Monday, March 26, 2012

A French Cafe


Almost exactly a year ago, I went to a cute French cafe located behind the Radisson Hotel. This past Wednesday, I took my mom and Sophia on a walk through the snow-filled Central Park, across the pedestrian bridge, and to this cafe.

Inside, my mom first followed a waiter into the section on the right, a dark room with tall plush chairs and men smoking a hookah. We quickly turned and went into the cheery, sun-filled cafe-like side.

We ordered food and drinks, after which we had dessert. My ginger-and-honey coffee was quite delicious.

Mom ordered French onion soup, of which there was a picture. What came out was yellow, not brown--and French onion soup should be brown (and the picture showed brown soup). Mom ate it but said it was more like "cream of onion" soup than French onion and she didn't finish it.

Sophia loved her grilled cheese sandwich (something really simple) and my "Asian-style" beef and vegetables was rather good.

Then we ordered dessert. I ordered tiramisu, Mom ordered the banana tort, Sophia ordered the waffle.

My tiramasu cost 1200 Tenge -- about $8 -- and was only okay, definitely not worth $8! Mom's tort was good but did not look like the picture. Sophia's waffle took close to an hour to come out, and the wait staff did not even try to be helpful. I asked several times about it, only to be told, "Ok, ok" or "ten more minutes". And she didn't even like it! (It was good, but had a vanilla-like flavor to it, which she didn't like. And I was way too full to finish it for her.)

The bill was about 1200 Tenge, too much to pay for only a so-so dining experience. And last year the experience had been so pleasant!

I might go there again for coffee, though...

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Borovoe with my Mom - Day 2

After breakfast, we borrowed cross country skis and ski boots from the hotel. (When we paid that evening, we learned that the rental cost 1500 Tenge -- $10 -- per person.)

We put on the boots and went outside with the skis. We spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to put them on. Mom & I got our on, but we still couldn't get Sophia's on hers. Finally, I saw some staff on a smoke break, and called out to them. They had her skis on in 2 seconds. There was a button that we had missed, that made them snap into the boot.

Now, the hill wasn't that steep, but it was still a hill, and it was covered with fresh snow. It wasn't long before Sophia fell and we spent perhaps another 30 minutes trying to get her back up, during which time her legs and ankles twisted and pretty soon she definitely wasn't in a good mood. She still wanted to try skiing at the bottom of the hill, by the lake, but before we got there, she fell again and gave up. We took off her skis and let her watch while we tried.

My hunch is that people who really want to ski don't ski at this hotel; they rent a taxi and go to Borovoe and ski somewhere there. The hotel didn't really have trails or paths for skiing; we were going down what is the boat ramp in the summer, and then we went back and forth by the lake. The thick snow made it hard. Plus, I've never cross-country skied before. And I've only down-hilled skied a few times before, over 15 years ago, and I was awful then.

Still, it was fun, and I definitely got a workout. I was sweating when I finished.

We went inside and had lunch--we were getting tired of the restaurant's food by now! Plus each meal cost us about 5000 Tenge -- about $33 -- except breakfast, which was free.

We went to the 3rd floor and played pool. The pool table there was bigger and higher than one in the US. The openings were narrower, and so it was next-to-impossible to get a ball in. It was Sophia's first time playing, and she did as well as can be expected, perhaps even better--she didn't pout or whine.

As we left, the staff woman asked us our room number--we later learned that playing pool cost us 2000 Tenge (about $13).

Then we went back outside with the sleds. We discovered that if we started at the very top of the hill, we could go quite far, almost all the way to the lake, and we spent the next several hours sledding and otherwise playing in the snow. We went onto the frozen lake and I buried Sophia in the snow. It was a clearer day than yesterday--still cloudy, but we could see across the lake. The sun came out as we started heading indoors, and the snow sparkled.

When we checked out, we saw the fees for ski rental and playing pool, but they didn't charge us for staying until 7 pm. (On the phone they had told my assistant that it would be an extra 8000 Tenge to stay that late.)

The taxi driver took us the long way around the lake. He also was a cautious driver, which was nice, but that meant that our trip to the train station took more than twice as long as our trip from the train station. We got plenty of nice views of the lake, though! (And more than once worried that he was taking us to some deserted place to abandon us or demand extra money...)

At the train station, we ran into some co-workers and their children. We were in the same car in the electric train on the way back. The electric train is much cleaner and nicer than the other train, with seats instead of bunks. The toilet, though, is a squatter.

