May 4 : San Gimignano

This was the day trip we had signed up for with our hostel, 'The Grape Escape'. Since we weren't going to be able to visit any museums, discovering the Tuscan region was a good alternative. We all met at 9:30 at the reception and headed for our bus. We took an hour long ride winding through Tuscan hills and vineyards and learned about the Chianti "Black rooster" and other small facts about the region. We arrived first at the first wine and olive oil tasting, Tenuta Torciano. It was a really cool, out-of-a-movie setting. We tasted 4 wines and 2 olive oils. We then headed to Pietraserena Winery where we were shown how the wine is made and were given a glass of their white wine. 

As a group we ate lunch in the owners garden surrounded by Tuscan hills and olive trees. At lunch we were served two more bottles of wine (per table) - red and rose. Conor was drawn to the wine store and emerged carrying their white sparkling and Merlot, both have to consumed before the end of our trip...

We boarded the bus again and headed towards San Gimignano, a romanti fortified town that sits atop a Tuscan hill. We were given an hour and a half to look around so we headed first to a torture museum. After a lovely twenty minutes we emerged happier that we grew up in the twentieth century. We walked a little and found the highest FREE tower to climb that still offered exceptional views of Tuscany. It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL region. It is easy to see how it inspired so much art and culture. We ate some "World Champion" gelato (seriously), took some photos of Piazza della Cisterna and headed back to the bus to head back to Florence.

The day was exceptional and could not have gone better. It was a sunny day and was a definite highlight of the trip so far.

When we arrived in Florence we changed and headed out for dinner. Conor was told about a restaurant "Trattoria 4 Leoni" by someone who bought wine from him in Halifax. Determined we went looking for it. We made a pit-stop along the way to buy reactine for Conor and anti-itch for me, as I had been literally devoured in Venice. Dinner was fantastic as we shared the typical Tuscan dish, Biftecca - a 1.2kg T-bone steak... Fantastic. It is however served rare and I am pretty sure the heart was still beating...

After dinner we took a walk along the Arno and took some stunning photos. We were tempted to go to Piazzale Michaelangelo to climb the tower, but decided against it. Instead we walked through Piazza della Signoria and experienced a Florentine music performer before heading back to our hostel. We booked our stay in Siena and were headed to "Camping Siena Colleverde" the next day. It is safe to say we both thoroughly enjoyed PLUS Florence and would recommend it to anyone.

 

May 3 : Florence

We arrived in Florence at 1:30 and immediately headed for our hostel. As usual, it took us a little time to find our bearings, but as soon as we did we were well on our way. We shortly arrived at our hostel - PLUS Florence. With red carpet leading to the door, we were immediately optimistic. We checked-in and were approached by the PLUS Port staff - a company that arranges tours for the backpackers. We arrived on a Sunday so Monday was going to be our museum day. The PLUS Port guys informed us that all museums are CLOSED on Mondays for cleaning. They swayed us to then go on their organized trip 'The Grape Escape'. So we signed up. He headed up to our room to put our thing down. 

The "David".

Since our one day we had in Florence was not going to turn out the way we had hoped, we had to se some things on the day we arrived. Of all the museums in Florence Conor and I wanted to visit, the Accademia Gallery held top priority. After all, it does house David. The reputation of long lines in Florence had us a bit skeptical but we headed there anyways. The building itself gives nothing away, and the only indication of its resident is a small discolored plaque on the wall. If anything it looks more like a centre for troubled youth because of the graffiti and writing on the walls, a definite contrasts of the art pieces inside. The museum starts by introducing you to paintings, instruments and sculptures. Then, as you turn a corner, you become captivated by this massive sculpture that is David. As there are no cameras allowed we could not take pictures, but the images will remain etched in our memories. It is outstanding that such a sculpture has been granted such attention and survived so much abuse. (I forgot to mention that we walked right in with no line. We also had to go through a metal detector). Every person is captivated with the sculpture, some are jotting down notes while others just stare. It was memorizing. 

