Sretan Bozic! (Merry Christmas)

Christmas is my favorite time of the year- and in Vienna they do it up right!  We hit about 4 Christmas markets while we were there and we loved them all.  The main market (Christkindlmarkt)  is in front of Rathaus, the town hall, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.  This market is the largest and oldest in Vienna- it’s been around since the 13th century.  There are tons of stalls set up selling all sorts of Christmas fun including crafts, decorations, food (bratwursts, apple cinnamon pretzels, waffles with roasted plums or strawberry sauce, and homemade caramels are just some of the delicious things we had)  and thousands of ornaments.  They have a huge tree and lights everywhere, it was really amazing.

Rathaus

We also went to the Christmas market at the Schonbrunn Palace, which is the former summer residence of the Austrian Emperors.  It was really nice, the stalls were set up in a circle in front of the palace so people could easily shop or hang out in the center where there was a Christmas tree, hot wine, snacks and carolers.  Hot wine can be found all throughout Europe during the holidays.  It’s delicious!  Definitely not as simple as heated red wine; they add a lot of sugar and several spices so it almost has a cider taste to it.

The Schonbrunn Palace

Vienna was a great birthday trip!  Even though it was insanely cold.  The drive was really easy- it only took us a little over 4 hours, and time flies when you’re listening to Christmas music  (If you haven’t heard Diana Krall’s Christmas CD, check it out, it’s great).  The city was really lovely.  We plan to make it back sometime to take in more, like some world-class museums and maybe a little music (it’s the home of Mozart, among many other famous musicians!).

Next on our travel list:  Slovenia next month for a couple weeks (Brian will be working there), London in Feb for Brian’s birthday, and PARIS in April!

We are spending Christmas day in Zagreb- it’s a good place to be.  The city is beautiful right now with Christmas trees and lights, and there is a huge stage in the main square where they have been having concerts pretty much every night.  We finally found a little Christmas tree for our apartment, so we are all set for tomorrow.  I’ve been told that it is a Croatian tradition to put the tree up on Christmas Eve, so they didn’t start selling tress on the street until this past weekend.  In fact, we’ve both seen people carrying trees home today!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

The story of wideawake.org

www.wideawake.org  just launched this past weekend and as many of you already know Brian and a few of his friends have been working on getting this nonprofit started for years.  What some of you may not know is the story behind it and what motivated Frank and Brian to get this all started.

Brian and Frank were traveling in Africa one summer during law school when they came across a group of local kids who told them about an Australian missionary that lived in their village.  This Australian missionary ran an organization that provided meals for about 100 kids- for some of the kids that was their only meal of the day!  She also started a gardening program where she would help families start vegetable gardens.  Brian and Frank went to meet her and ended up spending a few days in that village helping out and hanging out with the kids. 

After seeing the amazing work that was being done there, and the lives that were being changed Brian and Frank started thinking about how there must be other organizations out there, that like the one they came across in Africa are doing really good things, but people just don’t know about them.  That’s when they got the idea that if they started a website to get the word out about these grassroots aid organizations, people would want to help. 

So they contacted people they knew from around the world who were working at different nonprofits and started creating a list of organizations that they felt were making an impact, and were trustworthy.  Once they started that a few of their other friends started sending names of nonprofits they knew someone working at.  To date they have 13 “affiliates,” which are the nonprofits that they have on their website. 

Where did the name “wide awake” come from?  Well, Frank first got the idea from a U2 song of the same name.  U2 is of course Brian and Frank’s favorite band.  They also feel like it’s appropriate in the sense that they want the website to help people become wide awake to the needs of the world and of the many opportunities that exist to help those in need. 

 It’s a great organization!!  I am a proud wife and friend.  Check out the website at www.wideawake.org.