Ironically, I'm not sure I listened to my Sound of Music soundtrack even once while I was there, what a shame. I clearly did not do Austria justice. But if you don't know that quote is from the Sound of Music you shouldn't be my friend, :P J.K.
So after a wonderful day in Podersdorf, Austria I woke up the next day to head about an hour in some direction to Sophie's grandparents house where I was greeted with this gorgeous view. Turns out her grandparents live up in the hills and have an amazing view. Sophie said she used to come here all the time because she loves it. I don't blame her, Austria is a beautiful country. They also had a stable with 3 horses and a lot of lovely land and woods. It made me feel like I was back at home with the hills, green grass, and woods. Besides the cattle that I saw, which was really cool too it felt like a normal place. We stayed there, hung out for a bit, laid in the sun and relaxed while her mom and grandfather went for a trail ride. I got showed around the house, read in the sun and was treated to a lovely lunch outside in the sun. Did I mention that it stayed in the 80's all weekend!! The lunch was delicious and I got yummy ice cream afterwords :)
By about 1 we headed back to Sophie's house and just hung out there for a few hours while her mom went to her brothers soccer game. I of course took advantage of the sun and sat outside and read some more and listened to Sophie practice the piano. Then by about 4 or 5 me and the rest of her family headed over to her dad's school where he was holding a rhythm workshop. So I showed up and was going to just sit and watch, because they're talking all in German, but I got roped into participating. So it was just a fun workshop where we did fun little games working with rhythm and empty soda bottles and stuff. I learned a nonsensical German phrase that I don't remember anymore. But the guy heading the workshop was from Berlin, which was really neat. After the workshop we brought him to the airport so he could go back to Berlin and went into Vienna to get some really good ice cream. Of course, we went to a Italian Gelato place, but this was amazing ice cream. :)
That was pretty much my entire day. As you can see, it was very taxing...I got driven around the country and had ice cream and a good meal :) Me and Sophie just hung out that night, watched some German T.V. and ate dinner outside with her family by candlelight and went to bed early. It was a blissfully simple day. :)
Monday was my day to explore the city of Vienna, finally!! I really didn't know anything about Vienna so I had no expectations and nothing really that I wanted to see extremely badly. Honestly, I think if I had just got to Slazburg and seen the Von Trapp house that would have made my entire trip, but alas, Slazburg is very far away....:( So me and Sophie got up at about 10:30 and headed out to Vienna by 11:50. Unfortunately we had to run to catch the train, which meant I didn't have time to buy a train ticket...oops. So we just hoped for the best that there wouldn't be someone checking tickets. Just my luck, some official looking guy walked on about 2 stops later, and me, not wanting to pay a ridiculous fee, suggested we get off before he starts checking tickets. He was making all sorts of official noises with his machine, so we got off the next stop and bought me at ticket....stupid officials. :( But we finally made it into Vienna by about 1 and headed over to the Palace.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get into the Palace, there were too many people visiting when we got there and we would have had to wait until 5 to get in. But I was okay with not being able to go in because it saved me some money and the gardens were just as pretty. Plus, I'd seen plenty of Palaces in Europe so I was okay with it. So me and Sophie entered the Palace Gardens and walked around a bit. It was extremely hot outside so we tried to stay in the shade. We walked down to the fountain down on the other end of the garden and were able to dip out feet in the water!! It felt so good, and we were in front of an awesome fountain. Sophie was also awesome at taking my picture all day. :) It was also nice because Sophie hadn't seen some of that stuff in a long time so I didn't feel like I was totally boring her with my touristy stuff. haha
Ruins in the gardens
Me on the balcony looking over the gardens
So we hung out at the palace for a while and then made our way back to a really cool market, which I stupidly didn't take any pictures of. But that's okay. It was an awesome market where they sold lots of food and clothes for cheap. I ended up buying some Turkish honey for my senora. I've been looking for something to get her from my travels and Sophie let me try some really good Turkish honey that she got for her dad and I wanted some for Julia. So we ended up doubling back and getting more Turkish honey and some other ingredients for dinner later that night. This is the only place where there's a market in Vienna though, it's a place the locals go to (I was full of local places that weekend) and it was really fun, I like markets. So after that we decided it was time to get ice cream!! Who needs a proper lunch when you're traveling and in Austria, not me! So we went back to the same ice cream place and got another grand helping of ice cream, and did some people watching. Also, the metro station there was a wall that went went on and one with different numbers. The numbers all represented different things, like how many people are in love in Vienna, how many people are homeless, how much money we've spent on war, how many people have been born since Jan. 1st, really cool stuff like that. It was an interesting walk into the metro station and Sophie translated all the things for me, so I knew what they were all talking about.
