I took Julius to our pediatrician today, just to do a general health check and get him another vaccination, which we had been thinking about even back in Fiji … but back then it was not available and then later he always had some kind of infection which is just not great to get a new vaccination.
So, the little bugger is now 16 kg (35.2 lbs) and 93 cm (36.6 inches) and his scream when being poked by a needle is about as loud as a jet plane’s engine. Despite that, he behaved fairly well and the doctor confirmed that everything is ok with him. The language thing he said is nothing to worry about, it is expected that when juggling 4 languages he will appear a bit behind in speech development, only to totally kick ass a bit later.
I could only get this one picture of J playing in the waiting room, besides that I was busy undressing / dressing Julius and answer all of the doctor’s questions.
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On wednesday, we finally got on a comercial plane to go to Juba. To take the 7:30am flight, we had to be at the airport at 4:30am! For a domestic flight!
Anyways, the trip was smooth and we arrived at the UN camp in Juba. This place is not bad at all, even quite charming. I was expecting to stay in a tent together with 30 plus other people, but I actually got an individual tent. Of course small, but quite nice and comfortable with electricity. The common bathroom is cleaned very often, so I never see it dirty. The cafetaria is also nice and the food is not bad at all. And they have real beer, which we couldn’t get in Khartoum because in the north, people are mainly muslims.
I would even say that it feels kind of nicer than Khartoum. People look a bit more cheerful too despite the fact that in terms of development, the situation is much much worse. I was shocked when I learned that less than 1% of girls in the South complete primary education. There is no real road except around Juba. Still, it feels very peaceful here and it is hard to imagine that this place has gone through the 20+ years of civil war until recently.
The workshop is going well and we are hoping to get on a UN flight to go back to Khartoum this afternoon – keeping my fingers crossed that it will work this time!
Ok, so I hacked together this clip. Since mama is gone we can concentrate on German as main language at home … and as you can hear, he has no trouble with the use of ‘ch’ sounds … the ‘ö’ sounds a bit funky .. and chocolate .. he just pronounces it Italian …
Also of interest is that he often ends verbs on -ed … like when he wants to say open, he says opened … exciting is excited, in this video case, essen (German for ‘eat’) it becomes ‘essened’
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How do you get a 3 year old to eat raw veggies …
it is pretty easy … just offer it in a fun shape!
Based on a suggestion by Aaron, who made a great raw pasta, based on spiral cut zucchini, I found and ordered a spiral cutter myself. And Julius is having lot of fun with the process and the result:
Can’t wait to try that on carrots and potatoes…
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It is nice to be back home and enjoy a nice bath. Too bad mama is gone for a while, she usually takes the bath with Julius (since I am too big to fit in there with him)
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So, I arrived in Sudan‘s capital, Khartoum, safely yesterday. The flight via Frankfurt was uneventful and we were picked up at the airport by a UN driver. Somehow, the city reminds me a lot of the Solomon Islands. The buildings, trees, shops, etc. Most of the things in shops seem to be imported.
The hotel is quite old and very basic, but we managed to have dinner there. This morning, we were supposed to take a UN flight to Juba, a city in Southern Sudan, but when we arrived at the airport, we were told that the check-in is closed for our flight. Unfortunately, an alternative commercial flight to Juba had also departed by then.
So, we are spending another night in Khartoum. We just checked in a different hotel, which looks much nicer than the one we stayed last night. In Juba, we will be staying in a UN camp and I am very curiuos how it is like.
Will try to report more on my stay in Sudan, hopefully soon!
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Summer is over and school started again and I think that Julius was even missing it.
He kept mentioning his pal Oscar pretty much every day the last 3 weeks. So he was very ok this morning when we had to get up early, getting dressed, packing stuff for school. He missed saying goodbye to mama, since she had to leave for a business trip at 6 AM. |
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Remember that Asian restaurant we have been visiting now frequently for 2 years? This place has become like a second living room for us, and while we still have the language barrier and only know each other’s kids names, it feels like family.
So, we have been noticing that one of the waitress ladies was getting bigger and bigger and just before we left for vacation we got to see her new boy (but I did not have a camera on me). Now, after 3 weeks of eating Austrian food, we yearned for something else and this time I got to take some nice pics of Julius playing big brother.
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just the usual quick note to let the readership know that we are back in Italy, where I have a much more reliable internet connection and I promise that I will put up the last few updates from our trip shortly 
It was time to return home and hoping to beat traffic I had planned to leave at 6 am. Of course, that turned into 7 am, which is still better than anything later.
I had heard that this weekend might see a lot of ‘return from vacation traffic’ … but I expected this means mainly south to north. But when we got closer to the highway, I could already smell the chaos.
Turns out: the 2 southern counties of Germany still have 2 weeks of summer vacation and they just LOVE going to the Garda Lake .. which happened to be on our way. So, the Brenner0 Highway was congested for 160km, which ususally should only take a bit more than an hour, but we were stuck there for four.
