Photo of the Day

Image Credit: Robert Pölzl

On Tuesday morning, Art remembers waking up to sunny windows and then coming out of the shower and noticing it was darker outside...and still no clouds in the sky. 

Well, it so happens that we had a partial solar eclipse over here in Europa. You know, when the penumbra of the Moon's shadow passes over a region on the Earth's surface.  I love a good penumbra. This was the first of a series of four in 2011. America, I'm not sure you are on the invite list for these.

The wondey picture of the Graz clocktower above is a compilation of different frames taken at 15 minute intervals.  Pretty marvelous, huh?

Seen on this website...which has further explanation.

 

My First Outing

Elsie here...back by popular demand (that would mean 2 people asked for more of me) and guest blogging while my parents take a break for awhile. They think having a puppy can be exhausting...ha! Wait til they have children...I don't have any, of course, but I've heard.

It was my first day to explore Graz and naturally that meant the Schlossberg. I woke Coco and Art up nice and early with a big plop on their bedroom floor. They always argue about who's gonna clean it up while I secretly snicker pretending I don't know what happened. Hey, I can't wait til 7:30 am...glad they think that's early, but it's not.

Here are some pics my photo-takin' mom captured of my cuteness. I'm not gonna lie..I know I'm cute and it's almost annoying out and about because everyone stops, stares, follows and wants to touch me. Who am I kidding? I love it. My tail wags 400 mph (excuse me..644 kph..I forget we are metric sometimes) at every new human that crosses my path.

I love me a good romp in some flowers.

This cave was a little freaky.

I sniffed every square centimeter of that cobblestone path. Lots of good smells...such a diverse city I can tell.

Can you believe I didn't go #1 or #2 once while we were out (3 hours)? I go every 30 minutes at home.

I almost thought about charging people per pet. Here I basked in the sun while they had some coffee.

Then they woke me up for another damn picture.

and then another! (he is always getting frustrated with my leash.)

crunching through the leaves is so fun. (I think Art was annoyed that mom kept taking pictures of us.)

and here on the way home, I passed out. It was a long day and I met a lot of other dogs (all adults),

chased many a bird (that's what I was bred to do), and really loved it all up.

All in a day's jog

On Sunday I went on a little joggy jog to the Schlossberg. I fit a fast paced walk up the Schloss into my run/walk sometimes and it is definitely the most challenging part. It is steep. At first you are kinda going up with enthusiasm "yeah, here I go...getting in some good quad workouts...lovin' my life" and then 2 minuten (yes, minuten) later, you are gasping for air and your back feels like it might crack off. {Unless you are Art and unaffected by strenuous exercise even though you rarely do it anymore.} Lindsey, back me up here...this is not normal...it's not that I'm a wimp.

Anyways, on the way I came across this and took a peek. I love these little markets. This one was all handmade ceramics. {forgive the crusty iPhone photos...it's really hard to keep my shaky hands steady and this thing is sensy}

They love to use egg holders (you can see in this pic if you search). They bring you a hard boiled egg for

breakfast perched in one of these.

You can see the trees are already changing colors...ooh, love it but I'm scared for Winter!

at the top they have this compass to show you where you are in the world in relation to other Euro cities.

Artie like. Can we go to Münster and eat some cheese?

This is always a nice reward for my climb.

Six Months of Life in Graz

Friday was our six month marker. To celebrate, we went and had dessert and coffee up at the restaurant on top of the Schlossy. It was such a nice night.

Note: I know you are probably tired of seeing these pictures of us and I sorta feel narcissistic posting them and every mundane activity or thought that runs through my mind as if you are really that interested...but, this blog sorta serves as our scrapbook for our time here and I know I might be glad I have it later in life. So, please bear with me you canty bimby. Plus, I tend to remember things based on what I was wearing...normal for girls??... hopefully. Like, "Oh yeah, I remember that night... I was wearing my new ruffled collar top, white jeans and my brown wedges." I know it's sorta sad...but I have a really photographic memory and I tend to associate things with images, K?

So, we tried to take some pretty night pictures from the top of the Schloss, but as you can see...not so good. Shoulda lugged the muthaload with us.

I think it says "El Homo" on the Kunsthaus...?

As for our time in Graz...it's really been great. Most of life here is normal, regular day-to-day living and not too, too different from living at home. I think people tend to glamorize living abroad and it's not always traveling, frolicking in the park, dining on gourmet cuisine or singing in the Alps. We are like any newly married couple adjusting to marriage, finances and the regular...plus, the added stress of not knowing the language and me not having a job yet.

