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What's this all about?

We took off for a year (which turned into 15 months) to travel the world. This blog was started as a place to keep family and friends updated on our plans and where we were. Now, we are moving to Europe, so the blog will be about our new experiences, travels, and life as expats for the first time!

Das Auto – Part II

April 12th, 2011

When we last left our heroine (me), she was informed by her husband that he was leaving for a business trip and she would need to pick up the new car in Munich by herself.  And drive it back to Austria.  And take care of a few details to get it registered… Let’s re-join the story in progress.

I arrived at the dealer in Munich more than a little worried that we had forgotten some crucial item and wouldn’t be able to get the car.  I shouldn’t have been concerned because everything ran smoothly and within an hour I had the car, keys, temporary insurance, and temporary license plates, and was on the Autobahn heading south.

The drive home to Austria was great and I started to think about how jealous Eric would be that I was driving the car.  My excitement was short lived because I soon found out all the steps I needed to complete to actually finish the process.  My temporary plates and insurance expired in 4 days, but I had a naive confidence that I could get the car registered in that time.

The first  step in “importing” the car to Austria is to get it inspected.  I took it to a local BMW dealer and they told me it would take a few days to get all the paper work done.  At the time this seemed unreasonably long, but later on I saw the test report and understood.  It’s a four page document with every conceivable specification of the car listed, from carbon emissions to cubic engine capacity.  The car is not new, but it’s in great shape, so the only snag I ran into was that it didn’t have snow tires.  While they are technically not “required”, if you don’t have them between November and April, your insurance is invalidated.  That option didn’t sound very good, so I got out my wallet again and plunked down 900 Euros for the cheapest tires they could offer.  (Eric probably wants to go on record that he was horrified by the steel wheels I put on the car, but the pretty aluminum ones were 3x the price and I was horrified by that.). So after four days, I had the paperwork to go to the next step.  However, the temporary plates had expired, so I couldn’t drive the car and it was stranded at the dealer.

The next steps were several visits (on foot) to the state Finance Office, where I presented the inspection forms and was asked to fill out a bunch of paperwork.  While I’m feeling pretty good about how my understanding of German is progressing, the forms nearly brought me to tears.  After I filled in my name and address, the rest of the words were completely incomprehensible.  I have a whole new respect for immigrants, as well as huge gratitude to the patient lady at the office who sensed my desperation and helped me complete the paperwork.

After the Finance people got all the information, they took a few days to calculate the amount of tax we owed.  The tax rate is based on some secret formula that includes the price, the number of grams of CO2 emissions, and extra fees for each horse power over 115.  At the end I got a whopping bill for 3000 Euros, which I had no choice but to pay since the car was at the lot waiting for me.

With the tax receipt in hand, I met with an insurance agent who asked for yet more Euros.  After we finished more paperwork, he disappeared for an hour, but returned with the crown jewels… my new license plates!  He was also nice enough to give me a ride to the dealer who helped put them on.

At this point I drove off happily into the sunset, the proud owner of 2007 BMW 325xi sedan.  Of course, I don’t have anywhere to park it yet…  but that’s a story for another time.

Here’s the obligatory picture:

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Das Auto – Part I

March 23rd, 2011

Our apartment in Austria is on the main street of town, so just about everything we need is in walking distance, including Eric’s job.  This means that we don’t really need a car on a daily basis which is quite a change from SoCal where you can’t go anywhere without one.

Having said that, we really do need a car here – the bigger supermarkets and household/furniture stores are all outside of town or in the next town.  We also want to be able to go skiing or hiking and explore the neighboring countries too.  We’ve had a loaner company car for a few months, but they asked for it back.  It’s finally time for us to take the plunge and buy a car here.  It’s complicated enough in English in the US and I totally dreaded doing it here.

It turned out that buying the car itself wasn’t the biggest challenge.  The selection here in Austria is not that good.  If you want a Volkswagen or an Audi there are some to choose from, but used BMW’s with low mileage don’t seem to exist.  A few people recommended that we go to Munich in Germany where they are made and it was great advice.  There are several large dealers there and the one that we picked had thousands of cars.  It was like a candy store for us.