We got to Astana around 11 pm, our home around 11:30. What an adventure! Someday, though, I'm really going to cross-country ski!

Borovoe with my Mom - Day 1

Earlier this year, my friend had picked up a brochure for the Park Hotel Kokshetau, near Borovoe. Borovoe is the resort area about 300 km north of Astana. This is a place with forested hills that resemble mountains and several lakes. Last year we went there in the summer for a few days.

(You can see my entries for Days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in Borovoe this past summer.)

The brochure and web site made the hotel look so wonderful that I booked a room there for one night and got train tickets to get there on Monday afternoon and leave Tuesday evening. My mom arrived Sunday at midnight, so she had one day of mild rest before we were off.

The train ride there was an interesting experience. We traveled for just one small stretch of a much longer train ride, and our seats were beds (and those were the cheap seats!) The entire car was open--no rooms, just a bunch of bunk beds. They even gave us clean sheets! I liked it because it gave us extra room, although it was somewhat dirty.

The weather was cloudy and windy, and for most of the ride, all we could see out the window was white--as if the world had vanished away.

The ride was 3 hours long, and as we got off the train, I heard someone say my name in a thick accent. Someone from the hotel was waiting for us!

He took our bags and led us to the hotel van. He instructed us to put on our seat belts, but said Sophia didn't need to. Either this was because she was in a backwards-facing seat, or because her seat didn't have a seat belt, or because she's a child, I don't know! But he definitely made sure Mom and I wore seat belts (which is quite unusual here, no one really cares about seat belts unless you're in the front).

Once we got going, we wished we'd insisted that Sophia have a seat belt, too. He drove quite quickly up a winding and snow-covered road.

The hotel is located on the Suchye Lake, which is closer to the town of Shchuchinsk than to Borovoe, but still in the general area, still a beautiful, woodsy, mountainy area.

(And can you pronounce Shchuchinsk? I certainly can't!)

The guy at reception obviously spoke no English and thus didn't want to even try to communicate with us; he quickly led us to our room and left us there--no signing in. So far I had given no information other than my name and my assistant's phone number, no proof that I really was going to pay at the end.

Our junior suite cost 31,000 Tenge a night (a little over $200) and while it was a nice room, and a nice hotel, it wasn't quite worth that much money. We were paying the on-season price, yet the hotel was almost completely empty, so we should have gotten the off-seaon price. Monday and Tuesday this week were still normal working weeks for most Kazakhs. The spring holiday, Nauryz, was on Thursday, and the official holiday was Wednesday through Friday.

Our suite was quite large, two rooms that could be separated by a curtain, a large bed, and a nice couch that pulled out into a bed.

After settling in, we went to the restaurant to eat. The waiter made the mistake of addressing us in English, thus making us assume that he knew more English than he did. He struggled to keep up with us and to understand us.

Next, we went outside to look around. There were sleds by the entrance-way, and we were told we could take these. How nice!

The hotel's area is behind the hotel. There's a gently-sloping hill, a children's play area, a tennis court, an area for an outdoor cafe, and a beach. Of course, in the winter, this is all snow-covered. It's a mini winter-wonderland, and the iced-over lake was amazing.

The lake was large and white and covered with thick, powdery snow. The wind was fierce, and as it ripped across the lake, it picked up the snow--a sandstorm made of snow. We couldn't see the other side of the lake, due to all the wind-swept snow. There was so much white that I doubt my mom's camera took any good pictures, although it was breath-taking to behold.

After a while, we went back inside and went swimming. The water was cold, so I waited while Mom and Sophia swam and then used the jacuzzi. We did not make use of the sauna or the massage.

There was one normal sauna room (a wooden room, with benches) and one room with a wooden contraption that a person gets inside, so that only his/her head shows. The best example I can give of it is this picture.

Next we had dinner, and again we were the only people in the restaurant, and again we had the same waiter.

After dinner, we played ping-pong in the gym next to the pool. We saw proof that we weren't the only people there when a Russian family passed us on their way to the pool. Then the power went out, and luckily my mom had her kindle's light in her purse (quite a nice-sized flashlight). I went to the pool to offer the light to the Russians in the jacuzzi, but they said they didn't need one. So they planned on staying in the pool in the dark!

On our way to our room, the lights went back on. We also ran into our waiter, who had come upstairs to bring us a candle.

Day 1 was nice and pleasant, and we made plans to go skiing on Tuesday.

(Photos: Our car on the train and the snow-covered lake.)

