Europa!

Greetings from across the pond!  While I can't post a daily photo due to my lack of card reader at the present, I can fill you in on the latest adventures. Pictures will follow sometime next week.

Last week, I attended our first family vacation in 8 years.  In honor of my grandmother's 90th Birthday (which is actually in the autumn), 4/5 of my immediate family flew to Deutschland.  Where we met several other members of our extended family (some of whom I had never met or knew existed) and friends.  It was a fun visit and telling stories of memories of our grandmothers old house, which the cousins were CONVINCED was haunted.  The moving carpet, the faucet that would turn itself on, the creaking attic, this house had it all and a ghost/monster (according to my cousin).  Either way, growing up I could only sleep in the library with the lights on.

If you have ever met Germans you will know that they enjoy a good drink and a lot of meat.  I have not craved vegetables in such a manner in a long time.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some abentbrot (dinner bread) of dark, heavy bread, slathered in butter with a side of wurst and cheese.  But my cholesterol does not appreciate it.  Something, I miss about Europe and my theory as so why the food tastes so good here, is that they are not messing around when it comes to fat content.  Low fat/sugar free/carb free is difficult to find in Germany because few things are processed and I fully appreciate the full fat butter on my morning roll.  All in moderation.

Following the family reunion and mandatory trip to the longest castle in Europe, my family parted ways to catch up with friends or family.  I met up with a good college friend and celebrated another birthday (an actual one this time).  I took the 4 hour train ride from Munich to St. Polten, Austria to meet my cousin and brother at a music festival.  While I missed seeing The Killers, Lykke Li, & Miike Snow, I did manage to arrive in time to hear the last two songs performed by Dispatch.  This was honestly the most bizarre line up I have ever heard of, including: Bush, The Hives, Enter Shikari, Boy, Beatsticks, and Korn.  That's right people, Korn performed.  While I sadly missed it - it was an interesting crowd and made me miss the days of going to a Michael Franti concert.  If I kept a diary, it would have read something like this for the rest of the evening - Dear Diary, Today I experienced vandalism.  Part of the reason for attending the festival was that my cousin was "curating" a graffiti art installation with three of his friends.  As one might imagine, graffiti artists are difficult to contain on one surface.

After a night in Vienna, my brother and I boarded an ICE train to head to grandmothers house in Germany, where we reunited with my parents, only to part ways (again) the following day.