Afterwards we walked towards the Duomo and were captivated by that as well. It dominates the square and demands a sense if importance. From there we moved on towards the 'Fiume Arno' - It should be called the 'Dirty River' - to see the collection of bridges. We emerged at the Ponte alla Carraia and immediately searched for the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge with shops and look alike apartments. Decades ago the bridge was occupied by butchers, but since the Medici family crossed the bridge from the Palazzo Pitti to the Palazzo Vecchio they complained about the smell. They quickly had them converted to jeweler shops. We mingled on the bridge for some time and then went to dinner to a little restaurant 'Pino's'. After dinner we ate some famed gelate - waited 1/2 and hour to make sure Conor would make it (severe nut allergy) - and headed back to the hostel. We took a detour and passed by the Duomo (you can't see it too many times) and passed the old "S.S. Annunziata Basilica". Our night was ended with a game of Crazy 8's - we are really good at that now.

Our Grape Escape tour is tomorrow. 

May 2 : Venice

We woke up and looked out the train window to see Italian countryside going by. We had breakfast given to us and arrived in Venice at 8:30a.m. The train ride went by quickly, as we slept for the majority of it. Our sleeps were good, I made Conor take the upper bunk in our cabin, at least he had a railing to keep him from rolling off. 

As we were arriving in Venice, we rode from the mainland onto the island of Venice, driving over a bridge that connects the two. Our plan was to purchase our tickets for the next day to Florence so we would have that already done. Our tickets came to 76 Euros with seat reservations. We had booked beds at a hostel, so after some wandering we finally found our hostel, Absolut Venice. It was reviewed as an awesome and social place to stay in a key location. The location was a definite plus as it was down the street from the train station. We rand the doorbell and were greeted by someone we expected would also check us in. We headed up the stairs - The hostel was on the top floor of the building. We sat at the reception and waited for a staff member for half an hour. It was already approaching 9:30 a.m. and with only one day in Venice, we didn't want to waste anymore time. We asked some of the other hostellers where the guy was and they had no idea. They were still waiting for breakfast. We made a collective decision that this place was not going to do it for us, and we did not want to waste anymore time. The train station had a hotel reservation desk, so we headed there and found a last minute room for 75 Euros just down the street, called San Geremia. 

After we settled that, it was time to see Venice. The train station is right on the Grande Canal so we waited in line for some 'Vaporetto' tickets (Water buses). A 24 hour ticket cost 18 Euros, so we were able to use it to its full potential. We immediately jumped on the #2 and conveniently grabbed seats at the front. We were brought down the Grande Canal for a bit and then along the Canal di Fusina. The skyline of Piazza San Marco teased us the whole (45 minute) trip. I still can't say what was more fascinating - my surroundings of the look on Conor's face as he was trying to absorb his environment. We got off the vaporetto and headed to San Marco (With the rest of the world). Conor was immediately drawn to the Campanile, the huge bell tower that dominates the sky in San Marco. Looking around, it was evident that waiting in line was going to be common, so we stood in the one for the Campanile first. It proved to be well worth it as the views from the top offered a 360 degree view of Venice - an unexplainable beautiful city. Blue water winds through the city and acts as the roads. Waterways are the way to travel - We even saw a water policeboat, ambulance and fire 'truck-boat'. I never saw a car - there would be no where to drive them. There are random beautiful bridges that allow pedestrians to wind their way through the streets. Anyways, I digress. 

Back to to our adventure - We stopped at a café for lunch and had pasta. I don't know if it was the spirit of being in Italy, but Conor claimed it was the BEST past EVER. Since we were still in front of San Marco, we had to see the Basilica di San Marco, regardless of how long we would have to wait. To our surprise, there was hardly a line - compared to that morning. Although it clearly states not to touch anything, Conor needs to touch things. In this case, a small alarm went off - thus only encouraging him to see how many alarms he could set off. After acting like the Paparazzi we left the Basilica and headed on a walk towards the Rialto Bridge. It would be difficult to imagine more people in Venice. Since we travelled in May, there are not too many tourists, but of course the one who are there all went to see the same sites. We fought out way up the bridge and took some mediocre pictures before leaving the crowds. We headed back to our hotel to have some showers and change for dinner. 