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Nauryz/Nauriz 2012

Nauryz (also spelled Nauriz) is the Kazakh word for March, and it's also the name of the big spring holiday here that celebrates the first day of spring, despite the fact that we're still a winter wonderland at this time of year.

This year, Nauryz will be celebrated Thursday, 22 March.

I'm typing this post quickly to update anyone in Astana on what I know is going on for Nauryz this year. I know that I know very little, there probably is a lot more going on than what I will post here.

Each year I go to the celebrations by Beyterek Tower. (See my entries from 2010--part 1 and part 2--and 2011.) It's not super-fancy, but there are yurts there, people in local costumes, and some singing and dancing. Last year there was arm wrestling and real wrestling; two years ago there was a camel and some Kazakh swings (large swings that fit about 6 people, standing).

I read on-line that "Lovers' Park"--the park across from Khan Shatyr--will have some stuff (singing, dancing, etc) for Nauryz.

Also, all the malls usually have something--dancing, singing, etc--and are usually super-crowded.

Today (Wednesday) and tomorrow Mega Mall has an exhibition where you can buy handmade things. We're going to go later today.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Congress Hall is having an exhibition, from what I can tell, this also will include handmade items and local items and items for sale. Also, across from Congress Hall I saw them setting up yurts and stages for something to happen tomorrow.

The Opera House will have a free Kazakh opera on Thursday, at 3:00 pm. Friends who went last year said that they didn't have to buy tickets in advance.

That's all that I know about. Feel free to add a comment if you know about something else!

*UPDATE: There was nothing at Beiterek Tower this year, surprising myself and several others. The park across from Khan Shatyr had plenty (yurts, music, dancing, wrestling, swings, horse & pony rides) and I was told that across from Congress Hall there was stuff.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Mass in French!

My first month here I discovered the English-language Mass, which is every Sunday at 6 pm at the Catholic Church on Tashenov Street. (There's only one Catholic church in town.) Sometimes we go to the Russian-language Mass at 11 am, which is about twice as long as the English-language one.

A few days ago I learned that there's a French-language Mass at the same church! It occurs only once a month, and is at 7:15 pm, so not long after the English one ends. How had I not noticed before? Once every month, there have been French-speakers entering the church as I'm leaving.

My mom is visiting Astana for our spring break; she arrived Saturday at midnight. Sunday we took her to Mega and Duman to see the aquarium. Then we took her to Eagilik, the English-language library with an American-style coffee shop, and from there to French Mass. She doesn't speak French, but luckily she's a good sport and understood how much I wanted to go. I used to speak French almost fluently, but have lost most of it due to want of practice, so I like to get in some French when I can. When I lived in Paris for a year, I attended Mass every Sunday and many weekdays, and so French Mass is something I can understand fairly well.

The church was practically empty for the Mass--about 4 famillies; I was told that there's usually more people, but because of the holiday, many were gone. I'd seen the priest before, but he doesn't speak English, and I had never learned that he is from Switzerland. He spoke with a clear accent, and I could understand much of what he said.

After Mass, there was a little reception--some people had brought food--and I met the other people attending, including the ambassador of France!

Luckily, everyone spoke English, and so Mom and I got to socialize and enjoy some French food and wine. Mom had brought her ipod touch, and Sophia played that with some of the other children. I learned that Miras school opened a French program this year, which explains why we have no French-speakers at our school this year! Last year, French seemed to be the 3rd language at our school--in the corridors and on the playground, you most frequently heard English, then Russian, then French. This year there are no French-speakers!

It was a nice evening, and hopefully I'll be able to attend French-mass again. (And bore poor Sophia, of course!)

Saturday, March 3, 2012

The Vet

I can't believe we've had Balthazar for 6 weeks now! We finally got around to taking him to the vet today.

Another teacher brought her cat over from the US, and used to the school secretary to take her to the vet. The secretary has a dog, and the teacher said that she really liked the vet the secretary uses.

So I arranged to meet the secretary at a shopping area near the vet this afternoon (Saturday). She called us a taxi, since we don't live near there (she does). We borrowed a cat carrying case from the teacher (who'd bought it here at a cat show).

Balthazar is an energetic, curious cat, and he meows nearly constantly. I think the meowing comes from boredom--he wants attention! So he hardly meowed at all for the whole experience--it was just so interesting for him.

The vet's place is not even labeled, it'd be impossible to find if you weren't with someone who knew. It's just a few rooms on the first floor in the back of some generic apartment complex.

