Texas Tour - Dallas Part 2

Today is only Saturday and I have already forgotten what I did during the day on Wednesday! Perhaps it is because Wednesday night was so fun, the it made no room for any other Wednesday memories?

So, everyone that reads this SHOULD know "Kelli" by now. If not, you haven't been reading often enough! Kelli and I started as blog buddies, but our friendship has grown very quickly very fast. We chat often via blog, email and skype. It has been amazing for me to have a good friend, that is and will be experiencing a lot of things things that Michael and I have in our lives, in regards to moving not just overseas but to Denmark. While our situations are very different, they are also, actually very much the same.

We have meet in Denmark twice, and when we found out we were coming to Dallas, she was one of the first people to find out. Of course there was no doubt that we would HAVE to meet up, so we worked out a time and Wednesday night it was.

I was excited when she told me that we would get to meet her dear friend Shelly and her parents. I had obviously heard TONS about them all as they are all very important in her life.
When we arrived Michael and I were greeted with three hugs and a wagging tale and immediately felt comfortable.

We ate delicious food and all got to know each other talked alot about Denmark and all sat and listened to Kelli tell us about the different obstacles she is facing in regards to moving. Those things range from getting her lovable pets over to what in the world she is going to do when her "Jiff" supply runs out. Shelly, Michael and I tried to convince her that organic peanut butter with no sugar really is delicious, but she would have none of it! We gave her some to try in Denmark and while she ate it with a smile, it was clear it wasn't Jiff.

Kelli and our new friends
The white furrball is Albert.

Kelli and her parents

We love tall bald men

Michael and his new buddy Albert

Kelli and I "co-bloged" about this, so if you want to see all the sweet things Kelli had to say about us (she is WONDERFUL for our self esteem) you can see it here:
http://madsandkelli.blogspot.com/2008/03/min-venner-fra-danmark-kommer-til.html

Thursday the weather was awful. Again, not that we aren't use to the cold and the snow and the rain and the sleet, because, trust me, that is just "Thursday" in Denmark's, but we brought no warm clothes. We went to the gym in the evening and only had 30 minutes to work out because they were closing 3 hours early because of weather. REALLY PEOPLE?? It seriously wasn't bad down where the gym was but, that Texas in the snow for you. At least the gym was practically empty. In Denmark when the weather is bad, the gym is PACKED and when the weather is nice, it is EMPTY. Funny huh? After the gym we met Chintan and his wife Deepali. They are both graduates of Texas Tech. Chintan and Michael shared an office while Michael was finishing his Ph.D and Chinton was starting his. Him and his wife are both Electrical Engineers at TI. I can USUALLY hold my own in engineering conversations. I've heard the same stuff for about 10 years and can follow quite well, with other engineers, but not with these two. It was the first time in many many years where I was busy analyzing the ceiling during the conversation.

Texas Tech Electrical Engineering Alumni

Finally Friday came along. I spent most of the day hanging out a Mary's Starbuck's, reading the paper, drinking coffee and listened to her train a guy. Of course, she would occassionally come and chat with me too. While reading the paper I could hardly believe that this actually made it into the news. If you are familiar with the Danish bike culture this should make you laugh. If not, I will tell you that in Denmark, you don't stop riding your bike because of a little (or a lot) of snow, or rain, or wind, or cold.....you get the idea.

We ate lunch together and I did a little food shopping and went back to the hotel to get stuff ready to leave on Saturday morning for our long haul across Texas. Our last stop for Dallas was to Martins house. He is the newest Dane in the DTU/TTU exchange program. We along with Klaus went to hang out for a little bit and got to know each other a litle better. I love listening to all the different experiences each one of these guys has had in regards to the program.

Texas Tour - Dallas Take 1

We have a pretty good little schedule set up for us here in Dallas. We wake up between 5:30 and 6:00 and drive over to the TI gym. When we are done there we come back to the hotel, Michael takes a shower, we eat breakfast and I take him to work. Then my days start. I have been incredibly busy (until today) during the days. I've been shopping to stock up on stuff like cheap shaving cream, medicines, shampoo and other odds and ends. Mary took 2 days off this week so we could hang out and have some good 'ol fashioned best friend time. Michael finishes up work between 5:00-6:00 and everynight since we got here, we have had something going on and people to see! It's been a whole lot of fun!

Monday night (AKA. Snow Night) we saw Kelly and James. Kelly and Michael have known each other since they were little and graduated high school together. I've known Kelly since our freshman year at Tech. While we were living in Dallas we found her on "Myspace" and discovered she was living in Plano not to far from where we were living. Her and James were married shortly after we got back in touch. They are such a sweet and fun couple and we all get along great. We meet them for some drinks and lots of laughter.

