Home for the Holidays

  6:30 AM came fast, as it felt like my head had hit the pillow seconds earlier.  After spending the majority of the night at our company holiday party, with over 1200 colleagues that lasted well into the morning (3:30 AM to be exact), I learned that next year, I will have to better plan my trip home for the holidays.  With my apartment cleaned, fridge cleared, and bag delicately packed, mostly with glass and gel candles from the Vienna Christmas markets that I cannot carry-on, I departed for the Vienna airport, for my short hour flight to Zurich, then 10 hours of fun in coach to the windy city.

  Upon arrival in Switzerland, I received some bad news while passing through Swiss customs to my connecting flight.  Since I have a Slovak work permit, I was told I will no longer receive EU passport stamps when traveling through Europe.  I love travel, and my reaction to finding out that I will not be receiving stamps was the equivalent of being told that Santa Claus does not exist.  I will definitely have to find a way around this obstacle, or else book all my travel through non-EU countries.  After passing through customs, I made sure to stop for lots of Swiss Chocolate, and headed over to the next security line, which the airport was handing out candy for the wait.  Although the flight was long, the ride was easier because Swiss Air provides the widest selection of movies of any airline I have traveled on, and you can start and stop each movie at anytime.  Which made the experience even better was they served ice cream mid-flight!  I think I know where I will be connecting on my future flights.  The only odd moment about the flight was when landing, where as usual, the pilot provided the weather and wind conditions, which were 0 degrees, and 40 mile per hour winds, followed with a “hope you enjoy your stay in Chicago”.  He probably could have ended on a better note saying at least there is no snow, but regardless, I am happy to be home.

  While I packed light for my travel to Chicago (1 bag), my “bags” for the return trip to Bratislava will be much different.  Two weeks earlier, I started ordering items online to bring back with me.  Other than my computers, I only brought one electrical item to Bratislava from the US, which my Playstation became so hot from 20 minutes of use, that a 240/220W to 120/110W power converter was essential if I am going to watch any of my DVDs.  I was warmed of this potential issue by a colleague ahead of time, but like most guys, did little research and still went ahead anyway.  Unlike my past travel when I packed just a laptop that had power converter capabilities, I now know that a regular plug adapter does not account for the wattage difference, even if the product does work while plugged in without the converter.  Hopefully I did not fry my Playstation, or else is it back to watching Shawshank in Slovak. 

  The second item on my list is something that I have had trouble finding in Slovakia.  A couple months ago, when viewing different apartments to lease, I was told you could always tell when an American was the prior tenant.  In Europe, it is not common for the bath tubs to have a shower curtain, so anytime there was a curtain, the prior tenant was most likely American.  While my apartment here does have a shower curtain, there is no holder for the handheld water sprayer.  Since using the handheld faucet is the only way to shower, and I have just two hands, I must set down and turn off the water mid-shower each time, which is absolutely awful.  So I ordered a portable shower arm suction grip to hopefully make that not one of the worst parts of my day.  While I am trying to live as European as possible, there are some things that will just not work, at least not in the winter months.

I am looking forward to seeing my family and spending time with friends during the holidays.  I want to wish everyone happy holidays, and hopefully will get to see some of you while in Chicago.  Please note the pictures below were taken in the summer, and it is getting colder there now, which I did hear snow fell in the city for the first time.

View from my desk; my apartment (or flat) is exactly right in the middle of this photo and a 7 minute walk each day

UFO bridge on the Danube

Christmas Markets

  Fried, and covered with cheese and garlic, my taste buds were telling me to continue, however, my heart was crying to stop.  Another bite and I might as well order a side of bypass surgery to go along with my plasky potato pancake dish.  Since my first trip to a local hospital, which was required for my residence permit, began with a chest x-ray from a 50 year old machine the size of a Hummer, and resulted in a month long bruise on my entire right forearm from giving blood to a woman who did not wear protective gloves, I decided to listen to my heart.  No, I was not at another American fast food establishment, but rather enjoying the Christmas Markets of Bratislava and Vienna this past weekend. 

 
 


         The Christmas markets begin in late November throughout cities and town across Europe, and become a mecca for celebrating the holiday spirit with local crafts, foods, and of course, drinks.  Although more than a decade years ago, but since my university degree came with an elective course in ice staking, the ice rink built in the middle of the town square was no match for my skills.  I spent Saturday night with friends from the small American community here.  The weather was cold, but the vast selection of hot Slovak punches or wines with spices and fruit, and warm sandwiches made by the Serbs kept the conversations spirited.  I ended back to the markets multiple times this month to sample the fried potato wedges and different chicken, beef, and sausage items on delicious homemade bread.  At this Bratislava market, grease seems to be considered a condiment equivalent of ketchup, mustard, or onions.  Upon ordering a sausage that was prepared and waiting on the side of the grill, the cook took the sausage, rolled it around the grease pan, and put it back on my plate all while I stood there wondering if it would have been easier to just serve me a shot glass of used cooking oil.

