Take me to the Ball

Okay, anyone who loved fairy tales as a child, here's what let's do.  Let's go to Vienna in the winter when they have balls all month long during the carnival season, and we can stay at the Hotel Imperial and attend the Opera Ball. The hotel has priceless furnishings and Queen Elizabeth said, "it is the most beautiful hotel we have ever stayed in."  The Opera Ball is the biggest and grandest ball of them all.  Workers take all the seats out of the Vienna State Opera House and turn it into a magnificent ballroom.  Real debutants still make a grand entrance, the men wear white ties, and I can't even imagine the fabulous gowns the women wear.  This is the land of fairy tales so it shouldn't be too hard to find a fairy godmother to help me.  I can even provide my own prince, all I need are tickets and a gown. 

The book 1000 Places to See Before You Die doesn't reveal which month is ball month, but it doesn't matter because the fairy godmother can take care of that too. 

Puppet Theatre

One of the things I'd most like to see in Austria is the Salzburg puppet theatre.  I looked up the German version of the website, and since my German is dubious, so are the following "facts."  It sounds like they've been around for nearly 100 years and have traveled all over Europe.  They perform everything from high-brow operas to children's shows.   I believe their puppets are the ones shown in The Sound of Music--remember when the kids get the puppet theatre and sing the goat-herd song?  In any case the puppets are that intricate and the scenes that detailed.  Wouldn't that be a cool job to be a puppeteer?  This year the puppets are performing The Sound of Music.  Worth going to Salzburg just to see that! 

Brats

      I can't get to the library till day after tomorrow.  So I will take this minute to rant about an unholy abomination that takes place in Iowa and probably elsewhere around the country.  And that is---the improper eating of bratwurst.  Look at the picture of the brat above.  YUM YUM YUM!!!  Notice the bun--it has some body to it.  It is beautifully crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.  It is NOT from a pack of 89 cent American hotdog buns that come 8 to a package that are made of glue and have all the appeal of an old wet sponge.   No, this is real bread.  And notice that the brat is covered in mustard--probably spicy mustard.  
      Brats are special and there are lots of ways to eat them.  You can eat them plain if you don't like mustard, you can put them on a real roll, or you can have a roll to the side and you can have them with a side of saurkraut or potato salad.  But DON'T put them on a horrible cheap hotdog bun and DON'T put ketchup on them.  If you do, in the next life all you will get to eat is baloney on white bread and Velveeta cheese, which will be exactly what you deserve!
  

Useful song

One goal while visiting any German speaking country is to see if I can breathe any life into my defunct German.  And now I MUST, simply MUST share this song with one and all.  Catherine learned it in a summer German camp---great stuff!  Sing it (with great vigor) to the tune of "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain."

Ich bin auslander und spreche nicht gut Deustch!
Ich bin auslander und spreche nicht gut Deustch!
Bitte langsam, bitte langsam,
Bitte sprechen Sie nur langsam,
Ich bin auslander un spreche nicht gut Deustch!

which translates to:

I am foreign and I don't speak German well!
I am foreign and I don't speak German well!
Please speak slowly, please speak slowly,
If you only will speak slowly--
I am foreign and I don't speak German well!!!

If you manage to get this song out of your head please let me know how you did it.  I've had it rattling around in here for a good 5 years now.

Austria!

Oh Boy!   Austria!  I've actually been here for a few brief shining (expensive) days--and it looks EXACTLY like this picture.  This is going to be a fun month!  There's the Sound of Music, and the Vienna Boys Choir, and fantastic food...What a great place for a virtual trip!

Flying Home

February is over and so is our trip to Afghanistan.  I'm glad I went but I'm very glad to come home.  This has been a difficult country to visit.  It is with a sort of guilty relief that I get to pack my metaphorical bags and get the heck out of there.  I imagine myself back in America burning my burka, taking a long hot shower, going to an American restaraunt then taking a walk in a park with green trees and not an armed soldier in sight. Bliss!