It's Spring in Vienna

The last three weeks (ie. time since stranded in Brussels) has been utterly wonderful. Life has been out of control hectic but so much fun. I have started to dread the day this adventure comes to an end as I am starting to realise how few days I have left in Vienna. Now that classes have come to an end I only have one paper and an exam to go! My cramming at the beginning of semester has finally paid off and the travel plans are taking shape. I am currently with Lydia and Nikki headed to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) for a night and then onwards to Croatia! Unfortunately it doesn’t feel much like I am headed for a beach holiday – it is raining and we are training through forest (it is quite stunning forest though)!

So before I start my next holiday I thought I would recap on my last few weeks. For starters, Vienna in the springtime is beautiful. The parks are stunning and the every cafe has outdoor seating. We have spent plenty of time in parks having picnics – Stadtpark, Prater, Schönbrunn and Donauinsel. Stadtpark is great for lunch as it is the prettiest of all, Prater is HUGE and perfect for soccer, Schönbrunn is great for running – it’s like a maze and Donauinsel has water – that is, the Danube River. We are certainly making the most of having the sun shining. People get very enthusiastic about the sun – they even play volleyball in parks (not the beach) in their swimmers. I find it totally bizarre but I guess that’s what you do when you don’t live anywhere near the coast. I have also embraced bike riding. In Vienna, like many other European cities, they have a city bike system where there are stations all over the city that you can pick up and drop off bikes from. Bikes are just so much better than walking!

I have also had some great nights out recently. One of these was dinner at Schweizerhaus. It has a humungous beer garden and their specialty is pork knuckle. The crackling was mouth watering and the portions are so big you have to share between three. We were there on what seemed to be a perfect night, all until it started POURING rain. We got pretty saturated and our dinner turned soggy. It was an unfortunate end to a delicious night. Another great night out was at MQ (museumsquartier) where they launched Sommer im MQ (Summer in Vienna). Basically museumsquartier is an outdoor plaza that is encircled by museums with greats bars and cafes. In summer it’s where all the alternative kids hang out at night. So to launch, they had a massive outdoor concert with all different performances. The best by far was the contemporary dance piece where the dancers were in a shallow pool – I loved it. Matt also discovered a new favourite place with the best dessert. It’s like a beer garden but I think it resembles a fairy garden – there are lanterns and fairy lights and it’s so nice to just sit for a chill night. I have also been to the ballet again. Robbie and I went to see the Nutcracker which I loved. Can’t believe you can get tickets for 7 euro, it is fantastic! I could go on but at the end of the day – it’s simply bliss. We celebrated Shannon’s birthday in fine form – after my reception following my M&A’s class (they literally threw us a little celebration at their law firm with bevos and food) we went to the uni party at Rathaus (town hall) which was crazy. A bunch of wild twenty-somethings in the most beautiful old building. Such juxtaposition but so so much fun! Ok that’s enough of my pm experiences...

In other more amusing news, the university is burning down. Well apparently it was just the server room but I was sitting getting some study done after a group meeting and suddenly the power goes out. Given I was sitting at a window I hardly noticed and figured everything fine. A good five minutes later a voice came over the loudspeaker shouting something in German (I later found out it meant “Get Out”) so everyone packed up their things (I followed having no idea what was going on) and ran down the fire escape. There wasn’t even a siren! Uni was then closed for days. The following week, I was in class again and the same thing happened but this time nothing came over the loudspeaker, security had to come tell us to evacuate. I mean I can’t really complain – I got an early mark, but seriously I have no idea what is going down with this university!

Back to food, there have been some great discoveries. Firstly, one of the things I was missing most about home was brunch. A traditional Viennese breakfast is literally a bread roll and jam – I mean come on! Where are the eggs benedict, toasted delights with pesto and haloumi and crepes?! Well I found out Eggs Benedict sadly does not happen here but all the restaurants at naschmarkt have INCREDIBLE brunches. Oh it was so delightful! We also found great food at the gourmet food festival in Stadtpark over the weekend. There were so many tastings and yummy things to eat. Nikki and I even waited in a line for 45 minutes for deep fried apple with cinnamon and icing sugar – sounds kinda terrible but tastes divine! So much better than apple pie but along those lines.

Caught Red-Handed

So today was a day off and it was utterly perfect. Got my laundry done, hit the gym, went to ice-cream, went to MUMOK museum with Matt and Robbie, had a coffee in the Museums Quartier, ate a delicious meal that Matty cooked up and sat out on my roof with red wine. All was going fantastically – museum way interesting, weather perfect (I was in short and a t-shirt!), dinner was so yum BUT apparently the hotel opposite us didn’t want us on the roof. They called the police. When they arrived, we ran = red wine all over my floor and a little drama ensued. My love for my roof has been shattered. I am extremely disappointed at the recent revelation.

I Like This Alot

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
--- Marianne Williamson

Oh Brussels!

