An impromptu six-hour stint in Vienna

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Before we arrived in Europe, Chris suggested that we might take a quick train ride to Vienna from Bratislava to enjoy the Christmas markets there. We really loved them when we visited Vienna in November 2014 — they were likely some of the most spectacular and festive Christmas markets we’d ever been to, with the stunning decorations, the gorgeous backdrop of the fully lit up Rathaus, the bright twinkling lights, and all the artisan crafts and varied foods being sold by different vendors. Plus, it would be different this time with Pookster in tow, as she could enjoy them. So late afternoon on Friday, we took a 1-hour train ride to Vienna and spent six glorious hours in Vienna. We visited the Manner wafer shop, which I don’t recall from nine years ago, but who knows, maybe it didn’t exist then! We admired all the Christmas lights and decor lining all the streets around Stephansplatz. We hopped from one Christmas market to another, all within walking distance from each other, and enjoyed local bites and gluhwein. This time around, I also noticed there were a lot more American voices than nine years ago. It could’ve just been me.

This time, I really admired all the little touches to the market to make them welcoming to young children. We took Pookster around the pathways to step up on the stools to see the little nativity and Christmas scenes lining the walking paths. She also saw the singing animals in the children’s area and enjoyed the Christmas music (and… threw a tantrum when we took her away….). She got excited when she saw the big Pepa Pig balloons with some of the vendors and repeatedly ran around the balloon area.

We picked up some Manner chocolate and wafers, a little train for Pookster, and a new handmade ceramic Christmas house to add to our growing collection (and discovered that they are no longer handmade in Germany, but now in Lithuania, likely due to cost of labor – what a surprise!). It was a quick and tiring trip, but a fun and beautiful one. It would be hard to imagine anyone visiting the stunning Vienna Christmas markets and not getting into the festive Christmas spirit. Visiting this Christmas market makes you fall in love with Christmas and everything happy it represents. It’s like you want everyone to experience the magic that is here; it just cannot be replicated back home.

Language and duck (!) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

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We took a 4-hour train ride from Prague to Bratislava yesterday morning. During the train ride, I thought about how interesting it was that when I was born, the Czech Republic and Slovakia did not exist; they were once a country known as Czechoslovakia; but what’s more notable is that if you ask anyone who identifies with either nationality, it was considered an “amicable split” (unfortunately, we cannot say the same for North Korea and South Korea….). And as I was studying basic words and greetings in Czech and Slovak, I thought it was also interesting that although they are two distinct languages, many words and sayings overlap. Plus, it’s similar to how if you speak Cantonese, you can also understand some Mandarin because of overlap of sounds. So even if someone is speaking Czech to someone who is speaking Slovak, both can understand each other and converse without ever properly speaking the other’s language. So, if you want to say “thank you” in Czech, it’s “dekuji,” but in Slovak, it’s “dakujem.” The sound is similar and if you say it quickly, they can almost sound the same to an untrained ear.

While researching food for both countries, I was excited to learn that duck is a popular dish eaten during this time of year as we enter the colder months. We don’t have duck very often at all, and when we do, it’s usually Chinese style from our favorite Cantonese style roastery in Manhattan Chinatown. We had our first meal at a restaurant in the Old Town of Bratislava shortly after we arrived, and to our delight, both of the seasonal specials on the menu included duck. The first was a seared duck breast served with duck au jus, pumpkin puree, and oddly enough, crumbled gingerbread. The second was fried duck pirohy (dumplings) served with two dipping sauces. We also ordered garlic soup with egg “noodles” (they were shredded omelet strips), which is a popular Slovak dish, as well. All our food was washed down with a local Slovak beer (beer is just as refreshing and delicious in Slovakia as it is in the Czech Republic!) and a hot pear “lemonade” (not lemonade at all, but a warm fizzy dink with pear juice and warming autumnal spices). The dishes were all delicious: the duck breast was perfectly cooked, though I did wish the skin was a bit crispier; the duck pirohy really blew me away. They were clearly fried in duck fat to make them even more decadent, and when you sliced one of the dumplings in half, they were stuffed to the BRIM with shredded duck. There was certainly no skimping here! Chris I both marveled over how relatively inexpensive these duck specials were at less than 20 euros per dish. In New York, we’d likely pay double what we paid here.