We toyed with the idea of taking a gondola ride. We convinced ourselves that it probably wasn't worth it. However, the thoughts were still in the back of our minds. That evening we were winding through the canals on a gondola - we had to! How could we leave Venice and not take a ride! Our guy was great - we named him Alessandro. He told us that in November the gondolas cannot operate because the water levels rise - causing the gondolas to be unable to fit underneath most bridges. When our romantic-Heineken-ride finished we asked Alex where the best pizza in town was. He pointed us to "Casa Mia' - on a side street near Campo dei SS Apostoli. A guaranteed the piazza was fantastic. Complimented by a bottle of wine, our night could not have been better. We returned to the hotel via vaporetto underneath a warm Venetian sky.

The next morning we woke up early so we could return to the Rialto Bridge to take some better pictures. We took some 'frame-able' shots and headed back to pack and head to the train station. Every souvenir place was selling painted masks and we found out that it was because Venice was the first place that hosted the Carnivale - so of course I picked up 2 ceramic masks.

We are on the train now heading to Florence. We have booked a hostel and have high hopes that this one will be more successful than last. We did not get seats together on the train, but we made vows never to complain - We are after all heading to Florence as one of our Italian adventure stops.

May 1.

Our journey begins with a "luxury" overnight train ride from Vienna to Venice. We booked a  private 'sleeper car' (or Schlafwagon) and we were greeted with a little cabin-esque car with fold-out bunk-beds, a sink and closet. Everything we needed - plus the addition of the going awaz present I received from my co-workers. As Conor is brushing up on his Venice tourist points, I made the decision to use this book as the new version of my blog. 

For the next 12 days we are going to be dis-connected from the world, so I will resort to the 'old fashion' way of communicating. We arrive in Venice tomorrow morning for a full day of tourism. 

Neglect

This is well overdue but I am going to use the mayhem of the last few weeks as my excuse. Since I last wrote an entry, Conor and I have traveled from Venice all the way down Italy to Sorrento, we went to Tremblant for a quick visit and I am now back in Halifax for the summer. Pretty hectic.

Although I was unable to make updates online while in Italy, I did keep a detailed journal (So detailed that Conor was not allowed to contribute because I have a method). I am going to copy what I wrote, with some modifications as I have now had the opportunity to reflect on our adventure. I will do it in installments, every city will have its own entry, so the entries are not too long.

I have really liked keeping a blog, and I really hope to continue. I will start a new one for everyday thoughts and little adventures, I will put the link up once I have my life back in order. I am overwhelmed with catching up in class (I missed 2 weeks of school while in Italy) and searching for my next co-op for September.

Anyways, enjoy Italy!

Fast fertig

The big day eventually came – the arrival of Conor. I had this fairytale image of our meeting at the airport and the wannabe princess in me cames out a little bit more after 4 months of being apart from him. I envisioned this romantic movie-like greeting at the airport when I would run and jump into his arms. I had strategically positioned myself so that he would see me no matter what set of doors he came through. Instead, Conor walked through the gates with a look of terrible confusion on him face. He missed me, so I had to chase after him. In the end, I did not have a movie scene arrival greeting, but it was still pretty fantastic to say the least. I do think that the arrival zone of airports is probably one of the happiest places to be in the world, regardless of what airport you are in.

