Visitor #1

Way back in December a one Ms. Makena Timmins came to visit me. I hadn't talked about the visit on here yet because I'm waiting for Makena, who seems to be busy because she's getting ready to go into THE ARMY, to email me a few pictures of us in Vienna, but in the spirit of Christmas and continuity I'll go ahead and write about it.(For those of you who are wondering, she didn't have any outbursts. No hissy fits when the train was late. No abrasive defenses of 'Merica and God's Capitalist way when she couldn't find Tide at the supermarket. Not even the declaration that she was going to hire a driver when we missed the bus!)

Other than her unusual calmness, the visit was everything you'd expect a visit with Makena to be. We went to the Christkindlmarkt in Hauptplatz here in Graz, and once Makena had drunk their Glühwein supply dry we went to a Cuban place called Cohibar (like Cohiba cigars, get it? Clever Austria!). It was all really fun and we stayed out really late and cooked a huge pasta meal at 4 AM, and it was REALLY good to see some one from Sewanee, but the point of this is more to explain what Makena and I saw in Vienna.

Vienna was gorgeous at Christmas. The Christkindlemärkte didn't sell anything different from what they sell in Graz (with the exception of the commemorative mug I got with a picture of Haydn on it!), but the streets, which are already beautiful, were lit up with tiny, white and glittering Christmas lights. There's a blurry picture of the illuminated Graben (a big pedestrian street) here.

Over an entrance to the cathedral was a giant Advent wreath. Austrians take their Advent wreaths pretty seriously- there's even one in every classroom. Word to the wise, though: one of my teachers accidentally caught her Persian rug on fire this year when she left the room for a second. So never leave your Advent wreath unattended- if you play with fire you'll get burned. Unless you're Andrew at age 5 and Dad smells the sulfur from the matches you've been playing with in the TV room. Then you'll just get accused of farting.

We were in Vienna pretty close to Christmas, but Christmas trees were just beginning to be sold. Austrians don't put their tree up until Christmas Eve. They don't decorate it, but the Christkind (Christ child, who is actually a spirit) comes, decorates it, and leaves presents. The parents ring a bell after he's come and the kids run in and open their presents.

I'm allergic to horses. I found this out this summer when I requested that the nurse test for guinea pigs and horses during my allergy testing after that little brush with exercise-induced anaphylaxis (never again will I eat shrimp and then go running). But I always like to go by the stables for the Lipizzaner stallions (the ones that can prance around on their hind legs a la Molly Sue Feitl, R.I.P.), and Makena and I happened to see them on their way to practice. This made me really happy, as did the Leopold Museum, which has a really big 20th century German and Austrian art collection and is one of the best (and only) places I've found to apply what I learned in all those Survey of German Lit. courses (note to Meggy: try it! You'll feel smart and your education will seem relevant!).

All this sight-seeing and late-night pasta cooking wore us out, so we stopped to refuel at Cafe Central. There's a picture of what we ordered here that I think really captures the essence of our personailites. Take a wild guess as to who had what (keep in mind that it was around 4 in the afternoon, but also that I had dragged Makena to a museum and she was feeling a little down at this point).