  Sunday consisted of a quick hour long train ride to explore the various markets of Vienna.  Wandering down narrow pedestrian streets lined with shops and stands, Vienna offered a numerous selection of hand-blown glass, jewelry, and candles.  After a quick meal and tea, it was back to wandering the streets.  I found a nice selection of glass ornaments and candles for family, and the fun part will be traveling to Chicago with so much delicate glass.

  The markets may not be for the health conscious, and fortunately for my arteries they only a short time during the year, but they are definitely a fun and exciting time that are worth the experience.  

Stacks of fried plasky

Serbian Chicken and Beef

American Traditions

  Traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year was done “My Way”, and what isn’t more American than a flame broiled burger and fries from Burger King?  However, I did end up enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday at a party which was run by the American school in Bratislava.  But, while living in the US the last few years, I have probably eaten at McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC in total no more than four times in a given year.  In less than two months that I have been living in Europe, I have already eaten at these fine establishments a total of 12 times.  As I continue to experience new foods and traditions, I know I will eventually not eat at those places as often and more similar to the frequency which I did in the US.  However, as we make changes to our daily routine and travel or live in new places, I believe we initially search for things that we are familiar with, which make any change more comfortable, while slowly adjusting to the new surroundings.  Even the other day while compiling my Christmas wish list, this year I actually asked for frozen meals from local Chicago restaurants to bring back to Slovakia.  I am really looking forward to the challenge of bringing a suitcase full of Portillo’s Italian Beef and Giordano’s Deep Dish Pizza packed with dry ice through airport security.

My first duck meal with the team

  I believe that has been the case with me, and I have searched for some familiar things to slowly transition to living here, but I have let that stop me from trying and enjoying local foods.  Duck is one of the more traditional meals here in Slovakia, and I was able to enjoy a meal with my entire team one night.  It was my first time trying duck, and I had some initial hesitation.  Growing up, my family and I would vacation on a lake, and I run down to the lake to feed the ducks as they came by.  But the thought of fattening a duck up only to eventually grab one for dinner never crossed my mind.  The meal was delicious, and I will continue to try new traditional foods.  The one thing I told friends and colleagues here is to tell me what I ate after trying it, so that I go in with a clear, unbiased conscience, otherwise I may not even try the item.  I just hope that does not come back to bite me, but I will definitely blog about if it does.

  Another tradition that does not exist here is Trick or Treating on Halloween, which as a child, was one of the highlights of the year.  I am not sure how I would have survived here because if you ask any of my family, colleagues, or dentist, sugar and sweets are a constant staple in my diet.  Before you read this next sentence, I do actually eat pretty healthy, but we all enjoy certain foods.  Some of the items which are more difficult to find or do not exist here but are prevalent in American society are peanut butter, pancake mix (I have no idea how to make them without the mix), maple syrup, bagels, donuts, Cherry Coke, Chips Ahoy cookies (which I actually suffer from cookie binging can take down the entire row in 10 minutes without even noticing), Cheetos, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (and any Hershey product).  However, they have a wide selection of taco mix, soft shells, and salsa, as well as Philadelphia Cream Cheese.  So if you are able to visit me while here, you are always welcomed to stay at my place, but, I may request you bring a couple of the items mentioned above.

  Finally, one interesting observation in transitioning from a world of miles and gallons to kilometers and liters.  In the US, if I asked someone how far a city within the same state of my current location might be, I was always given an answer in the form of time – 30 minutes, 2 hours, etc.  But when you ask any here that same question, the answer is always in the form of distance, in kilometers, which I still have absolutely no idea.

Old Town Square

Walking through the Old Town to the Castle

Bratislava Castle

Sightseeing in Salzburg

 While Thanksgiving was still a week away (and not celebrated here), all of Slovakia was given the day off for Democracy Day on November 17th.  The odd thing about holidays here is they fall on the actual day, meaning if November 17 fell on a weekend, citizens would neither receive the prior Friday nor following Monday off.  Unfortunately, You would celebrate over the weekend and get no day off (not fun).  And if the holiday falls in the middle of the week on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, employees would not get an extra holiday for the prior Monday or following Friday, and you must use a vacation day.  However, laws here provide a minimum of 20 days of vacation, plus additional days for weekends and holidays worked, so it will not be a problem.

