How'd I Do?

Now that we are nearing the end of 2012, I have started to look back at the resolutions I made at this time last year to see how I did.

1. Maintain my weight - I felt like I did really well with this up until I got pregnant over the summer. It has been a struggle coming to terms with gaining weight, even though I know it is necessary for a healthy pregnancy.

2. Exercise more regularly - I was hoping to be able to exercise 3 or 4 times a week, even for short amounts of time, but I did discover some new things with regards to exercise. Eric and I started going to power yoga once a week in April and we loved it. I have had to take some time away from it since then because of the heat involved in power yoga (not good for pregnancy!), but I am looking forward to starting back up again next year. I also tried Jazzercise after I got a groupon to try it. It's not bad, though I think I still prefer Zumba.

3. Make music for myself.

a. Start every day with music - This happened some of the time....

b. Be more comfortable playing the guitar - After putting guitar lessons off, I finally started them in December. I plan to take lessons every other week for a couple more months until the baby is born and hopefully that will help increase my guitar skills.

c. Write more songs - Time really got away with me on this one. I wrote one song this year, as opposed to the minimum of 3 I was hoping for. There's always next year!

4. Continue to read more - I far surpassed my goal on this one! I was hoping to read 12 to 15 books but actually read 32 as of right now. I read several different series this year including the Hunger Games trilogy, the Mazerunner trilogy and prequel, the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I am also currently in the middle of the Harry Potter books and the Tudor series written by Philippa Gregory that chronicles court life during the times of the Tudor reign in England. 

5. Write more - This was a total fail on my part and I just couldn't keep up....

6. Have more deep, in-depth discussions in my life - Same for this one, though the posts on FB were interesting to read when I did actually do it.

7. Develop my Music Therapy business

a. Get my website up and running - This I kind of met halfway. I wrote one blog post on my website, which is more than I did before but it still needs a lot more work.

b. Finish designing my Music for Wellness and Self-Discovery course and teach at least one section of this course this year - I finished designing the course and actually offered it at St. Mary's Women's Wellness Center but did not get enough participants to actually teach the course. I have plans to offer it again in 2013 at a different time that might work better for people.

c. Present at conference - This one actually happened! I applied in March to present about interventions with children and adolescents in inpatient psychiatric facilities. I designed it to be an interactive presentation because they tend to be more popular. I was chosen to give my presentation and it went really well. I had over 100 people in attendance (I know because I ran out of handouts) and people were sitting on the floor and out the door.

8. House projects

a. Install new carpet in the other 3 bedrooms. We are hoping to do this in January/February - Check!
b. Install new kitchen counter - Check!
c. Install new kitchen floor - Check!
d. Organize closets and drawers - I got a lot of this done but not everything...
e. Paint the barn - Check!
f. Paint the fence - Didn't happen but I'm sure it'll be back on the list for a later date....

9. Things to look forward to - All of these things happened:)
a. Our 3rd trip to Europe
b. A weekend trip to Cincinnati to go to the zoo
c. More than likely a weekend trip in October to celebrate our 6th anniversary
d. American Music Therapy Association conference again this year

So yeah...not everything happened but I still feel like I improved in a lot of areas, so I'm calling it a success! If anything, it has made me more mindful about things.

Stay tuned for my 2013 resolutions!

2012 Recap

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before? Gave a presentation at the AMTA national conference, took a small child on a European vacation

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I would rather look at my resolutions more as goals. I kept some from last year and will probably come up with some new ones for next year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My nephew was born in November and my good friend Holly had her daughter in October.

4. Did anyone close to you die? The world lost way too many great people this year. I was not necessarily close to anyone who died but I was close with people who lost their loved ones. Hopefully 2013 will be better…

5. What countries did you visit? Spain, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, and Germany

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? More free time, to have a healthy baby, more music therapy contracts, more time to spend with my family

