Hawksley

One thing we've been wanting to do for awhile, but couldn't because of circumstances, was get a puppy. Well, now that we're no longer living in a one-bedroom apartment, and we've settled down in a house in Cleveland with a fully fenced yard, there's nothing stopping us.

So, once we returned back to Cleveland after spending Christmas and New Years in Prince George and Vancouver, we started searching hard for a puppy to join the family. We searched a lot on Petfinder.com, visited a local branch of the SPCA, and finally found the right pup at the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter.

When we found him, he was 8 weeks old, and had been abandoned with his brothers and sisters in a shed. Some of the litter died, and only three boys survived. He's part German Shepherd, and part.... mystery dog. They don't know what he's crossed with, but they think possibly a Newfoundland or an Norwegian Elkhound. Whatever the mix is, he's cute! We had to wait a week before we could take him him (just in case the jerk that abandoned him came back to claim him), and on January 13, we officially became proud dog owners. We named him Hawksley.

It's been a pretty eventful three weeks since we got him. When he's not sleeping (which thankfully he does a fair amount), he's tearing around the house, biting us, chewing on things, and most of all, peeing, peeing and peeing. We've got him going outside most of the time now, but he still has some pee accidents inside and some other indoor pees which we're pretty sure he does just out of spite. Despite this, we love him a lot and are really happy we got him. He starts obedience class in just over a week, so hopefully he'll be a little better behaved real soon.

Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland!

After Patrick and Bree's visit, we had just a few days left in Germany. Patrick and Bree left town on Tuesday morning, a day which also saw movers come to pack up our apartment, and Erin work her last day in Singen. After being moved out of our apartment, we'd spend three nights in a hotel right in the heart of Konstanz's old town.

Despite living pretty much right in the middle of Konstanz for a long time (3.5 years for Erin, 1.5 years for Tim), the town seemed a little different while staying in the hotel. We got to see the city through the eyes of a tourist, and we realized all over again what a beautiful town it is, and how much we'd miss it.

In between checking in on the cleaners and painters touching up our apartment for the turnover to the next tenant, we were able to spend some time touring the city one last time. We walked through the old town, walked along the Rhein, and had some nice meals at some our favourite restaurants in town. It would have been nice to have a little more time to soak in the town before we left, but unfortunately we had to leave early Friday morning to move to Cleveland.

Our move to the USA is one we're making with mixed feelings. On one hand, we're excited for this next adventure in our life, and to be in a culture way more similar to our Canadian way of life. On the other hand, we will miss some facets of European life that we really grew to love, and we will definitely, definitely miss having all these amazing travel opportunities right at our doorstep. In less than four years, we've seen more beautiful and amazing places than most people get to see in a lifetime, and we've gotten to meet a number of wonderful people that have become great friends. We've had some great experiences here, and we're truly lucky for that.

Konstanz Oktoberfest (with some visitors from Canada!)

This most recent update is coming to you from our new (temporary) home in Beachwood, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. It's been a busy couple of weeks, but we are starting to get things in order here. More on that to come soon, but first we'll go over our last days in Germany.

Our friends Patrick and Bree were visiting family and friends in England in September, and had mentioned that they had hoped to come visit us for a few days in Germany if we were able to find the time. We had to make sure their visit wouldn't interfere with the movers coming to our house, and after organizing and cancelling their vist a few times, finally we were able to arrange everything, and Patrick and Bree arrived in Konstanz on the Friday night.

Those of you who were at our wedding will remember Patrick as one our MCs; specifically the one with the odd sense of humour. He worked with both Erin and I at our last job in Canada, so we both know him well and were happy to have him and Bree visit. On their first night, we made them a cheese fondue before heading into Konstanz for a couple of drinks; all in all a pretty quiet night.

On Saturday we showed them around the town. We showed them the usual tourist sites of Konstanz: the cathedral, the old town, the waterfront, and the statue of Imperia. They absolutely loved the town.

That evening we went to the local Oktoberfest. It is tiny compared to the one in Münich, but it is still a huge party. We had a number of other friends show up as well: Scott from Tim's German class with his girlfriend Nina, our friends Chastity and Mark, and a number of friends from Erin's work as well. We had a great time drinking the giant one-litre beers, eating pork knuckles and listening to German music while wearing our lederhosen and dirndls.