I think they were doing surgery on an animal in the back room; we had to wait a long time. No one was in the front office, a tiny, cramped room, or the second room, another tiny room, with two chairs and a table. A tiny and incredibly thin kitten rested in a cage in this second room.

We talked a bit to the other people who waited with us. There was a woman who was bringing the kitten she'd recently found. A woman with a pretty 13-year old cat. Two women with a German Shepherd puppy whose leash looked too tight.

Our cat carrier was the fanciest around. Some people had their cats in cloth handbags; one woman came with her cat wrapped in a blanket.

Finally it was our turn. Balthazar was placed on the table and the vet quickly examined him. He has ear mites--she took a swab and examined them under a microscope. Sophia was curious and she let Sophia see. I was too grossed out to look.

She cleaned his ears and gave me instructions on how to clean them and to bring him back in 10 days. (Of course, my Russian's not that good! The secretary did the translating.)

She also gave him some vaccinations and clipped his nails. He did NOT like this and even hissed!

When we come back in ten days, we'll talk about getting him fixed.

She guessed his age at 1 year, which is older than we were guessing. I think he's grown since we got him! He doesn't seem that small!

The cost was 2600 Tenge ($17).

We said good-bye to the secretary and I decided to take the bus home. Balthazar was doing quite fine in his cat carrier. We rode the bus home with no incident, and had a short walk. If the weather had been colder, I would have taken a taxi of course.

As we walked around Mega (the mall), a man nearly ran into Sophia. Smiling, he pointed to the wine box he was carrying. It wasn't carrying wine, but a small kitten who poked its head out and meowed. The man reached to give Sophia something--at first we thought he was handing our cat some food, but he was giving 5 tenge to Sophia. Interesting...

Balthazar had finally had enough as we neared our house and he started meowing. We got inside and let him out.

He seems fine and hopefully we'll get him fixed soon!

Sledding Day



Last year, Sledding Day was at the beginning of February, and it was a relatively warm day. This year, Sledding Day was planned for the beginning of February, but it was very cold. The day kept being put off, until finally we realized we had to do it before the snow melted!

Okay, I know, we do have a full month before the snow melts, but it is already getting unseasonably warm--up to 0 degrees this weekend! There's mush outside already!

So Sledding Day was on the 2nd of March, which also was Pajama Day. We stressed repeatedly to the children that, yes, they could wear pajamas to school, but they also had to dress appropriately for sledding!

It was another "warm" day, meaning about -10º Celsius (14º F) and sunny with mild wind. Like last year, we took school vans plus parents' and drivers' cars. Unlike last year, the high schoolers were going to go. But then the principal learned that many high schoolers were simply planning on skipping Sledding Day and going home--so she canceled Sledding Day for the older kids and made them attend classes.

This year, we went to the riverbank by the Radisson Hotel. This super-fancy hotel had agreed to let us use their bathrooms if needed (I am surprised!) In the end, no one used them, but still quite nice!

On the riverbank here, someone has made a huge ice-slide, with even ice-bricks on it sides. This seems super-fast and slightly dangerous to me. On the weekends, it is quite popular.

Due to the nature of this kind of slide, we had to be organized--the older kids (4th - 6th grade) went further down to another similar slide. I stayed with the younger kids. A teacher and a few parents stood at the bottom of the slide to keep an eye on kids coming down. Another teacher and I stayed at the top--the teacher would give the kids the "all clear" to go down, one at a time, while I helped them form a line.

The kindergarten teacher helped the younger kids hop the fence that separates the walkway from the river's steep embankment. This area is covered in snow, not ice, and is a much safer place to sled!

It was fun, and the kids had a blast. They went down on sleds as well as without, screaming and squealing all the way down, on their faces expressions of sheer delight.

It wasn't all fun and safe, though. As one kid went zooming down the slide, a snow-mobile plowed fast across the river. The kid kept on going after the slide ending, sliding across the river, and he barely missed being hit by the snow-mobile. There were two snow-mobiles racing across the river; someone went to talk to them but that didn't stop them!

I didn't notice that last year; but about a month or two ago, I went with Sophia and my friend and her daughter to sled at the river. It was super-crowded with kids trying to slide; and snow-mobiles raced across the frozen river. Not safe!

Luckily, the teacher and parents at the bottom kept eyes out for the snow-mobiles, and we stayed safe. No more kids went down when snow-mobiles were nearby!

I went down twice. The first time, I realized just how fast it was, and I screamed the whole time down. The force or something dislodged my contact lens and I panicked (considering my contacts are hard contacts and about $100 each!) Luckily, it had just shifted in my eye and soon came back in place.

