The Lovely Children I Sit...or... What? You haven't been to the world's oldest zoo twice?

Today I went to the zoo... a second time... but this time it was with the kids. I also realized that it is the world's oldest zoo! I actually spent most of the time watching the kids, Collin and Conner, playing with a bunch of weird water machine things - like, there was a water pump and some things you could spin, and a little damm thing... Anyway, I love the zoo. We also looked at the sea lions for a long time. I tried getting them to pose for pictures, but it didn't really work - they were more interested in taking pictures themselves....

(Conner playing with the damm thing...)

(Collin pumping water...why is this fun?)

(Conner and I are so fun loving!)

(Yeah, whatever... 8 year old Collin is a better photographer than me... No big deal.)

Haus der Musik, Tiergarten, Sweedish Game

I had a busy weekend. On Friday, Lisa and I went to the house of music, which is an interactive museum about music, classical composers, sound, etc... We composed a waltz by throwing dice, conducted an orchestra, and played with weird space-like sound machines...

(Lisa playing on an outerspace sound game...)

That night we went out for dinner in front of City Hall (RatHaus), where there were all different types of vendors because they have a music film festival there. We ate indian food and this delicious Austrian desert (I don't remember what it's called, but it's potato noodles with poppy sauce):

(Doesn't it look kind of gross? Well, it tasted good.)

On Saturday we went out and played this Sweedish game where you split into 2 teams and throw sticks at wooden blocks and have to knock them over.... I can't really explain it and don't have a picture, but it was really fun.

Yesterday, Sunday, Lisa and I went to the zoo! We saw all kinds of regular and baby animals! My favorite things were: elephants, baby panda, koalas, baby monkeys, sea lions being fed... In the monkey house there were ropes across the ceiling and a monkey ran over our heads!!!

(Sleepy panda baby!)

(Polar Bear)

(Monkey over our heads!)

Thats it for the weekend...

I have my first day of practising business English today!

No pictures today

Yep, I keep leaving my camera at home... But, recent events include:

- Nina visited for the weekend and we did as much sightseeing as we could in 2 days... we also ate a lot of sweets - strudel, ice cream, cake, chocolate... Dinner on the canal and drinks on a boat-bar thing.
- Watching a lot of Lost.
- And today I went on a bike ride around the ring all alone! And to a cafe for coffee and reading.

Part 3

On July 1st, I went to Croatia with Monika and Jan... They drove and I slept in the back... On the way to Zadar (well sort of out of the way), we stopped in Triest for dinner. The pizza was great... then we couldn't find a place to sleep in Italy and ended up staying at a hotel in Slovenia... Then we drove down the coast of Croatia, which was beautiful, and stopped off at a few different beaches. We stayed almost a whole week in the city of Zadar - swimming, eating, checking out the scenic views... Most of what I remember of the sites is that some of the buildings are VERY old - like from the 9th-13th century - and that they had a sea organ. The sea organ - meaning an organ played by the sea - was really creepy and Monika and I sat on it, looking out at the dark water, making up creepy stories about monsters and dead villagers and pirates! Good times! We also snuck into the Garden Festival (a music festival held out on the beach), where we danced and partied... Monika dared me to dance with some guy for 8 Euros and I did it... only, I told him about the dare, so my reward was diminished to 5... I have a tan.

For accommodations, we stayed at this crazy old man's house (Jan's neighbor in Vienna). He didn't speak any English, so I had fun trying to communicate with him... we spent some time pointing at objects in the house and saying the English and German word for each of them... I think Jan and Monika have more funny things to say about him, as they could understand everything he said...

(This beach was actually kind of scary, so I had a personal photo shoot while Monika and Jan went in the water...)

(Nice scenery!)

(From the 9th Century!!!!!)

(Monika beach scene)

Birthday and Bicycle Adventures

July 9th was Lisa's birthday and we went out to celebrate... The owner of the bar/restaurant also had a baby earlier that day, so he showed up completely drunk, gave us everything for free, and
sprayed champagne all over the place. I had a hard day on the 10th.

(Happy Birthday Lisa!)

Yesterday, Lisa and I had a nice long bike ride along the canal and to the Danube. On the way we saw this cool Hundertwasser building:

(Hundertwasser)

On the way home it started raining so much that I couldn't see through my glasses anymore! We were soaked and decided to take the train...

(Lisa completely soaked and bikes on the subway platform.)

I totally forgot to take any pictures of the canal/river...

We now also have tickets to go to Barcelona from August 7th through 10th. YAY!

Part 2

Budapest was awesome and fun and mysterious and beautiful! Our hostel had crazy clown paint all over the walls (it actually sucked otherwise, but eh...)!

(Lisa going crazy from the crazy clown paint!)

We walked around a lot and saw the sights (castle, bridges, parliament, market....). Lisa pretty much acted as mom and guide the whole time (thanks mommy Lisa) and we followed her all over... We went to an underground labyrinth beneath the castle and we were all really scared! It was all creepy and dark and they had weird music playing... drums and heart beats... There was a lot of getting startled and screaming amongst us... At one point, we reached an area called "the tunnel of courage," which is basically a really dark hallway where you need to use a rope to find your way out... After discussing it for about 10 minutes, we decided that we were brave enough to go in... So, of course, Lisa led the way in and Michelle and I followed... about 4 steps in, Lisa said, "you know, we could still turn back if you want..." and that's what we did... The next morning, I woke up and realized that, while the underground tunnels were probably real, everything else in the labyrinth was probably fake!!!!!

(Giant scary labyrinth head that was probably a fake!)

(Lisa and Michelle being really scared in the labyrinth.)

One of my favorite sites was an art nouveau building Lisa wanted us to stop and look at on the way to another site...The roof was supposed to be the really exciting part, but it was really hard to see and we couldn't get far enough away to get a full view ... So, when we finally spotted the green tiling and statues of chickens, I wrote this song and haven't stopped singing it since:
"What did you do in Hungar-ay?
I saw the chickens on the way..."

(The chickens on the way!)

Crossing borders

In the past 2 weeks I've been in: Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia... Yup, 6 countries! Sure, I only ate dinner in Triest (Italy) and slept in Slovenia (not sure what city), but it still counts!

It all started when Michelle came for a visit:

(Me, Michelle, and my, Lisa's and Michelle's beers at the beer garden in the Prater)

Anyway... we had a blast sightseeing, partying, watching soccer, etc. in Vienna... Michelle and I also had a day trip to Bratislava:(Look at the funny pedestrian crossing sign)

(A charming Bratislava street)

During Michelle's visit, we also went to Budapest... more on that later...