Sunday we showed Patrick and Bree around town a little more, and Bree, inspired by the night before, went and bought her own dirndl for future Oktoberfests. We took advantage of some nice September weather and had a couple of beers on Konstanz's waterfront beer garden before having a nice dinner on a restaurant on the Rhine.

Monday we were back to work (Tim's last day teaching English and Erin's second-to-last day in Singen), so Patrick and Bree went down to Zürich for the day. They enjoyed it, but said they liked Konstanz much better -- great praise considering Zürich is generally considered one of the nicest cities in the world. For dinner we went to a local Brauhaus to get some traditional German food and beer. We sent Patrick and Bree off to a friend's apartment in Kreuzlingen across the border, as we needed to do some preparations for the movers coming the following morning.

Patrick and Bree were off back to England Tuesday morning, and the movers came and cleaned our stuff out of our apartment. While it was a hectic few days to have shortly before our move, it was really great to see our friends and show off our life in Germany. Three days later we would leave Germany. More on that next entry...

Our First Anniversary, One Year Together in Germany

August 2, 2009 marked our first anniversary. Since we had just gotten back from our trip to Vienna and Budapest, we didn't do anything big to celebrate. Instead we just had a nice weekend around Lake Konstanz.

On the Friday night, we went to the Konstanz Weinfest (Wine Festival). Imagine a mini Oktoberfest, only outside and with wine instead of beer. It was just a few blocks from our house, and was a lot of fun. They filled up a square in town with tables, stands from probably dozens of local wineries, and a stage with for live music. It was a lot of fun.

On the Saturday, we took a ferry to the city of Meersburg, where we finally got around to using a wedding gift from Erin's colleagues, a wine tasting and gift certificate at the Meersburg winery Staatsweingut Meersburg. While it was very nice, we may not have picked the best day to go there. After indulging at the Weinfest the night before, sampling a bunch of wines early the next afternoon probably wasn't the most pleasant thing for our palates. After the tasting we strolled around Meersburg, which is a really beautiful little town.

For dinner that night, we went to one of our favourite restaurants in Konstanz: a little tapas restaurant called La Bodega. We filled up on delicious food, including our personal favourites: bacon-wrapped dates. This was our "big" anniversary dinner, as on Sunday, our actual anniversary, we took it pretty easy and stayed home most of the day, watching an ill-timed summer rainstorm most of the day.

So with one year of marriage in the books, our next milestone was one full year together in Germany. That day came the next weekend, August 9th. Last year when we arrived, it was during Seenachtsfest, a local festival that concludes with a big fireworks show over Lake Konstanz. Last year we were dead tired and didn't go to the festival, but saw the fireworks show from out balcony. This year, we again didn't go to the festival, but this time it was due to yet another ill-timed summer storm that kept us from wanting to go and stand outside all day. So we again watched the show from our balcony, and thought back on the great year we've had together in Germany. Hard to believe our time here is almost over...

Just a Couple of Wieners

Last Wednesday, we headed to Vienna and Budapest for a one-week trip. We had four nights in Vienna and three in Budapest. Part of the time in Vienna was taken up by a lacrosse tournament for Tim, but the rest of the week we were free to tour these two beautiful cities.

We arrived in Vienna on Wednesday evening, and after checking into our hotel, headed to a restaurant recommended by a co-worker of Erin, that allegedly has the best Wiener schnitzel in all of Vienna. We had made reservations at this restaurant, named Figlmüller earlier in the day, and it was a good thing, as there was a lineup out the door when we arrived. The schnitzel didn't disappoint. In addition to being delicious, it was bigger than the plate it was brought out on. We had an Austrian potato salad with it, and washed it down with some local white wine, a traditional Austrian meal for our first night.

On Thursday, we checked out out local sites like the Naschmarkt, St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Hofburg Imperial Palace, before having a nice, albeit incredibly filling dinner at an old restaurant located in a hundreds of years old cellar in the old town.

On Friday, we started the day off with a nice breakfast at a Viennese coffee house, and then went our separate ways for most of the day; Tim playing lacrosse with the Swiss National Team in the Austrian Nations Cup and Erin checking out more of the city as well as seeing Schönbrunn Palace before catching the last lacrosse game of the day and heading out for dinner together.

