Krampus, foto bitte?

Early last month, Doer and I crossed a big item off our bucket list when we visited Austria in hopes of experiencing a Krampuslauf, or Krampus Run. I don’t know how exactly our weird obsession began, but it has only grown throughout our years together. We both enjoyed watching Austrian actor Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained) explain the concept to Jimmy Fallon recently. Instead of Christmas cards, Doer and I tend to give one another Krampuskarten like the one up above – check out Pinterest for more examples (some are NSFW). Thus, we were thrilled to experience two Krampus events –

Continue reading

Wieners Out

There was a very specific thing that drew us to Austria at Christmastime, which we will get to in the next post, but it is also wonderful to have friends all over the world and Vienna is no exception. Thus, this trip took on a dual purpose. My friend Phil – who I had met up with only one other time in Chicago when we were both in our teens – was a great host, showing us all Vienna had to offer. He certainly gave me the grand culinary tour. As we have found, it is great to know locals

Continue reading

Swiss Efficiency

…and on to our trip to Austria! But not before a 12-hour layover in Zürich, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Needless to say, we were impressed with that Swiss efficiency from the moment we boarded the plane. When the pilot on Swiss International Airlines tells you it will be one minute until takeoff or ten minutes until landing, you can literally set your watch to it. I tried many different times and they were never wrong. Ten minutes on the dot from announcement to wheels on the ground, each and every time. This still fascinates me. When we told our

Continue reading