Towards the end of our 2 hours, the older kids came back to us. I talked to my notoriously shy student, a 9-year old Korean boy. Earlier, I had talked to his sister, asked if he even wanted to come to Sledding Day. She assured me that he did. Now I asked him how many times he had sledded. None!! He'd been too shy to try!

Now, if I hadn't been sure that he actually wanted to try sledding (from my earlier conversation with his sister), I never would have done what I did--I forced him to go down the slide with me. The slide has two sides, and one is shorter. If you go down without a sled, you go more slowly, and so we did the short side without a sled. I held his hand and down we went!

It was so fast!! I guess I'm just a scaredy-cat! As I neared the bottom (after letting go of the boy's hand), I suddenly realized that a 5-year-old was at the bottom. (Where the slide ends, there's about a foot-tall "wall" of hard-packed snow, since the snow had to be cleared to make the ice-slide. Which means if I rammed into him, I'd be ramming him into that snow--not good!) Thinking quickly, I managed to pick him up and carry him, so we crashed into the snow together. He laughed and seemed to think this was great fun. Crisis averted!

Later, I asked the shy Korean boy what he thought about sledding--he admitted it was a bit scary. I told his sister that they should try to go sledding sometime, but maybe not at the ice-slide. (By the way, she thanked me for going down the slide with him that one time.)

Our last near-crisis was when a 5-year old girl went down the super-fast slide. Her mother had asked her teacher to make sure she didn't do anything like that, but this was near the end, and her teacher much have been looking elsewhere. The teacher helping the kids go down the ice-slide was a bit wary of letting her go down, but let her go down. I was at the bottom when this happened--she flipped. I thought she hit her head, but in the end she just hit her bottom and was more scared than hurt. I was quite terrified until I learned that she hadn't hit her head.

So, no real crises, no one really hurt, and no temper tantrums or crying fits. The kids all seemed to really enjoy themselves. (And Sophia did get hot and take off her coat. I wish I'd taken a picture--she was wear her short-sleeved nightgown underneath her snow-pant overalls!!) Although next year, I think we'll try to find someplace that doesn't have fancy ice-slides. A good, old-fashioned snowy hill is good enough for me!

Special Olympics Part 2

The Special Olympics also wanted volunteers, and so I volunteered to help at the awards ceremony on Sunday. They requested 24 volunteers, 8 each at 3 different events, and asked for us to be there from 11 to 1 pm.

We met in front of Mega, the mall near our home, at 10:30 pm. The teacher who lives in my building was also going, and so I got a ride with him.

We noticed that the people who didn't have rides were waiting for the bus at the bus stop in front of Mega. We tried to tell them that no bus goes to Alau from here. But they didn't listen. And I wonder if it's in part my fault; I told the principal that buses 12 and 43 go to Alau, and she had probably told them. What I didn't think to add was where those buses stop, which is on the other side of Mega and across the street, not directly in front.

We arrived at Alau and entered. Sometime after the last year's Asian Winter Games ended, Alau opened for public ice skating. I had asked the principal if it would be open for us, after the ceremony, and she had said that she'd been told no. She was wrong.

We went down and under the speed-skating track to come up in the center. In the middle Alau has two ice skating rinks, as well as a small cafe-area, with seating and some booths for food. Lots of people were ice skating, and they looked as if they had no connection to the Special Olympics. I really wish we'd brought our ice skates!

We waited for a while. A booth was selling pizza-in-a-cone, and I ordered one for Sophia. She'd had one before, at the airport in Almaty, and had liked it, but this one was gross--they microwaved it! Ew! Sophia didn't eat much.

The group who'd been waiting for a bus arrived--they'd taken a taxi.

I never heard anything directly; few of us spoke Russian, and so when a Russian-speaker heard news, it was passed along the lines until it got to me. But apparently whoever was organizing this event didn't know why we'd shown up so early. They told us we could watch the first awards ceremony, get an idea of what we'd have to do. Well, we watched, and there didn't seem to be any volunteers or any need for any!

Sophia attends an hour a week of religious education -- preparation for First Communion -- and she'd missed last week, so I had her take out her "First Penance" book and read and do her work. Near us was a group of Special Olympics athletes; one was very interested in the book and asked to look at it. I let him, and he spent quite some time carefully looking through the book. I wonder what he thought of it....