But...we do get to experience lots of things we wouldn't at home. We live in beautiful, new place and have gotten to travel and see some pretty wondey places and meet some great new people. It's opened up our minds beyond America {or even Texas} and our 'normal' ways of living. And my unemployment hasn't been all that bad. :) I've learned to cook more, I read more, I've discovered the world of blogging and it's been good to just de-stress for six months. And, Art loves his work, his colleagues and his advisor here. He is very motivated and enthusiastic about the research he is doing and the invaluable experience he is gaining here.

So, we are pretty happy and feel blessed to have this experience. That being said, there are days (not too often) when we really miss home, family and friends. Some days it just hits me and I wish I could go out with my friends or be at one of the family get-togethers or just go jog in Memorial Park or Tanglewood. I sometimes miss the feeling of a full, busy day at work too....seriously, I promise. But, such is life. Gotta take the little bads with the good.

So, enough of my sentimenty talk. I start school tomorrow! Got my outfit laid out and a backpack full of fresh school supplies....ha, not really. It's gonna be a long four hours early in the morn for me. Gotta get to bed and figure out my bus schedule...no, not a big yellow bus...a city bus. Goodnight and good luck.

Thank You for Wisiting!

Well, Lindsey has gone and left us for good now. She promises to be back at some point in our 4 year stay here. It was so fun to have her here to play. We'll miss you Linds! As the Grazians say in their best English "Thank you for wisiting". {The whole 'v' thing really throws them for a loop. 'v' here is actually an 'f' sound and 'w' is a 'v' sound.

ex: Volkswagen, which is really 'folks vagon' in German and means 'people's car'.}

Of course one of the first places we went was the Schlossberg...a rite of passage.

Using our newly discovered hand-on-hip photo trick we learned from Molly.

{which makes arm chub appear thinner}

Master Researcher of Graz.

Lindsey made us a take a cheesy hand holding pic like I made her and Ben do in Munich.

We walked to the very top and found a cute little outside café..

and a small outdoors amphitheater I did not know existed. Very cool. We have our own Red Rocks now, K?

And by the fountain in the main square.

The next day we went to the Schöckl mountain {the highest mountain within an hour of Graz} and went

on a little {or so we thought} hike.

I don't know if you can really tell here, but it was pretty steep the whole way... it took us a good 2 hours.

{Oh Linds, we see you doing both arms now}

"CAM" and her LL Bean on their way...

we tried to take our photo with some pretty scenery in the background

oops...try again...

ok, nevermind.

Then we got to the top where our reward was awaiting...

No, not the hazy view...although it was loverly.

But the Hexen Express.

A toboggan ride!

Bye bye Linds!

It was pretty fun and you could release the brake completely and fly down fast. I thought my buns were

gonna fly out into the mountains around the sharp curves. Big white buns alert below to the hikers!

We took the gondola down and called it a day.

Yesterday, Lindsey even got to meet my friends over several drinks. We introduced her to our drink of

choice, Aperols, which is white wine with a dash of Aperol liqueur, a little mineral water, an orange slice

and an olive. Very refreshing and leaves Coco feeling quite happy.

Lindsey enjoyed meeting my friends and highly approved. I am mad that we didn't get a photo.

It was Justine and Mari {that you met here}, as Monika and Tom have moved back to the States.

I was very upset to see them go.

And on her last day, Linds was so kind to take our pic as it was our semi-anniversary. Art says saying

"6 month anniversary" isn't quite correct. Thank you, dear husby, for the important correction. Hopefully

they'll be many more over the next 100 or so semi-annys!

Bye Lou. We love you.

Graz's Trademark

(I took this pic!...not a stock photo from internet)

Today we had to take yet another trip up the Schlossberg to check out the clocktower that had been unveiled during my absence. It had been covered up with scaffolding for 9 months. The other day when I caught a glimpse of it from the tram, I said "Oh! I love the clocky!" (to Art) and the guy next to me laughed. He was thinking "total tourist to the max".

The weather has been kinda crusty since I've been back with thunderstorms almost every afternoon. Today was marvelous, but a leetle frosty for Coco when we weren't in the sunshine.

We asked a lady to take our photo in front of the clocktower and she takes it landscape and chops off the top.

So we took our own pic of ourselves in front of the landscape of the city, and now it has become our new title photo. (I have some spare...more on job news later.)

I'm sure pics of the Schlossy are getting old to you, but every time we go, it's still so pretty.

All the roses are in full bloom everywhere...

Even the lightposts are quaint and entwined with loveliness.

..and then walking back, I thought for a brief second, "they do have a Target!", but then was quickly brought back to reality.

Rose gardens on our street.