So it turns out that I didn’t steal someone’s bed in the dorm, which I am quite happy about. My first experience of an eight bed dorm was not really the best experience. I came back to the room at about 10pm to find one girl sleeping, and her friend reading in bed. There was one guy sprawled fully clothed on another bed, also sleeping. I changed into my jammies and got comfortable in bed with a book before turning out the light to go to sleep. By then the other girl had turned out the light in the main room, so the whole dorm was dark. Soon after I heard the sleeping guy get up and leave. About an hour or so later the two guys in the bunk in my corner arrived. They made an awful lot of noise sorting themselves out, turned the light back on, but eventually settled into bed. You could tell they were at least trying not to disturb people, but failing miserably. I fell asleep properly after this, and was only partly aware that there were more guys in the other corner of the room and they were having a little party or something, chatting away with no regard for sleeping people. Annoying. Anyway, it was really hot in the room, and I tossed and turned all night, and so did the guy on the top bunk, making his bed squeak like crazy. Around 7:30am I gave up on sleep, got dressed and ventured outside to hunt down some breakfast and wait for Nicola. I wandered around the vicinity of the hotel and train station and got a coffee from the cheap bakery vending machine identical to my usual one in Stuttgart. Oh god it was awful coffee, and twice the size. Yuuuuck. I decided to wait for Nicola at the train station and show her where the hotel was, rather than just letting her figure it out for herself. Once she’d dumped her stuff, we hung out in the lobby until it was time to meet Sonja.
Sonja was really awesome and picked up two random girls off the street that she’d never met before, and drove us to Mayerling. I have some morbid fascination about the place where Crown Prince Rudolf topped himself and his mistress :P It was really close to Vienna, but there was pretty much nothing there, just some nice picturesque countryside and a monastery building thing.
The monastery was originally a monastery, then the Hapsburgs changed it into a hunting lodge, then it got changed back to a monastery. Now it’s open to the public for 2.50 euros :P We wandered through and read all the information about Rudolph and his life and death and stuff. It was all in German, so Nicola would just stare blankly, I’d attempt to translate bits, then Sonja would actually translate it for us.
I have some sort of morbid fascination with Rudolf's death, he's me in front of the alter where he topped himself :DThe building was really small, so we made it through in less than half an hour, then decided to drive back to Vienna so Sonja could show us the sites.
The monastery was originally a monastery, then the Hapsburgs changed it into a hunting lodge, then it got changed back to a monastery. Now it’s open to the public for 2.50 euros :P We wandered through and read all the information about Rudolph and his life and death and stuff. It was all in German, so Nicola would just stare blankly, I’d attempt to translate bits, then Sonja would actually translate it for us.
I have some sort of morbid fascination with Rudolf's death, he's me in front of the alter where he topped himself :DThe building was really small, so we made it through in less than half an hour, then decided to drive back to Vienna so Sonja could show us the sites.
Vienna is really awesome in that all it’s important touristy buildings are all in close proximity, so it only takes about half an hour to stroll along and see everything. We parked the car and I bought some cheap headphones since mine went kaput the other day. Then we started walking. It was the most gorgeous sunny day, though still cold it made everything look even more pretty. First there was an awesome cathedral that we went into and took photos of.
Oh man, if we had churches like that back home I’d go to church every Sunday just because they look so awesome. I got some awesome photos of the stained glass windows, since the sun was shining through them nice and brightly and making rainbows :D
Oh man, if we had churches like that back home I’d go to church every Sunday just because they look so awesome. I got some awesome photos of the stained glass windows, since the sun was shining through them nice and brightly and making rainbows :D
After that we wandered past Sonja’s university, which was really pretty, and to the Rathaus, which is the town hall. Out the front was an ice skating rink, and we decided to come back the next day and have a skate. There were two museums identical to each other on either side of this garden, and a singing Mozart statue.
I thought this was a really awesome photo with the sun rays and stuff. Oh boy does Vienna whore out Mozart, there is Mozart merchandise EVERYWHERE. This singing Mozart dude was pretty good, he just stood on his pedestal and alternating between singing, whistling and being all statue-like. Nicola put some coins in his little collecting tin and he blew her a kiss.
I thought this was a really awesome photo with the sun rays and stuff. Oh boy does Vienna whore out Mozart, there is Mozart merchandise EVERYWHERE. This singing Mozart dude was pretty good, he just stood on his pedestal and alternating between singing, whistling and being all statue-like. Nicola put some coins in his little collecting tin and he blew her a kiss.
Across the road was the old Hapsburg Palace, so we took some photos there and went all girly over the ponies. There are horse drawn carriages all over Vienna. By then it was 1pm, so we decided to have lunch. Sonja took us to this modern little reasonable priced restaurant and I had lamb curry.
