A Family Adventure

As I mentioned earlier, my parents came to visit this past week. We ventured to Interlaken, Switzerland for a few days and kept ourselves very busy. In order to save time traveling, we took a night train and arrived on Saturday morning. My parents were excited to have an authentic European experience by riding on an overnight train. Considering Michael's busy schedule, it was convenient for us to combine travel time with sleeping so he would only be gone the minimal amount of time.

Interlaken means between two lakes, and this village is situated between lakes Thun and Brienz in the Bernese Oberland region. We decided it would be quite fitting for us to participate in some type of "extreme" activity, so we chose paragliding. Now, for those of you who may have been parasailing, let me tell you, it is not the same thing. As you can see in the pictures, you glide with a guide, for which I am VERY grateful. This group of guys (Richie, Robby, Dino, and Raymond) were very entertaining, and I think they enjoyed flying with us as well.

As we prepared to launch, they instructed us to run on command (towards a ledge) and keep running after we took off in case we didn't catch the wind correctly. Up until this point, I'm doing great. No fear, no anxiety, no nothing. Once we practically ran off the side of the mountain and were flying around, I started to grow a bit concerned. I was thinking to myself, 'Holy cow, I'm only supported by this silk material which my guide (Richie) was controlling with several cords. I trust him, I guess, because if I go down, he's coming, too." I was terrified that a gust of wind would thrust us further into the atmosphere and render us out of control. My fear diminished eventually and being closer to the town (and the ground) was a huge contributing factor. At one point, Richie asked if I wanted to fly...I declined. I drew the line with taking charge of our flight. A funny side note, each passenger who paraglides must have a "ticket" since it is a flight. We had to sign a slip of paper with our name on it, and it had to accompany us on our journey. Anyway, Richie also asked if I like roller coasters. My response was, "I like being IN roller coasters, but I'm not sure if I want to feel queasy this far in the air without the actual roller coaster." Since I am prone to motion sickness, I was hesitant to give him free reign with doing crazy turns. However, once we were close to landing, I agreed to feel the sensation, and it turned out just fine. It was actually better than I thought it would be. Regardless, I was glad when we were standing on solid ground again.

The next day we visited the Jungfrau region. A special train line for the Jungfrau region leaves from Interlaken and stops in some wonderful villages along the way. Since we didn't have much time, we decided to forgo any extra stops and went straight to the top of the mountain, called Jungfraujoch. This mountain top is famous because it is among the highest in Europe. Unfortunately for us, it was too cloudy at the very top of the mountain. The picture is the bottom left corner was visible before we reached Jungfraujoch, and it was quite a sight.

After returning to Vienna, we made good use of our time so that my parents could see several significant sights in the city. The weather was ideal, which is always a guessing game here, and we were grateful to see the sun so often. I was able to finish the classes I had started before they arrived, and I have two more to complete in the next several weeks. My return to the states is drawing ever close, and the countdown has begun...7 weeks, 4 days. I know we will miss being here once we leave, but I'm eager to be back home!

Our Big Fat Greek Trip

This post is long overdue, but I have spent the last few weeks trying to finish my online classes. As of now, I am one test away from completing 7 of the 10 classes! This past week has been quite busy as I was determined to be done when my parents get here...which is tomorrow. Without further ado, here is a recap of our trip to Athens during Michael's Easter break.

To our surprise, Michael returned to school from a month long break in February to discover they were getting some time off for Easter, too. Well, we jumped at the opportunity to take a short trip to Greece, as it is one of the places Michael had not visited when he studied abroad in college. Therefore, it was a new experience for us both. Unknowingly, we arrived the day before a Greek National Holiday. The hotel staff explained that museums would be closed, but we didn't think that would really affect us since we wanted to visit the Acropolis and surrounding area. Boy, were we wrong! Don't worry, we still managed to enjoy ourselves. We took advantage of our time in the city to formulate a strategy for the next day when we could actually see everything.

When I first started compiling this picture collage, it didn't take long for me to realize I couldn't include each picture I wanted to. Looking at the 15+ pictures gave me a headache, and I decided not to subject anyone else to that. I chose a few of my favorites that would accurately depict our trip. Please take special notice of the restaurant and gyro pictures. These are important because that is where we ate dinner every night (and what I always ordered). The food was cheap and extremely good. What a perfect combination! We can also claim to have eaten a Greek salad in Greece. They are tasty as well. Even though this Easter didn't include hunting eggs with my niece, we definitely enjoyed our big fat Greek trip.

Abiding by the Law

Some of you faithful readers may remember the post from last fall where I recounted our trip to the hospital here in Vienna. Michael and I both felt the experience was a waste since the doctor prescribed a medicine that we actually had in our cabinet but were not aware. However, since Michael had NOT been feeling well, I'm glad that we went. Anyway, I'll move right along with the point of this picture-less post.

The doctor jokingly mentioned the bills might not come while we were still living here. Well, he was wrong. To be quite honest, the first notice (yes, we received more than one) came in December right before we were heading home. The online banking here in Austria allows you to wire money for anything...including hospital bills. Since we weren't exactly sure what to do, we decided to let it be until we returned. A couple months later, the next round of bills came. Let's keep in mind that Michael's total waiting/being seen by the doctor time amounted to 5 hours, with 25 min of doctor time. With that said, you might understand why I was astounded to see the bills total close to $600 US dollars. Seriously? Not to mention the first doctor didn't speak English.

Once again, we didn't throw the bills away but merely chose not to act on them. One other detail to remember is that the only personal information the hospital took was a name and address here in Vienna. No passport number. No nothing. At this point, it might sound like we were trying to evade the law. I won't lie and say it didn't cross my mind, but when a hospital representative came knocking at our door yesterday morning asking for the money, we decided that now would be the best time to take care of those bills! Michael had one of his classmates call and get the specific details for what we needed to do, and, as of yesterday afternoon we are no longer indebted to the Austrian Healthcare system. Don't worry, we had to pay a late fee of $15 as well. Lesson learned.