Round midnight

I have chamomile tea and a dose of Melatonin – I’m waiting for them to kick in so I can go back to sleep. This is my own fault, after all, I passed out at about seven this evening, I could not keep my eyes open for one more minute. This will pass, but for …


…read more.

Another Austrian Winter comes to a close

This is Tina and Caroline and an enormous black dog. Tina is Alex’s mom, Alex being my (now) ukulele playing neighbor. Caroline is their high school exchange student from Maine. Yesterday, Tina put the Americans in her car and off we went to the Toplitzsee. The Toplitzsee is the legendary home of a buried Nazi …


…read more.

You Can’t Take It With You

I travel a bit heavier than I used to. When I fly to Austria I usually have one bag that’s full of books, only. That takes up a significant amount of my luggage allotment. I don’t carry a lot of other stuff, I have a decent winter wardrobe in Austria and it’s not like you …


…read more.

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Sound of Music, alternative version. Instead of belting out Climb Every Mountain, the Reverend Mother says, “Christ almighty, what took you so long? Now go change out of that silly dirndl, give the guitar to the orphans, and get down to the chapel, it’s almost time for Vespers!” Maria follows the instructions exactly and spends …


…read more.

Mozart and the Chocolate Factory

Back in January when we went to visit our friends in Germany, we asked them what we should bring from Austria. The answer? Mozartkugeln. Mozartkugeln (literally, Mozart Balls) are an Austrian national treat, a chocolate covered bomb of nougat, marzipan, and in most cases, pistachio marzipan too. They’re delish. Here’s the deal, though. We weren’t …


…read more.

Blessed Meat, Bonfires, and Blasphemy

I go to lots of churches but there’s never anyone in there when I’m poking around. I’m a sucker for iconography and medieval painting and crazy gothic interiors. Beautiful old churches – some of them so old as to have Roman foundations – are all over the place in Austria. This morning the church in …


…read more.