Kelly and James

Mini Cooper Pirate Reunion
complete with hook, eye patch and parrot

Cold Outside

Tuesday Mary and I met at the Galleria for lunch and shopping, though the only thing either of us bought was makeup that was desperately needed. So maybe it was more for lunch and "window shopping" . We ate at the Grand Lux Cafe . I had been craving a greek salad and got one that completely satisfied that craving. It was delicious. For dessert Mary got a huge strawberry shortcake! We went into the little Art Gallery at the Galleria and saw some work by a guy named, "Robert Deyber". His stuff was amazing and hilarious at the same time. All of his work was paintings of play on words.

Mary and her strawberry shortcake

Another Cock and Bull Story

My Ass is on the Line

Screw Up

Mister Klaus is Dallas too and Tuesday we went to eat dinner with him. Klaus always seems to be in the same places as us. When we are in Lubbock, so is he, when we are in Dallas, so is he, when we are in Denmark, so is he. You get the idea! We went to a really cool place called, "Love and War in Texas" If you are going to be in Dallas, this is a place to check out. It was so sterotypical Texas and really made us happy to be there. The waiter was completely Texan and the atmosphere perfect. I had brisket, Michael had a steak and Klaus had roasted wild boar. I forgot how kick ass Texas food is. YUM! We got some Shiner Black's as well and were VERY surprised when they brought us out 3 glasses of Euro sized beers. Euro sized meaning the huge glasses you see people holding when they go to Germany. Thats right, we had liter beers for only 6 bucks!!

Texas flag with a dried yellow rose

Everything really is bigger in Texas!

Klaus showed his Texas colors by being the ONLY one of us to clear our plates!
Good Job Klaus!

Michael showed his European Colors by being the only one to finish his beer!

The weater is OK. I can walk around in short sleeves comfortably one minute, and the next it is FRRREEEEZING! I'm so not use to this. I don't think I miss Texas weather. I'll be surprised if I make it to the end of the trip without getting sick!!

Texas Tour - Arriving & Austin

When we got back to Denmark from Italy, Michael had a whole 11 hours from touchdown til he would be back in the air. We went right home and Michael went to work (at 5pm) to pick up some bills he needed me to pay the following day. I unpacked our bag and started repacking this time in two suitcases and different clothes. We did our laundry all at Myra's before we left knowing we didn't have much time at home. We got Michael ready to go and went to bed about 11pm. The alarm started buzzing again at 2:30am! YUCK! The taxi arrived at 4am and Michael was in the air again at 7am. I spent all day Wednesday getting everything ready for us to leave for 3.5 weeks. I left first thing in the morning the day after Michael.

Before boarding the aircraft we were told that we would be flying into headwinds and would have to make a stop in Goose Bay Canada to refuel. This place was up at the top of Northern Canada and when we landed there the pilot told us the outside temp was -8F/-22C. Burrr!!! It was beautiful looking and right on the coast, It seems like an amazing place to see in the summer.

Refueling in Goose Bay

Goose Bay from the Air

Since we arrived we have been busy busy busy and have been having a lot of fun. We have seen friends, family and even old gym acquaintances at the TI gym. We couldn't wait to see Mary and Jason so Friday it was dinner with the Partney's

Mary and Jason, being Mary and Jason

We didn't waste anytime to start traveling around Texas. Saturday we were off to Austin. Unfortunately we didn't have much time down there and could only squeeze in a few people. We went straight to Michael's aunt Kathy's house. We had some wine and cheese and played with her new doggie, Bucky. He was hands down, the shyest dog on the planet. The three of us went to go see one of my dearest friends, Sarah. Sarah and I have been bud's since 7th and I love her to death. Kathy and her have become pals too so it was easy to get to see both Kathy and Sarah on the same trip. Sarah has two dogs. One is Chaplin and he is OCD. He only turns left. It is the weirdest thing ever. The other is named Henry. We are in love with him. We have tried to steal him before, but were unsuccessful. On this trip, Michael was dubbed his Godfather. Sarah showed us her new house and gave us champagne before we picked up hers and Kathy's other halfs and went out to a really cool restaurant called, "The Oasis" on Lake Travis. The day was BEAUTIFUL! I had wished I had worn a skirt or shorts. Our view was lovely and the company wonderful.

Me and Bucky.
Why do dogs always look at me like I'm insane?

Kathy and Michael

Chaplin and Henry

I Love You Michael!!!

Family Picture

At the Oasis

We are so cute!

We left Austin in the evening and headed North to Hutto to visit and stay the night with Michaels dad and step mom. I was still pretty jet lagged so did my best to be good company for a little bit, but then crashed at 9:00. Sunday was spent catching up, eating, relaxing, napping, watching some tv and movies. It was FANTASTIC. We got out of there about 5 to start our drive back to Dallas. Without a doubt we needed (and wanted) MUCH more time in the Austin area, but we took what we could and enjoyed every moment!