7. What date(s) from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 20-21: Marriage retreat in New Harmony       

April 20-21: Drumming CMTE and SMWC Alumnae Reunion

May 2 – 18: European Vacation

June 2: Anya’s birthday party

June 4: Anya’s 2^nd birthday

July 14: The day we found out we were expecting another baby

August 24-26: Weekend in Cincinnati

September 13: The day we found out we were having a boy

September 23: Gender Reveal Party

October 11-14: American Music Therapy Association national conference

October 13: Gave a presentation at the national conference

October 20-21: 6^th Anniversary spent in Indianapolis

November 14: The last day of any sort of regular schedule working at Crosspointe

November 16: The day our nephew was born

December 8: Anya’s first Suzuki violin performance at Barnes and Nobles

December 12: My 31^st birthday

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Giving a presentation at the AMTA national conference, taking a toddler to Europe and back with everyone still in one piece and sanity intact

9. What was your biggest failure? Not getting as many more music therapy contracts as I had hoped

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I sprained my ankle in Bratislavia and it was bad enough that I had to go to PT for several weeks.

11. What was the best thing you bought? My plane tickets to Europe and all the great food we bought while we were there!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? All the people who have made it a priority to spend time with me and make things special.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Can’t really think of anyone off the top of my head. There are always people whose choices make me cringe, but I guess it’s really none of my concern.

14. Where did most of your money go? Our European vacation, carpet, kitchen countertop, and new tile

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Our 3^rd European tripJ

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2012? In My Arms by Plumb

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? Happier

ii. thinner or fatter? “Fatter,” thanks to this pregnancy

iii. richer or poorer? Probably about the same, though I’m about to get poorer because I’m not working as much

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? relaxing and just enjoying life (same as every year)

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Worrying (same as every year)

20. How did you spend Christmas? We are planning to spend the Saturday before Christmas with my family and the Sunday before Christmas with Eric’s mom’s family. We will probably do our own family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning and then spend that evening with my mom’s family. Christmas Day will be spent with my dad’s family over lunch and then with Eric’s family later that evening.

21. Did you fall in love in 2012? Already there!

23. What was your favorite TV program? American Horror Story (though I’m not sure how much more I can take!), New Girl, Whitney, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, Revolution

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? No

25. What was the best book you read? The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The Hunger Games trilogy, part of the Tudor series by Philippa Gregory

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? The ukulele, Mumford and Songs, Trace Bundy

27. What did you want and get? To go to Europe, new carpet, new tile, new kitchen counter, to be pregnant

28. What did you want and not get? more time to relax, the fence painted

29. What was your favorite film of this year? The Hunger Games (though I didn’t really get to see too many movies)

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I celebrated with family a few days before; we got strombolis from Pizza King and had my mom’s cherry cheesecake. I had to work on my actual birthday, but that evening we had a quick dinner at Qdoba and then came home to eat ice cream cake. I turned 31J

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? more relaxation, less worrying

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 201? Started out the year wearing “skinny” clothes and am now in maternity

33. What kept you sane? Not really sure…

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I’m not even sure…

35. What political issue stirred you the most? The election – I hope we can get through the next four years without things falling apart even further…

36. Who did you miss? Friends that I don’t get to see often

37. Who was the best new person you met? Lauren, Sarah

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012. There were so many that I wouldn’t even know where to begin. One of them is that you can’t put a price on the time spent with your kids when they’re young. Also, life is short, so don’t leave things undone.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. “Your baby blues, so full of wonder/Your curly cues, your contagious smile/And as I watch, you start to grow up/All I can do is hold you tight” (In My Arms – Plumb)

13 Week Picture

I have been really bad about taking pictures this time around. It looks like I'm starting to get a small bump at 13 weeks, 1 day. Either that or I'm just really bloated!

Don't forget that you only have a day and a half to vote for boy or girl!!

Boy or Girl?

At 12 weeks and 1 day, we were able to find out the sex of our baby. How is that possible? Well, there is a brand new blood test that can be done as early as 10 weeks. The purpose of it is really to tell what the baby's blood type is, which is especially important for women who are Rh-, which happens to be me. However, because they can get to the DNA this way, they can see the chromosomes and determine the baby's sex with high accuracy.

We received our results this past Thursday. I had previously called the doctor's office and asked them to just notify me when the results were in instead of calling me with the results, because I wanted us to find out together. I picked up the results and dropped them off at Pinch of Sugar (if you haven't had their cakes yet, you should try them because the one we got was amazing!) and had a small 2 layer 6 inch cake made. They were able to make the color of the icing to correspond with the sex of the baby. Later that night, we had our own little "reveal" with the three of us. So we know whether the baby is a boy or girl, but we will not be revealing this information until next Sunday after we share it with our immediate family and close friends. You have about a week to cast your vote on whether you think it is a boy or girl:)

Of course, the baby's blood type is Rh+, so I will be getting the Rhogam this time around as well:(

I realize I am a little behind with this news (since we have already told friends and family and made a Facebook announcement), but Anya is going to be a big sister at the end of March! We are really excited about Baby #2!

