Last Thursday I woke up bright and early (well, not really bright but.. definitely early) to catch a bus to Freiburg for Katharina's going away party. My total trip was about 10 hours on 2 buses. Once we got to Germany, the problems started rolling in... first we were about 10 minutes delayed, then we passed the train station at Ulm and literally stopped on the tracks-- for 30 minutes! My connecting train was only supposed to arrive 36 minutes after the first and I just knew I would be screwed.. and to top it all of, my cell phone would not connect to a network! I could just picture myself stranded at the Mannheim train station, entirely unsure of what to do, all by myself! Of course, every other trip I've taken has gone entirely smooth-- because I had someone else with me and I just knew this would be it. My train ticket was for a specific train and I had no idea what I would do when I got to Mannheim and had missed my train. However, with some sort of incredible luck, our train managed to only be 20 minutes delayed and I had enough time to run to the next platform and get a drink out of the vending machine on the platform as the train pulled up! ::insert deep sigh of relief!!:: The rest of my journey was uneventful. The intercity train from Mannheim to Freiburg was completely booked and then some, I stood for the first 45 minutes before I was able to jump a seat from someone but that was bearable! I arrived in Freiburg only about 10 minutes behind schedule to see Katharina waiting for me!! YAY!
Katharina's party was a very nice time. Quite a few of her and Till's friends made it out and had drinks, snacks, and fun saying goodbye-- although, of course, the goodbye's were a bit less fun. I was so exhausted from lack of sleep and my stressful ride that I was a total party crasher! I left the party before midnight, I think, to crash in bed. We woke up the next morning and had a wonderfully relaxing day just sitting, talking, and eating with Till and his roommate, then caught a bus to Baden-Baden to spend the weekend with her parents. It was great getting to speak some "real" German and be in an actual house (with my own room and everything was CLEAN!!). I felt like the weekend really helped my German, even though I still spoke English a bit-- just being around German I can understand and that I've actually learned, watching it on TV, etc, I could just tell it helped me.. if only I could do that more often!!
Like always, my visit with Katharina flew by and before I knew it, I was back in Klagenfurt... but to my surprise, it actually felt really nice to be "coming home." I had class Tuesday-- grammar, which is no fun at all-- and Wednesday-- Austrian culture, painfully boring, phonetic, actually fun, and my general language course, which is boring but goes by quickly! Joe's birthday was Saturday, so Audrey, Amy, Sam, and I schemed to surprise him with a bit of a party. We invited a few people to the dorm, there was ice cream cake, scones, and wine! It was a very good time! The best part was that Joe had no idea we were doing anything-- always a plus! We just sat around the dorm and he kept saying if there was nothing else to do, we could always go grab a drink somewhere and I said, yeah, or we could just have a bottle of wine! It was great. And Saturday we ended up catching a bus to Graz, only a two hour trip, and spending the day there. Quite a nice city. It's the second largest city in Austria but it didn't feel that large and I guess, in comparison to "big cities" at home, it's not. Less than 300,000 people live in Graz! Yikes.. but it was good.
Now it's back to class once again. Drat!! But time's flying-- we have six weekends left in Klagenfurt! WOW! I have some major exploring to do... Berlin and Hamburg top out my list, while the rest of my group has set their sights on Venice. If they go, I'll go because how could I not?! But it's definitely not my must-see location.. it's not even German, after all and what am I here for?! So, I may be making at least one trip by myself... but I'm okay with that! If nothing else, I've definitely been reassured of my independence in the last few months.. although I'd still prefer company to not a lot of times... I know that I could navigate the trains, the buses, the hostels, etc. in a foreign city without too much fuss, so I just may be doing that!
The family is here in less than 50 days-- yikes! So exciting. So crazy!! Christmas is in the air in Austria. I went to town on Friday to see the Alterplatz, formerly filled with tables and chairs for cafes, now being filled with booths and lights strung between buildings-- Christkindlmarkt!! Whohoo :) The opening ceremony is THIS Thursday, so that should be a new and exciting experience-- I hope it lives up to my expectations! The Christmas markets will definitely be one advantage to traveling in November and December. Almost every city has their own market with local cafes, wines, and crafts and I can't wait to see how they each represent themselves! My Austrian Advent calendar is just aching to be opened... but I'm being good. It will be opened all the way before I even know what's happened!!
Well.. laundry is calling my name. Lots of love to all!!
I love reading your blogs Amy!
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