When we finally arrived at my apartment - as good as the Viennese public transit is, the airport is still a pretty hefty journey from anything - Conor was practically a zombie. I could completely relate and remembered how a few months ago I was in the same position as him. After a tasty typical Viennese breakfast, Conor tried to catch up on the sleep he was missing. It is interesting to think that while flying through time zones, you can either gain or lose actual hours of your life. I mean, when flying to Vienna, you technically lose 6 hours of your life because of the advance in time. When we fly back to Canada, we will technically be gaining 6 hours, but not really because the world in fact has not stopped. Something to think about…

Anyways, I let Conor sleep for a little bit, but in order to fully maximize his time in Europe we had decided that we would go to Innsbruck for the weekend, leaving Friday afternoon. I definitely lost girlfriend points that day because not only did he just fly 9 hours to Austria, I was sticking him on a 5 hour train ride - on the same day. I had not bought seat reservations for the train so for the first hour we were separated. With a screaming 3 year old across the aisle from me, I don’t think Conor used the time to catch any shut eye. We were quite impressed with this kid’s endurance. Not only did she not sleep the whole time to Innsbruck, I am pretty sure she screamed 80% of the time. I don’t know who I felt worse for, her or her poor dad.

Innsbruck

We finally arrived in Innsbruck and very conveniently found our hotel directly across the street from the Bahnhof (train station). I seem to always arrive to places at night, and therefore have no clue what my surroundings look like. It was only until the next morning that you realize Innsbruck is a valley surrounded by the Austrian Alps – very cool. Being the qualified tourist that I am now, I know the benefit of sightseeing tours. I know how lame the tourists look in the bus, but seriously, it is so worth it. We found one that stopped right outside our hotel that was more like a hop-on, hop-off bus. We jumped on that and were able to see the Olympic ski jump (Innsbruck hosted the Olympics twice) and skating complex. We decided to de-board the bus at Schloss Ambras and do some touring. Conor has this thing with medieval castles so I am glad that he got to see one up close.

At lunch I was able to use my fantastic A1 level German skills to tell the server that Conor was allergic to nuts. She looked at me like I was crazy because why in the world would there be nuts on a pizza – lesson to all, there are pine nuts in Pesto – a key trigger in Conor’s nut allergies. We sat and ate looking at the famed Innsbruck Goldenes Dachl or, ‘Golden Roof’. I am not exactly sure why it is so famous, it wasn’t that entrancing. We took a little wander through the town and saw the Imperial Palace, Annasäule and what appeared to be a mini Arc de Triumphe.
Upon my request, we headed to the Swarovski Kristall Welten that afternoon. Conveniently they have a shuttle bus that leaves from Innsbruck – obviously at a ridiculous cost but it was worth it. We arrived and did the whole tour, saw that big Swarovski grass head with the water coming out of his mouth (I will put pictures up), and of course took a little stroll through the shop. We had a great dinner that night at the ‘Piano Bar’ in the heart of Innsbruck.

Sunday morning, our last day in Innsbruck, we took the Innsbrucker Nordkettenbahnen (A gondola type thing) to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Innsbruck and the Inn (the name of the river) valley. I saw the snow at the top of the mountain, so I wore a jacket, pants and shoes. The genius that I was with is apparently convinced that all countries other than Canada must feel like summer. He went up the mountain in shorts and flip flops. Needless to say, I was somehow colder than him when we got to the top. After a quick photo shoot and mediocre Schnitzel, we headed back down and to the train station to catch our train. That was the end of Innsbruck weekend.

Conor in Vienna

I have not been able to show Conor around to any places in Vienna yet because I have been working. I have decided that I would take him to the Schönbrunn Zoo and the Belvedere. I send him out on adventures, and I wish I could see the expression on his face when he saw St. Stephans Cathedral for the first time. Still, every time I walk by it I am blown away. Having Conor here is like seeing Vienna again for the first time. For someone who has not been fortunate to travel outside North America, Austria is a pretty good starting point. Conveniently his aunt and uncle are in Vienna right now, so he had some travel buddies yesterday and again today. We met up with them last night and were treated to dinner. They gave us extensive tips for Prague and Italy, as we are heading to those places next week – in fact, on Friday.

In an attempt to convert Conor to the cult of culture that I am now a part of, we are going to the ballet of Romeo & Juliet tonight at the Staatsoper. I am looking forward to it and I honestly think that he is too.