After getting ice cream we took the tram to the metro to the
Stephensdom Cathedral. I have to say it, after living in Europe for 5
months I kind of love Cathedrals and churches. I love seeing them
because I think they are gorgeous. So I was excited to see this one. I
LOVED the colors in this church. They draped cloth over the windows to
give it the effect of stain glass windows and I loved it. The colors
were amazing. We also tried to go up the tower to see the view of
Vienna, but it was closed :( But it was a lot of fun to look at.
Here's some pictures!!
So that's pretty much how beautiful this Church was. I loved it. I could have stayed in there all day just gazing at
it, but alas, there was more to see. Right as we stepped outside the
church and I took my last photos some break dancing guys set up shop
right next to the Cathedral. So we decided to stay and watch them
perform a bit. It was pretty fun, and their dialogue was really funny.
Their English was funny and the phrases they used made me and Sophie
laugh. So we stayed to watch a little bit and then moved along. But
not before I took a video!
After that we walked down the street, I bought some gifts and we walked to the Famous Opera house. Clearly, I don't know my opera because this opera house is apparently a big deal. It was really pretty though and really cool to see. We tried to go inside, but we couldn't. Sophie's been inside, which is really awesome. So I naturally took a picture outside the doors and marveled at it. Maybe one day I will go see an Opera...maybe...it will probably be Phantom of the Opera. From there we took the tram towards some public parks. I saw, from afar, a statue of Mozart and it was really cool. We got off the tram at some museums of history and natural history, which were really large and impressive. Then we went to the government buildings, which were also really impressive, contrary to Sophie's belief's. The lawns leading up to the government buildings was beautiful, and there was an arch also near it, which was cool.
After that we walked towards a big area where people gather. To me, it was more like a plaza than anything. It's an area where a lot of the youth hang out after school, apparently there are some exhibits sometimes of art and other such things, and there are really cool benches. So we walked around and looked at some of the oddities that were in there too. For one...this was an oddity. I'm really not sure what this is....it's got sand in it. But it also seems to me like it's a cage. So I decided it's a prision/cage for children for parents to put their kids in when they get annoyed with them. Yup, that's what that is. :) It certainly made me and Sophie laugh. So we just hung around there a while while deciding what to do next. We decided to walk over to the science museum and try to get up their tower to get a view of the city, but once again it was closed. It closed just as we got there, oh well...so we sat down on a bench and watched some people do some rock climbing! Which I actually really miss after rock climbing for a semester. The people could climb all the way to the top of the tower too, which def takes talent. So it was fun to watch them, and some of the little kids climb. Then we just went home and relaxed for the rest of the night. It was yet another night of eating outside by candlelight and it was awesome. Later, Sophie could change one of the shows to English, so I watched Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice in English, it was awesome! I don't even like doctor shows but it was fun. :) So I went to bed a bit late, but I certainly made the most of my last day.
Tuesday morning I woke up bright and early, 4:30 for my 7:30 flight. We left the house by 5:30, got to the airport by 6:15 and I was on my way back to Granada. The security there was def interesting though. I never showed ID and only needed it to get into my gate, certainly different than other airports. But my flights went without a hitch, I got Swiss chocolate! And my bus home was right on time. So I got home by about 5:20, just in time to dump my stuff and take off to the Plaza de Los Torros for the bull fight!! That story is coming up in the next blog, but my trip to Austria was amazing and I'm so glad I went. Traveling by yourself is such a good experience, even if I did meet up with someone, I'm glad I did it. Thanks Sophie!!
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!
