Thanksgiving!

Despite the fact that Austria doesn't officially recognize American Thanksgiving Day, and all of us had to work and pretend that November's 4th Thursday was just like any other day, a network of highly skilled North Americans (and even a few Austrians) were hard at work planning and preparing for a celebration. This celebration has been condensed into the following short-film. (this is a premier and the first of its kind produced by Zilli & Zilli movie productions...a VERY novice undertaking).

From My Videos

Rome

Right after the English camp Rebecca and I took a trip to Rome for the weekend. Two of my friends from college were traveling through Europe and we got to meet up for the end of their trip. We stayed at this great B&B just within walking distance of the Colosseum and had a fabulous time seeing sights, eating food, eating ice cream, drinking coffee, drinking wine & of course running into the Trevi Fountain just about 10 times every day. Here are some pitures of our great weekend:

September School

This September Rebecca Honts and I co-taught an English camp. It was in this small little town outside of Graz. We both had a great experience -- finally after all this time -- getting to teach together. Here are some pictures of that week:

time travel

Any time travel fans out there? Well, we've got a great travel tip for you...the town of Friesach, Austria.

This tiny town has some of the most intact and impressive sections of city walls left over from the 1200s. Not only that, but they've also started a project to build a fortress just like they did in the 1200s - meaning, they're only using tools and techniques from that time. We got to witness this and have some pictures documenting what we saw. (there's a similar but larger scale project underway in France, too: http://www.guedelon.fr/).

Freisach is super cute and we stayed in a nice "Gasthof" just off the main square. They people we talked with were quite friendly and surprisingly jolly/funny. Here are some pictures of our time travels!

Vienna

So, another great person I got to visit last week was my wonderful college roommate Iva! She's getting her PhD in Canada and b/c they decided to change visa policies for all Czech people TWO days before she left on her summer trip to Europe, she had to pop by the Canadian Embassy. Long story short, we met up at the embassy in Vienna and spent the day together - with her and her really great parents!

During and shortly after my undergrad I got to visit Iva and her family in Brno (totally great city in Czech Rep) and so I feel connected to them. Her parents are super funny, generous and just plain nice people! While we were waiting on her visa paperwork to process (which it successfully did - yea!) we went for some coffee, walked around some of the old city, had ice cream and basically tried to keep from getting too wet. As you'll see it was raining AND a bit chilly (yes, these pictures were really taken in August...even though it looks much more like typical Viennese fall weather). After picking up her visa we went to the Prater (the only place in all of Austria that I'm aware of which has anything close to roller coasters and the like.) We went on this really fun ride. The only one to get wet was Iva: her entire right leg was soaked. But I think she still thought it was worth it!

It was fun to take this day trip to Vienna and get re-connected with my friend Iva! I hope that the next time we see each other will be sooner than in 2 years time!

Visit from Northern Germany!

Last week we had the honor of seeing some very special people for the first time in 10 years! Heidi & Ralph Kretzschmar were my host parents in northern Germany during my exchange year 1999-2000. They are really wonderful people and we've managed to keep in touch all these years (yes, it's true!)

This year's vacation led them to the far corners of Styria, Austria. On their way from Schladming to Vienna, they stopped by Graz for a few hours! It was great to see them again! They were excited to see where I live and how I live. We showed them a bit of Graz and they in turn treated us to some fabulous ice cream!

Hope you enjoy the pics!

:)

Trip to Schladming!

Hi there! We've got a few updates. To get the ball rolling, we're posting a slide-show of our recent trip to Schladming! Our wonderful Canadian friend Alicia and her great Austrian fiance invited us to Schladming for a lovely hike!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and maybe you'll want to come and visit for a hike, too!

The Zillis :)