Snow Day!

Today was our first big snow storm!  There was already an inch or two on the ground when we woke up this morning, and with steady snowfall until noon we probably got 4 inches or so.  Here's our backyard at 730 am:

Here's the little field where I toss the ball for Bobo most mornings.  Needless to say fetching a tennis ball is harder in 2-3 inches of snow:

Because we're in central Europe, no school closings, no work cancellations, nothing.  When I greeted my colleagues at the law school with "you made it in," they scoffed at me.

Of course, they probably drove or took the bus and I rode my bike!  The students had warned me not to try to ride in after a snow, but I thought it was worth a try regardless.  When we got here I bought the cheapest bike I could.  A fifty euro, one speed clunker the girls nicknamed "the junker."  It is probably not the world's greatest snow vehicle.  Here it is in fairer weather:

Those thin tires and old fashioned brakes were just MADE for the snow.  And yet, the junker and I made it in to work in one piece, exhilarated and laughing pretty hard.  The good news is that thanks to my brother's Christmas gift I finally have nice warm gloves and a crazy facemask.  Because the gloves have only two fingers and the facemask is pretty aggressive the girls call this my "lobster boy" look:

Pity poor lobster boy!  He must cover his heinous face and claws!  Actually lobster boy stays quite warm, which helps when biking on unplowed bike paths on a one gear road bike named the junker.  Here's a selfie I took by Tivoli park, about halfway to the Faculty of Law:

Look at the collection of people walking behind me!  There were almost no bikes at all on the road (I wonder why?), so there was a concomitant rise in walking and bus riding.  I asked one of them to take a picture of me and the junker (and more bikers and bussers):

Because biking was moderately unsafe I attracted some consternation, despite not actually falling or hitting anyone.  Check out this hilarious photobomb by a stern and sturdy Slovenian old lady wondering a) why I was biking and b) why I was so stupid as to stop and take a photo of it.  Fair points, actually:

Of course I actually stopped to try to capture the spectacular views.  Seriously, like Vienna, Ljubljana shines in the snow.  It was just built for it I think.  Here's the three bridges with the castle hill (with the castle covered in fog) in the background:

Here I am in Preseren Square, almost to the law school:

Here are a couple of favorite statues near the law school in the snow.  The dragon clearly needs to work on her fire breathing:

If we had this much snow in Knoxville on a Friday, schools would be closed through next Tuesday.  Here, Indya, Dahlia, and Georgia trudged off to school.  Hopefully snowy recess with their pals helped:

This will all be less fun when I bike in to work on Monday on the snowy, dirty remains.  But for now, fun city!