Welcome to Vienna

Having left Budapest, a new phase of this summer has just started. Last weekend, Clemens went to the Sailing World Championship on Lake Neusiedl in Eastern Austria and a drive-in cinema to watch the DaVinci Code. The drive-in was quite interesting, as it is the only drive-in cinema in Austria and everything still looks the way it most likely did 30 years ago.

On Sunday I moved into my new apartment in Vienna. It's a fairly large place about 10 Minutes walking distance from the center, near the Danube. And after an exhausting day of cleaning and unpacking, I started my new job on Monday. Working in the Corporate Strategy department, having a look into future projects for the Austrian Highway system and learning more about Corporate Social Responsibility is quite interesting. I think it will be a challenging next 8 weeks!!

Bye-Bye Budapest

  

Last 24 Hours in Budapest!

That's it, that's all... Budapest is done! Could someone tell me where the time has gone? It feels like just a few weeks ago when I spent one night in that horrendous dormatory, or when we had the problems finding a housemate. The problems with the water could have happened yesterday, at least it feels like it! But it's always good to learn something about your plumbing.

So, the question is: Would I come back to Budapest as a student again? Probably not. At least not in January. It's really unfair. When you have the time to look at the town, get to know the country, stroll around the streets, it's -20 degrees, storming and snowing outside. I mean, the Danube almost froze over during our first two weeks here! And when we'd finally have the nice weather outside, there are 10 Projects to do, Final Exams coming up, 20-page papers to write (two of them if you, like I did, choose the wrong professor twice!),... And even when I'm done, I won't have vacation or time to travel, as I start my internship on Monday at 8.30 ;). So I guess it's a bit my own fault, too.

However, even if I wouldn't come back for a second semester or another prolongued time, I highly recommend everyone to come here at least once - and not as a tourist. You learn about the people and the Eastern European life in a way you could never grasp when reading about it. Hey, and everyone should be woken up at least once in their lifetime by a car's alarm that starts at 6 a.m. and finishes around noon just in front of their bedroom window! It's fun - at least now, not back then! :)

The problem for many people (in Europe) is that they tell themselves: Ah, I'd rather go to Singapore on Exchange or to the Seychelles for vacation. Budapest is nice, yes! I really want to go there once.. but It's so close by.. I'm sure I'll do it sometime soon over a weekend. And they never come here, and instead keep pushing it ahead of themselves. That's too bad! Budapest is really worth seeing, and I'd come here before it becomes too Europeanized and loses the charme of it's interesting,, history. At this point I'd like to thank my visitors: Michi and Georg, who came and spent my birthday with me, Godi and Moni who celebrated Easter Sunday with Clemens and me, my Austrian guy friends who spent a great party-weekend here three weeks ago, and of course Clemens, who took a long time to finally come - but then came to visit more often than I could hope for! Thanks everyone, I hope you had a similarly great time as I had! :)

So... now I'll have to start packing, my last twenty four hours have started!

More news soon - from Vienna! Wohoo!

The guys.... once again :)

  

Two thinkers on my balcony

  

Heroe's Place

  

The boys!

  

The gang on our first night out!

  

Party Hard, Work Hard!

I haven't partied and worked so hard as I have this past weekend in a very long time.

Last week it was all about finishing projects, papers and presentations, as the end of the Semester is approaching. I was so caught up with work that I only unpacked my things from the previous week 4 days after my arrival in Budapest. Whooops! But on Thursday night all was done and the party could begin. At first I went to a pre-party at a friend's house, where I met a really nice Austrian girl who has her best friend in Canada (!). Funny thing about it is: the friend's dad went to an agricultural college in Austria with my dad, and is still a close friend of our family. Pretty cool!

In any case, the party then moved to our university, where there were dancefloors on two floors - it was one of the biggest parties I've been to in a long time. Accordingly, I only went home when the skies changed from black to blue ;). This was a bad idea.. very bad! Because on the following day, 5 of my guyfriends from Austria and my boyfriend came to visit me. For them,t he weekend consisted of sightseeing and partying, so it was tough times again, although I didn't join their sightseeing and stayed at home to do some work.

Still, the weekend was one of my best weekends in a long time! We had great fun and enjoyed the coziness of my room (their matrasses and sleeping bags covered my whole floor!!). At this point, I'd like to say 'thanks' to all of my guys for coming and I hope to have you at my place again once I'm in my next town - Vienna!!

Frat boys! ;)

  

A Laughing and a crying eye...

When I was in Austria two weekends ago, I had one of the best weekends in a long time, as Clemens' fraternity had a big festival in Wiener Neustadt. I met a lot of his collegues, got to do some sightseeing in this lovely little town and enjoyed good food and good parties at night.

On Sunday, when we were on our way to having breakfast, though, I got the call that my grandfather passed away earlier that morning. After a long sickness, his death was a great relief to him. Nonetheless, I still can't believe that he is not there anymore.

Of course I didn't bother going back to Budapest the following week but went right to my grandparents' house for the rest of the week. Though these were some extremely sad couple of days, I was very happy to see my parents again. Especially since my dad told me 'see you in two years' when he left Europe last September, I was thrilled to see that his prognosis didn't come true!

For Clemens it meant 'meet the parents' - and from what I could tell, everything went quite smoothly. So now he'll see some common faces when he comes to Canada in August. :)