This is my nonexistent baby bump at 5 weeks and 3 days:

 

I will hopefully post more up-to-date pictures soon!

Our Way Home

The day we left Boppard, we got up super early. The owner of the hotel got up as well to get us some breakfast before heading to the airport. We had to take a train to Frankfurt for about an hour and 15 minutes. The train stopped at the airport, which was very convenient and we were able to find our check in counter pretty quickly.

We had heard so many things about the Frankfurt airport. We really thought it would have been a nice airport, but we were completely unimpressed. You have to go through a passport security process before you get to the gates, and then each gate has its own security point. Unfortunately, only one gate actually had food in it, and of course, it wasn't the gate we needed. The only option for food that we had was a couple of overpriced sandwiches, drinks, and chips. We were so disappointed. We had gotten to the airport early because we expected a lot of lines and thought we could pass the time by having a nice hot meal, seeing as we would be on a plane for the next 12 hours or so. We also found out you were not allowed to go through the security checkpoint until like an hour before takeoff. There was also very limited seating. We ended up sitting in chairs (the only open seats we could find) to eat our overpriced sandwiches.

Apparently, Frankfurt is a much-used airport and there are a lot of military personnel going in and out. I didn't mind the security, but the layout of the airport was probably the worst I have ever seen. It would probably be fine to fly into this airport, but I don't think I would ever fly out of it again. It was an awful experience.

The plane also left much to be desired. On the flight to Madrid, we each had our own TVs at our seat and a fair amount of room for coach seating. On this plane, there were only a few TVs and of course, they were really difficult to see because of where our seats were located. We also had seats that didn't recline, but the people in front of us were able to recline their seats, which made it a really uncomfortable ride for us. For some reason, the flights back to the US are always terrible compared to the flights from the US to Europe. It was like this on our other two European trips as well.

The last day of a vacation is always so hard, just because you know you will be leaving. While I'm sure I thought it would be nice to be back home, I really did not want to leave Europe. This was our third trek through Europe and we have really enjoyed seeing the sights, experiencing different cultures, and trying different foods. This was our first trip with an almost-two year old, and I have to say that even though she had her moments, I would do it all over again. There were things we couldn't do because we had her with us, but we felt like we still got to do a lot of things, and she didn't seem to hold us back too much. It got us thinking about where we would like to go next. Some of the places still on our list include Greece (if they can ever get their act together so that it is safe to visit!), Romania, the western part of Ireland, the English countryside, Scotland, Wales, and the south of France, just to name a few. I am confident we will go back sometime, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Europe 2012: Day 15 - Boppard

Our last full day in Boppard was well spent. We started the morning with breakfast at the hotel. At this point, Ani was asking for her own chocolate milk.

Then, we took the train to Bingen so that we could board the KD Boat. There are various boats that go up and down the Rhine River daily so sightseers can view all the castles from the boat. From what we had read, the section from Bingen to St. Goar was the most scenic. We ended up riding all the way back to Boppard just because we could do that instead of taking the train. Eric and I brought a small bottle of wine with us so that we could enjoy some wine with our view. It was nice and relaxing to see all the different castles. While we were on the boat, we listened to an audio guide that taught us about each castle and town we passed. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took...

We got off the boat at St. Goar, which is another little town on the river. It is supposed to really beautiful and quaint. We stopped at a little cafe to grab some sandwiches and a piece of cake. We ended up eating the sandwiches as we hiked up yet another hill (and yes, my ankle was still severely sprained) to get to Reinsfels Castle. Marksburg Castle, which we visited a few days prior, is actually in close to its original condition. Rheinsfels Castle is in ruins but was supposed to be a large castle in its day. Even though it is in ruins, you can still see how things were in medieval times. We used a Rick Steves tour from one of his guidebooks.

This is a picture of me in front of the view from the castle. The rest are just a few pictures of the castle ruins.

