Germany week 26 Budapest, Hungary and a snowman

Germany  week 26   Budapest, Hungary and a snowman

Hello all,

  I am writing this as I sit at a hotel in Budapest Hungary, not a place that was on my list but the military had a trip so I said why not. I will send it when I get back to the house as I was not successful in accessing their free wifi in the hotel room- sometimes my virus protector just says no.  lol  Mindy and Crystal notice the picture of the hotel it is a Novetel but it was called The Palace—not like Biloxi but I still thought it was cool it was named the same. I have off tomorrow since it is a federal holiday-Presidents day.

The first of the week we had an early leaving which meant no cheer practice that day and we came in late which meant I got to sleep in. Gregg subbed both of those days so he liked it too.  Driving to work that late morning was a bit hairy and a couple of people did not make it because the roads were not plowed yet.  We are still coming on the autobahn so that hasn’t been a problem for us although there were two trucks that had to stop to put chains on their tires so we had to go to the side and climb by them but baby car made it yea!!

We made our first snowman this week see pictures below.  He was fun to make but only last one day=-since when I came home the next day to look at him a large chow dog jumped on him and knocked him down.  I told Gregg that dog killed my snowman. We figured he had gone after the sticks that we had put for arms. Chow dog killed Frosty  L

Budapest is lovely.  We saw many beautiful buildings you can see a lot of them in the pixs below.  I put a picture of the woman who welcomes people to the town.  She is a symbol of peace and was put there in 1947 after the world war to symbolize peace in Budapest.  I found out some interesting things about Budapest.  First of all one fifth of the population of Hungary lives in Budapest.  Budapest is divided into two sections Buda and pest. The Danube divides the city.  This weekend ice chunks were going down the Danube.  Some other interesting things about Budapest is that there were lots of fabric stores they make a lot of their own very detailed clothing.  Also there were a lot of big pipes for smoking they were in the window.  It looked like the big basket that the snakes come out of and the pipe was long and curly.  Don’t know what they’re smoking though. Lol

We took a three hour city tour and had a great time.  I have to admit that Budapest was not on my radar to visit but I am glad that we went.  There are a lot of casinos in Europe just about every town we visit we find some.  We tried our hand at gambling with the forint money.  We did pretty good made enough to buy all of the silly tourist stuff that I love. lol We ate on the Danube, Hungarian goulash soup of course it was delicious  We had that and two cappuccinos.  It came to 19000 Forints which is about 8 dollars.  To say the least they do not have the Euros; not because they don’t want it but because they cannot afford it.  The tour guide said that the average person in Hungary makes about 600 dollars a month.  Kind of sad.

With that I will close.

Have a great week.

Hugs from Germany,

Susan

Germany week 25- Another 2 hour delay, snow, and more basketball

Germany week 25- Another 2 hour delay, snow, and more basketball

Dear all,

We did not get a chance to go anywhere this weekend as I had the marathon basketball again this weekend.

 We started off the week with a problem with the buses on Monday.  The bus diesel fuel froze because of the low temperatures and some would not start.  I had never heard of this , but of course I liam from Flordia. lol So classes were sparse, and then the next day they had a 2 hour delay to make sure the buses could start.  It was nice sleeping in.

On Saturday I looked up the temperature before I went to basketball.  The low was 9 degrees and it said it felt like - 7 below Fahrenheit whew you really have to bundle up for that kind of weather. Fortunately, our landlord had a new delivery of our heating oil  this week so we keep nice and warm in the house and also at school.

I attached a few snow pictures to the bottom so you could see how it was here.

We are definitely hibernating here in Germany.

I thought I'd share a story from the beginning of coming here.  The first week I was here I had gotten here so quickly that I did not have all of paperwork for me to get my ID.  You need an ID to do anything here.  Go to the commissary, get on base etc.  That was not a problem for me for the first couple of weeks as I did not leave base and was staying at the hotel.  But the Sunday afternoon the day before school started during planning I decided to go to the school to finish up.  I took my camera to take pictures of the school etc.  Unbeknownst to me taking pictures without permission is not allowed on a base.  So here I am after taking my pictures outside the school and then walking back to the hotel swinging my camera on my arm.  A security car pulled up beside me and me being so dumb I’m waving at them thhinking they are just being friendly.  lol They got out and wanted to look at my camera of pictures. Of course all that was on there was picture of my classroom and a couple of pictures outside the classroom but he made me delete them all.  Anyway the Military Police asked for my ID—I said well now that is another story.  I guess my story was so pathetic and I did have a passport that showed I had just gotten here and I was listed on the pass gate.  So the first week here I just about got thrown into the slammer.  But fortunately the crisis averted. Now that would have been a story. Lol

Another interesting fact is about getting a hunting and fishing license here in Germany.  First of all it is a long ordeal and you have to take classes and it takes about 6 months to get a hunting license.  There are of course many, many rules. You also are assigned a designated area for which you are responsible.  So if someone runs over a deer in your area, you have to go take care of it even if it is 3AM in the morning.  You are not allowed to run over animals here on the road without calling anyone unless it is a squirrel.  You have to call the authorities.  Needless to say it is just too hard to get the licenses so not many get them.  In addition in this extreme cold weather- it has been so cold over here—tragically we have read that 400 people have lost their lives  During this kind of cold, the hunter has to furnish bales of hay for the deer to eat.  So the hunter has a lot of responsibility. Neither Gregg or I will not be getting either of those licenses. Lol

With that I will close for this week. Have a great week.

Hugs from Germany!

Susan

Germany Week 24 Passau, travel plans, an emergency cord and a money pouch

Germany Week 24 Passau, travel plans, an emergency cord and a money pouch

Dear all:

Success with getting our gas rations limit raised so now we can go on lots of trips. And speaking of trips we have made our reservations for Venice/ Verona when Amanda comes for her Spring Break and Paris and Barcelona for our spring break. YEA!!!

