Run do not walk

and watch Jamie Does.

Jamie Oliver in different cities exploring the food and culture. The boy is hilarious (I mean seriously)


the food yummy and the scenery spectacular.

First episode is Marrakech. Kept Man and I are getting the cookbook. And I want to go to Stockholm

Vienna & Back

Mom asked for more pictures.

So I present a few of the ones we took in Vienna. The truth is we didn't do much. We hopped on a train from Prague to Vienna at the ungodly hour of 6am. This crazy hour was offset by the fact that I do heart trains and the view was relaxing. And there was a nun! On the way to Vienna! I'm sorry all I can think about when I think of Austria is the Sound of Music. Hence excitement over nuns. We will make it to Salzburg soon. I must experience the Sound of Music tour.

And then Kept Man went and took his test. Which he dominated by the way, if you were not aware. And I hung out in the hotel and caught up on TV. I know, I know. But I was tired people! And I had the whole night and next day to explore with KM. So I vegged. And loved every minute of it.

Then we went to dinner at the Biesl and managed to miss the cut off hour for dessert at a cafe.


The next day involved sleeping in and sight seeing. We visited a food market (what else?) and made a stop at Oberlaa for coffee, pastry and macaroons! I love macaroons. We should have bought MORE macaroons. sigh. After that we mostly walked around the inner stadt and looked at all the pretty buildings. I also attempted to shop. But very badly. Apparently the older I get the less patience I have to look for anything not on the internet that can be delivered directly to my door. We had lunch at a seafood chain restaurant Nordsee because well....it had fried shrimp. Eventually we made it to the Hofburg Palace and we had a look around.


After getting enough walking time in we headed to a restaurant called Meierei which translates to Dairy and/or Milk Bar. It's a beautiful little restaurant in the park that specialized all things dairy such as milk, hot chocolates, cheese, etc. I had a hot chocolate and Kept Man had wine and then we ordered an insanely sized cheese plate that we were unable to finish. You can see pictures from a food blogger here, which is how I found out about this place. I highly recommend it. I'd love to go back to try breakfast.

Later that evening we caught a movie. Cause we are party animals and that is how we roll. Later we had a late night snack of currywurst and french fries from a street vendor. Currywurst gets two thumbs up. Kept Man has raved about it since Hamburg and I have to say I agree with him.

We were up early again the next day and had coffee and pastries at Aida before catching a Student Agency bus back to Prague. Weird thing apparently getting to Vienna via train is cheap but heading back is super expensive. Thankfully the Student Agency buses are comfortable, cheap and easy and took about the same amount of time as the train.

And now here we are back in Prague thinking we might need to plan one more weekend trip before it gets really cold here in Eastern Europe. Any suggestions?

Fall in Prague

You know what I like about Prague? Seasons. Sure it's cold now that it's autumn and I'm having to wear a coat, scarf and hat. But that's kinda fun and it's not so cold that I've been driven to wear a heavy duty coat or gloves and I can still manage skirts with pantyhose. Plus I get this view

Doesn't mean I don't miss 70 degree weather in October. But forget the 75 degrees year round Santa Barbara weather I'm used to. This is about seasons. Summer, Fall, Winter Spring. Right? Mmmm I wonder when I get 75 degree weather again.

Wiener Schnitzel wha?

Kept Man and I went to Vienna for the weekend. We walked, we gawked and we did what we do best, we ate.

Wiener Schnitzel is probably the most well known traditional Viennese dish. Now being an uncouth American with no real prior knowledge of wiener schnitzel do you know what I automatically thought of? You get a prize if you yelled sausages. Most Americans would because of this lovely chain of fast food restaurants.

But here's the thing, true wiener schnitzel doesn't even involve sausage. Nope. It involves veal being breaded and deep fried. So while not sausage wiener schnitzel is still pretty tasty (and fun to say). I didn't try the traditional wiener schnitzel. I had the hausschnitzel at a traditional beisl we visited (although I've just learned it's also called a Salzburger Schnitzel) which instead of veal was pork with the added benefit of being stuffed with cheese, onions and bacon and then breaded and deep fried. I like to really go for the calories when I'm out on the road. I also got a nice side of boiled potatoes.

Our Vienna food tour also involved beer, wine, cheese, hot chocolate, coffee, macaroons, and curry wurst, but sadly no cake. But more on all that later.

Finally A Home!

Can you tell which books are mine and which are Kept Man's

Our stuff came this past week. After 2 months we have our things again. Although for me I honestly feel like I haven't had my things for 9 months now. Periodically I would have them but for the most part I've been living this past year out of a suitcase. Having all this stuff is overwhelming. It's a good time to get rid of things and makes it harder for me to justify buying new things because all of a sudden we have so much stuff.

But my books. Oh books. Seeing them is like really feeling at home. It's like seeing old friends. Although seeing them makes me realize how many old friends are missing. The kindle is great, but it's harder to have such warm fuzzy feelings about electronics. It sure does save on space though.

I see lots of nights filled with book reading, moving watching and cooking in our future.

I feel so posh

and lazy. Kept Man and I are getting someone to help with the housekeeping duties. Just every other week for an hour or two. To do the things we hate. The vacuuming, the mopping, the dusting and cleaning the bathrooms. All that blah stuff.

It's completely affordable and totally worth it and yet saying I have someone coming in to help with the housework feel so hoity toity. So very bourgeois. The question is will I let that stop me from not having to do housework?

Ummm no.

1 Year, 2 months, 18 days

Is how long it took us to have a photo from our wedding framed and displayed in our home.

It's a start. Now if we can just get more than one photo framed......