Saturday was more of the same; Tim playing lacrosse and Erin touring the city during the day before we met up for dinner together at the end of the night. Tim's lacrosse team managed to make it to the tournament final with an overtime win over the Slovakian team in the semifinals, and was set to face Team Austria in the finals early Sunday afternoon.

Since we had to leave for Budapest pretty much right after the lacrosse game on Sunday, no touristy stuff was done. Erin came to watch the game (the only person cheering on Switzerland, compared to a decent sized crowd cheering on the hated Austrians), and despite falling behind 4-0 early, Tim and Team Switzerland managed to come back and win the tournament 11-9, the first time Switzerland has ever beaten Austria. It was a nice way to end our time in Vienna, but we didn't get to celebrate for too long, as we had a train to catch to Budapest. More on Budapest to come soon!

Onward to The Metropolis of the Western Reserve!

It's been an exciting week here. As of yesterday, it is official that we will be moving to Cleveland. Earlier in the year, Erin interviewed for a job in Solon, just outside of Cleveland, still with the same company. After being informally offered the position a little while ago, she received an official offer last week, and as of yesterday, she accepted it! So, as of the beginning of October, we will be living in the USA. It will certainly be a change of pace, but after seeing the video below, we can't wait!

In all seriousness though, we will definitely miss Europe. While there are some things from home that we definitely miss here, there are also some great things that we will miss when we move back to North America. For one, it'll be a lot more difficult to just pack up and head to Paris for the weekend now...

So, with only about 2.5 months left in Europe, we are trying to make the most of our remaining time (and generous amount of vacation given in Germany) and do as much travelling as possible. Next week we head to Vienna and Budapest for a week, and just last night we booked a weekend trip to Prague in mid-August. We're also hoping to spend a week in Croatia and a weekend in Amsterdam before all is said and done.

And as mentioned earlier, in October, we'll be back in North America. It'll be nice to be that much closer to our families, and also to be back in an English speaking country. We're looking forward to this next step in our adventure.

World Hockey Championships

This tuesday, the two of us were lucky enough to score a pair of tickets to the Canada - Slovakia game at the World Hockey Championships in Zürich. While most of the best players in the world are still playing for the Stanley Cup, each team was still stacked with NHL players, including some big stars like Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, and Martin St. Louis.

We weren't quite sure what to expect for the game. Sometimes you see these games on TV and the arena is half empty, and seems really quiet. Happily, this wasn't the case for this game. The arena was sold out (about 6,500 people), and it seemed like at least 5,000 of those people were crazy Slovakian hockey fans.

Canadians were definitely outnumbered by Slovakians in the crowd, by a margin of at least 10-to-1. We ourselves were surrounded by a sea of Slovakian jerseys. Being totally outnumbered like that made it a little sweeter when Canada jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first period, led 6-1 after 2, and made it 7-1 in the third before Slovakia got a couple of late goals for a 7-3 final score. The Slovakians seemed like they were having a good time anyways, and were in good spirits even with the loss.

As an added bonus, decked out in our Team Canada jerseys and paper hockey helmets, we stood out in the crowd after Canada scored and made it on the TV broadcast. We got home to an email from our mother in Prince George that she saw us after one of Canada's goals, and over the next couple of days, we got a few messages from friends back home saying that they saw us in the Sportsnet highlight package of the games. We're huge celebrities now.

Unfortunately, Sportsnet's videos aren't available on their website here in Germany, but after searching Youtube, we were able to find a clip with us at the very end, celebrating after a Canada goal. Check out the last two seconds of this Youtube clip:

And for our next big news, tomorrow is a big day as we head off to Portugal for a 10-day vacation. We fly into Porto, have a few days there, then head down to the small beach town of Porto Covo for a few days before finishing our trip off with three days in Lisbon. We're really looking forward to it, and are sure to be back with an update when we return.

Karnival in Konstanz

The end of February is Karnival time in much of southern Germany. This marked my first, and Erin's third Karnival experience. The locals here go all out for it. All day street parties, elaborate costumes, and of course, lots of drinking. For at least a week, the whole town is taken over by Karnival. We had a great time going out with friends on Schmutzige Dünstig ("Dirty Thursday") and watching the parade on Sunday. Here are a few pictures.