Kaia didn’t really eat the duck breast, but she did enjoy the duck pirohy, as well as the gingerbread. It was a delicious first meal in Bratislava, followed by a trip to the main square Christmas market, which was our first Christmas market this season!

Jerusalem (Jubilee) Synagogue in Prague

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On our last full day in Prague yesterday, we visited the Jerusalem Synagogue on Jerusalem Street. I originally put it on our list of places to potentially visit because it’s supposed to be quite a beautiful building both inside and out. This synagogue, built in 1906, is designed in the Moorish Revival form with Art Nouveau details. And it also suddenly dawned on me that despite being on this planet for almost 38 years now, I do not believe I’ve stepped into any synagogue even once. I’ve been in endless churches, cathedrals, and mosques around the world, yet no synagogues.

If you come as a visitor and not as a worshipper, you pay an entrance fee to enter. But when you enter, you immediately realize that the entry fee is completely worth it, as the inside is absolutely spectacular – so many colors and sparkles and detail every which way you turn. Plus, on the second floor, they have set up what looks like a museum exhibition detailing the history of Jews in Central Europe and what was once Czechoslovakia. They touch upon the Nazi German occupation of the synagogue as a place to store confiscated Jewish property. They give many personal accounts of famous Jews who have lived in what is now Prague, and also share horror stories of Jews constantly being shunned, excluded, or pushed out of cities and towns all over Central Europe since as early as the 1200s.

Living in New York, I am surrounded by Jewish people everywhere I go. You see synagogues in many neighborhoods, Jewish delis and restaurants every few blocks. A lot of major theaters and companies are run by those with a Jewish background. In New York, it can seem like Jews are the majority, and when you aren’t Jewish, you aren’t as accepted. But when you see exhibits like the one here at the Jerusalem Synagogue, you quickly remember that Jews, are, in fact, a real minority, and have had a long, painful history of being ostracized, excluded, and killed. Given the attacks in Israel and the turmoil in Gaza since early October, every time I’ve passed any synagogue in New York, I always see armed police officers wearing bullet-proof vests standing outside their doors. It’s always made me feel uneasy and a bit concerned for how Jewish worshippers feel coming in and out of their synagogues. But seeing this exhibit and this synagogue illuminated that Jews everywhere live in a certain degree of fear and distrust given their sad history of not having a place to belong, as well as having many generations of their families exterminated during World War II.

Traveling in Prague during Thanksgiving week with our growing toddler

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While this is our second year spending Thanksgiving week in Europe with a tiny human in tow, it’s quite a different travel experience this time around with Pookster vs. last year. For one, she’s no longer drinking breast milk/formula, which also means we’re no longer rushing back to the hotel at specific times of the day for me to pump. She’s fully mobile and running around everywhere, so she doesn’t need to either be in our arms or pushed in the stroller. She wants all the delicious food we’re eating, especially the carbs, sweets, and pastries (we’re still trying our best to withhold most sweets from her). She’s also talking and singing up a storm, constantly taking in the sounds and sights and pointing out all her keen observations (she happily identifies colors, shapes, and animals, as well as objects she likes, such as trees, lights, etc.). When we went to a kitschy tap room called U Kunstatu, she not only wanted to run all over the place and push the chairs around, but she also took it upon herself to create her own entertainment by singing, chanting, and using the cardboard coasters as “instruments” of sorts. When we walked through a fun neighborhood in Prague of interesting shops and restaurants, she insisted we stop so that she could indulge in running through and throwing the large, goldenrod-hued autumn leaves that had fallen. Pookster was also eager to run around a large playground we came across and play on the different bouncy structures. She’s a lot more engaged with her surroundings now and taking it all in, whereas last year, she probably had no freaking idea where we were or what we were doing there.

There’s no sugar coating it: it can be very difficult to travel with a toddler. I don’t think anyone is debating that point. But what is so rewarding about it, once you have gotten through the tantrums and the kicking and the “acting out” at inopportune moments, is being able to watch toddlers their new, different surroundings and really embrace it all. I’ve loved watching her giggle in glee at something new she sees, or getting excited by all the Christmas lights. It’s also been fun to watch her try different foods that she hasn’t yet been exposed to. But the simplest things I’ve enjoyed are just watching her walk down a cobbled street holding hands with her Daddy, looking at all the things happening around her in wonderment. Those little sweet moments make all the tantrums and getting slowed down by diaper changes and blowouts worth it. These are the moments when she discovers the little things that make up life — and in the process, we are watching her grow.

