The Weekend

Meine Freundin am Kaffeehaus

My first weekend in the city has been so much fun!  Or as we say here macht mir Spass!  Frau Mueller is my German teacher and she is this little old woman who treats us like her grandchildren. She speaks English with a British accent because she learned while being an Au pair in London.  Friday, our German teacher declared that we needed practice speaking German.  I thought this meant more worksheets, but I was mistaken.  Instead, Frau Mueller gets up and leaves the classroom.  We sat in stunned silence until she poked her head back in and asked if we were coming with her.  She took us to ein Kaffeehaus at the Hofsburg Palace (which is just an 8 minute walk from our palace).  We all sat down and placed our orders, auf Deutsch of course!  I had ein Einspaenner and eine Palmenhaustorte.  Both were so good.  

Deutsch Klasse

My friends and I decided to be over achievers (I know, shocking) and strike up an actual conversation with our waiter.  We asked our Keller (waiter) where the fun places to hang out at night were.  He was more than happy to show us on a map all the good local bars and clubs.  He then gave us these coupons for the club he works at.  Of course this was still a class and Frau Mueller passed out a pop quiz.  After a groan, we all read the questions and laughed.  They were questions like, what did you order?  what is your waiter's name?  did you have fun?  Needless to say it was an excellent morning.  

Friday night, my friend invited some of us over for dinner.  Afterwards we decided to head into the Inner Stadt to a music lounge we were told was good.  This lounge was a lot of fun.  American music is really big here and so we knew all the songs being performed. 

Saturday, we went to the Naschmarkt which is this big outdoor market.  It had everything!  None of us wanted to make a decision on what to get for lunch so we all bought something different and then shared.  The food was so good.  I had my first glass of Sturm as well.  Sturm is half fermented wine that is really sweet and tastes like apples.  It's really popular here because you can decide how fermented you want your wine.  My favorite thing though was this Hungarian pastry that is completely hollow.  Its a tube of dough that is baked on a wooden cylinder.  It was delicious.  After eating our way through the Naschmarkt, we found a cafe to sit at to complete our homework.  See, I can be studious while still having fun.

The girls going out

That night, we went to a dance club called Sass.  I still have the bass beat ringing in my ear.  This club played mostly techno with some hip hop thrown in.  It was a lot of fun.  The people here just danced however they wanted.  It was great because I feel like in all the clubs in the states that I've been to, the people all dance the same.  The only problem with going out at night here is that no place is smoking free.  It seems like everyone smokes.  The first thing on my to-do list for the week is to find the Austrian equivalent of Frebreeze, for my coat still smells.  

Today, I'm heading to the park to meet up with some friends.  The city has a bike renting system with the first hour being free, so we're going to investigate some of the city parks on bike.  It's guaranteed to be a good day.