After seeing the castle, we took a little tram down the hill and got some cake and coffee to eat on the riverfront. We did a little bit of souvenir shopping before getting back on the boat. We rode from St. Goar back to Boppard and dropped some things off at the hotel. We had dinner that night at a restaurant called Auszeit. It was a fairly new restaurant that had a lot of options. We had wiener schnitzel with mushroom sauce, steak fries, pasta with pork and mushrooms, wine, salad, chili cheese fries, and streudel with ice cream for dessert. This is kind of a wierd combination, I know. This is me at our last dinner in Boppard.

Europe 2012: Day 14 - Boppard

On Wednesday morning, we started off with breakfast at the hotel. It was a pretty decent breakfast. Anya liked it because they brought her her own little cup with a saucer and a pitcher of chocolate milk. I keep meaning to email the owner to let him know that Anya constantly asks for chocolate milk now because of him!

We stopped by St. Severus Church in Boppard and took a quick look around. It was a very small church but worth the time to stop and look. There were some really old tombstones there.

Then, we hopped on a train to Bacharach. Bacharach is a small town on the Rhine River that is known for it's wine. It's a very cute little town....

We did a Rick Steves' audio tour of the town and Anya slept a lot of the time, which made it easier. The tour ended at the top of a huge hill (yet another one I climbed with my sprained ankle). From where we were we got a great view of the ruins of an old medieval chapel, as well as the town.

In this next picture, you can see that the vineyards were actually on the hill. We saw vineyards like this all over the Rhine Valley. I'm not sure how they pick the grapes or take care of the vines, but they were really steep!

After we finished the tour, Anya was still sleeping, which was a miracle in itself. So we went to a place called Bastien's Weingut Zum Gruner Baum. We had read about it in a book. They have a wine carousal that has tastes of 15 different wines for a set price. We got this as well as a plate of assorted cheeses. Most of the wine in this region is white and sweet, which is the opposite of what we drink, but there were still a couple of dry red wines. It was really fun to be able to try a lot of local wines.

After lunch, we did a little shopping around Bacharach and then took the train back to Boppard to do a little shopping there. After dropping things off at the hotel, we had dinner at Delyano Grill down the street from our hotel. We had Hawaiin Pizza, pizza with mushrooms and meat sauce, a small salad, and beer. After dinner, we took a quiet walk along the Rhine. On the way back to the hotel, he had ice cream for dessert at a little ice cream shop we saw on the way. Of course, Anya enjoyed it!

Europe 2012: Day 13 - Boppard

Fortunately, we made our switch in Mainz and got to Boppard about 7:30 in the morning. We took a cab for a few minutes to get to our hotel. The Hotel Ohm Patt was a great hotel to stay at and John, the owner (who was also British), was so welcoming. He insisted that we sit and have some breakfast with the hotel guests who had spent the night. He also talked with us over breakfast to help us figure out what to do with our day. The only thing bad about the hotel was that we were put on the top floor with no elevator. So every time we went back and forth to the room we had to climb 3 or 4 flights of stairs. It was nice in a way because then things were really quiet and Anya couldn't bother anyone else. But I must say it was difficult with my injury. This was the view from our window.

We decided to go to Braubach to see Marksburg Castle, a medieval castle. We walked to the train station and hopped on the bus to Koblenz. The Rhine River runs through the area we were in and there are only certain towns where you can cross the river. Unfortunately, we had to take a bus north to Koblenz and then take a train to Braubach on the other side of the river. In reality, Braubach wasn't that far away from Boppard but there was no direct path to get to it. Needless to say, it took a lot longer to get there than we anticipated.

When we got there, we stopped at the tourist office to find out how to get to the castle, which of course, was on the top of the hill. There is a tourist train that goes up periodically but there was a German sign on the door that we deciphered to say that the train was not running that day. Unfortunately for us, it was another long hike uphill to get to the castle. Eric pushed the stroller most of the way and I just did my best to make it up with my sprained ankle. This is literally the hill we hiked up to get to the castle...and did I mention it poured down raining a couple times on the way up?

By some miracle, we got to the top of the hill in time for the only English speaking tour of the day. The castle is only accessible through a tour. It was really cool to see because people still lived in parts of the castle. It was medieval and still in its original form so we got to see what it really looked like during medieval times. We got a picture of each of us with one of the old helmets.