Doll houses – for children and for adults

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Today, I was texting with some friends about my friend’s daughter’s birthday. My friend shared that her three-year-old daughter was gifted a dollhouse, which you can custom design down to the WALLPAPER in each room. Given this, my friend would be taking this on as a mini project for her daughter to fully enjoy playing with this dollhouse. I thought it was really sweet — my friend wants her child to play with the dollhouse, and she’s willing to invest time in making sure the dollhouse looks just like what her daughter wants.

It reminded me that I still have a Greenleaf dollhouse that “Santa Claus” (aka my dad) gifted me when I was five years old, still unbuilt and in its original box down in my parents’ basement. I told my friend that if she wanted, she could have the dollhouse if she was willing to invest time in building and painting it. Otherwise, eventually soon, I’d want to sell it to make sure someone out there can actually enjoy it. I reminded her, though, that it’s not a dollhouse for playing; it’s actually meant to be a collector’s dollhouse for adults. My other friend didn’t understand what this meant, so I explained it to her; there’s an entire industry of dollhouses for adult builders and collectors, and this was one of them.

My friends were super confused: why did my dad gift me an adult collector’s dollhouse? Why wasn’t it ever built? And who was expected to build it and when? Was I expected, as a five-year-old child, to build it?

I’m no longer triggered by the memories of that dollhouse, as I’ve moved on. But for me, that unbuilt dollhouse is just representative of all the broken promises my dad made. He always said he’d build it. He never did. He always made excuses and said he was too busy. Finally when I was a teen, I asked one last time if he was ever planning to build it. He got mad, snapping back, “YOU can go ahead and build it yourself!” When an ex-boyfriend went up to him to ask if he could have it to build, my dad responded and said he was still planning to build it (no, never happened). So it just sits in its box, unbuilt, to be enjoyed by no one.

As an adult now with my own child, I get it: my dad WAS super busy. He was working a day job for most of my childhood along with managing and repairing three different apartment buildings and two rental homes. He rarely rested and was just constantly working to ensure we had financial stability. But part of me thinks he also did all that because he didn’t really want to spend time with us. He never played with my brother or me. We never had any real conversations. He was frequently irritable when we attempted to engage with him. My brother eventually gave up, feeling ignored, and decided to ignore him back…. that continued until the day my brother died. Our dad was usually doing his own thing when he was home. I don’t fault him for wanting a break from life while at home, but his negative attitude towards us as children, not to mention always saying he’d do things for us that he never actually did, informs how I want to parent my own child and how I want to set expectations to never let my child think my words are meaningless. I don’t want to become my mom or my dad with my own child. I want to be and do better… a lot better, so that when Kaia is an adult, she actually wants to willingly spend time with me and enjoy time with me, and she doesn’t do it out of obligation or guilt.

I want Kaia to know every moment of her life how much I love her and how much she is wanted. I want her to know I’m always trying to be better to her and provide her with the best, but not at the expense of quality time together. I want her to hear me say I will do something, and for her to expect that yes, I will follow through on it. I don’t want her to harbor resentment against me or think I’m just pushing her away from me. I want to be an example to her of how to be, both in attitude toward the world as well as actions. That’s my takeaway from my sad dollhouse memories.

Eating savories in Central Europe

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When Chris booked our trip to Prague and Bratislava, while I was excited for the sights, Christmas markets, and the pastries/desserts, I will be honest and say that the day to day food that Central Europe is known for is not really up my alley. I love spices, heat, texture, and complexity in food. The simple meat and potatoes food culture has never really been on my top cravings list. In fact, Chris always makes fun of the other kids at Kaia’s school when we talk about the sheer variety of food we have exposed her to, from different cuisines to various spices to even chili peppers. He likes to say, “well, of course she likes / eats (insert food we feed her). She doesn’t just eat meat and potatoes like all those other kids.”

