Losing Your Passport 101

Losing your passport in a foreign country, even one as welcoming as Austria, can be an upsetting experience--especially when travelling alone. So allow me to share with you my new gained knowledge regarding what to do when this happens to you:
1. Try to do this in a country where you speak the language. It can be very helpful when you are at the police station trying to tell them that you lost your passport, but no one there speaks English. Although there was a very nice elderly lady who was there as well, and did her best to help. The police officer would tell me something in German, I would say I didn't understand, and the very nice lady would look at me, and say *exactly the same thing* in the hopes that I would somehow understand it from her. I didn't, but it was sweet.
2. Try not to lose your passport at 4pm. Everything closes at 5pm. It makes for a very long night during which you can do very little to fix the situation.
3. Know how to contact the embassy. And then know that you probably need to go to the consulate, not the embassy. That way you don't waste your time going all the way across town to the embassy (which is a very scary, intimidating looking building) when you really need to be at the consulate, which is on the opposite side of town (and in the Marriott Hotel, a much more welcoming place).
4. In fact, call the consulate before going there. Hopefully someone will have found your passport, have called the consulate, and they will be able to tell you where it is. Saving you about 2 hours on public transportation.
4. Have a photocopy of your passport. It was very helpful in multiple steps of this process.
5. Don't panic. People are very nice. And is it really that bad being stuck on vacation for a few extra days?

So after 4 hours and a trip to the lost and found office, the embassy, the consulate, the Imperial Apartments and finally Schoenbrunn Park, I was reunited with my passport. I think I may turn into one of those dorky Americans who travel with their passport in a pouch around their necks. For details of my journey, please see the map below:

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Adventures in Austria

I'm back, and going back to work yesterday really wasn't too bad. I even got some sleep on call last night, and tomorrow is my day off. So I have time today to sort through the ridiculous pile of mail, do laundry, and update my blog with a lengthy report on my Vienna adventures.

After 3 days in East Tyrol (having a wonderful, relaxing time), I set off on my solo adventure to Vienna for a few days. Mom had helped me to find a cheap hotel in Vienna, which is no easy task! Thanks to Vienna's wonderful public transportation system, I found my way out to the Gasometer neighborhood and settled into my cheap, but clean and safe, hotel. First order of business--dinner. I went to the nearby Gasometer Center and decided to eat at the Bierometer. I sat at the bar, ordered a beer and "Bierometer toast" which ended up effectively being a deep fried ham and cheese sandwich. First Vienna mishap--the waiter made a mistake when charging my Visa, and instead of charging me 11 euros, he charged me 1,111 euros. I'm still working on getting that fixed, but hopefully Visa will take care of it.

Next day: lots of Vienna sights, and lots of Japanese tourists. Luckily I got to Schoenbrunn (the summer home of the Hapsburgs) early, so only had to wait 30 minutes to get in. It is a well-orchestrated affair. They time your entry to the minute, and give you audio guides, so they know how long it should take everyone to get through. It would be very nice, if it weren't for the damn tour groups. So many of them, they would fill an entire room. I eventually worked my way around them, and after walking through the park, I hopped on the subway and headed downtown. There I went to the Hapsburg's winter home, the Imperial Apartments and the Treasury. Vienna mishap number two: when I went to pay for my admission to the Treasury, I noticed I was missing 50 euros. Which given today's lousy exchange rate, was the equivalent of $70. I think I lost it at lunch, when I was trying to pay for my little sandwiches and I was being hurried along by the gentleman behind me, so I didn't have time to return all of my money to my purse. Alas, no souvenirs for me as I was on a strict budget. I was tired of walking at this point, and decided to stop for a coffee and apple strudel. While enjoying my coffee, I became aware of Vienna mishap #3--when I had gone through my bag at the Treasury, looking for my $50, I didn't recall seeing my passport. I believe I must have left it in my room at the hotel when cleaning out my bag the night before, so I scrap my plans to visit St. Stephen's cathedral and head back to the hotel.

And when I got there... no passport. It was gone. Have you ever found yourself in a foreign country without your passport? It is a very disconcerting feeling. And led to a significant change of plans on my part. Which I will tell you about later. I need to go take a nap. Here are the rest of my pictures from Austria. Enjoy!

Climb every mountain!

Lots of time in the mountains the past two days. Yesterday we drove up to Grossglockner, the tallest mountain in Austria. It was a very nice drive, and a wonderful overlook up at the top. Today we hiked around Hochstein, the local ski area where they have the women's world cup skiing. There are many, many hiking trails around here (the Austrians love to hike!) and some amazing views from up top.

I'll post the complete album once I'm back in San Diego. Ok, probably sometime after I'm back in San Diego since the day after I get home, I start on-call in the ICU. I really won't be much fun for the next month.

