Homecoming

My family has been visiting for the past week and over the weekend we took a special birthday trip for my step-grandmother Mrs. Blue.  For her 86th birthday we traveled through the Alps up to Graz, Austria to find her childhood home. Mrs. Blue, Dina's mom, hasn't returned to Austria in over 60 years.  She fled right after WWII when the Russians invaded and occupied Austria.  With only the clothes on her back and no shoes on her feet, she fled from her home and over the Glein Alpe mountains walking for 2 weeks before she reached a safe house for shelter in a nearby town. The last time she had seen her house was when she was 21 years old.

So we set out on our Austrian adventure in a massive rented van

The only evidence we had to go by was this photograph of her house she has kept

Not knowing if her home was still standing, we headed towards the small village of Hitzendorf outside of Graz. We took a slight wrong turn down a tiny street in Hitzendorf and we found an angel a woman who, after speaking with Mrs. Blue in German, lead us directly up the hill to her childhood home.  Mrs. Blue recognized it immediately.    

We found the home...60 years later...barely changed....

Mrs. Blue in front of her childhood home

 We were all jumping for joy that we found it!!!

Here is a video of the woman who led us to the house. While Mrs. Blue was talking to her I captured this moment when she realizes that the woman knows her family from the 1930's! Even though it is in German you can still recognize the moment they realize they know and remember her family.

 Peering into the windows of her old living room

Happy 86th Birthday Mrs. Blue!!

(in her childhood backyard )

Come to find out, her home is now a preserved property by the Austrian Government so we can rest assured it will be here in another 60 years as well...

....for generation after generation to visit.

Furniture is Deployed

We found out that our furniture and all of our personal belongings (pictures, clothing, jewelry etc.) somehow ended up in Kuwait.  I repeat, somehow our personal belongings have ended up in the country of KUWAIT.  As in Iraq's next door neighbor!  It boggles my mind how this has happened.  Even the lady who deals with army shipments was confused. So now it has to be shipped back to New Jersey and then reshipped to Italy.  AH-MAZING. Your tax dollars at work ladies and gentlemen.  All you can do is laugh when this stuff happens.  So for now we will continue to live out of 2 suitcases each for another few months. sigh.

So today's update is:  Our furniture is on a military deployment to the Middle East.  Jon is not.

A Note Posted In My Hotel Lobby:

Great.  Now I am going to have to register all of my mafia friends at the hotel's front desk. 

Not good for my street cred.

First Roadtrip!

With our new licenses we decided to test our skills out on the open road. We drove just 36 miles through the countryside to one of my new favorite cities...Bassano del Grappa.

This city is famous for it's historic bridge Ponte degli Alpini, ceramics, WWI & WWII history and most importantly...Grapppa (Italy's signature liquor).  Russia has vodka and Italy has Grappa.  Due to the extreme heat and  fear of Italy's strict .05 blood alcohol content laws we did not partake in the Grappa. But we sure enjoyed watching those who did!

This is a picture we took from the bridge which was designed in 1569.  The bridge has little bars all along it that are perfect for outdoor dining with this view:

The Alps are in the background

 Jon and Sherman at the Bassano Market

 

 I don't blame Sherman for begging for this food from under the table...I would too. 

The cutest boy in Bassano del Grappa

 

The 2nd cutest boy in Bassano del Grappa

Licensed to Drive

The first thing Jon and I did was get our Italian driver's licenses. To get an Italian driver's license all we had to attend an hour and half driving class on post (mostly powerpoints and videos) and then the next day we took a 100 question test.  I made a 98 on the test and Jon got a perfect score.  Jon likes to point out while we are driving that he is a better driver than me by 2%. But for the record, all of the tests were different and on MY test they asked questions about stuff that was not covered in our review.  But I digress.

Not having a car for a few days was really difficult...it is like being 15 all over again.  Walking everywhere and waiting for a friend to come pick you up.  So we were so happy that we had shipped our car early so it was already here for us after we passed our tests. Now actually getting the car was ridiculously difficult because as I am quickly finding out- NOTHING is easy over here. 

STEP 1.) We had to get our driver's license 2.) Take the bus to where our car was being held 15 minutes off post 3.) Prove we are the owners and then apply for Euro license plates 4.) Get the new plate numbers and then wait for a bus to take us to USAA 20 min away where we get a special insurance card to display in our windshield (Italian Law) 5.) Take another bus back to where car is located and inspect car for damage and prove that we have a emergency triangle, flashlight, safety vest and first aid kit in our car (Italian law)  6.) Then put your new license plate on and apply for registration and drive back to post to get car inspected again. 7.) Drive back to where you originally picked up car and prove you got car inspected and then they give you NATO gas coupon application (gas is 3x more expensive here than in the US) 8.) Drive back to post to pick up gas coupons and then drive off post to fill up car 9.) You are all set to drive! whew.  

Check out our cool Euro License plates!

The very next day after these pictures someone hit our car and didn't leave a note.  Our happy European driver smiles from the above pictures faded fast. We like to think it was just our Italian driving christening. 
Oh well. 

Ciao Vicenza!

We made it here! I promise to be better about updating this blog with all of our adventures...or misadventures.  We arrived in Italy after a 19 hour plane trip on July 12th.  I had decided that wearing sweatpants on the plane would be a GOOD decision.  What I didn't account for was that we arrived on one of the hottest days of the year in a country where air conditioning is not considered a necessity. In fact, I don't think it is even considered at all.  So I am sweating through my sweatpants (which, once again seemed like a good idea in Dallas...) surviving off of 2 hours of sleep when I discover that Jon's two new bosses are personally picking us up from the airport.  Not my best first impression.  But all of the heat was quickly forgotten when we pulled into the city.  Vicenza is even better than I had imagined.  Small winding cobblestone streets, brightly colored buildings from the 1700s, mountains in the backdrop of piazzas filled with eating and drinking..... you get the idea.

Here is a picture I took of the Piazza dei Signori at dinner last night:

P.S.   many of you (ok so maybe just my Mom) were concerned about how Sherman did on the 19 hour plane ride.  We gave him drugs (Vet prescribed!) and he was an absolute angel!  Sherman was a better traveler than Jon.  We carried him as our carry-on baggage and on our flight to Germany the lady next to us didn't even know we had a dog with us till half way through the flight.  He slept most of the way. Here is a picture of Sherman stowed safely under the seat in front of us. 

More to come soon!