TurnofPhraseBlog

Tag: Europe

  • Another Top Ten…

    …signs of “re-entry”to my native habitat from a long absence: 1.  I can’t find my car keys anywhere…they’re somplace “safe”.  Oh boy, those keys are so safe it took days and days to recover them. 2. Nice friends are phoning to say hello on my cell phone.  This is so great.  Except that I never had people […]

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  • Two cell phones (that will stop working tomorrow), one iPad (with a big crack in the screen), one tablet, three kindles, three ipods (one dead), a Nintendo 3DS (child bored of it though since he’s played the same three games for three months), and half a computer (with no audio, another one got dropped, and the third is “frozen”)

    I didn’t share this, but while in the Netherlands in July (now I’m in Holland), the d ,m, and r keys stopped working on my computer.  My blog was going to be about how hard it was to be creative when one is limited by using no words that had those letters in them.  You […]

  • Oslo: It will be nice when it’s finished.

    The great age of Vikings.  Norway.  Then Norway/Denmark, then Norway/Sweden.  Then, the same year my home province joined Confederation (1905), an independent Norway.  I’ve spent a lot of time in Scandinavia this year and feel safe telling you that economically,  Norway is the Alberta of Canada.  Or perhaps the Texas of the States.  Off-shore oil […]

  • Reflections on Airports en route to Oslo

    I plod behind my husband dragging my two suitcases, clack, clack, clacking over the endless tiled hallways of Schipol Airport in Amsterdam.    I feel I am in that children’s book “Make Way for Ducklings” with the row of ducks that trod across the urban streets of Boston circa 1961.  Well, not quite.  My husband doesn’t […]

  • Back to School, Stockholm Style

    All over the world, children are engaged in back-to-school activities.  Often with a parent leading the charge, usually their mother.  They are having teeth checked, getting hair cut, and being sized up for what shoes, pants and shirts fit after a summer of growing.  We engaged in an intense day of this in Stockholm. I […]

  • After two months Abroad, any Canadian is my Friend. Even Dead Ones.

    Zevenaar.  Our second home exchange.  To use a western North American euphemism…it’s a bit of a one horse town.  Which is apt since this past weekend one of its big summer attractions was its annual country and western music festival!  Oh boy.  Just what I came to the Netherlands for!!  My husband is from Montreal […]

  • Budapest v. Prague

    I fully realize a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  And when it comes to these cities that’s all I have.  We spent one night and two days in Budapest and two days and two nights in Prague.  Enough to do the eastern European version of “hop on/hop off” bus tour and to only skim […]

  • The OTHER end of my foodie spectrum!

    “It’s in the Palais Coburg…it’s supposed to be right here,” says my husband, looking around with map in hand.  We’re in a quiet, non-commercial part of Vienna, with few people on the street in the early evening.  The only place seems to be a high rise residence of some kind and I can see through […]

  • Two Sacher Tortes, A Coca-cola light and a Decaf…

    “Two sacher tortes, a coca-cola light, and a decaf coffee,” the waitress parrots back with a heavy accent.  I am distracted by her burgundy polyester uniform with gold lettering, “Hotel Sacher” in fancy script.  Around us are sneaker-clad tourists with Vienna maps perched on the corner of their small round café tables.  My husband and […]

  • So we got on bikes and saw things from a different perspective…

    The Netherlands is famous the world over for its cycling citizens.  It is very cycling oriented.  Slim, fit-looking 60 and 70 year olds on bikes is a common sight that my husband is not always graciously yielding to.   Don’t get me wrong, he DOES yield…just not graciously.  Infrastructure for bikes is better than for cars…separate […]