Like Father Like Son

CHEESE

My In-Laws Love Me!

From Denmark with Love - We Bring You Snow

OH NEJ!!!!

Stupid stupid weather.

Before leaving Denmark we checked the temps and we weren't seeing anything below about 65 degrees. AWESOME! That's like summertime in Denmark!

So, we were suprised when yesterday Dallas was dark, gloomy, rainy and hail-y. As the day went on it got colder and the rain got more solid. Last night we went out with Kelly and James. When we arrived at the bar, it was already snowing a little bit, but when we left, we came out to this:



Now, I know you must be thinking, come on...you live in Denmark. Aren't you use to the cold? Yes, we are. It IS cold outside, but not any colder than it has been in Denmark all winter long. The problem is, we didn't bring ANY warm clothes!! I have 1 long sleeve shirt and lots of little cute t-shirts and skirts. Neither of us have a jacket/coat worthy of keeping any kind of heat on our bodies. Hopefully this will pass by the end of the day or tomorrow :)

We have gotten a ton of emails and people have asked us in talking if we brought this weather with us. I suppose we did! :)

Day 7 & 8 - End of Rome

Our final day in Rome we wanted to lay our eyes on the Coliseum and the Roman Forum, so that is what we did. After waling to the Roman Forum we sat down on some old ruins and ate some bread while watching people pass by. My favorite pair to watch was an Asian couple. The girl made her other half take 5 billion pictures of her from every angle with every possible thing in the background. Of course she looked at every picture and if she wasn't happy with one of them, he would have to retake it. They made me laugh! The first time we were here we spend several hours walking through the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. This time we just walked around for a short 20-30 minutes. It was so much more crowded this time as well.

The Roman Forum

Me Conquering a Piece of Land

The Coliseum lives right next door to the Roman Forum. We didn't venture inside but sat on a wall overlooking it for a while. When we got up to leave a girl stopped us and asked if we spoke English. I think she was representing a tour company. We said yes, and then she asked if we were going inside the coliseum. When we said no, she looked as if we had stabbed her through the heart as she said, "You can't come ALL the way to Rome and NOT go inside!" Of course, I said, it wasn't our first trip to Rome and all her pain went away.

Beautiful

The Pates at the Coliseum

The rest of the day we didn't have anything in particular to do so as always we just wondered the streets. We are lunch in a great little place called, AO ristorante. It was delicious. We each had a glass of Sicilian wine that the Sommelier suggested after we told him what we liked and what we wanted. To eat Michael had a basil, tomato pasta and I had a provolone, tomato pasta. For dessert we went searching for gelato and found a great place. We had the flavors of Baily's Irish Cream and Nutella. We had heard about "Nutella" gelato and just HAD to find it. Both were amazing, but the Irish Cream blew the Nutella out of the water. The Nutella was great,but I think I prefer Nutella in Nutella form as opposed to Gelato form. The Irish Cream though, was to die for!

Rome is literally littered with Cathedrals. We were in a quiet little neighborhood and I saw a rather bland looking church and smiled at Michael and walked up the stairs to go inside. He followed, my mouth dropped to the floor as I walked through the doors. It was absolutely breathtaking. This church actually quickly jumped up to my list of 5 favorite cathedrals and is probably in the top three! It was so unassuming from the outside. Yet, every inch inside of this place was covered in some beautiful something. There were only 3 other couples inside that were obvious tourists and another couple people praying. As we left I tried to find it in our guide book and in the 50 plus cathedrals covered in the book, this was not one of them! There isn't much information online about it either.

As always, the pictures don't do it any kind of justice at all.

Basilica Di S. Agostino

Back on my post of the Pantheon Marianne asked if we saw the "Elephant Statue" on the side of the building. We hadn't and managed to find ourselves back at the Pantheon, and this time when hunting for the statue. We thought we were looking for a teeny tiny little statue, but we realized we were wrong when we found him with an obelisk on his back. He sat in a square of a Cathedral and we hopped in there too. It was nice, but after seeing St. Augostino's, it wasn't as impressive. We did find a painting of Jesus showing off his muscles though.

You might have to click it to make it big to see it better!

Jesus showing off his guns.

Enormous Candles

We had a long day and wanted to get back to Myra's a little early so we could pack up and make sure we were all ready to leave in the morning. We walked back via the Trevi Fountain (and hopped in another church), got home, packed, ate and called it an early night and prepare our minds and bodies for the insanity that would start the next day.

Me and Trevi again

The Crowds

Cute Street

Our Temporary Residence in Rome.
The big window on the white building with one shutter open and the other is closed is where we stayed.

Check out the size of that front door!

So that ladies and gentleman, is the end of Italy. Hope no one got to sick and tired of reading about it! :)