And we got one of Anya standing in front of the gate with a goat behind it.

It also had some great views...

After we saw the castle, we tried to find somewhere to eat but could not find any restaurants that were open. It was really bizarre. It was a Tuesday but for some reason, the town was dead. We were starving, but we headed back to the train station to get back to Boppard, via Koblenz. We got some snacks to eat on the train and eventually got back to the hotel.

We had dinner at a place called Severus Stube, which was recommended on Tripadvisor. It was amazing. We had salads, fried potatoes (just as good as my mom's), crisped roast pork, mango cream soup, fried turkey in mushroom sauce, noodles, and wine. We sat next to a guy who was cycling his way around Europe. He had a lot of interesting stories to tell about his adventures. We were all streudel-ed out by this point, so we decided to find a cafe for dessert. We settled on Cafe Baldeau and had raspberry cream cake, cheesecake, and a caffe latte. Then, we headed back to the hotel because it had been a long day.

Europe 2012: Day 12 - Vienna/Overnight Train

Monday morning, I took this picture of Anya before she woke up...

We had breakfast at a really nice cafe that I can't remember the name of. We had a croissant, plum streudel, and cafe lattes. Then, we headed to Belvedere Castle to see the gardens. Unfortunately, the gardens were not much to look at. We ended up walking around in some kind of garden that was free. There were a few pretty sights to see, including this field of bamboo. Eric has a thing for bamboo so I had to take his picture in the middle of all the bamboo.

Next, we headed to the Hofburg Treasury, where the Hofburgs kept their most prized possessions, including things like wood from the "true cross" (the cross that Jesus died on) and part of the table cloth from the Last Supper. It's hard to say if these things are real or not, but it's crazy to think that we might have seen something like that.

Then we went to the Naschmarkt and walked around for a bit. There were food booths and souvenir shops. We ate at a place called Nordsee (I think it's a chain) and had some seafood. We also bought some chocolate kuchen and took it back to the apartment to eat. It was amazing and was different from any kind of kuchen I have had here.

And I have to include this picture of Anya just because it's funny. She kept taking her hair out just about every day so it would look crazy like this. Plus, I think we were eating the kuchen shown above.

We finished packing things up and picked up some sandwiches to take for dinner on the overnight train. We got a taxi to the train station and were able to find our train right away, though I was nervous because the train went all the way to Cologne and our tickets said something a little different. Thankfully, it ended up being ok. Here are a couple of pictures of our train compartment.

The curved thing on the left is actually a sink. When we took everything off the top, it flipped up and we could wash our face and hands. There were a couple of spots to put luggage and we had to stuff some of them under the seat. The seat actually pulled down to make a bed and there was another bed above it. It was kind of a bunk bed arrangement.

The overnight train Eric and I took to from Munich to Venice a few years ago actually had a public shower. This train did not have one, but we were prepared for that. We didn't have a toilet in our compartment but there was one in our train car so we just had to go down the hall to get to it. It is definitely cramped to sleep in a compartment like this, but it is definitely something everyone should do at least once in one's lifetime. It is an experience!

We decided that I would sleep with Ani on the bottom bunk because I was freaked out about sleeping on the top, even though there was something there to keep you from falling. But I was scared to death of rolling on top of her or of her falling off. She slept on the inside of course but I could never get comfortable.

This was the night we were most worried about Anya sleeping but she was awesome. After we ate, she told us she was sleepy and that she wanted to lay down. We figured we could use the extra sleep so we decided to go to bed, too. She was asleep in literally minutes and slept like a log all night long. We were the ones who couldn't sleep. The train kept going up and down and stopping and starting at different stops. Halfway through the night, Eric and I switched spots. I slept a little better on the top bunk because I wasn't with Anya but I had nightmares about missing our stop. We only had 2 minutes to get off the train when it stopped at Mainz and this really worried me because we had Anya and a lot of luggage.

The next morning, we arrived in Germany....

Europe 2012: Day 11 - Vienna

After the horrible day we had on Saturday, I was a little nervous about how Mother's Day in Vienna would go. We started the day with breakfast at Cafe Aida. We had pastries and American coffee. Anya definitely enjoyed having pastries for breakfast every day while we were in Europe.