Brussels. It has taken me a little while to psych up to write this. Let’s be honest – it isn’t my favourite place. We arrived and all was drama-less. We stayed out at the airport so our flights the next day would be smooth and spent the afternoon exploring the city. We saw all the major sights – the Mannekin Pis (a fountain of a kid peeing – apparently the city’s famous icon – ridiculous), Grote Place (crazy medieval architecture), parks, parliament and the palace, ate incredible chocolate – rose and earl grey – honestly rocked our world, had coffee in an amazing coffee shop (I had an irresistible gelato) and then we headed back to the hotel. I actually really enjoyed the day and we felt Brussels had been well accomplished. Shortly after returning to the hotel we decide to check mum in for her flight BUT ALAS, it wasn’t working! We hear a volcano decided to explode in Iceland and somehow this has meant our flights were cancelled. This is when the drama began – early morning calls to dadda trying to rebook mum’s flights. We didn’t get much sleep...

The next morning we decided to move into the city so we could at least make the most of being stranded. Unfortunately just as we were leaving the hotel mum was struck down by sickness. The subsequent 3 days pretty much consisted of more cancelled flights, mum sick in bed, another hotel, me eating meals alone and new boots.

After I had another two cancelled flights and mum another one, we decided to move into an apartment so we could cook and wash. Hotel hopping was getting tiring. Unfortunately it was another night until we could get a reservation so we found another hotel (this one was fortunately a huge room, I had amazing sushi for dinner and there was thankfully tea and coffee facilities). The next day we got settled in our apartment – two stories, free wireless internet, a laundry in the apartment, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a huge kitchen. We watched lots of Greys Anatomy, cooked, washed clothes, went shopping (loved Zara Home) and checked the internet non-stop – my flight was cancelled AGAIN.

On my final day in Brussels we went and checked out all the UN buildings and the imitation Arc de Triumph – we walked so far but I somehow I lost the map along the way. We had to find a hotel to get a map and realised we had taken a massive detour. It was a fun day though and so great to have mum back on her feet again.

Thankfully, fifth time lucky I made it back to Vienna. Nearly missed my flight after missing my connecting airport bus, then having to push through the check-in queue, getting to the front 20 minutes before my flight, being told check-in was closed and if I wanted any hope of being on that plane I had to RUN. Thankfully I got through security without my liquids being noticed (I had totally forgotten) and I ran for miles (longest airport I have ever experienced), making it to the plane 10 minutes before departure. Crazy day but the good news was I made it home. Wasn’t fun leaving mum on her lonesome with German TV and no computer but being a good little daughter I called her plenty of times and she managed to get up to some pretty amazing things while I was gone.

All in all, an AMAZING trip and an AMAZING mum. I am blessed to have her and spending those few weeks together was such precious time. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Download on Bruges... Final Days

I write this sadly. My days with mumma in Europe are coming to end. I currently find myself on a train from Bruges to Brussels but I should probably rewind back to our arrival in Bruges. Now Bruges is a sweet little medieval town encircled in canals, now dubbed the ‘Venice of the North’. The hotel was ‘cute as’ (quote mum) in every way and situated on the canal – a little further out of town. We spent our first afternoon exploring little plazas, courtyards, lace shops, chocolatiers, churches (even saw what they at the Basilica believe is Christ’s actual blood – kinda creepy), the market square and we had our first BELGIAN WAFFLES!! Absolutely delish and as advised we had them plain with icing sugar on top. We were told this is the best way to eat them – only the tourists pile them with chocolate, ice-cream and other OTT (over the top) toppings. We also went to the choco-story ie. the chocolate museum but we were a little disappointed by the lack of tastings!!

The following day we hired bikes which pretty much are my newest obsession and the greatest fun. Despite recommendations to hit the coast, we doubted our biking prowess so we instead headed towards Damme. Another little town to explore, much smaller than Bruges, we wandered around and had a coffee with whipped cream in a divine little coffee shop (it’s a shame the coffee wasn’t as good as it looked). We continued along the tree lined canal, cycling through the countryside, crossing bridges, breathing in the beautiful fresh air and stopping in the cute little towns we passed. After the town of Hoeke, we crossed the border of Netherlands into a town called Sluis. I was pretty impressed to have ridden into another country and to have seen so many windmills, so even though our butts were in EXTREME pain by this point, we cycled around the town, through some paddocks and back for lunch. We had heard a lot about samurai sauce so decided to give it a go – we ordered burgers and chips with the sauce. Unfortunately it was overrated – just a nice mild chilli mayo and the greasy lunch left us a little ill and not looking forward to the 20km that lay ahead. Mum whinged about her butt all the way back to Bruges but we made it in record time. We then circled the outer canal of Bruges and took our bikes back. By this point, nearly 40kms later, we were exhausted and still unwell from the massive amounts of samurai sauce so we went and bought a rather creative dinner – olives, brie, bread, pate and a bottle of red. We sat and went through the millions of photos we have collected over the trip and dreaded its inevitable end.... Only one more city to go....