On Sunday 17 March Liam celebrated his “Golden Birthday in Austria! He was 17 on the 17th!
We decorated the house with homemade banners and balloons! I actually found Happy Birthday plates, napkins, and cups. Interestingly all the birthday party supplies are in English, not German! Also there are many character themes here in Austria. Frozen and Minions seem to be very popular for the little kids!
Sunday morning we held “home church” and then after lunch Robert took Liam and Seamus downtown to the Schlossberg. As a birthday treat Liam wanted to go down the world’s largest indoor slide, which is located at the Schlossberg. It starts at the top of the mini-mountain and ends at the bottom. It takes about one-minute to slide to the bottom!
Once inside they took an elevator to the top floor.
You sit on a mat, tuck your feet in, and hold onto a rope as you go down the slide.
After the fellows had fun on the Schlossberg slide they went to O’Carolin’s Irish Pub, but unfortunately it was really busy. They meandered down the street until coming across a local Austrian Pub ironically called the Cafe Baltimore! Robert and Liam had a beer and Seamus a Coke. In Austria youth can legally drink beer at age 16. Ironically the pub had American license plates on the walls and the waitress seated them next to two Michigan plates! They enjoyed a snack of yummy chicken wings too!
The menfolk got home around 4:00 and we had Liam’s birthday party. Liam loves himbeer (raspberry) so we purchased him a raspberry and cream cake. The Austrians really know how to make berry filled pastries, especially Erdbeer (strawberry), Himbeer (raspberry), and Marille (apricot). In case somebody didn’t like the hinbeer cake we also found peanut butter KitKats and a local treat called choco-banana.
Liam really liked all of his gifts. The gifts included a couple of new shirts, earphones, Utopia (quintessential government book, he’s interested in political science), cash and candy, an adorable west highland plush dog (made by Hermann Teddy a well-known German company. I have always given Liam a doggy for his birthday), and the family favorite… a plush stuffed roasted chicken! Yes, this weird little toy I found in a local store. I knew Liam would love it because he’s a big “meat eater”. Everyone had a good laugh about the unique stuffed toy!
Austrians tend to use decorated boxes or wrapping paper for their gifts. It was rather difficult finding gift bags. I would have gotten the boxes, but they’re rather pricey and I couldn’t find generic ones to reuse for Faywen’s birthday in May. I can get turquoise, pink, or purple tissue paper and voila the bags are girl appropriate!
The boys are making their mischievous faces!
He ended the day relaxing after having yummy Irish stew and sharing a Guinness Stout beer with his Mum and Dad! Sláinte to another birthday and year, Liam!
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