minutes for someone to come unlock the door. We looked around, and I was sure we came past there on our train ride! Everyone disagreed, until we saw a train pass by that looked exactly like the one my mom and I rode on. It turns out that the rest of them didn't come through there, because they came partway on bus, and we went on train! Soon, a man came, who looked about the students age, 20 or so. By the way, Rachel and George came with us in the taxi! The guy let us in the church, and told us about the amazing frescoes! My favorite was the most famous in the room, called 'the dance of death.' If you search 'the dance of death Hrastovlje' and go to images then you will see it! Then, we left, and my dad went back to give the guy a tip, and the guy insisted that we take two bottles of wine! They were homemade wines, from the vineyard sitting next to the church!
Afterwards our driver took us to the Skocjan Cave! The biggest cave in Europe! The third biggest cave in the world! It was astounding! You really should look up pictures, because I don't know how to describe it! HUGE! With giant stalagmites (the ones on the ground)! And really interesting stalactites (the hanging ones on the ceiling)!    
On the way back home we stopped in Trieste, Italy! We had the best gelato in our lives there! I guess I have to add to the Italy gelato count... 


GOOD GELATO:   FOUR                               NOT SO GOOD GELATO: THREE
When we arrived back in positively precious…bla bla bla Piran, Gabe decided to go climb on the rocks, or should I say fall off the rocks. Yes, Gabe fell into the Adriatic!

Dan sedem (day 7)
My mom wanted to go to these salt field things, so we spent the whole morning trying to get to them, and failing. We ended up eating at a restaurant in Portoroz that our taxi driver from the previous day told us about! It was wonderful, or in German: Wunderbar (voon-der-bar)!!! They had fresh bread, and delicious olive oil flavored with pepper, rosemary, bay-leaves, and garlic! I got a mackerel fillet, Gabe and dad got fish, and my mom got seafood pasta! Yum!
Again we went and watched a bad sunset down at hotel Piran!

Dan osem (day eight)
Our last day :(  ! We walked down to the salt fields with Rachel and George and this time we were successful! They were really interesting! It would be best to Google them (salt fields Piran), because there is no way for me to describe them--pools of salt water, I guess. It was the process that was cool!
Then, for our LAST-night-in-Slovenia dinner, all six of us went to the restaurant my mom and I went to our FIRST night! I got the seafood pizza that my mom had last time! We all really loved it! For dessert we ordered chocolate crepes, and they were delicious!!! 

In Zjutraj… (And in the morning....) 
We woke up and said goodbye to our positively passionate, pleasantly peaceful, perfectly peculiar, powerfully pretty, precious Piran!



pictures will be posted soon!

ich habe in venedig KRANK

Well after Rome we went to Venice! If you don't know German you probably do not know what the title says. In English it translates to “I had in Venice sickness”, as in, “I was sick I Venice.” The first day I was fine and this is what we did: 

My mom had planned a surprise for us and it turned out to be a venetian-style rowing lesson! A woman taught us how to row the boat!!! One of us would row and the other three would sit and enjoy the view! It was really fun. We all got to row on the Grand Canal and in lots of little canals! We walked back home which was a 40 minute walk and I started not feeling well. When we got home my mom took my temperature and I was at 102 degrees Fahrenheit! Most of Venice was kind of a blur to me; I barely got any sleep most nights and had to stay in bed all day, so this might be a short blog. Here is the Venice I remember:

Our house; Next to the Peggy Guggenheim museum, on the edge of the Grand Canal, looking out at Venice. I get out of bed and see the water of the big canal. My mom is home with me and my dad and brother are exploring Venice. She enters my room and suggests we go to the Guggenheim museum. We do. 

The art there was really great! There was a room of Jackson Pollock, and lots of Max Ernst. Did you know Peggy Guggenheim was married to Max Ernst? I got to do some sketching of the statues outside (pictures will be posted) and I really enjoyed all of it! Then I went back to bed, my energy had been spent. 

In bed. Gabe is home. A new day. Last night’s sleep (if you could call it that) was bad. Very bad. Tired and sick, reading my book. Drawing. Sleeping. Staring out the window. Its Thursday. My mom walks in: “kids I just went on a great walk!” then my dad comes: “Well let’s all go on a family walk!” My mom: “One of us needs to stay with Maya. I will and you and Gabe can go.” Me: “No, I want to come. I’m feeling better!” “Well, what are we waiting for? Los gehts/ let’s go!” 

We all walked down to the Zaterre and sat on a big porch, overlooking the water. We were going to stay for sunset, but we would have to wait an hour. We decided to get gelato, and I am continuing my gelato count from Rome. We last left off with one good two bad. This gelato adds one to the not so good category:

GOOD GELATO: ONE                         NOT SO GOOD GELATO: THREE

So we sat out and gazed at the water and the island across, with some sun on our face, but still a chill in the air.

Terrible sleep, gross medicine. Friday. Feeling… Better! A lot better! 

So we head out on a walk! Walked far and ate a place recommended by a friend who said that it was the best pizza he had ever had. If you are reading this Dean Franco, that was some good pizza!!! Then we saw a place that had a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit. They had created models of some of his great ideas. There were some cool things! A lot of the things were still used today, like how you measure wind speed on an airplane, or how the pilot knows if the plane is off balance! When walking home we got more gelato! I got chocolate and tirimasu,but this tirimasu was like no other! It was whipped, like eating a cold flavored, thick whipped cream! I loved it!!!

GOOD GELATO:  TWO                             NOT SO GOOD GELATO: THREE

That night was the best part of Venice for all of us! We were going to meet up with Davis, a friend’s son who is about my mom’s age! Davis brought his friend josh. It was a coincidence that we were all in Venice at the same time! So we all went out to dinner together. I ordered clam pasta (it was really good), Gabe got gnocchi (it was tasty), Davis got squid ink pasta (it was interesting), my dad got breaded and fried seafood (yum), and Josh and my mom got the highlight of it all! A 30 dollar sea food bowl! It came out and it was huge!!! We all had to help them eat it! It took a while, but we had eaten most of our meals and we were all enjoying ourselves, when the waitress asks: “would you like your pasta now?” we thought she was joking, but she brought out a bowl of pasta that came with their meal! She dropped it in the sauce that was left over, and we all stuffed ourselves even more! When we were all so full, she asked, “Are you ready for dessert?” sure enough, she brought out a platter of cookies that came with their meal! She also brought out a dessert wine for them! Then we all ordered our own desserts. I got one of the greatest tiramisu cakes I’ve ever had! Gabe a got a panna cotta with a wonderful dark chocolate sauce! Josh got persimmon gelato:

GOOD GELATO: THREE                        NOT SO GOOD GELATO: THREE

 My dad ordered a chocolate cake that had an amazing pistachio cream filling, and my mom split a cheese cake with Davis!!! We were all satisfied and stuffed!