But you know what? When I’m in Prague or anywhere in Central Europe, I am happy to eat local food and try new things. I rarely have eaten potato “dumplings” made from a dumpling “loaf” sliced like bread slices and presented with goulash. Beef and pork are commonly eaten in rich stews in this part of the world, as are potatoes in many forms, whether it’s boiled or mashed and pressed into dumplings. Our first meal at a restaurant (canteen style, where you take a tray and a ticket, then go to each stall and choose what you want, then pay at the end) on our first night was beef goulash (Czech style, which is apparently different from Hungarian style according to the menu – always learning!) stew with sliced potato dumplings, along with the local favorite beer on tap, Pilsner Urquell. The goulash was pretty tasty, and the texture of the potato dumplings really surprised me. It looked dense when you peer over it, but when you cut into it with a fork and eat it, it’s actually quite fluffy and spongy.

For something sweet to end our meal, we also had knedliky for the first time, which are sweet dessert dumplings made with quark, a type of soft cheese, flour, egg, yeast, and some sugar. They are typically filled with a fruit — most commonly apricot or berries. Once you choose the fruit filling for your sweet dumplings, the server then ladles a big dollop of a warm, sweet cheese based sauce, along with a sprinkling of savory cheese. I was pleasantly surprised — it was quite satisfying! I could see how people could grow up eating knedliky and have them as a craving.

It was a hearty meal, and one that would fill us up and keep us warm at the beginning of this cold week.

Signing “more” with her hands for planes at the Cathay Pacific Lounge at Heathrow Airport

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If you chat with any parent of a young child, especially of toddler age, they will tell you that parenting is both so adorable and sweet, yet completely and utterly exhausting at the same time. And how could it not be? Toddler age children are learning more and more about the world around them and absorbing it, figuring out what their place is. They get excited by the little things that we adults take for granted. They’re responding to all their different stimuli. While all that is happening, they’re also discovering their emotions and how people or things will respond to them, which could potentially result in tantrums. No parent likes tantrums. But most parents who love their children would agree that moments like the below are what makes parenting during this period so sweet.

We were on a cushy layover at London Heathrow Airport early Sunday morning, so Chris decided that we should spend time at the Cathay Pacific Lounge to shower, rest, and eat before our connecting flight. The Cathay Lounge at Heathrow is particularly gorgeous and comfortable in that it has floor to ceiling windows to give you a full-on view of planes on the runway, coming and going. Kaia is really loving all motor-operated things now. She loves watching cars and trucks on the road, and she really enjoys identifying airplanes. When she sees them, she visibly gets excited and starts saying “airplane! plane! fei ji!” nonstop, and she keeps watching them with her full interest. She stood intently at the corner of the room, looking outside the window and watching the planes constantly coming and going. But when there was a break and no planes came for a while, she kept looking out the window, then up at Chris, signing “more” with the fingertips of both hands tapping each other. I didn’t observe this initially and Chris saw it first, but when he told me about it when I came back from my shower, I couldn’t help but gush and just think it was too adorable. I then subsequently heard Kaia repeatedly say “more? more?” for more planes, and sign it with her hands.

These are some of the best toddler moments, the ones I want to have emblazoned in my mind forever to remember how precious she is.

Cadbury at Christmas TV special on British Airways

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The time I spend on airplanes is really the only time I am seated in front of a TV for long periods of time and am actually willing to watch something. I rarely sit on the couch to watch TV, and when I do, it’s a specific series that I watch with Chris at most a few nights a week, never more than an hour. So when I went through the TV and movie options on the British Airways flight tonight, connecting in London and ending in Prague, I took a look at some Christmas specific shows and movies given we’re entering the festive season. I bookmarked The Polar Express and The Nightmare Before Christmas, both Christmas movies I’ve always wanted to watch but never saw. And then a quick 45-minute TV special called Cadbury at Christmas caught my eye. I decided to watch that first.

It looks like this show is a very new release and details the behinds the scenes look at one of the world’s most celebrated chocolate factories located in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Chris grew up eating Cadbury chocolates and is very loyal to them (while also, in the same breath, harshly critiquing the “average” American chocolate like Hershey’s, which has very little actual chocolate in it and is mostly sugar and artificial flavoring). He loves how milky the chocolate is, and the quality of the milk used in Cadbury chocolates is quite high. When I was growing up, I never associated any specific chocolate type with Christmas. When I did see or hear of Cadbury, it was mostly the Cadbury cream eggs, which I always found a bit underwhelming and too sweet. The vast variety of Cadbury chocolates that Chris was used to eating were foreign to me. I never saw them until I went back to Australia for Christmas with him.