Om nom nom nom. It was a really awesome lunch, I keep thinking about how awesomely satisfying it was. After lunch Sonja had to go, so Nicola and I caught a train back to Stephansplatz, the main shopping area, to try and hunt down the theatre. We totally failed, and got distracted by all the awesome souvenir shops, and the chocolate shops, and the chocolate-souvenir shops. Oh my goodness the expensive crap they sell to tourists! One of Nicola’s favourite things to do is to buy a packet of expensive chocolates and just eat them in the street like they’re just common cheap ones. She bought these mystery heart chocolates, and they were incredibly sweet. It was like an assault of sweet every time you bit into one, it was gross but after a while you wanted another one :P
Om nom nom nom. It was a really awesome lunch, I keep thinking about how awesomely satisfying it was. After lunch Sonja had to go, so Nicola and I caught a train back to Stephansplatz, the main shopping area, to try and hunt down the theatre. We totally failed, and got distracted by all the awesome souvenir shops, and the chocolate shops, and the chocolate-souvenir shops. Oh my goodness the expensive crap they sell to tourists! One of Nicola’s favourite things to do is to buy a packet of expensive chocolates and just eat them in the street like they’re just common cheap ones. She bought these mystery heart chocolates, and they were incredibly sweet. It was like an assault of sweet every time you bit into one, it was gross but after a while you wanted another one :P
We found a smurf! We eventually gave up on the theatre search, especially since we didn’t even know the name of the street. We decided to go back to the hostel, check Nicola in, and look up the theatre on the internet. We had an epic fail moment when we thought our pass keys weren’t working, before realising that we were only on the first floor and our room was on the second. Faaaaail. Anyway, we looked up the theatre and I had a shower and spent ages trying to dry my hair with this fail of a hairdryer. Nicola described it as like a child blowing on your hair to dry it. Seriously, it was pathetic.
We had a bit of a fail trying to find the theatre, because I realised as we were leaving the hotel that I’d forgotten to buy a sharpie for autographs. We were so distracted trying to find any sort of shop that sold any sort of stationary, that we weren’t looking at the street names. Seriously, Vienna needs some sort of convenience store chain like a 7/11. All you can buy there is useless Mozart merchandise. Anyway, we got a bit lost and tried to retrace our steps, and somehow stumbled upon the theatre’s stage door. It took us ages to figure out that we’d found the theatre, because we thought we were somewhere in the opposite direction, and the building was covered in scaffolding.
Yay! Then we realised we hadn’t eaten anything yet, and we were hungry, so we doubled back on ourselves and found some food. I got the most awesome fish and chips, they were hot and exactly what I felt like right then. We were a bit short of time, so we ate and walked and made it into our seats just in time for the show to start.
Yay! Then we realised we hadn’t eaten anything yet, and we were hungry, so we doubled back on ourselves and found some food. I got the most awesome fish and chips, they were hot and exactly what I felt like right then. We were a bit short of time, so we ate and walked and made it into our seats just in time for the show to start.
I love how chips and stuff here always come in a little paper cone that's made to look like newspaper :PTanz der Vampire was awesome! There were lots of little differences, especially in the set since this show is a permanent production and the one in Stuttgart is a scaled down touring version. I was pretty much flailing the whole way through, Drew Sarich was amazing even though his voice is lighter than what I think von Krolock should be. The rest of the cast was just amazing as well. I was a little distracted by the theatre itself, there was like a corridor around the stalls, and bright exit lights shining along it all the way around. Nicola and I were sitting on the edge, so it was really distracting for us. Also, the stupid couple in front of us kept being all gross and kissing through the entire show. Not only was it distracting and annoying, but every time they moved their heads we couldn’t see anymore and had to lean around them. The show was really awesome though, and seeing it from the stalls is a whole different ball game, with the amount of times the cast run around the auditorium. The end number was different to any other time I’ve seen it, Sarah and Alfred change into vampire clothes and join in the dance, and von Krolock is there as well. I thought it was always just the chorus doing the awesome dancing in the final number.
After it had finished I raced around to the stage door whilst Nicola collected her coat. I made friends with one of those crazy stage door fanatics, who hadn’t even seen the show that night but thinks she’s on best friend terms with the cast because she stalks the stage door every night. Anyway, she had a texta and was quite willing to share the love :P Drew Sarich was the first of the leads to come out, and I was ready to pounce when all the others came out all at once. Drew was the most important, so I let the others escape. Seriously, they were gone within two minutes, I don’t know if I’d have even gotten a chance anyway. The point is, I MET DREW SARICH! He’s so awesome, I introduced myself and told him I was from Australia and he said “Hi Erin from Australia, I’m Drew from America.” He was so nice and signed my program and it was kinda weird hearing him speak in his native American :P *dazzled* Here it is again:
:D :D :D I pretty much flailed all the way back to the hostel and right up until we finally went to bed, I’m sure Nicola was so sick of hearing about it. When we got up to the room there was only one other person there, and he was asleep. I thought we were really awesome in our quietly creeping around and getting ready for bed. Way better than the night before. No one else turned up, and the guy left at some point really early, so by the time we got up we had the room to ourselves. We fluffed around for ages, and ended up checking out and leaving the hotel at 10am. We went back to Stephansplatz and found a little pastry cafe for breakfast.