It’s all over

Tomorrow is my last day of work. I have been asked to hand over my key card and ‘handy’ (cell phone), which I am actually sad to do! The past 16 weeks have flown by, and I feel so fortunate to have been able to experience this Euro-adventure. I have been let in on the secret that my colleagues are planning a little good bye party for me. I may not have redone the whole marketing concept at BAWAG, but I have definitely improved their English -something that a lot of people have expressed thanks to me for. If that is the mark that I leave, than at least I will be remembered for something! Part of my co-op report was to summarize, on one page, the company I worked for, the working environment, my goals and how this experience has affected me. On 1 page. I would not even be able to do that in a 30 page report. The skills I have adapted and memories that I have will never leave me. I wish I could hug everyone who has helped me along the way, but it might be awkward as Austrians have a tendency to formally shake hands even in situations where a hug would be way better suited. I had an awkward hug-hand shake yesterday upon saying good-bye to a colleague…

Italy

Although we are both going home on the same day, Conor’s Euro-trip is just beginning and mine is coming to an end – In Italy. I seemed to have forgotten this whole part of my trip because I have been so wrapped up in Austria. Our Italian adventure commences on Friday when we leave for Venice. We have booked one hostel so far, Absolut Venice. We are sleeping in an 8 bed mixed dorm (Conor is WAY thrilled…). Other than that, our sleeping arrangements are non-existent and train tickets have yet to be purchased. I have let go of my organizational and controlling way and am becoming sceptical about this whole ‘Go with the flow’ attitude. We may be sleeping on a park benches (Joking dad).

I will try to update my blog regularly, but I am not making any promises. I do promise though to let you all know I am in fact alive and enjoying life!! 19 days until I touch back down in Canada… At least I am not coming back from Mexico :)

Editor's Note

My last post seemed to stir up some low-key controversy with the comment I made about friendship. In my opinion, a blog is a place to express all feelings and experiences at the exact time it is being written. Throughout my travels, I have made some mental notes about what I want to include in my posts, but it is mostly ad-lib writing and I use random thoughts that pop into my head. When I wrote that post last week, I was having a bummer day and that is how I felt at that exact moment. I am glad I wrote it because I want to remember the struggles and pleasures of living abroad. I do miss ALL my friends and family terribly, and I am immensely looking forward to my return to Halifax for summer and then Tremblant for the end of August. At that specific time last week in my blog, I just wanted to give a shout out to the people who let me know I was missed. I cannot begin to explain how much that was appreciated.

I will be making a one night appearance in Tremblant on May 16th. It is a Saturday night, so I assume you will know where to find me...

Spring skiing rocks my world

I have been slacking the past few weeks when it comes to contributing to my blog. There is a lot going on right now and being in my final days makes me want to maximize the time I have here. This is a double ended sword for me because it means I keep putting off updating my blog but at the same time, I am adding more things to the list of what to write about in my blog. It is a definite lose-lose situation for me. I am going to stop procrastinating and catch up a little bit before it all becomes too overwhelming.

Easter : April 10 – 13

I was unable to recruit any keeners to join me on my Easter adventure, so once again it was a solo mission. I have come to realize that I really do not mind going places by myself but I do feel rather lonely when it comes to eating dinner. It does not faze me to eat breakfast or lunch alone, but there is something about going to a restaurant and eating dinner alone, it is never the highlight of my trips.

I decided that I wanted to go skiing for one last time, to really justify the fact that I dragged all of my ski stuff to Vienna. The hardest part of the whole decision process was determining where I actually wanted to go. Austria offers a wealth of ski areas, all which have been dumped on by snow this season. I decided to head to the town of Zell am See in the Salzburg region. It was a 6 hour journey by train into the Austria Alps. I arrived at night so I was not able to take in my surroundings immediately. From what the maps told me, Zell am See was not a very big town, and had I arrived during light hours, I most definitely could have found my way to my hotel. It was 11:15 p.m., I was tired and I had my skiing wardrobe with me, so I opted for a cab, which took me around the corner from the train station. The best €6 I have spent thus far…

The hotel I stayed at was a really nice, small hotel in the middle of their ‘pedestrian village’. I knew that I had come to ski so I wanted to maximize the time I spent on the ski slopes and not inside any bars… Plus, being alone somewhat deters me from going bar-hopping, not my idea of a good time. On Saturday morning, my first day in Zell am See, I opened the curtains of my room and was immediately confident that I had made a good choice to come here. I was surrounding by Alps and glaciers, I don’t think the smile left my face the entire weekend.