I learned a number of interesting things from this show: one, that Cadbury World actually exists as a place to visit with over a dozen different areas to explore, though there’s no actual viewing of the chocolate being made anymore. I also didn’t realize that a Quaker family originally founded Cadbury, but eventually sold it to a large confectionary company. As Quakers, they themselves did not actually celebrate Christmas, but they did believe in making money. So they decided to increase their production and also create special festive season/Christmas chocolates at this time of year. Their Milk Tray was one of the ways they made chocolate more affordable and appealing to the masses instead of the super wealthy. And their festive season chocolates became one of the most gifted items in the UK as a result of all their Christmas chocolate promotions.

As someone who has spent most Christmases since 2012 in Australia, I do appreciate Cadbury a lot more now. I love that they are affordable, high quality chocolates with little fuss. And after watching this TV special, I am even more intrigued by them and want to visit Cadbury World. Yes, I’m an adult, so maybe I can make the excuse that I want to take Pookster there. But you know what? There’s no shame in being an adult and loving chocolate.

Kaia loves her Peter Rabbit

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For the longest time, Kaia did not take to any of her stuffed animals. Over her 23 months of existence, she’s been gifted endless stuffed animals, including a life-sized teddy bear, which is still vacuum-sealed and in its original wrapping in the closet. We’ve exposed her to a number of them, but she’s never really seemed to care about them. She kind of looks at them and then plays with something else, whether it’s a book, a jar, a lid, or another toy she has. The couple exceptions are the stuffed animals that are battery operated and sing or play peekaboo, or Babar, which is her stuffed elephant that has a few parts that either make sounds/noise or squeak depending on where you touch or squeeze it. Randomly the other night when I was putting her to bed, she grabbed Peter Rabbit off the book shelf and took it to bed with her. I laid her baby blanket over her, and she snuggled under the blanket with Peter Rabbit and said, “okay, bye bye! Wan an!” I guess that was a cue that she wanted me to leave, so I told her good night, wan an, and I left the room and closed the door. I wasn’t sure if she’d really fall asleep on her own given that she usually needs one of us to stay there with her until she falls asleep. But somehow, it worked. And it’s now worked three nights in a row. The last two nights, she asked for four other stuffed animals to accompany her to bed, as well. And she didn’t need me to stay with her until she fell asleep. It was incredible.

I love seeing her interact with her Peter Rabbit and her stuffed animals. She tells them to do things like “sit up” and “lie down,” and she even wants Peter Rabbit there at breakfast with her. Chris wouldn’t let her have Peter Rabbit on her food tray given it would be a mess, so he told her that Peter Rabbit would “watch” her eat. And she happily agreed. It’s too adorable. I just love these moments and how she is developing. This age is truly precious… but I suppose I’ve said that about every other stage to date. I just love being Pookster’s mummy.

The first lockdown procedure at Kaia’s school happened yesterday

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I went to pick Kaia up from school at the end of the day yesterday, and as per usual, I asked the teachers how her day went. They said she was good (she usually is), how she ate, and then gushed over how much they adore her and how she always follows directions (gee, how come she doesn’t always do this at home…?). Then, the teacher said, “oh! And I almost forgot to mention: we had our very first lockdown procedure with the class today. And ALL the kids did so so well! We quickly hid in the back classroom and ducked, and when we told the kids to all be quiet and shhhh, they all did it! We didn’t hear a peep from any of them!”

My smile immediately faded from my face and was replaced with a glum stance. I recognize that while living in this country, a procedure like this is more than 100 percent necessary and needed. But it honestly hurts my heart so much that my child, and really any child anywhere in this country, should be subjected to this as just another “routine procedure” the way earthquake or fire drills were done in school when I was growing up. It makes me sick that we actually have to worry about this because school shootings are such a frequent occurrence. We are sick as a nation. And it’s infuriating that our government will do zero about this. This is not normal, nor should it ever be normal, but we have to treat it like it’s normal. And that’s just disgusting.

I told the teachers that while I was happy the lockdown procedure went well, it made me physically sick to know that this was the state of our country and that this should not be normal. They both shrugged and said they agreed, but hey, they had to do it, and the good news was that the kids were all obedient and went with it!

This is our world as long as we live in the United States of fucked up America.