We picked out a few that looked promising and made an appointment to take one for a test drive.  When we showed up they handed us the keys and told us to be back in hour. We must have looked stunned because the dealer finally said something like “oh that’s right, you don’t where to go…  just go down the street and try the autobahn.”

Autobahn?  Sweet.  Since there are no speed limits in Germany let’s just say it was an excellent test drive.  At this point we decided that we definitely wanted another Bimmer.   We had to sell ours in the US before we left and I think it was the low point of our moving experience.  I don’t normally get attached to mechanical things, but I think we had been through a lot with that car and on some level it represented the lifestyle in Cali that we gave up to move here.  I couldn’t even watch when the buyer drove it away.

Back to Munich and the car dealer…  We found the car we wanted, but were told we couldn’t buy it because it was a Saturday and the cashier was closed.  We would have to make another appointment to come back in a few weeks and pick it up.  What?   I don’t think any dealer in the US would ever actually let you leave the lot without a car.  We walked away with nothing but “we’ll call you next week.”

The next problem was the financing.  In order to pick up the car, we were told we basically had to show up with cash.  This could either be our own or from a bank loan.  However, since we don’t live in Germany we can’t get a loan there.  After a lot of discussions with the bank in Austria and a review of our savings in the US, we finally got that all sorted out.  However, the last few days were a little tense as we waited for the wire transfer from the US to get into our Austrian bank account here, and then waited for it to get into the dealer’s German back account.  In the end it all went through electronically and smoothly, and I’m relieved we didn’t have to carry 30 grand in cash on the train (yes, we actually considered that at one point).

After that was set, the next step was to go back up to Munich to pick up the car.  I need to point out that most of the conversations with the dealer were all in English, which was a huge help, but there are some things that just seem to get lost in the translations.  We kept asking about whether the car would have license plates or insurance, and if not how to get them.  We got a lot of vague answers like “yes” with no further explanation.  In the end we decided to trust the process and hope it would all work out.  One thing we’ve learned about Germany and Austria is that things take a lot longer than in the US.  However, they work very efficiently, so as long as you are patient and follow the rules, you really don’t need to worry that things will get done.

I think this is a key difference from the US.  In the US, if someone hasn’t returned my call by the next day, it probably means they forgot about me or something went wrong and I have to chase  them.  Here it just means they are still working on it and will get back to me when it’s done.  I’ve seen this with our visa applications, furniture orders, and now with the car.  It requires a certain level of patience and confidence that someone is actually doing their job and whatever you’ve asked for will eventually be delivered.

I think this is a good place to take a break and I’ll continue next time with the rest of the story.  Picking up the car in Munich went well, but it was really just the beginning.

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Fasching = Lei Lei!

March 8th, 2011

I think most of you have heard of Mardi Gras and Carnival, but Fasching is the German/Austrian equivalent.  It’s basically a big party before lent begins that involves costumes, donuts, and beer, all in large quantities.

One of the largest Fasching celebrations here in Austria happened on Saturday right outside my apartment.  The day started with a huge parade and ended with an enormous dance party outside on the main square.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, gets dressed up in costumes.  It’s a little like Halloween, except the adults participate.   While there were a lot of clowns, bees, and traditional outfits, some people were very creative (see below).

The whole town was decked out in streamers and balloons, and there were beer and food stands on every corner.  Everyone walked around in costume shouting “Lei Lei” to each other.  I still have no idea what that means, but it seemed rude not to yell back.

The finale of the day was the party.  Since it was just outside my window, we decided it was better to join in than try to sleep/think/do anything through the noise – “Euro thump thump music” as my friend calls it.  It was amazing to see so many happy drunk people dancing away.  I don’t think you would ever be able to have this type of event in the US – too much liability with the alcohol or too many chances that a fight would break out.  It’s a shame too, because the party-goers were all very good-natured, mixing with us and with each other, talking and dancing with anyone.  Although I think the costumes and masks made people a little more outgoing than usual.