Kitzsteinhorn

The town offers a free ski bus to anyone who looks like they are heading out to ski. Because it was such a beautiful day on Saturday, I made the decision to head to the glacier that was in the area, just in case the weather took a turn for the worse the next 2 days. I eventually boarded the right bus and was whisked away to the glacier, Kitzsteinhorn, in the little town of Kaprun. It is not possible to ski the entire mountain, so they have these panoramic gondolas that bring people to the middle of the mountain (Basically where heaven starts). As I stepped off the gondola I could hardly contain myself, and I wasn’t even at the top of the mountain yet. What I hadn’t realized until then was that Kitzsteinhorn is a sea of snow, with no trees, I guess that is only to be assumed for a 3,202m high mountain. I was literally going to be skiing a glacier for the day, and never had to worry about remotely skiing close to a tree. I don’t think I have a vast enough vocabulary to explain the view from the top of the mountain. I also was not able to pick my jaw off the ground to make an attempt at describing it. I was literally looking out into a sea of jagged mountains, all part of a national park. The whole day was a fantastic adventure, but with a few too many t-bars. After skiing a powerful run, the last thing I wanted to do was keep my balance and continue supporting my weight while sitting on a t-bar. My boots have never hurt me before, and I have always been very comfortable in them. I am not sure if it was the temperature (+25°C at the base) or the altitude but both my boots left huge bruises on my ankles, which made walking in ski boots a little painful, but as soon as I stepped onto my skis, I could have cared less about the pain. By the end of the afternoon I was starting to become a little bit too cocky, which resulted in my almost taking out a few skiers going up the t-bar. I took a few more runs and thought it would be best to cut my losses and head back to the hotel. I really did not want to see how effective my insurance was. Later that night my entire body was in pain. There was even an indescribable pain in my elbows. I think my eyes closed around 9:30 and did not open again until the next morning. I was able to speak to Jodi though, as it was her big 21st birthday… All grown up.

Schmittenhöhe

The next two days I stayed in Zell am See and took advantage of Schmittenhöhe, the smaller, 2,202m, mountain. Since it was the middle of April, snow was beginning to be a little sparse at the bottom of the mountain. I guess that a month of +20°C weather makes it hard for snow to stick around. From the top of Schmitten I could see where I had skied the previous day, and it was absolutely beautiful. Schmitten was still mostly below the tree line so there were actual trails to ski. I was at the mountain before the lifts opened, both days, so I was able to benefit from corduroy trials for a few hours in the mornings. I could not begin to attempt to describe the skiing or scenery. Both were phenomenal and I can only be thankful that the weather stayed fantastic and I walked off the ski hills all 3 days with no broken bones and fully intact.

Spring skiing rocks my world.

Hallstatt : April 17 – 19

This Wednesday, Hannah’s boyfriend is coming home from his semester in Iceland, and on Friday, Conor arrives for 3 weeks. Before the boys arrive and cramp our style (…) Hannah and I wanted to have one last girl weekend.

I had received a magazine when I signed up for SWAP and I remember sitting in Statistics class in October looking at the cover and vowing to visit the little lake-side town. The only problem was that there was no indication of where this place was in Austria. A few weeks ago I showed it to Hannah and said, ‘Can we go there?’ Hannah did not know where my little fantasy town was. One of her friends was over and saw the magazine on our coffee table and said she had been there and that is was absolutely beautiful. She even had the phone number of the hotel she stayed at in her cell phone. It was destiny that we went to this little town named Hallstatt.

