Travels in Ösiland

So I meant to write up everything from last week on Tuesday... but clearly that didn't happen.  I've been too busy reading and relaxing while not at school, and I haven't been very motivated to blog... (Funny how most of my posts start off with an excuse for my lack of posts).  Beware- this is a long post!

A cherry tree blooming in the Graz Stadtpark.

After my last post I went down to Graz for a wonderful, relaxing weekend.  I stayed with my friend Kristin for the last time, we had a fun night with our friends Rob and Johannes, plus Kristin's roommate Jan hungout with us for awhile.  The next day we wandered around Graz enjoying the spring flowers and sun before going to meet my friend Domenica and her boyfriend Roman for our trip to the spa.  We had a nice drive out to Bad Blumau (the Hundertwasser spa in Steiermark), where we checked in at 5 pm, and didn't leave until 11.  The Blumau spa/thermal baths are pretty extensive with a network of thermal pools and a bunch of different kinds of saunas.  I think my favorite pool was the outdoor one that's fed by the naturally occuring mineral springs, it was especially great at night with the steam rising from the pool and this big light up balls and fire baskets surrounding it.  My favorite sauna is definitely the Turkish steam bath, closely followed by the Kräuter sauna (an herb scented hot and humid sauna) and the stone sauna, which is really hot and very dry.

The outdoor pool surrounded by lights and fire. (more pictures on SmugMug)

On Sunday I came back to Baden, and that night Micha arrived from Germany.  He is one of our former exchange students from Magdeburg, and he's probably one of the most laid back Germans I know. ;)  Sometimes after a vacation with other people I feel like I need another vacation just to relax, but after the spa and a week traveling around with Micha I was completely relaxed and stress free for my last month of school!  I should also point out that this wasn't a normal school vacation, but my schools were really nice and let me have the week off to spend with him!

Panorama of Schönbrunn in Wien (click for a larger view- Micha's panorama's are pretty great!)

On Monday, after a slow moving morning, we went in to Vienna to check out some of the touristy sights, since Micha had never been before.  By the time we got there and decided what we were going to do for the day it was lunch time, so we had to sit at a nice street cafe in the old city and eat something.  I had what was basically a heart attack on a plate- Bernerwurstl: bacon wrapped cheese filled frankfurters), it was something I hadn't had before, and due to the fat factor I'll probably not have again, but they were pretty good.  After lunch we went and bought some Manner, which Micha hadn't had before (if you haven't had them I'm not sure how to describe them...).  Then we went an a narrated bus ride around Vienna to see the most famous/popular sights and learn a bit about the city.  It was pretty interesting, although we realized that the English and German guides talked about different things and we were both wishing we could listen to both tracks at once.  After the bus ride we sat down at Cafe Mozart to have coffee and cake and figure out what to do next.  Micha decided he had to have Sacher torte, which I always find disappointing- it's supposed to be a chocolate cake, but it really doesn't taste like chocolate and it's usually quite dry.  This one wasn't as dry as others I've had, but I still wasn't a huge fan. Afterwards we wandered and took some pictures, but it was getting cloudy and windy, so we didn't hang around for long  before going back to Baden.

Every night of vacation we went to a Heurige for dinner and a couple glasses of wine.  Micha had never heard of a Heurige, and he really liked the idea behind it, and trying out many different ones (we only had one repeat).  We had all different wines, lots of fresh food, and it was cheaper than going to a normal restaurant.  I also found that the Heurigen in Pfäffstätten have more of a homey country feel than the ones in Baden.  Austrian Gemütlichkeit! (Gemütlichkeit- an atmosphere of comfort, coziness, sociability, peace and acceptance)

On Tuesday we went back to Vienna to see Schloss Schönbrunn and the zoo (which is the oldest in the world).  It took quite some time to get through it all, especially because a big chunk of the zoo was under construction.  We got to see a baby elephant and a baby panda though, so it was totally worth it!  Later we went back to the city center to take some more pictures of the old city, and have coffee and cake at Cafe Landtmann (where Freud went).  On our way back to the Badner Bahn I saw Geoffrey Rush near the Opera, apparently he's in town filming an indie movie about the art and auction scene in Vienna.  I snapped a creepy picture of him, it's on SmugMug with all my other pictures from the week (which were posted and captioned before I even started this post!).