Next, we headed to Schonbrunn Palace. It is about 30 minutes outside the city center and is considered the summer home of the Hapsburgs. Wouldn't you like to have a summer home like this?

We bought a pass that got us a tour of the Imperial Apartments. Luckily, Ani slept through most of this so we could actually enjoy the audioguides that came with it. The apartments were absolutely beautiful, but still nothing compared to Versailles Palace near Paris (the home of Marie Antoinette). Then, we ventured outside to see the gardens, though they weren't as plentiful as Versailles was. We got access to the maze which also included a really fun playground. It was very interactive and had lots of different things for kids to do. This is a picture of me an Ani in the playground.

The glorieta was next. This is located at the top of a huge hill. This normally isn't a problem, but this time we had a stroller with a baby and I had a very badly sprained ankle. Eric pushed/carried the stroller and I just sucked it up and walked up this hill to the structure at the top...

As tough as it was, it was totally worth it for the view...

There was also a beautiful fountain at the top and we were able to find someone to take our picture.

After climbing back down the hill, we took a stroll through the privy gardens and then headed back to the city center. We spent about 4 hours at Schonbrunn and saw a good portion of it. We stopped at a couple of shops on the way back to the apartment and then Eric sent me back to the apartment early because he and Anya had to pick up something.

When they got back to the apartment, this is what they had with them:

Austrians also celebrated Mother's Day that day so Eric and Anya were able to find an amazing chocolate cake that said Happy Mother's Day in German. Anya was excited to share it with me!

We visited the Haus der Musik for a couple of hours. It had a lot of cool intearctive musical exhibits but Anya was really restfull for a lot of it so we weren't able to enjoy it as much as we had hoped. But I did get to play the nice baby grand piano in the lobby!

We had dinner that evening at an Italian restaurant suggested in the guidebook. It was a really small little restaurant. We had wine, rigatoni with eggplant, tortellini with spinach and cream sauce, and pizza bread. The meal was amazing and we sat really close to a man who was in Vienna on business. He worked for the IAEA (which stands for the International Atomic Energy Association) and he was there to work on some kind of nuclear treaty. He was a really interesting guy. After dinner, we headed back to the apartment to have some cake. Thankfully, our luck was better that day than the day before!







Europe 2012: Day 10 - Vienna/Bratislava

Saturday was a very strange day. In some ways, it was one of the best days of our trip, and in other ways, it was the worst.

We started the day by grabbing some breakfast at Anker, which was a chain where you could get bakery items to take away. We sat and ate it in front of the opera house. That morning, we also stopped at a Bipa which is pretty much like a CVS. We couldn’t find diapers and feminine items at the regular grocery store and the Bipa stores had really limited hours, so we had to do this during the day.

We had tickets to go to Bratislava, Slovakia for the day, so we chose a train time that worked for us. We headed for the train station, thinking that we had plenty of time. However, about five minutes before the tram was supposed to arrive at the stop, all the signs started flashing something in German. The only word we could make out was the German word for “demonstration.” After attempting to communicate with a few people who only spoke German, it appeared that there was some kind of demonstration happening where the metros and trams were coming from, which was causing backups in the transportation system. At that point we had no idea when the tram would get there, so we walked quickly to the metro and hopped on a train there.  Of course, there was construction at the train station and the metro didn’t drop us off exactly at the train station. There was a bit of a walk, but thankfully there was a girl who spoke English where we got off who was able to point us in the right direction. We literally ran to the train station and thankfully made it before the train took off. Needless to say it was a very stressful morning.

Once we got on the train, we were able to relax a little. The ride was a little over an hour. Here is Anya looking at the map...

After getting off the train, we headed to our bus stop to wait for the bus that would take us to the old town area. This is where things got a lot worse. Eric was carrying Anya and I was pushing an empty stroller. I was running/jogging to catch the bus and all of a sudden, my left ankle twisted and I was on the sidewalk. It happened so fast, I wasn’t even sure what happened. My theory is that when I went to push the stroller, I was expecting it to weigh more (as if Anya were in it) and I walked with more force than was necessary and tripped. I guess I will never really know, but my ankle hurt so bad when that happened that I could hardly get up to walk onto the bus. When we got on the bus, the bus driver started talking to us in what we think was Czech. We think he was trying to tell us that this was only the drop off point and we were supposed to get on the bus across the street, but he used hand signals to tell us to stay put, seeing as I had just fallen and we had a small child with us. I was afraid to look at my ankle, so I guess I really didn’t even look at it at that point.