Time wise, last weekend was the perfect weekend for us to go. We left work a little early on Friday in order to catch our train and arrived in Hallstatt 5 hours later in the middle of a gentle spring rain. It was the kind of rain that makes the grass look really green and seems to heighten the sense of smell. We were a little skeptical because we could see the town from the train, but it appeared to be on the other side of the lake. We discovered that there was in fact a ferry service that brought us across the lake to this picturesque town. I cannot begin to describe this 900 resident town that is squeezed between cliffs and the lake. You would not believe that this town exists, it is so perfect. Take a look at the newly posted pictures to see what I mean…

After a lengthy 15 minute walk from one end of the town to the other, we found our hotel. We checked in and then headed to the hotel restaurant for dinner. The owner of the hotel warned us that there was a big group coming in and that there would be music. We thought it would be great to have some music to shake this little town up. We heard some kind of music approaching the hotel, but I shrugged it off and convinced Hannah that it was coming from the speakers… Except that there were no speakers in the restaurant. Then, the owner let us know that this was not just any ordinary group coming, but a bachelor party. Hannah and I exchanged looks as if we both thinking the same thing. Our night was shaping up to consist of music, a group of men relatively close to our ages, and free drinks all night. A strange thing happened after this. It sounded as though a parade was heading down the small streets of Hallstatt.

The bachelor party that was bringing the music turned out to be the local marching band featuring everyone from the oldest member of the community to the young teenagers. We were a little confused. This is apparently the idea of a good time for bachelors of Hallstatt. For 3 hours Hannah and I were subjected to marching band music and old men gawking at us because we were the ‘new girls in town’. It was an interesting night to say the least.

We had hoped to visit the salt mines and/or the ice caves over the weekend. We then learned that everything opens next weekend. Instead of taking the cable car to where the salt mines are, we killed some time by hiking the mountain and in the afternoon we took a little boat ride around the picturesque lake. The only real way to describe the whole weekend is through pictures. (There is now a link on my blog right to my albums.)

It was definitely a perfect way for me and Hannah to spend our last weekend together, before we have to ‘break-up’ as we like to say. I think we are both secretly okay with breaking up, because it means our boys will be arriving.

Friday, April 24.

Conor arrives at 8:30 a.m. this Friday. I can honestly not believe it. I remember writing it in my calendar at work and having to count the number of weeks, and I am now counting the number of days. I don’t know where time goes. We are heading to Innsbruck Friday afternoon, and then embark on a whirlwind week of evening activities. I am taking Conor to the ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet; I am trying to rub some of my new culture off onto him.

My bank account proves how much travelling I have done, and I am perfectly fine with that. Thinking back on these last months, there is nothing I would have done differently. When I fly home on the 15th I will have seen all of the Austrian regions (excluding Vorarlberg) and experienced the Austrian way of life, plus Berlin, Italy, Bratislava and Prague.

Although Vienna is a beautiful city, it in no way encompasses the majestic beauty and generosity that the rest of Austria offers. Like any major city, people live in their own world and it does not reflect the actual way of life of the everyday Austrian.

I can be nothing but grateful for the past four months. I feel that it has been a test of character for me, and has shown me who my real friends are, and those whose friendship with me is out of convenience. It is stark reality check, but I am glad that I have been able to experience it. I guess everyone eventually comes to terms with the realization that friendships change, but it is still difficult to wrap my head around it. For the messages that I did receive, thank you. You have no idea how nice it was to know someone was thinking about me. I am ready though to come home and end the virtual family I have had for four months.

Work

I am entering my last 2 weeks of work. It is hard to believe that 14 weeks ago I stood in this building with so much anxiety and skepticism. I will always remember the colleagues who guided me and took the time to talk to me; I don’t think they realize how much of a help and support they were. My final project is to summarize and finalize my proposed concept for the youth program. The workshop I hosted was fantastic, and I was able to collect concrete and valuable data to contribute to my proposed ambassador program. When I leave next week, I can only hope that the work I contributed may help the youth program re-gain some momentum.