 As the long Holiday weekend quickly approached, I got a late start on my travel planning.  With winter weather and limited sunlight around the corner, exploring the Nordic countries of Finland, Norway, and Denmark had to wait until another time.  In addition, beautiful nearby places within Slovakia and cities like Prague (Praha), Vienna (Wien), and Budapest are better suited to be visited multiple times while I have family and friends in town.  With those facts in mind, I embarked on a couple different train transfers across Austria to the western part of the country near Germany, to the city of Salzburg.  The interesting thing about trains here is you buy a ticket valid for anytime over a five day period and finding seats can be challenging at times because you never know the demand for a particular departure time.  Arriving at the train ten minutes prior to departure, I was excited to find a forward facing window seat and quickly occupied the spot.  Then just before departure, I come to find out that a family somehow reserved the seat I was sitting in with their ticket.  While nothing is posted to identify reserved seats on trains, your comfort comes down to chance, and I was stuck riding backwards into town, but luckily I had a seat for the three hour trip.

Surrounded by two small mountains, Salzburg is on the banks of the Salzach River, at the northern boundary of the Alps and was the birthplace of Mozart.  The Christmas markets of the city were in full swing, with large crowds sampling traditional food, drinks, and crafts.  I sampled a variety of Bosnas and Bratwursts, as well as the local beers.  

  The next day I toured different parts of the city, including Hohensalzburg Castle and the Salzburg Cathedral.  The castle provided nice views of the city from above, however the weather did not always accommodate my photos.  And the cathedral was beautiful; especially interesting were the candle/shadow photos I took in the church crypt.  Overall, it was a nice short side trip that I am looking forward to taking advantage more while I am here in the middle of Europe.

Unchartered Territory – The Bratislava Grocery Store

  I feel as if I have been down this isle multiple times today, yet it has never felt more dark and unfamiliar.  If only I can find sign, something to point me down a more familiar path.  Then, suddenly, I spot two familiar faces on the shelf.  While not my best friends, Ben and Jerry (Ice Cream), Tom and Jerry from my cartoon days was definitely a welcoming site.  In a land where I speak three words of the local language (pivo – beer; vino – wine; ďakujem – thank you), pictures speak 1,000.  And while I never thought I would be one to be swayed by advertisements and celebrities, it did not matter if Tom and Jerry were trying to selling me cat food for a pet I did not own, I was buying a product endorsed by them.  Turns out they were selling me cereal, so all was fine. 

  My grocery store is located about a 5 minute walk from my apartment in a three story, two building complex, all part of Tesco.  In addition to food, they sell cooking utensils, bed and bath products, clothes, and electronics.  Most important is you must pay for each item on the floor which you found the product, even though everything is one company, or else you are thrown out of the store regardless if you unknowingly take escalator without paying first.  Thankfully, I was warned of this policy up-front by my UK co-worker who had the experience of being tossed out.

  

  Grocery stores in Europe are much smaller when compared to America.  It seems people prefer to shop more often (a couple times a week), buying the freshest produce, and use a basket vs. a cart (which still is small compared to American standards).  Majority of the time, my basket is over-flowing and pulling my arm out of its socket less than half way through the store.  Even the portion sizes are smaller, for example, the spaghetti sauce comes in a small jar which is probably used for one meal between two or three people.  I realize now that family size lasagna that I took down in one sitting back in the US was probably more suitable for European standards.  The one exception to the smaller size is vegetable oil, which oddly comes in a five liter drum for some reason.   Bread is baked fresh daily, however, this trip I decided to go with the less fresh,

Bread Slicer

pre-sliced option as I was intimidated by the large machine with multiple knives that I had to use to slice the fresh bread.  Next trip after I am able to stalk others using the machine, I will give it a try, but I am not up for visiting the hospital again which I will talk about in a future blog (no problems, it was standard procedure for my residence permit).  The deli section is just a tough, as there so many different varieties I think the store is inventing meat.  As I have never heard of combined ham/turkey cold cut, I resorted back to the pre-packaged meats with pictures.  Same with the cheeses since most of the products look similar; I only know that the Swiss variety has holes.  But I am keeping the packages which have the names in Slovak for both meats and cheese, so I can make second attempt at the deli another day.  Having to grade fresh cheese was easy, and honestly, it tasted ten times better than the graded packaged cheese I use to buy at home.

Random items from the Sea

Sea food is also readily available and good, which I was initially nervous because Slovakia is in the middle of Europe not by any sea.  As I thought about this more, Chicago, which is two times as far from the ocean (I do not eat the Asian Carp out of Lake Michigan), has good sea food, so there is really nothing to be worried about.  However, this first trip, I did pass on the one sea food platter pictured to the left as it appeared to be a collection of colorful crustaceans that were raked from the bottom of the sea.  Fruits and vegetables are all the same, but I have to get use to using a carrot peeler since they do not have the packaged baby carrots like home.  There is one vegetable which I had no idea what it might be used for.  As I approached the table, I could not tell if it was a tree root or an oversized potato.  With a camera in hand, I took a photo and jotted down the name to research the item.  Apparently it is known as zeler, which is the root of a celery stalk, and is used for soup in Slovakia.  Given that it was the size of a softball, I am curious how big the pot is for this soup.