And then, no surprise, once you find a service station to tend to nature’s call, you get the same scene .. long lines ..
Julius was quite the trooper on this 12 h journey. I had a portable DVD player stacked in the glove compartment, in case he gets totally antsy, but we did not have to use it .. about 1 h before arrival he got into tantrum mode but was easily bribed with a mini bag of candy.
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The morning greeted us with blue skies and we knew this was our last chance on this trip to see the Grossglockner (Austria’s highest peak). We had driven through that national park just a week before, but it was cloudy and rainy, not so this time.
Our first stop was Heiligenblut, where we took a cable car high up to something like 2.800m. While very beautiful, we stayed only a short time at the summit, a) this cable car was scheduling a 1h break for lunch, b) the restaurant on top of the mountain was of the boring self serve variety.
Instead we followed a flyer that advertised the “Fleisskuchl” as a nice lunch spot, and after some adventurous driving we found the place. I chose the jause again and Ritsu had fleischkäse (imagine a meat loaf made with very finely minced meat, then sliced and fried) with sauerkraut, salad and fries, which were mainly eaten by Mr.J.
Afterwards we continued our trip into the national park but this time we took the Gletscherstrasse (glacier road) to get close to the glacier below the Grossglockner. It is a bit sad to see glaciers in summer, they look kinda dirty and it is evident that global warming is shrinking these slow moving giants … It is just a question of time when all the glaciers will have melted away …
It was quite cold, so we did not stay too long, but Julius had a lot of fun spotting groundhogs (marmots?) along the way. Also interesting (but too long to do this time) is a hike that mainly takes place in tunnels under the mountains. We only did 2 of them and then turned around.
We all felt a bit tired and Julius started to get cranky and so we drove back.
Unfortunately we also witnessed quite some helicopter activity that day and as it turned out later, 5 hikers from Poland underestimated the mountain and fell into a crevice, 2 of them died.
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Even though the weather was not that great, we were optimistic and headed off, not knowing what a packed day we would have in the end.
We started driving towards the Wörther See, one of the big lakes in Carinthia, but the rain got harder and we somehow gave up on the idea of doing a boat tour.
So, we changed plans and visited the castle “Burg Hochosterwitz“, according to our guide book and must-see destination in Carinthia and they also claim that this castle inspired Walt Disney for his castle in Snow White (see for yourself … )
It was a beautiful hike (lazy people can pay 5€ extra to take an elevator) and Julius did the whole way up and down by himself …
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On the way down it helped a lot to remind him that we would get one of his favorite lunch items .. A cheeseburger! Our (somewhat) trusty GPS navigator seems to know the addresses of all McDs in Europe and told us that the closest is only 7km away.
Since Julius had been a bit of a terrorist when it came to eating out in the last few weeks, we were happy to visit an eatery where you get the food right away and they have stuff that keeps him interested / busy.
The weather had gotten better, so we followed the advice of our Kärnten Card booklet and went to check on one of the boat operators at Wörther See … Only to find that they were not operating .. Instead we got to feed a swan and some ducks at the lake, which Julius found more than fascinating.
But the day was not over yet. Nearby was an animal park which we could visit for free thanks to that card and besides a kick-ass playground which captured most of Julius’ attention, we got to see different kind of sheep, monkeys, rabbits, deer, a llama, wallabies, goats and many other animals.
At some point the rain got heavier again and it was time for us to return to our house at the river.
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Moserhof has this great little artificial lake right next to the river (and right in front of our hut). The water is warmer and much safer to swim in … But the weather has not been good enough and even today it was still to cold, but I gave it a try with Julius …
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He liked it but quickly noticed that it was not very comfortable and so we went back in.
We had been there before and liked it so much that we wanted to go again. Himmelbauer is a farm / hotel / restaurant high above the Möll valley which has a fantastic view and they also have a great playground.
We arrived around 11 which gave Julius an hour to play, he quickly bonded with an Italian boy named Alessandro and they played together a lot
For lunch I had the meat jause (mixed cold cuts and bread) which was very nice and Ritsu had mixed meats on sauerkraut in a pan. The wasp infestation was annoying and I had to kill like 7 of those suckers (I am still kinda traumatized by the sting I got a few days ago).
The weather was nice for a change and we got to chase cats and goats and see the resident cows.
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Since it was hardly raining we set off to explore the Ragga gorge (another 12€ saved thanks to the Kärnten Card). An exhilarating hike on a wooden walk-way along both sides of the gorge above the raging water. A sign said that it is not recommended to bring toddlers along, so I asked if they thought it would be ok for Julius, and the said yes, but that we would need to keep him by the hand and probably carry him at certain parts.
The hike starts fairly mellow along the wet, slippery way and then gets steeper. It is 800m in total and climbs 200m up (which means a lot of staircases. From time to time the walk-way switches sides.
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The views are breathtaking and walking across can be quite an adrenaline rush. Julius walked very well until it got steeper, then we had to carry him. Once we reached the top the return trip was an equally steep hike down through the forest.