We had Apfel Strudel, because it’s so Viennese :P You always get a glass of water when you order coffee in Vienna, which I think is very nice of them :)
We had Apfel Strudel, because it’s so Viennese :P You always get a glass of water when you order coffee in Vienna, which I think is very nice of them :)
So, next fail! There was a big cathedral in Stephansplatz, St Stephan's Cathedral, and we were somehow convinced that it was the cathedral we had visited the day before, so behind it must be the street with the skating rink. Well, we walked around the whole cathedral before realising that actually it must be a different cathedral to the one we saw the day before. Being Sunday morning, we decided to go in and check out the mass. There’s a fence at the back of the hall bit for tourists to stand behind and take photos and stuff, and the serious congregation and mass goes on in front of it.
So pretty! Cathedrals are so amazing! Mass is also kinda cool too with the singing and the pretty. We stayed for a little while before deciding to hunt down the skating rink. We wandered off aimlessly, and looked in lots of little shops that took our fancy. I found the perfect present for Lana, but there's no way it would have survived the trip home, then the couple of months until Lana got home. So I jus took a picture!
Little chocolate roses! Aren't they gorgeous! So there you are Lana, I would have gotten one for you if it could possible have survived the trip. Eventually found the back of the buildings we were looking at the day before.
There were some fierce Greek statues on the back of the Rathaus, I've got more pictures up on facebook :) By the time we found the skating rink I was pretty much frozen, it was after noon and we decided to head back to Stephansplatz for Schnitzel. We were very indecisive, walking into one restaurant, deciding they were too expensive, and going next door. Awkward.
So pretty! Cathedrals are so amazing! Mass is also kinda cool too with the singing and the pretty. We stayed for a little while before deciding to hunt down the skating rink. We wandered off aimlessly, and looked in lots of little shops that took our fancy. I found the perfect present for Lana, but there's no way it would have survived the trip home, then the couple of months until Lana got home. So I jus took a picture!
Little chocolate roses! Aren't they gorgeous! So there you are Lana, I would have gotten one for you if it could possible have survived the trip. Eventually found the back of the buildings we were looking at the day before.
There were some fierce Greek statues on the back of the Rathaus, I've got more pictures up on facebook :) By the time we found the skating rink I was pretty much frozen, it was after noon and we decided to head back to Stephansplatz for Schnitzel. We were very indecisive, walking into one restaurant, deciding they were too expensive, and going next door. Awkward.
Beer and schnitzel! Om nom nom. Somehow the time got away from us and we were halfway through our meals before we realised we were running out of time, and we left the restaurant with only half an hour to spare before the train left. We walked out and it was snowing!
I took this photo of Nicola as we were running back to our hotel to pick up our luggage before heading over to the train station. We didn’t make it :( Nicola was going to Salzburg, and there was a train leaving in ten minutes so she caught that one, rather than waiting two hours to share my train. So here I am, and now there’s only fifteen minutes to go until my next train. Oh wow it’s snowing so much outside, so pretty!
I took this photo of Nicola as we were running back to our hotel to pick up our luggage before heading over to the train station. We didn’t make it :( Nicola was going to Salzburg, and there was a train leaving in ten minutes so she caught that one, rather than waiting two hours to share my train. So here I am, and now there’s only fifteen minutes to go until my next train. Oh wow it’s snowing so much outside, so pretty!
Anyway, I’m going to buy myself a muffin for the journey and go catch my train!