Zeler

  Finally, the checkout line, where I am able to get past by nodding my head, and handling over my credit card.  After your goods are scanned, you have very little real estate for the items to collect at the end of the counter, meaning you must quickly bag your groceries or risk causing a back-up.  After all this, I was actually challenged on my physical signature vs the one on the back of the credit card for the first time ever, but managed to get everything straightened out.

Weekend in Paris

 After a short two hour flight, I had arrived back in Paris, ready to experience some of the sites and tastes (and smells) that I missed in my prior trip to the city.  With dinner reservations later in the evening, I thought I had plenty of time to take the Air France bus into the city, and check into the hotel.  While the bus arrives every 15 minutes, it was over an hour delayed, and my dinner plans were at risk (More on the reason for the delay later in the blog).  Once I arrived at the bus stop, I had to make my way over to the business district of Paris, known as La Defense.  After a couple taxi rejections, one informed me the La Defense area was just up the street, and I started to walk.  Paris, like all European cities, was built 100s of year ago, and unlike US grids, parallel and perpendicular streets are nonexistent, which make navigation extremely challenging.  To further complicate things, street names will change from one block to the next, and street signs are actually posted on the 2^nd floor of the corner buildings.  Even in La Defense, which was built recently, you will find multiple roundabouts, on different levels, with pedestrian walks 3 stories above street level.  Needless to say, I finally found a taxi to take me to my hotel, and I arrived at my hotel, 3 hours after the dinner reservation. 

 The next day began much better.  Using the metro, the morning started with tea and breakfast at a café while people watching in the city.  Across the street was the famous Denise Acabo Chocolat Confiserie, where I picked up some really great tasting chocolate and caramel delights, almost too sweet for my taste, however, as most who know me will say, that is highly impossible.  Then it was off to the Eiffel Tower for photos, and a nearby museum which had a photography exhibit that contained some very interesting and dramatic work by the photographers, as well as narrative about the artist and the reasons behind their work.  The afternoon ended with a tour of the sewers, which most would think sounds odd, but Paris was one of the first cities to develop a system for water filtration.  The system dates back to 1370 when the first underground system was constructed.  Unique compared to other tours in Paris, it was interesting to see but I did welcome the fresh air once the tour ended.  Later in the evening, rain dampened the plans for a river cruise, so it was off to dinner, which the menu consisted of seafood and I sampled different crustaceans.  Unlike American cuisine, all of these samples were still in the same form which they were caught in the sea, complete with head and legs.  But this is all about new experiences and living the European way, not trying to force my American way of living in a foreign land, and actually, the food was very tasty.   

Notre Dame de Paris

 The next morning, I got a late start, but headed to Sacre Coeur and found a great view of Paris from above.  As typical in Europe, there was a nice festival with local arts and crafts near the church.  The next stop was the Galeria Lafayette shopping center and a tour of the opera house.  The afternoon ended with a walk through the Louvre courtyard over to Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Louvre

 The trip definitely would not end without some drama.  My flight out of Charles De Gaulle was scheduled to leave at 8:40 PM.  Since I became very familiar with the subway, I thought departing hotel at 5:40 PM would be perfect.  I talked with the Metro sales agent and bought my ticket to the airport.  At the transfer station, I waited for my train to CDG.  After 30 minutes, and 5 trains passing, I wondered what the problem might be as I was starting to cut my flight close.   

Arc de Triomphe

La Defense Arch

Finally, I inquired and was informed that because of the Air France strikes, trains to CDG were not running, and I had to take the train to a different station, and then take a shuttle bus to the airport.  I found out the strike was the same reason why my shuttle bus took so long on Friday.  It might have been nice of the sales agent to inform me of this change, or maybe have the metro post a sign at the transfer station, but no time to complain, as I was starting to cut my flight close.  However, the other thing I did not realize was daylight savings in Europe began a week earlier than the US (Not that I had any clue US daylight savings was Nov 6), and while I made it to the airport at the time prior to departure I thought I would, it came with a little more excitement that I thought.  Labor strikes and maintaining flexible plans will be just another thing I will have to learn while residing here.

Opera House

Sacre Coeur

Inside the sewers (Fortunately, this is not a scratch and sniff)

Finally, from Notre Dame, there are numerous statues on the cathedral, and this one of St. Denis is only one holding holding his head.  He was Bishop of Paris and was martyred shortly after A.D. 250. After his head was chopped off, Denis is said to have picked it up and walked ten kilometres (six miles).