Austria

I'm back!!  My weekend in Austria was amazing and I'm so happy I went.  This weekend I'm also going to Portugal so I'm probably not going to finish writing about my escapades through Austria before I leave.  As it is, I should be packing right now, and I'm not, haha.

This was pretty much the highlight of my flight out of Brussels

. 

So to start off, my trip to Austria was not bad, but didn't go as smoothly as it could have.  I got to the airport at around 10 a.m because it was either that or get there at 2:30, and my flight left at 2:50, so that wasn't going to work.  So I waited all day in the airport by myself which was quite lonely but it was finally time for me to leave.  So they listed the gate and and we were all waiting there, like a huge group of people clearly waiting for one flight.  For starters it wasn't even listed on their screen that the flight was leaving.  So what happened was that our flight was delayed, but no one bothered to tell anyone...thanks Malaga...  So it was delayed an entire hour and we finally left an hour later than we were supposed to.  The reason this freaked me out was because I only had 45 min between my connection flights.  I planned on landing in Brussels and hopping on the next plane.  So with the hour delay I was pretty sure I'd miss my connection and was freaking out the entire time.  Luckily there was a really nice couple next to me who were talking to me and were just like "go ask the attendent" so I asked the attendent about when we were supposed to get in and she told me that there were 6 others on the flight that were connecting in Brussels for the same flight as me to Vienna.  So she was going to let me know if we would be accompanied to our next flight or what was going on.  It turned out, that it was the same plane, so my next flight "was delayed".  So I didn't have to worry.  When we landed I just got off, and waiting to re-board the plane and everything was alright.  But I was pretty scared for a really long time that I'd have to pay another like $300 or something like that for another flight to Vienna. All was well, I texted Sophie to tell her I'd get in late and we finally met up at around 9:30 in the airport and she accompanied me to her house outside Vienna.  It was an overwhelming day of travel and I was certainly exhausted and looking forward to sleeping.  For my first flight truly by myself it was scary, but all was well and I was extremely happy to be in Austria with a familiar face and a translator.  I went to bed by around midnight after Sophie gave me directions on how to get into Vienna if I wanted to the next day while she was at school.  She set me up in her sisters room and we went to bed.

Gorgeous river and views :)

The next day I woke up at a lovely time, 11:30, showered and Sophie came home from school!!  We went for a quick bike ride down to another town to see the Danu (I think that's spelled wrong), which is the biggest river in Austria and starts in another country.  I met her mom, her brother and her sister and her mom made us a nice lunch while Sophie went to work until about 6:30.  Her mom spoke really good English, and her siblings knew enough to understand me.  So it was a nice lunch and I decided I would just stay at the house instead of risking getting lost in the trains station or in Vienna without a map or any knowledge of German.  So I decided to take advantage of the fact that I can walk barefoot and outside on their lawn.  It was beautiful weather so I spent the day lounging on their lawn with a book, listening to her brother practice the paino (he played "New York State of Mind" and I got really happy).  It was a day well spent relaxing and doing nothing.

That was pretty much the first time I had ever taken my time waking up and not done any sight seeing when I traveled.  Sophie came home at around 6:30 and I went with her and her friend to watch her dad's jazz band play at a restaurant where we met some really cool people.  Most of her friends actually spoke English well enough that we were able to have short conversations, some spoke a lot of English.  So we hung out at the restaurant most of the night and watched her dad's band play.  The guy playing the guitar is a really good bass player who's played with some of the best people in the world.  He's really nice and speaks like 4 languages.  He was talking to me and was like, "come to my show in Boston!"  haha so that was fun.  He's also dating the first woman violinist to play in the Philharmonic Orchestra.  So I met her too!! I felt really cool.  Afterwords we went to a bar near this restaurant where we were going to meet up with more of Sophie's friends, but the bar was really lame and there was no one there, so we left early. In case you're wondering, the drinking age is 16 there...which is why I was with her at a bar. :P  So the first day was pretty uneventful, but we had Podersdorf to look forward to the next day!! :D

Me, Sophie, Kathy (Friend)

Day 2 in Austria I woke up at around 7:30 and hit the road by 9 to head to Podersdorf.  Podersdorf is where they had a huuuuge windsurfing competition.  It was actually the world championship.  Who knew that happened in Austria.  It was on a really big lake that has great wind, so me, Sophie and two of her friends headed over to Podersdorf for a day full of sun, surfing and cute guys :)  We got to Podersdorf at around 10:30 and walked around a bit to look for our spot to camp out for the day.  We shed our outer layers, and basked in the sun for basically the entire day.  We walked around a bit to explore and get some water and food.  They also had free photo booths and printed out pictures.  Here's our picture together!! We had no idea what we were doing.  We spent the whole time just relaxing and sun bathing, or in my case...burning.  However, they have very guys nice guys here/the guys have a great way of flirting.  They literally just come up to you and ask you to put lotion on their back. haha So you can imagine my surprise when I came back from a dip in the lake and there were guys at our blanket talking with Sophie and they asked me to put lotion on their back.  I respectfully said no, I'm sorry I can't do that and one of the other girls did that.  Then they stayed a while, chatted, left and forgot their sunscreen.  So we got free sunscreen and used it the rest of the day. :)  It was an excellent trade off.  Then later that night we stayed for a giant party they had on the lake.  So we re-entered at around 8:30 for a night filled with drunk people, music and more windsurfing.  There were about 4 clubs all within like 100 feet, they were all in a square together.  So we walked around each other them, took another photo in the photo booth and just hung out.  They were also having another wind surfing contest where they pulled the guys around on a little boat and then they let go and did some tricks.  That was really cool to see too!  We saw a few guys do tricks, but most of them failed.  :( I also got a picture with some people dressed in blue passing around flyers and we saw a guy walk right into a hanging sign.  That, I think was the highlight of my weekend,  The guy literally walked right into it and looked around soooo confused afterwords.  Love it.  We left the big party at around midnight and arrived back in Sophie's hometown by 1:30.  It was  really funny night and I'm so glad I went.  But the day was really pretty uneventful, just the way I like it.  :)

My partner in crime/translator for the long weekend.

Wind surfing

Night time photo shoot!

 So that was the first few days for me in Austria.  The first few days were an excellent impression, and it was so great to be with friends, and people who knew the language and could help me get around.  I also did more Austrian things instead of touristy things, which made the experience all the better.  I loved it.  :)

I'll post another post about the next two days, the fact that I can fit 4 days of travel into two posts is really exciting for me.  Next up, a day in the hills and a day in Vienna!

Until next time!  Love you all <3