First Day of School

This past weekend was lovely. It included multiple late nights/early mornings, new friends, lots of laughing, and great conversation. It also happened to include my first actual trip to Vienna :)

On Sunday, one of my new friends drove the other au pair and me into the edge of the city, we parked, and then started our adventure on the U (Underground metra system). We missed several stops and had to do a bit of back-tracking, but we eventually found our first destination: the International Chapel of Vienna. I'd heard about this English speaking church from my family's previous au pair, so I've been eager to check it out since the moment I've been here. It was a nice service, and I am looking forward to going next week.

After church we grabbed dinner at Cafe Falk where I had my first Wienerschnitzel!! It was delicious and filled my tummy to satisfaction. We walked around a bit after that, got some lovely Italian ice cream, and sat in on part of the mass at the Stephansdom to top off the night. My first thoughts of the city were quite positive. The only negative part was that it was mildly smelly. However, I think that had a lot to do with being really close to the river not to mention there were a ton of people about. Nonetheless, that fact does not make me think anything less of it. It is merely part of a first impression; the other part being that it was beautiful, the small sampling of it that I tasted.

Wienerschnitzel mit Pommes Frites und Salat und Coke Zero. I ate all of it because I was so so hungry!!

We sat outside the restaurant, near Kagraner Platz, and had a lovely meal together :)

This morning I went with Andi on the train to Vienna for my first German class. The DeutschAkadamie is located in a tall building shared by many other offices and companies, so I headed up to the 3rd floor and looked for my name on the sheets posted on the bulletin board. Room 329A- thank goodness my name was there! It is a small class of ten people with one instructor, who is the same age as me, which I wasn't expecting. It was a really good first day though, and the instructor is very good as far as I can tell. Afterwards, two other girls and I went for a coffee and talked for awhile, which was really really nice. I was hoping to meet some people through the course, so this is a good start. After the coffee, one of them had to go, but the other one didn't have anywhere to be for awhile so we just walked around. She took me along more of the "famous" Vienna pathways and streets, we rode a Strassenbahn (streetcar), and went into some shops. Not surprisingly, the first thing I bought was a pair of shoes. But don't worry, they were on sale and really cute :)

She finally needed to get somewhere, so that left me on my own. I was indeed quite hungry at this point, so I stopped in a bakery for some lunch. Think of pizza bread with only tomatoes and cheese but on better tasting bread than in the US...so so yummy! I walked around, snapped some photos, bought my first round of post cards, and decided to start my journey back to Hollabrunn.

Andi told me what train I needed and the times it left the station, and I was in perfect timing to take the 4:02pm train home. It pulled out of the station a couple minutes early, so I thought, great, off to a good start. I even recognized the first few stops from the way there in the morning- perfect! I wasn't sure how long it would be, but I knew it was a bit less than an hour to get back. The train keeps stopping and going and eventually I'm the only one left in my section of the train and I still haven't seen or heard the stop for Hollabrunn. Eventually the announcer says the name of a stop, quickly adding the fact that this also happens to be where the train ends. What?!

I find my way to the station, and immediately realize that all the writings on the maps and the signs are not in German. There's some weird accent marks that I definitely know are not German. I go up to the ticket clerk, asks if she speaks English to which she responds with a finger pointing to the international services clerk. I go in to a very dimly lit reception area, ask for English with what was I'm sure a very pleading look on my face and finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Am I still in Austria?" I ask.
"No," she says. "You're in the Czech Republic."

Yep, that's right...I'm in the Czech Republic. Great. I somehow managed to take the wrong train to a whole different country. Don't get me wrong, I do want to go there, but I didn't think that was going today, not to mention the way it happened. She was helpful and luckily the exact train headed back the way I had come was due in about ten minutes. At this point all I could do was laugh as I found my seat and got out my book to read.

"Oh well, sometimes take a wrong step and end up in totally different country. Not to worry, trains go both ways."

My first glimpses of the Czech Republic from the train.

The train took me all the way back to Vienna, and I tried the same thing again. Providentially I only had to wait about twelve minutes for the 7:02pm train to arrive and (hopefully and please, dear Lord!) take me back to Hollabrunn. I double, triple, and quadruple checked the time and the platform number, had a chat with Andi on the phone, and felt like I'd sorted it out. Either I looked like I knew what was going on or the fact that he heard me speaking English, but this guy came up and asked me if the train I was getting on went to a certain place. And I could say for certain that it did because know I know how to correctly read the signs! Woo hoo. Alas, I made it home...only three hours later than originally planned.

The girls ask, "Why are you so late?" Haha...only if they had been there. Oh my.

My German homework is done, and I shall now hope to dream of journeys where I get on the correct trains.

Cheers!

~Sarah