Finally, we decided that we could leave and we did. On the way out, I asked about ice skating -- 1000 Tenge to rent ice skates, so around the price of the "Ice Club" we usually go to. They also rent speed skates here, that'd be fun to try one day!

We then went to Mega to eat lunch with friends; after that, we went across the street from Mega to ice skate in a parking lot. After watching others ice skate for an hour, I was really dying to go!

We had about 30 minutes of ice skating before it was time to leave for church. We ran into 3 boys who go to our school. They enjoyed ice-skating towards the edge and then jumping into a pile of snow.

And so that was my attempt to volunteer.

Special Olympics Part 1


About one week ago, the Special Olympics came to Astana, and our school was asked last-minute to help out. Things around here always seem to happen last minute. The high-schoolers went on Friday to help at the British international school, while the elementary classes were to go to the opening ceremony. At first, they wanted our high school girls to be part of the opening ceremony, in Kazakh dresses, but then they were able to arrange models for the part, letting down our high school girls.

We hurried to get parents' permission slips and arrange transportation, and on Friday we loaded into the two school vans plus parents' (or drivers') cars and went to Alau, the speed-skating arena that had been built for last winter's Asian Winter Games.

Inside, we found our seats and soon realized that we were about the ONLY spectators. Perhaps a dozen people other than ourselves--and we numbered only about 45 kids, plus teachers and a few parents.

The ceremony was nice--the torch came in, and then the different teams marched in after being announced in Russian, Kazakh, and English. There was one group from Austria, one from Russia, one from Uzbekistan, and several from different Kazakh oblasts. (Oblasts are like states or regions.)

We cheered for all the teams, and we had two school banners to hold up.

Then a bunch of important people made speeches. I was pleased that my listening skills were good enough to decipher when someone was speaking with an accent. One guy stumbled over his Kazakh; his Russian was smoother but I could still discern a definite foreign accent. (I'm not good enough, though, to be able to determine where he was from, though!)

It wasn't anything fancy, but I do think it was a good experience for our students.

Line Brew

Kenessary Street is one of the bigger streets in the old downtown; it crosses Respublika, which is like the Main Street of the old downtown.

If you're driving down Kenessary Street, you may pass by a building that looks a bit like a castle. This is Line Brew, an upscale restaurant. I've heard for a while that it's really nice, so a few weeks ago a friend and I decided to try it out.

In the entrance area, where the coat-check is, there was a knight-in-shining-armor suit. The coat-check lady was a plump lady with an extremely low-cut blouse. I quickly noticed that all the female staff wore extremely low-cut blouses (for the wait staff, this seemed to be part of the uniform--for the others, maybe a dress code?)

There was one small table available; we were told that usually it's best to make reservations. There is an upstairs and a downstairs; we were downstairs, at a small wooden table, near the bar and an open fire where shashlyk (and perhaps other food) was being cooked. (Shashlyk is like kebab).

My friend had a sore throat, and had earlier mused that she'd like some mulled wine, which she wasn't even sure if we could find in Astana. She asked, and Line Brew does have mulled wine, and it was very delicious, and not until the bill came out did we realize the price--2500 Tenge per glass! ($17!)

The menu items were quite expensive, and we settled on sharing a salad and beef fondue. The salad was good, although its simplicity surprised my Kazakh friend--lettuce, a oil-like dressing, and parmesan cheese. I've only had fondue once in my life, and that was about 15 years ago, so I can't quite compare. It was good, although it'd be nice to have more for your main course than just meat. I dropped my fondue fork onto my lap and burned myself picking it up.

We then shared a divinely delicious tiramisu for dessert while my friend drank tea and I had a wheat beer that was on draft, and which wasn't very good. Someone had recommended their dark beer, I'd wager that they do have good beer and I'd just ordered the cheapest one. I guessed that Line Brew is trying to be Belgian, based on the castle and decor, the food, the beer, and a sign that was in French. (One of the main beers that they serve, Leffe, is Belgian.)

Our bill totaled $100--wow! I think the fancy Chinese restaurant was cheaper! And this place was full--even people with kids were there. I don't think I'm ever taking Sophia there, she won't appreciate the food enough for me to spend that much money on her.

For most of the time, not-too-loud music played, and since my friend was going hoarse, we could manage a decent conversation if I leaned in close to her. But a live band was there, and when they played, we didn't even try to talk. I don't understand why restaurants and bars think it's cool to have loud music playing, so that their customers can't hold conversations.

It was a good evening, and definitely a place worth going back to--as long as you're prepared to spend the money!