Of course, we missed the bus stop where we were supposed to get off and had to get off at the next stop and backtrack, but that only put us behind by a little bit. Once we found the right spot, we began walking around in the old town area. It was beautiful. It reminded us so much of Prague, which would make sense, seeing that Bratislava was in the other half of what used to be Czechoslovakia. On the forums, several people had said that Bratislava was not worth visiting, but we beg to differ. We actually wished we had had more time there and would definitely consider returning there to explore a little more. Here are a few pictures of the old town.

While we were walking, my ankle was still hurting quite a bit so I decided to check it out. I lifted my pant leg and panicked. My ankle was at least three time its normal size; I had never seen it like that before. It freaked me out so much I couldn’t look at it or touch it. Now, I wish we had taken a picture, but I think I was so shocked by its appearance that I didn’t want to see it. We found the main square where we were meeting our free tour and I sat on a bench with Anya in her stroller (she was sleeping) while Eric ran all over the old town area getting Advil and ice (which is hard to come by in Europe!)

I probably should not have gone on a 2 hour and 15 minute tour after spraining my ankle that badly, but I decided that we didn’t come all the way to Bratislava to miss out on anything, so I took the Advil, iced it, and sucked it up for the next few hours. I was glad I did, because the tour was very interesting and took us around various parts of the old town. After the tour, we did a little shopping at an outdoor market area in one of the squares and purchased a cheap ankle brace so that I would have at least some support on my ankle. We also found some anti-inflammatory cream there. It isn’t sold in the US, but it worked nicely. It had Ibuprofen and Heparin in it. Then, we headed back to the train station to get back to Vienna.

Once we got back to Vienna, we ran into another problem. We realized that we couldn’t find our metro passes. We looked everywhere before we decided to call it a loss, which wasn’t good because our passes were expensive and we still had 2 days left on them. We had to buy two 48-hour passes to get us through the next couple of days. Chances are, we would not have been checked by the police but if you do get checked, you get some really hefty fines that cost way more than the passes. Eric had found 20 euros on the ground a few days prior to this, so we decided that it didn’t really set us back too much.

After stopping back at the apartment, we went back out for dinner. On the way, we stopped outside the opera house. In the summers, they have a big screen outside and seating set up facing the screen. The screen shows the opera so that people can watch it on the street. It is free so we stopped for a few minutes, though we didn't understand any of it becasue the subtitles were all in German.

Then, we had dinner at Rosenthaller Beisl. A beisl is kind of a tavern. This one was suggested in one of our guidebooks and it did not disappoint. We had homemade sausages, sauerkraut, fried potatoes, wiener schnitzel, salad, wine, and beer. Anya stood up in the booth the other entire time and ate a TON of wiener schnitzel. Remember how I said before that she wouldn’t eat meat when we were back in the states? Well, she was shoveling in the wiener schnitzel so fast that we couldn’t cut it up fast enough! Kids can be so weird sometimes…

We decided to stop by Café Sacher for dessert. This particular café is known for its Sacher Torte, which is basically a really fancy chocolate cake. We added a café latte and shared a slice of it. We were exhausted after that, so we headed back to the apartment. This is a picture of of Anya and I getting ready to eat our cake:)

I can’t remember which night it was, but one of the nights we spent in Vienna, we were watching the news and saw a huge protest taking place in Madrid. It was a protest concerning their current financial problems, though I didn’t quite understand all of it. However, the news showed probably thousands of people gathered in Puerto del Sol, which was minutes away from where we stayed. We were so glad we had been in Madrid the week prior to that!

There was also one night (can’t remember which it was) where we heard lots of loud music going on outside at around 11 in the evening. (Our windows were usually open because there was no AC in the apartment.) When we looked out the window, the streets were all completely blocked from traffic and there were hundreds of people riding their bikes through the streets. After a few minutes, they were all gone. We never did find out exactly what was going on with that. We were also never able to find out anything about the demonstrations that caused the backup in transportation that day in Vienna.