Gregg substituted at my school this week for three days.   I have a funny story.  He went to the bathroom early one morning doing his business and saw a red cord hanging in the stall.  He thought it was for a vent so he thought he would be nice and vent the room.  He said that he took his time and then washed his hands, etc.  As he exited the room there were the Principals’ secretary and another person standing there looking very concerned.  They asked if he was okay to which he replied “Well I am now.”  lol He is such a comedian. Anyway they informed him that he had pulled the emergency  “I’m in trouble cord” so they were there to help him.  Needless to say a good laugh was had by all.

This week I finally finished editing and sent my next book, "Blood Stone Legacy," to the publisher so I am ready to start my next novel which I have already completely storied out.  Also, I have had some time to read this weekend after a very long night with basketball Friday.  It's nice to have a little down time.

It has been unbelievably cold here--Below zero some days and two degrees Fahrenheit most days to be exact.  I asked some of the teachers why it didn’t snow they told me it was too cold to snow.  I had never heard that.  It did snow a little bit Saturday morning but once again it was a different kind of snow.  Ash snow—it was like ashes from a fire. 

We went to Passau with lots of layers of clothes on.  It is a German town on the Czech border and an easy, cheap,  and relatively short train ride from here.  See the pictures below.  They are all of Passau except the last one which is a picture from the train showing the countryside. Passau is a town of three rivers—blue Danube, black llz and green Inn. It was a gorgeous town and very easy to get around.  There were lots of quaint shops, a few castles, suspension bridges, and stone walls.  I loved it.  I will probably make another trip back there when the weather is a bit better.  They were kind of a seasonal town and the sightseeing trips weren’t running and you know how I love those sightseeing trips.  You really learn the history of the town.  Here's another story--We went on the city bus to get around the town and were talking to the bus driver about where we should go next and I had pulled 2 Euros out and laid my money pouch with my Euros and dollars in – about $1500 to be exact—on the bus driver’s counter to discuss.  She told us to catch another bus.  Anyway I took my 2  Euros and we got off the bus.  The bus circled a couple of times and we walked down the street looking for our next stop.  A young boy about fifteen started running after us full stride and handed me my money pouch with all money intact.  I had left it on the bus and the bus driver couldn’t get back to me since she had to continue on her route.  Needless to say, I rewarded the boy.  I love it when people are so honest.  And  that's one thing I have to say about the people over here.  They are an honest people—even in the school you can leave things out and they will not be taken.  Heartwarming!!  J

Just a note- Dad is doing much better and although he has a bit of leg pain still; he has resumed his weekly schedule at the senior center of card playing and art class. A good sign--we are hoping for a full recovery.

With that, I will close.

Have a great week.

Hugs from Germany,

Susan

Germany-- Week 23 Fun in the snow, mail box problems and gas rations

Germany-- Week 23  Fun in the snow, mail box problems and gas rations

Dear all:

This week started off with Gregg repeatedly saying he could not open the mail box.  He just couldn’t get it open.  This has gone on for months.  I gave him the combination and every time he would pick me up at school unsuccessful. Checking the mail got to be a real problem as I worked and did practice after school so I didn’t always want to have to go and get the mail.  Finally I went with him to the mail box.  As I did the combination he was constantly saying yes that is how I do it but it doesn’t work.  Finally I opened the mail box and he looked at me dead pan and said and I quote.  “You have to turn the button to open it. “  Yes he had been trying to pull it open for months.  Go figure!  LOL

Another issue was gas.  Since we are making four trips to and from work as Gregg beings me and comes home and comes back to pick me up and we went to Luxembourg this month we ran out of our gas rations.  We have been told that we can ask to get it upped since we are using most of it for to and from work so we will check into that next week.  That doesn’t mean that we get no gas we just have to pay those astronomical prices that the Europeans pay.  YUK!!  Anyway there are some rations for a few things over here like coffee, tobacco and liquor. 

We did not have internet for two days and someone told us to unhook and hook the router back up—this worked for a couple of hours then it went out again.  So I spent 3 hours on the phone with the internet people trying to figure out how to get it hooked back up. This was comical as I would get on the phone and the computer would talk German so I would just hit 0 until I got a person then just said English till someone who could speak English came on.  Anyway after about 10 lost or disconnected calls I finally got a lady who had to translate to the technician.  But between about six of us we got the router re configured by me trying to read to them in German from my screen what it said.  It was hilarious. But in the end success and we all cheered.

After that we went to the Kontackt club dinner.  It is a club in which German and Americans get together and they travel some and try to learn about each others’ culture.  I have to admit it was great fun and delicious.

We had no snow at the beginning of the week although Gregg got out and made a snow ball and hit it like a golf ball, see picture number 1. But Friday night we had snow again and yes it was different kind of snow.  This snow is like powdered sugar so I will call it floating snow.  The problem is that it does not stick together so no matter how hard we tried we could not get it to roll to make a snow man.  We walked around the neighborhood and I got some pictures-- note the picture of the yellow church that is right down from our house-. Picture of snow shoveling, skiing,  hoards of firewood, etc. We had some neighbor kids out skiing and sledding down the hills around our house.  So we got out and came down the hill by our house in  our blow up snow tube.  We figured this we could handle.  We were also able to make snow angels.  It was loads of fun.  We sure had to get bundled up – I even wore long johns.  Lol

Saturday we also went to Neumarkt again and I took some pictures of the church there.  The last picture is a building in the town next to us- Velburg.

With that I will close for this week- planning on a lazy day.

Hugs from Germany and  have a great week,

Susan