We Kinda, Sorta Have a Plan!

So, I mentioned before that I would share our short-term plans.  Here’s what we know with links to our destinations.

We’ve been in Annecy for about 2 months now.  We couldn’t have asked for a better place to start.  The town is old and cool, very safe, easy to navigate, has lots to do, and many nice people.  We’ll be here for about another 12 hours and are then heading up to visit a Gustavus friend of mine who lives outside of Paris.  We’ll be there for two nights and are hoping to visit Versailles.

We then leave from Paris-Orly to fly up to Finland and visit some family friends in Turku.

In Turku we’ll get a full tour from our native friends and we plan to watch the top Finnish hockey franchise play.  Turku is the hometown for many NHL players, including the Wild’s own Mikko Koivu.  We’ve also been invited to Fathers’ Day dinner where we’ll get to enjoy the whole family and some Finnish food.

From Finland, we’ll then go to the UK for a month or more.  We’ll spend the first week in Hastings, UK in the south of England on the sea.

Oh, and we rented a car for the first few weeks in the UK. I’ll be driving from the right-hand seat, and Jody will be panicking in the left seat.
And so ends the plan.
From Hastings, we’ll travel in England, perhaps Wales, maybe Scotland, possibly Northern Ireland, maybe Ireland, maybe Albania…who knows?

Question from a mythical reader: So, you all loved Annecy, your kids speak French, you aren’t working anyway, why are you going to the UK?

Answer from the real me: True, I have been unemployed for about a month and am SUPER good at not working.  I’m looking for something in Europe that will get me a work permit and us a residency visa, but not much shaking out.
We can only stay 90 out of 180 days in the Schengen countries on our tourist visa.  When we leave and go to the UK (which are not in the Schengen countries), the clock stops counting on our tourist visa days.
So, We’ll get to travel, speak English, drink great pints in pubs, eat bangers and mash, and we’ll still have days left on our first tourist visa for France, Switzerland, Germany, etc.

That’s the plan.

Mediocre Meaningless Monday Musings

Yep, more title alliteration.  I love it.
With all the riveting stories we’ve been telling and the countless photos that have been shared, I thought it was maybe time for a quick mind-dump.

Bread is really good here and is simply part of life.  It’s a part of life I like.

Spending all this time together in a strange place with no car and no job is definitely helping me learn more about our kids.  For example, L loves to just go exploring – any alleyways, paths into the woods, bridges, or tunnels are exiting to him.  He has my “let’s see what’s over the next hill” mentality…no matter how tired or hungry he is.  He also shares my love of Döner Kebabs.

If you’ve never experienced this heaven on flatbread, read more at http://www.donerkebab.net/  It will be fun to see if L wants to travel the world when he gets older like I did.

Lots of people smoke but, like at home, it is not allowed in public buildings.  High school kids smoke, and they seem to smoke a lot.  Kids sit together in the quintessential French cafes and smoke together while chatting and drinking orange Fanta (or whatever).  The gathering of students before starting classes in the morning is just thick with a dense fog – it kinda looks like this van, but on the steps outside of the school building.

Cash cash cash makes Annecy go round.  About 80-90% of the transactions I see everywhere are cash.  This is fine for me; ATM’s have good exchange rates.  But I still haven’t gotten used to seeing my 10 and 20 Euro bills turn quickly into coins, even when those coins are still worth $8.  And all the coins make my pockets sag.

People slow down and enjoy life EVERY DAY.  Adults get to take two hour lunches from work. Kids have long lunch breaks too.  Parents pick up their kids, they all eat together, and then the go back to work or school until about 4 or 5.  It really makes sense, but I can’t see things changing back home.  This is written by a guy who probably has eaten 90% of his workday lunches at his desk.

I mostly wish I could speak the language because, more than anybody else is my family, I REALLY like to meet and talk to people.  In fact, that’s my favorite part of travelling.  I’d love to have conversations with our apartment neighbors, the people we ask for directions on the street, other parents at the skating rink, people in line with me, etc.  I think G has some of this gene in her too.  She always shows an interest in talking to other kids (but that might just be her need to socialize with people outside our family).
Sadly, I can only talk with people who can and want to speak English, which currently includes only one Turkish Döner Kebab guy and the bakery lady I get bread from every day.

