Fasching

We have been celebrating Fasching over the last couple of days. Eating fastelavnsboller, the Danish equivalent of Krapfen with Danish and German friends, and today Silja celebrated the festivities in Kindergarten dressed up as a little lamb -- very Icelandic.

Today we have settled where we will stay in Boston until the end of August. Turns out we will have a garden over the summer. Oh yeah!

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Busy, but

when they call from day care and ask you to come and pick up a little one, who is sitting with a red swollen eye (allergic reaction?), you of course don't care about the abstract meta-theoretical texts you are reading, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway. And when the little one wakes up after her nap, the swollen-ness gone, you of course suck the marrow out of that afternoon with apple/cinnamon buns, somersault in the bed and drawings of shoes (go) and cats (mao), which is all the little one cares about, when it comes to drawing.

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First Glühwein

It's the season for steaming Glühwein and toasted chestnuts, and it's uuhh so cozy. The first Christkindlmarkts opened today, and we stopped by the one at Altes AKH and snacked our way through brezerls, samosas, amazing Tyrollean pastry (which name I forgot) and toasted in Glühwein and hot chocolate to stay warm. You might as well make the most of it, when you're there... (And I had a carrot for dessert when we came home.)

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Inside Outside

Pictures from the weekend that started out with a sick kid with fever, which resulted in staying indoors and an Italian cake baking project with fresh figs that turned out amaazing, and ended with a healthy baby (yay!) and a trip to the park.

And PS. I'm still dreaming of hammocks... We are currently discussing whether or not the hammock project would work in Boston. To ship or not ship a hammock?

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Breakfast Treat

Pancakes for breakfast because its the last day of our little holiday, and because next week is back to normal. Sort of. Bjarni is heading to Germany and Boston for job interviews, and we have a granddad arriving from Denmark. All very exciting. Hopefully the upcoming travels will bring some much needed clarity on what will happen next for us. I find this in-between stage of being open to a range of potential possibilities incredibly stressful as the process drags out, and I can't wait to put uncertainty aside and start planning for what's next.

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Bliss

Day care is shut down for a week for maintenance purposes, which means I got a good excuse to put my studies on stand by for a little bit and hang out with Silja full time. So I am currently the mommy strolling through the sunshine with a coffee in hand and lots of time to stop and explore all the things that catch those little curious eyes. It's the greatest! Bjarni, who is green with envy of our vacation mode, compensated tonight by a large pitcher of Sangria. I'm sure that makes for some great research.

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Hot hot hot!

Today was one of those days, where everything seem to happen at a slower pace due to the weather. 36 degrees. That's HOT for Northern European like us. It was too late, too hot and presumably too crowded to head to the public swimming pools after returning from day care, so what to do then? We ran to the nearest spot in the shade in the park with a washing tup with cold water, which made it out for our own teeny little kiddie pool. Silja was entertained, and I got to lay down and close my eyes for a little bit. Not bad at all!

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Outside

This week is sunny and warm, and we, like a lot of the locals, are enjoying afternoons in the park and dinner outside. We met up with good friends yesterday, who unfortunately will be moving to Bangkok soon. We will miss them! When not enjoying the great weather, there are lots and lots to do with school, so I apologize for being more absent than usual in here...

I hope you are enjoying the great weather too!

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Easter Market

Pictures from last weekend, when we visited the Easter market at Freyung to check out the stalls with pretty and not-so-pretty Easter decorations, listen to a little bit of Schlager and to have a Curry Wurst & Bio Bier. I like like like the tradition with these seasonal markets in Austria, and the Easter markets beats in my opinion the Christmas markets, because the weather (the past two years when we have been here) has been sunny and warm over Easter, which makes it so nice to stroll around and take in what to me feels like a very Austrian atmosphere. Prost und frohe Ostern!

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Recharging

Because of Easter I currently got two wonderful weeks off from university. This morning when Silja and Bjarni had gone to Kindergarten/work, I left behind piles of laundry, a backlog of required readings and a bunch of other practicalities and ventured off to the 3rd district (to this great bakery/cafe) to eat breakfast, stare out the window and read my book, which has been collecting dust since courses started again. A little quiet moment just to myself, which felt oh so good.

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Summer?

All of sudden the weather turned all summerlike. This has not been the most productive weekend study-wise, but who can sit still inside, when it is all of sudden so beautiful outside.

Today we headed for the park to hang out, blow bubbles and eat ice cream.

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Weekly Brunch

Way back (it seems like ages ago now) when living in L.A. we would usually go out for breakfast/brunch over the weekend. It is such a gooood way to start the weekend I think.

For some reason we've never gone much out to eat here in Vienna, even before Silja arrived. And now -- how do you even do those kinds of things with a baby?!

Well, I realized when meeting over lunch with our baby group at our regular kids' cafe that it is very much doable to eat out - for both parts. Silja seems super excited to be eating elsewhere, where there are lots of things to look at. So now we are trying to resume our weekly brunch tradition. Last week she was sleeping, while we were enjoying breakfast at one of the markets. Wee! It was almost like a date! This weekend she was playing with her toys, and when it was time for her lunch, we popped one of those to-go jars of baby food, and voila. (By the way without a highchair one must be quick to avoid potato/spinach on the seat, but we managed...) Anyhow, I'm so happy we can do this, and hope the little one behaves well enough, so we can continue with this onwards.

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Cafe Central - Again.

It's been a while. Last time was during the heat wave in July, when I had passed my due date and was hanging out in the air-conditioned cafe in order to not go crazy outside or at home. Ah, those crazy hot days seem so far away at the moment. Check out my "cake" - white chocolate mouse with raspberries. It was just as good as it looks!

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Home Sweet Home

We are back in Vienna, and boy is it nice! As great as it is to go back to Denmark and Iceland to see everyone again, just as great is it to come back to our own place. We had a smooth journey back and were pleasantly surprised by how well the little one handled the rather long trip from Iceland with a brief layover in Denmark to Austria (which aside from two flights include a 50 min drive to the airport in Iceland and two train rides here in Austria). She is turning into a master traveler! Let's hope that continues.

Back in Vienna we have now unpacked, including all those great presents, and resumed to normal routines, which among other things include healthy eating (uuf, I was so done with sweets and junk food after stuffing myself over the holidays). As a new milestone Silja has started solids. Jeez, it's going fast!

I now got less than two months left of my maternity leave, and I plan enjoy every single minute of my remaining time off, before it's time to resume to university.

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Christmas Spirit

Lots of snow prevented us from going anywhere this past Friday, so I made a bunch of Christmas cookies and admired the advent calendar I found at one of Christmas markets in town. I'm enjoying this month with all the Christmas preparations more than I have for years.

PS. Look! Bjarni made it snow in here too... :)

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Müesli

I am sooo enjoying my maternity leave, and the fall weather fits perfectly with reading good books and trying out new recipes. After last week's Italian adventure it feels great to take it slow here at home.

Yesterday I made my own müesli, which turned out really good. (The recipe can be found here - English version in the bottom..)

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Saturday is Market Day

I love the markets in Vienna! Here are a few glimpses from our local Hannover Markt on a Saturday, where we stocked up on fresh produce and bought the sweet and sparkling wine Sturm (currently in season) to later enjoy with friends. Prost!

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Tichy Eis

We met up with LA-Alex for ice cream this past Sunday at the old but very popular Tichy Eiscafe. While the two computational biologists were busy talking (... geek alert!) and Silja was sleeping, I was playing around with the camera. Most ice cream places will soon be closing due to the change of season, which is a little bit sad. We need to go for one huge ice cream before it's over!

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