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It was raining cats, dogs and baby elephants today, so we spent the first half of the day raiding 2 nearby supermarkets. Getting food for the days to come. We had cancelled our breakfast basket. For two reasons: a) Julius getting up around 7 and the breakfast stuff coming at 8:30 did not work too well, b) last time it was included in the special week price, this time, at 18€ it appeared a bit pricey. So we got local, fresh cold cuts, self bake croissants and other goodies.
For lunch I made a nice load of chicken wings. The rest of the day was filled with playing with the fireplace, visiting the play barn (which, unfortunately, looked very run down since last time we were here, broken toys in disarray, floors that have not been cleaned in weeks) and then we took the dinner option, which was less than underwhelming
(compared to last year): Italian buffet, with cheapo things like lasagna, pasta, 2 sauces, pizza .. Everything the kids love. But Julius was too distracted by all the other kids, so he hardly ate anything.
Let’s hope the weather gets better soon.
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One great thing about our new place is that they give you a Kärnten Card for free for the duration of your stay. With this one can get admission to many many things for free or with a hefty discount.
The first attraction we tried today is the train system up the Reisseck mountain group. Usually 17€ per person, we went in free. We got our tickets just before 11AM and were scheduled for the 11:40 train (you also have to announce which train you want to take down, with trains departing every 20 mins. This system prevents lining up for hours for the trip down)
We lined up in time for our train, to get good seats, only to find out that there are NO seats … The first part (3 different trains to get to 2237m altitude) has no seats at all, but it goes as steep as 82%. The last part is Europe’s highest (in terms of altitude) railway train, mainly leading through a long tunnel, until you reach some kind of valley within the mountain group.
The reason all that was built was for 2 power generating dams. And there are a lot of hiking paths leading from that station. Since it was already 12:30 when we arrived, we settled for lunch … Advice #2: do not go for the first, obvious, big panorama restaurant at the station. It is self-serve, overpriced and a bit less than so-so in quality … Rather hike 10 mins to the Reisseck Huette (ok, have not eaten there, but looked nicer)
After lunch we tried to do the easy 50 min round trip, which leads you to see the lower of the 2 lakes created by the dams, but it was a tough game with Julius at times … I think he is a bit hiked out by now … (here a video clip with even more interesting audio about Julius’ laments about too much hiking)
When we finally got there we had a great view and also a great echo. From then on it was climbing down again, waiting for our 15:20 train and then get back home. Julius fell asleep on the train right away and kept sleeping through the whole return trip … Must have been very exhausting for him.
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As last stop on our 3 part hof-hopping tour through Austria we had been very lucky (thanks to a sudden cancellation) that we could book a week at Moserhof again, were we had stayed last year in april.
One can say that this place ignited our Austria craze and a well placed reminder mail around Christmas sparked the idea of doing this summer in Carinthia again.
You might recognize this location as the background for e.g. the famous sleep-eater video.
Julius felt right at home, explored our little house and ran around barefoot. For dinner I had made goulash.
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To keep hiking even easier for Julius but still get to see a lot, we went again to Lienz and took the other cable car they have, up the Hohenstein mountain.
They have a petting zoo and large playground at the middle station (Moosalm) but first we went all the way up to 1500m to do a mini-hike (15 mins) to a small lake, which Julius was fascinated by (throwing rocks, can keep a little boy busy for hours).
But since the weather was a bit mixed and the cable car operators wanted a lunch break, we hurried to catch the last ride down to the middle station where Julius had lots of fun at the playground and the petting zoo. (video, click here)
It took a while to convince him that it was time for lunch, and while we waited for our food, the weather turned ugly and we had to sit indoors.
Very cozy place, Wiener Schnitzel for me, Ritsu tried the Tyrolean dumplings and we observed the sheets of rain that now poured down. I then realized that the cable car had stopped … And so the waiting began, at least we were inside.
The rain just did not stop, but there was another family with 2 kids and the 3 rascals had fun playing in the rain.
By 4 PM the weather had not gotten better and we wondered how we would ever get down again. The solution was a lady guest who was there by car and offered to drive me and the father of the other family down to get our cars. (As we had found out, there is a road going up to Moosalm, but its access is restricted, namely when the cable car is running, the street is closed)
So I drove up to collect Ritsu and Julius and on our way down we extended the favor to another family who was walking down through the rain (we did not have enough space for all of them, but at least we could bring the driver to the family car)
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To make it a bit easier for Julius we had planned a lake hike along Weissensee.
While the scenery is very beautiful, several factors made this experience less spectacular than others … A) I got stung by a wasp B) Julius was even less in walking mood as the other days, even though the path was very easy C) the so called ‘Lake Promenade’ is maybe not the best way to explore the lake … It is not right at the lake, but separated by private property … The sign ‘private – only for guests of … ‘ was everywhere … On the other hand, no nice little cafes or shops …
Next time we will try the bout tour instead .. And try to keep wasps from entering my shirt sleeves…
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