There’s lots of dog poop on the sidewalks that never gets picked-up.  Heavy rains are necessary, and so are sharp eyes by humans who don’t want their shoes to smell like dog crap. Dogs are ridiculously well-behaved, mostly not on leashes.  And I have not seen any in sweaters or with booties or even with fancy collars….yet.  They are just pets.  I’d love to know how they are trained.  Maybe just the freedom from a leash and the freedom to leave poop on the sidewalk makes dogs here calmer and more well-behaved.

Hope life is good!  Stay tuned for a brief summary of our short-term tentative plans, coming one of these days, when I get to it, and when we have some plans.

The Chamonix Wine Incident of 2016

Yes readers, It’s Mike here and I’m finally back to post.  Jody has been giving a great set of reports, but now it’s my turn.  Let me add some not-so-fun missing pieces from our long weekend in Chamonix.

We’ve been staying in AirBnB’s in Annecy and usually when we take weekend getaway trips.  If you’ve never used it before and you’re interested, use this AirBnB link and we’ll all benefit: http://www.airbnb.com/c/mdueber .

Our place in Chamonix was a very nice, small, comfortable apartment with a cool Murphy bed in a fantastic location.  It had clearly been recently updated and, according to the 20-something female owner, cost over $220K for about 320 sq. feet (I did the conversions for you).  She both lives there and rents it out as much as possible to help pay for it.  Chamonix is an awesome place, so I understand, but that’s a lotta dough.

On the second night of our stay, I was opening a bottle of wine (which we do every other night – it’s cultural, don’t judge us).  I somehow pushed a wine bottle cork INTO a fancy $3.40 new bottle of Merlot, spraying the dark purple stuff all over me, the kitchen walls and cupboards, and the kitchen ceiling. Yes, I’m very talented that way.  I was standing over the sink, wine dripping off my face, shirt soaked with wine, and unable to see because there was wine in my eyes.

My VERY astute wife mentioned “Mike, there’s wine all over!”  I replied “No kidding.” (Or something to that effect – I may be paraphrasing here for our younger readers.)

These photos are just a small part the the ceiling that was a mess, but they are illustrative enough, I think.

We immediately cleaned everything we could (including me), but the ceiling had very obvious stains. I texted the owner and sent a few photos of the purple splotches on the ceiling. She was very calm, suggested some ways to get it clean, and just asked us to do the best we could to handle the situation.  Her reaction was impressive.  We found out later she was visiting a gravely ill friend in the hospital at the time, and for the next several days.  I felt JUST GREAT!

Anyway, in case you are wondering, I did get it cleaned up.  I first used vinegar on a sponge to scrub, mostly because that’s what we had in the apartment and Google said it would work.  It didn’t.  So, the second day I followed by using a weak bleach solution to clean and rinse and clean and rinse until the stains were gone…or gone enough that you didn’t notice anything unless you stood on the step stool and REALLY looked hard.

The owner was happy and gave us good reviews as renters.  We had a great time in Chamonix.  And today I can finally say my neck is no longer sore from having to look up to clean the ceiling.

Thus ends the Chamonix Wine Incident of 2016.

Again, our AirBnB link is http://www.airbnb.com/c/mdueber – sign up today, book a place, and we’ll all get some credit!

What We Are Like (also in Rhyme)

Here’s another post on myths and stereotypes,
Similarities, differences, and potential gripes.
But this time I’ll try from their point of view,
To talk about us, but again in rhyme for you.

Yes, prevalent smoking is new to us here.
And some in the U.S. do go shopping in gym gear.
Americans are often very casual, the story goes,
But not all of us wear our PJ’s as clothes.

We often work way too much.  Lunch is not an event.
Even though it’s proven that breaks are time well spent.
We’re awarded vacation, but some people lose it.
They crave more free time, but then just don’t use it.

But the myth that we all only know English is untrue.
Many of us strive to speak the language, and other ones too.
We are DEFINITELY, as a U.S. culture, just plain far too loud.
We know. I keep reminding our kids to tone down in a crowd.

Most of us eat much better than McDonald’s and free-refill pop.
And would LOVE to have a nearby bakery and butcher shop.
Yes we know we should walk, but usually default to car.
‘Cause America is really spread out, and places are too far.

As a country we are fat, that’s clearly true.
But not all of us are (although I could sure lose a few).
We drink tap water at restaurants, bubble water is too bold.
And we love our A/C – not too hot, not too cold.

Europe’s not a country, as MOST of us know.
But an OLD place with many cultures, languages, and the Euro.
We’ll learn lots as through these other countries we roam.
And we can enjoy things here, but still really love home.

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