LATER
So I had another fail of epic proportions. The train to München was pretty uneventful, the train wasn't very full, so I had two seats to myself. I quite comfortably got out my laptop and watched my dvd of Rudolf with Drew Sarich and basked in the memory of the stage door :D When I got to München I had six minutes between trains, so I ducked quickly to the sushi shop for another awesome sushi roll. I'm glad I did, because after I paid I realised I wasn't holding my rail pass. I had put it on the train seat with my handbag so I would have easy access to it when I was looking for my seat on the next train. I was like HOLY SHIT but luckily the train was still chilling in the platform, so I ran over to it and stopped the first conductor looking person I saw. My German entirely failed me and I just sort of babbled out something in my panicked state, and he asked "Stuttgart?" and pointed to another train. I was like yes... BUT NO MY TICKET IS ON THIS TRAIN and I think I threw in some completely random German words, like the word for "work" and some numbers. I dunno. Eventually he said "Oh, vergessen?" and I was like YES YES I VERGESSEN MY TICKET ON THE TRAIN AAAAAAH. And he was really calm about it and just told me to go get it. I ran down the platform to the carriage, flailed in front of the door until he caught up because I didn't remember that I needed to press the door open button to open the door. He did it for me and I ran on and found the ticket, thanked him and jumped on the train that he said went to Stuttgart. I was wondering how he knew I had to go to Stuttgart, but then I realised my handbag is one of those touristy ones with STUTTGART written all over it :P
Anyway, this time I was in a little carriage, and I found my seat and nearly died when I finally sat down with my ticket safe in my hand. I couldn't believe I'd done something so stupid that could have ended in total disaster. Then the train took off and there was an announcement that this train was going to Hamburg over Frankfurt. I was pretty sure that the München to Frankfurt route generally goes over Stuttgart, but I had this niggling worry the whole way there that I'd end up in Frankfurt some time after midnight and have to find a train back to Stuttgart. But I didn't need to worry because the train went to Stuttgart :P
This time I managed to get to my bus stop just before the bus was due, so I didn't have to walk up the hill with my suitcase :D I got home just before midnight and just fell into bed, and slept really soundly until my alarm went off way too early. I didn't even hear Marina leave in the morning, I was that out of it. It was very hard to wake up, but I managed to make it to school. I had to have a nap this afternoon, so now I'm all ready to write my final film and lit paper and study for my final Deutsch exam tomorrow.
I can't believe how fast the weeks have gone, and now we're at the end of the course. Only two more days to go.
So yeah, I had a weekend filled with fail moments, but you know what totally compensates for all the fail and redeems the whole weekend and makes it just totally awesome? THIS
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! *runs around in circles*
LATER
So I had another fail of epic proportions. The train to München was pretty uneventful, the train wasn't very full, so I had two seats to myself. I quite comfortably got out my laptop and watched my dvd of Rudolf with Drew Sarich and basked in the memory of the stage door :D When I got to München I had six minutes between trains, so I ducked quickly to the sushi shop for another awesome sushi roll. I'm glad I did, because after I paid I realised I wasn't holding my rail pass. I had put it on the train seat with my handbag so I would have easy access to it when I was looking for my seat on the next train. I was like HOLY SHIT but luckily the train was still chilling in the platform, so I ran over to it and stopped the first conductor looking person I saw. My German entirely failed me and I just sort of babbled out something in my panicked state, and he asked "Stuttgart?" and pointed to another train. I was like yes... BUT NO MY TICKET IS ON THIS TRAIN and I think I threw in some completely random German words, like the word for "work" and some numbers. I dunno. Eventually he said "Oh, vergessen?" and I was like YES YES I VERGESSEN MY TICKET ON THE TRAIN AAAAAAH. And he was really calm about it and just told me to go get it. I ran down the platform to the carriage, flailed in front of the door until he caught up because I didn't remember that I needed to press the door open button to open the door. He did it for me and I ran on and found the ticket, thanked him and jumped on the train that he said went to Stuttgart. I was wondering how he knew I had to go to Stuttgart, but then I realised my handbag is one of those touristy ones with STUTTGART written all over it :P
Anyway, this time I was in a little carriage, and I found my seat and nearly died when I finally sat down with my ticket safe in my hand. I couldn't believe I'd done something so stupid that could have ended in total disaster. Then the train took off and there was an announcement that this train was going to Hamburg over Frankfurt. I was pretty sure that the München to Frankfurt route generally goes over Stuttgart, but I had this niggling worry the whole way there that I'd end up in Frankfurt some time after midnight and have to find a train back to Stuttgart. But I didn't need to worry because the train went to Stuttgart :P
This time I managed to get to my bus stop just before the bus was due, so I didn't have to walk up the hill with my suitcase :D I got home just before midnight and just fell into bed, and slept really soundly until my alarm went off way too early. I didn't even hear Marina leave in the morning, I was that out of it. It was very hard to wake up, but I managed to make it to school. I had to have a nap this afternoon, so now I'm all ready to write my final film and lit paper and study for my final Deutsch exam tomorrow.
I can't believe how fast the weeks have gone, and now we're at the end of the course. Only two more days to go.
So yeah, I had a weekend filled with fail moments, but you know what totally compensates for all the fail and redeems the whole weekend and makes it just totally awesome? THIS
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! *runs around in circles*
Yaaaaaay. Glad you got home okay. DAMN OUR GIANT SCHNITZELS.
ReplyDelete"I think I threw in some completely random German words, like the word for "work" and some numbers."
I lol'd
AAAURGH SO EXCITING. Mayerling! Eeeee!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your misadventures, they crack me up.