This morning was uneventful – I woke up, packed and was all ready and raring to head off to Vienna at about 10am, however, the rainy cold weather outside, inspired minimal activity in the rest of the household. That is, except Ulrike, who went out and bought me superglue to help with my never ending battle to keep the soles on my cheaply bought shoes. It was not until 1pm that we loaded all my baggage into the car and headed off on another road trip.
After a rainy, grey two hour drive we arrived in Vienna (3pm now) and spent our last hour together in the most fitting way possible – we sat and ate and drank in a beautiful old cafe, Cafe Swarzenberg. I had a very difficult time deciding which ‘torte’ to order and have since promised myself to eat as many cakes as possible before leaving the country next Wednesday.
Soon it was time to be dropped off at what is to be the tour’s hotel for the next three nights (the aptly named Hotel Mozart). I said goodbye to Ulrike and Franz Josef (Franziska had stayed home, I’d said goodbye to her earlier). Ulrike cried, there were many promises of meeting up again in the next few years and it was all very sad. This week really has been a condensed version of my entire exchange year in almost every possible aspect. It gives me a lot of comfort that I can come back here sometime and know that, at least for the foreseeable future, this country and my place in it has not changed in the slightest :) As I have mentioned before, coming back to see my old host family has been very important to me and a big goal of mine – it is something I have wanted to do since the minute I left in 2005. It is somewhat of a second home, a second family and I hope it doesn’t take me seven years to return again.
But, I’m not leaving the country just yet! Which is good because I am still very much in German mode - it will be odd to switch back to conversing in English. Overall, being able to practice the language has been fantastic, I have picked up a whole bunch of new words and I love the fact that it has not abandoned me as much as I feared it had. Maybe I will still be able to slip in a few German dinner orders before we head to the Czech Republic!
Enough being contemplative. I arrived at the hotel at 4pm, two hours before our scheduled meeting time. On going up to my room, I discovered that Julie had been there but then left again, which left me a little time to catch up on blogging. Our hotel room amuses me greatly – the floral wallpaper covered walls, the ancient television set, the chandelier, the grandma smell… it certainly isn’t the picture of modernism but it seems to suit old city perfectly. And the bed is comfy, which is all that really matters! It IS a bit of a sauna – it didn’t take me long to strip of layers and change into shorts, despite the 17 degrees rainy day outside.
And then Julie arrived! This was really exciting, we haven’t seen each since her trip to Australia in 2008 and a result this evening has been one giant catch up session. There was lots of memory sharing, including giggling over little things like our made up word ‘geschinken’ that we had both forgotten about until now (that word translates to the past tense of ham, just so you know). Just like coming back to Austria, its great to know that we can not see each other for years but still have an awesome friendship there. Talks of me going to Canada to visit Julie at her home have already started.
There is always great anticipation before the start of a tour. What will the group be like? Old? Young? From where? What about the tour leader? The first meeting pretty much defines the atmosphere for the upcoming two weeks. This group seems to be a mixed bag of ages, from a couple from Sydney that seems to be our age to two elderly ladies travelling together. Not much diversity in terms of nationality, every single one of us is from an English speaking country (4 Australians, 3 New Zealanders, 3 Canadians, 1 American and an English guy). Our tour guide Vicky is from Athens and seems exceptionally lovely.
After the usual intro of rule and itinerary discussion we headed back up to the rooms again (more catch up) and then most of us headed out to dinner. Due to a lot of people being jetlagged we just headed to an nondescript cafe around the corner. Julie and I ordered Kaesespaetzle and Almdudler, which seemed to be the most Austrian thing on the menu – it was ok but not the best I’ve had. Whilst some on the table discussed politics and petrol taxes, Julie and I chatted to the young couple from Sydney who are travelling for a whole twelve months and two weeks – they had just spent seven weeks travelling through China, India and Africa. We listened to their tales of Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Egypt, Namibia, Jordan, of Gorilla and Rhino tracking, of camping in the wilderness and I think we both added many more places to our ‘must see’ lists.
Afterwards the couple (Sarah and Dan) and Julie and I went in search of some Austrian chocolate for dessert but all the shops were closed. Instead we took a very guilty trip to McDonalds for a McFlurry (this was justified by the fact nothing else was open and also the fact that you can’t get Twix McFlurrys in Australia – see, we were experiencing cultural differences!)
Back to the hotel for another two hours of chatting and catching up – the way our beds are set up, foot to foot, makes this somehow seem like a teenage sleepover. Tomorrow, we see Vienna!
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