Vacation Continues

Greetings from Lienz! After a very uneventful 18 hours of travel, I have arrived at my mom's home in Lienz, Austria. This was perhaps the most pleasant flying experience I've had in a long time. Perhaps Adam is right, and Alaska is the problem, not the entire airline industry, because I had a lovely United flight. Somehow I got an "executive coach" seat, which meant lots of leg room! And they had a very nice snack. I had a 3 hour layover in DC, but that was ok because they had a Potbelly Sandwich place in the airport, so I happily ate my sandwich and waited comfortably for my next flight. And the flight to Munich? I *love* European airlines. They were so polite, and gave us lots of food and wine. And more wine. I also managed to get some sleep thanks to the neck pillow, eye mask and ear plugs I brought along with me.

And now, I'm in Austria. It's beautiful here. Hopefully the weather will hold, tomorrow we are planning on going to the mountains: Heiligenblut (Holy Blood) and Grossglockner (big bell clapper). We took the dogs for a walk this evening, so I leave you with pictures from that:

The valley where Lienz, my mom's village, lies

Wedding Planning

We've narrowed down the wedding to two possible venues with two very different feels. I know which way I'm leaning but so as not to bias my readers, I will keep my opinions to myself.
Option 1: Rays Boathouse--a very nice seafood restaurant on Puget Sound. The ceremony would be at a park up the hill, overlooking the sound and Olympic mountains. This would be a more traditional wedding reception. Pros: it is on the water, it's in Ballard (our favorite Seattle neighborhood), it comes with it's own wedding planner and the food is yummy. Cons: it's a little small and tucked in between two big restaurants and their associated parking lots.

Option 2: Fox Farm Lavender Farm on Vashon Island. A beautiful garden on a little island a short ferry ride from Seattle. Both ceremony and reception would be here. This would be a more casual, but still beautiful reception. Pros: beautiful flowers would require little additional decoration, big space, private and we get the place for the entire day. Cons: we have to arrange our own caterer and do the set up/tear down ourselves. Guests would also have to take a ferry to ceremony, which could be fun, but might be a hassle depending on people's opinions of ferries.

Here are photos:

I would love to hear opinons!

That would be an interesting road trip.

An on-going competition in the Tylee family--who will be first to visit all 50 states. I've been to 39 (forty if you count DC):
How many have you been to?
create your own visited states map
Can't quite figure out how to hit the remaining ones in one trip, other than a lovely jaunt around the periphery of Texas. If anyone is up for a little vacation to North Dakota, let me know!

Hot! Hot! Hot!

It is hot this weekend. Very hot. Ninety degrees upstairs. I'm hanging out downstairs trying to get some air moving through here, but we only have windows on the east facing side of our house, so you can't get any air movement. What does one do when you have the weekend off but it is too hot to move?

Adam took off for Sequoia National Park, but I had to stay in town as I'm on cross cover this weekend (I get called in if anyone gets sick). So I had a little party. I had some friends over, and we had a great time. We played a mean game of Monopoly (yes, I'm old and somewhat pathetic). I also made lemon meringue pie, but it was just to hot out--the lemon part wouldn't set. The meringue was good though.

Today I bought some wedding magazines. I'm really overwhelmed by all the planning that needs to be done. We still haven't picked a date or a venue (that's on the schedule for this weekend!), which really needs to happen before we do anything else since that is pretty much going to determine our budget. I am resistent to compromise on the venue (or food!) but am completely willing to cut corners on other elements in order to have my wedding where I want it to be (and I think Adam is on board with that plan!). To that point, I also purchased Bridal Bargains, which comes highly recommended. We'll just take it one step at a time, and I'm sure it will all come together sooner or later.

And knitting. What better way to spend your day when it is 90 degrees out, than playing with wool? Current projects:

Baby hat for a friend of Adam's:

It's hard to see without a good close up picture (and my camera just doesn't take good close ups), but it is a sample of various stitches. Once it is finished, it should look something like a jester hat.

Baby blanket for Adam's sister and their upcoming baby:

It looks poufy because I'm knitting it on circular needles. That's a pocket in the middle. Once I'm done (which hopefully will be soon, because quite honestly, this is a very boring project), I'll knit a little bear to stick in the pocket.

Progress on the Lizard Ridge Afghan:

My camera takes horrible pictures indoors. I can't figure out how to fix the lighting, so you can't quite get the full effect of the (almost!) completed afghan, but the close up gives a good look at what the individual squares look like.

Next week I'm off to Austria. It feels like this trip has been in the planning for so long, it's hard to believe I leave a week from Tuesday! I have several other knitting projects sitting in a box in the closet, which I'll probably take to Austria with me. It will give me something to do on the train to Vienna.