26 March 2010

T.G.I.F.

It's Friday! The weekend!

And spring in Austria is sooo much better than in NZ. I'm pretty sure it started at the start of March, so basically the whole time that I have been doing this course. The first week of March was a bit cold, it snowed again just a little. But it was mostly not snowy, no more white on the ground. And it has rained - but what is this stuff that they are calling rain here? It is nothing. So it got warm and I could swap my winter coat for my lighter trench coat, but it gets better than that. I only even had the chance to wear that coat the once, it was just too warm! I have been walking around in just jeans and a tee-shirt, not even a jumper most days! And what is spring in New Zealand? Freezing cold sleet and rain? Hail and snow? No sun till well into summer? Here people are already sitting along the canal eating ice-creams! And I am sunburnt!

So basically - spring in Vienna = 1, spring in Invers = 0. Come summer though I would really miss the beach.

And today my course finished (yay). It was a good course, and apparantly as courses go quite relaxed. But I am so tired somehow. I am ready to sleep away the weekend (and it is supposed to "rain" so what better excuse?). And because it is Friday and the course finished it is reason to celebrate, so I had chocolate (to get through that last bit of assignment work, and it was caramel, and not as good as NZ cadbury caramello) and bounty (to recover from assignment) and fudge cake (because it was in the fridge). The fudge cake I make because it is from NZ and people here love it. And I gotta say, it was way more satisfying to have a piece of fudge cake than just chocolate. So note to self - make more fudge cake.

But you know now I only have a month left, so I should not waste a weekend catching up on sleep. Who needs sleep anyway? I should be travelling! And my friends are away this weekend and the next - Easter and all that. So I should save Vienna activities till after Easter and do something for myself. But what? That's the question.

It turns out you can get these rail passes. You can travel on any trains you want for 5 days within a period of 10 days for only 160 euros (like 300 NZ dollars). And that's pretty good, you could see 5 different countries really. Of course I only have the weekend and the long Easter weekend. If only I had the semester break like all the students here do. But still. If I can get that pass I think I should do it. But I am not sure if I qualify, it is for residents of Europe. Techinically now I live in Ireland, and I have a registration card from immigration over there. But I have a NZ passport, so they might say I that I'm not eligible. And the pass for foreigners is twice as much - which is too much for me (and I would be gutted).

So tomorrow I am going to find out about it, and then, maybe, I will travel somewhere! I couldn't decide where but my housemate suggests as much of eastern europe as possible. Because Italy, Spain, France, Germany - these are all easy countries. I can visit them anytime really, from Ireland if I want, and next year I will be in Germany anyway. I might not have the chance to come back to this area properly, or at least not for a very long time. So it is decided. If I can get this 10 day pass, I will just get it and go. How is that for a crazy, last minute, on-a-whim decision?

I have been advised to see Budapest (Hungary) and Krakow (Poland), and Bratislavia because it is so close. Then there is Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. I am really not sure how much there is time for. They say you can see a city in a day, and of course you can take night trains. But then, the advantage to a day train is you see the countryside also. And spending the night at your destination allows you to experience even more. So I really don't know. And maybe I don't qualify for a pass anyway, in which case instead of a pile of countries I will probably just see a couple.

So possibly big plans for the weekend. I just don't know yet. No pictures to show today (sigh). I have just not been doing enough, and of course nobody is interested in my science pictures. But now that the course is over I will try to pack as much into this last month as possible and put up heaps of pictures.

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