Bon Voyage!

December 31 was departure day for the kids.  Because the van broke down, we planned to travel by subway and then airport train instead of our own vehicle.  Well, their flight was at 7:00 a.m., so they had to be there at 5:00 a.m., so we had to leave the hotel around 4:00 a.m......UGH!!  We knew the trains had been running 24 hours a day, but Sunday night we found out that's only true on weekends, not on Monday morning!!  So the hotel arranged for two taxis in the morning.  Tim and I went along to help with the luggage, since they needed two taxis for 4 people plus all the bags anyway.  

One last good-bye to our travelers before they checked through security at the airport.  What great kids!!  They blessed us so much by coming to Slovakia for Christmas.  We love them so much and will miss them lots!!!

One story..... when Tim's mom's package FINALLY arrived right before Christmas,  one of the Slovak teachers asked me if the box was from my "mother-in-love".  I don't know if she just got the phrase wrong, or if she mispronounced "law" as "love", since the v/w reversal is a common mistake with English for native Slovak speakers.  But I smiled and said, "Yes, it is indeed from my mother-in-love!"   How beautiful!!  It really struck me how much better a term that is!!  And from then on, we also refer to Alana as our "daughter-in-love", which is so much nicer and truer than "daughter-in-law"!!  That will be the new, more appropriate terminology in our family, thanks to a wonderful Slovak adjustment!!

After our final hugs and waves, Tim and I went to figure out how to get back to Vienna by the airport train, so we could catch the subway back to our hotel.  We arrived around 6:30 a.m. and went back to sleep for 3 more hours, which did us a lot of good!!  We went down for breakfast, and since the kids left too early to eat, I didn't feel guilty making sandwiches and grabbing a couple apples for us to eat for lunch on the train later!  After quick showers, packing and checking out, we headed for the train station to negotiate our trip back to Liptovsky Mikuláš, which we hadn't planned on, but worked fine in the absence of the rental vehicle!  It all worked fairly smoothly, with no more than 1/2 hour wait between connections.  We left our hotel in Vienna at 11:00 a.m. and got back to our flat around 6:00 p.m. - not too bad.  In all honesty, it was really nice NOT having to drive the van back, and just relaxing the whole way on the train rides!!  :-)  We just felt really badly about the van breaking down, and inconveniencing the owner with such a big hassle.  

Interesting sights on the way out of Vienna - the buildings in the middle were actually crooked to look like they were leaning sideways - very disconcerting!!  HA!  

Crossing the Danube on the train - neat bridge a little farther down.

Passing by a random castle on the way back to L.M.  - it's a fairly common sight!  

Back in L.M., we walked uptown to have a pizza, and it wasn't crowded at all anywhere.  In fact, the town seemed really quiet, which surprised us for New Year's Eve. Lenka, the landlady's daughter, came up to visit after supper, and she said most of the craziness happens around midnight, outside at the town square, so everybody stays home and keeps warm for the early hours of the evening.  Otherwise, many restaurants and hotels charge a fee for private parties where many people go to enjoy the whole evening - dinner, drinks, and dancing - so again, nobody is out and about earlier.  

There were loud fireworks noises going off with increasing frequency as the night progressed, and after Lenka left, we went out to see the action.  Oh my goodness - it was literally like a war zone, with explosions going off everywhere.  Everywhere!!  All around us!!  It reminded me of the 4th of July at Lindens' when we can see so many different places with fireworks all around, except here, the fireworks were all very close by, within about an 8-10 block radius around us.  It was absolutely crazy.  The air was thick with smoke, and we had to be really careful to avoid fireworks being shot into the air or firecrackers being thrown in the very near vicinity.  We've never seen anything like it!  The big city fireworks were very impressive, but it seemed dangerous to have it right over the square which was crowded with people!  After the fireworks, there was a band playing on a big stage in the square, and people were dancing.  There was a kiosk set up with food and drink, and many people were carrying around bottles of champagne, beer, and other various alcohol.  There were groups of police standing around calmly observing the action, but there obviously aren't any "open container", "public intoxication", or fireworks laws being enforced!!  We thought the combination of excessive alcohol and excessive fireworks was a little dangerous, so we headed back to our flat by a different route that avoided the groups of partiers all over!  Oh - there were also many people lighting and releasing luminaries, which were really beautiful floating up into the night sky!

We finally got to bed around 1:30 a.m., so that completed our day of crazy sleep patterns - HA!  We slept late on New Year's Day, so we both feel rested. Of course January 1st  was an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day with blue skies and perfect views of the mountains.  We wish it had been like this the whole time the kids were here, instead of having such heavy fog every day.  SIGH!  

This is for Paul, Alana, Beth, and Lute...... the view out our kitchen window today.  At least now you can picture the kitchen and know what it looks like most every day as we eat our meals right where you joined us for Christmas meals!  

We can even see the very tip-top of Kriván today, right from our window.  WOW!!  We're so glad P/A/B/L  finally got to see this famous peak in the High Tatras on their last ride out of Liptovsky Mikuláš!!   :-)  

The journey back to Ankeny was uneventful for Paul, Alana, Beth, and Lute, and all their luggage arrived with them.   :-)   They spent New Year's Eve together playing board games in front of the fireplace - a little quieter evening than ours here!

Šťastný nový rok from Slovakia to you all!!  

(That's "Happy New Year" to those of you who don't know how to use Google Translate!)   

Have a wonderful 2013!!