Berndorf and the memorial to Arthur Krupp's father.

Wednesday was spent touring Berndorf, Gainfarn/Bad Vöslau, Sooss, and Baden. In Berndorf we hiked up to the Guglzipf, the tower on the hill behind the town.  The weather was really great, Monday and Tuesday had been a bit cloudy and windy, but pretty good temperature wise; Wednesday was the real turning point in the weather, it felt like summer!  After our hike we drove through Gainfarn and Bad Vöslau so he could see where my school is, and then we went to Sooss for lunch at another Heurige.  The afternoon was spent showing Micha around Baden, which is quite pretty in the spring.  We also sat in the sun in Doblhoff park for awhile before going to the Heurige across the street from my first apartment in Baden.

We went back into Vienna the next day, because Micha wanted to go to a museum and do a walking tour of the city as well.  We ended up picking the military history museum, because we thought it would be interesting for both of us, and it was.  The museum covers most of the history of Austria, so there's a lot to see from suits of armor to World War II tanks.  They have a room dedicated to Franz Ferdinand (including the uniform he was wearing when he was shot, the car he was riding in, the weapon that shot him and the couch he died on.  The WWII room was also really interesting,  they had lots of old propaganda posters and other artifacts that I've only seen in pictures before.

Neusiedlersee

The weather on Friday was really sunny and warm, which was perfect for our trip to the Neusiedlersee.  It's a huge lake on the eastern border of Austria, and it's known for being rather shallow and surrounded by marshlands, which is great for all the birds.  We parked in Neusiedl am See, rented bikes and rode from there to Illmitz, which according to Google Maps is 30 km (19 miles).  We stopped in Podersdorf, which is the only town that's actually on the lake shore, for an ice cream break.  There was a World Wind Surfing Championship going on there, but there was next to no wind on Friday... so there wasn't much going on.  When we got to Illmitz we realized how intense the sun had been, and that we were both going to be pretty crispy critters, despite wearing sun screen.  We thought about taking a ferry across and biking up the other side, but I had seen an ad for a Taxi service which takes bikes as well, so we decided that would be the quickest option to get us back to the car and out of the sun.  If we would've known how much it was going to cost and that there was a convenient train connection from the other side, we would've taken the ferry!  Despite the sunburn it was a fun day, and I'd like to go back to the lake again and bike the other side.

Dürnstein in the Wachau valley on the Danube.

We had booked a cruise in the Wachau valley on the Danube for early Saturday morning, so we had to get up quite early and drive to Melk.  Micha drove down from Germany, so it made our travels much easier, plus it was fun to ride around in a car zipping through Niederösterreich listening to German club music.  The cruise left from Melk, went to Krems, and then came back to Melk.  It was a really beautiful ride with some spectacular scenery!  On the trip down river there weren't many people on the boat, so we were continuously snapping pictures of everything we could see.  On the trip back the boat was packed, and there weren't many chances to get a good picture because the deck rails were packed with people.  We also got a bit more burned, despite wearing the thickest sun screen Micha could find... It turns out Austrian sun is pretty intense!  When we got back to Melk we had lunch and then went up to Stift Melk (the monastery) to snap some pictures before driving back to Baden for a last night at the Heurigen.

It was a really fun week with a mix of repeat and new experiences, a mix of languages (German, English, Denglish/Deutlish) and a lot of sun!  This week has been pretty standard, except that we had Tuesday (May 1st) off because it was the Austrian Labor Day.  The weather has also been more like July/August than May here, with temperatures in the 80s (30 C), which makes teaching and learning a challenge!  With all the holidays in May I've figured out that I'm only working 15 days this month, and I only have one normal week of classes.  I also have an update as far as my schools for next year goes- I'll be back at Berndorf! However, with this change it means that I won't be back at Bad Vöslau :( I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too...  My other school for next year is a Handelsakademie (a business focused high school), which will be different from my Gymnasien this year.  The HAK is only a 5 minute walk from my apartment though, so that'll be nice!