It was great time and here a few pics that don’t do it justice.

One of my favorites from the parade – Legos!

Here’s a view of the party in the afternoon and and another still going strong at night:

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Movin’ On Up

March 7th, 2011

Part of Eric’s move package included a few months in a corporate apartment.  It was nicely furnished and centrally located, but ultimately a little too small.  We were also getting anxious to find a place of our own because our shipments of “stuff” (clothes, some furniture, pots, dishes, books) from the US arrived.

Finding an apartment in Austria was a little daunting, but luckily the team at Eric’s office helped set up appointments and took us around to look at them.  What we found was surprising, but we soon learned a few things about flats here.  First off, most of them come with an unfurnished kitchen.  This means that there is basically just a room with a sink.  Some have cabinets and some don’t.  A few, like the one that we ultimately chose, even had a stove.  It was a little strange to us, but apparently most people take all the appliances with them when they move out, and the new people buy their own when they move in.  Not a problem, but it’s an expense we didn’t expect.

Another expense is the amount of money you need to put down to actually move in to an apartment.  You have to go through a realtor who gets 1-2 months rent as a fee.  You also have to pay 1-3 months’ rent up front as a deposit, and then finally actually pay the rent.  It all adds up to quite a bit, and they generally want cash (bargeld).  There’s also a contract that we had to sign similar what you find in the US.  However, I barely understand the terms in English, so the German one was incomprehensible.    In the end we signed it, so I just hope we didn’t commit ourselves to a 300 year lease instead of 3 years!

We finally did find an apartment that wasn’t too far from downtown, wasn’t in some crazy guy’s attic, and was in relatively good condition.  Coordinating the deliveries for our new appliances and furniture purchases, as well as our CA shipments was a little tricky, but I’ve learned quite a few new words for “appointment,”  “third floor,” and “the lift is too small.”  In the end, every thing arrived, carried by some huge Slovakian guys, and we moved in.  It doesn’t quite feel like home yet, but having a few familiar things from our old house is nice.  And getting to pick out some nice new stuff was fun too.

More soon about European appliances…  Here’s the outside of our building (behind the tree).

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Winter Sport

February 11th, 2011

I chose the title of this blog for 2 reasons.  One, because it’s spelled the same in both Deutsch and English (although not pronounced quite the same), and two, because it’s what we’ve been doing.

We also found an apartment and moved in, but that is a story for another blog.  Nearly all of our time has been spent unpacking, shopping for appliances, and putting together furniture.  However, we managed to work some time into the schedule to do what all the Austrians seems to be doing.

I know this probably isn’t true, but it feels like everyone here is great at all winter sports.  And they are always doing them.  Everywhere we go, I see people going skiing (cross country and downhill) or skating, plus there is sledding, snowshoeing and a whole bunch of other activities and games that are all done outside on snow.  We even saw a sign for something called “Ice Driving” (in English!) but didn’t actually see what it was.

Just about every town near a mountain has its own ski lift.  Some of them are nothing more than one or two runs, but others are big resorts.  We’ve tried out a few already and it is really exciting for us to live so close to them. There are dozens of ski areas within two hour’s drive, and it’s weird to be able to get up, ski for a few hours, and be home before dinner.

All of this opportunity has made the locals into fantastic skiers.  There’s not a “snowplow” to be seen anywhere on the mountains, and the speed at which they whiz past me is amazing.  The other noticeable difference is lunch.  Instead of big cafeteria style lodges, most of the ski areas have smaller restaurants with nice big outdoor seating areas.  The food is the best part.  What better fuel for zipping around the mountain than sausages filled with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and served over mashed potatoes?  I can testify, there is none.

In addition to skiing we also bought skates and headed to the local frozen lake.  They have a car with a scraper on it to clear the snow so that people can skate and play hockey.  Just like skiing, everyone seems to be an expert.

Hopefully we’ll get some more practice before Spring!  Here’s a view of the mountain and our Mittagsessen:

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