vienna

we departed hainburg this morning for vienna. we really liked the little we saw of bratislavia while we were there. the old town is really nice and although the parts of the suburbs we saw looked a bit sovietesque... it still seems like a good place to be. i think we would jump at a chance to teach there next year if qsi offers to transfer us there.

it was nice getting to know roland and victoria (seen early morning as we departed in photo one below). they are an interesting couple. very eastern block. i don't know how to describe what that means really other than to say (most) american couples handle themselves much differently than our neighbors over here. i have a hard time telling if it is cultural or social differences. for instance - a couple of times during dinner both nights roland would pick up the tea pot or the bottle of wine and place it in front of victoria for her to pour him a glass of tea/wine. he would also be pretty directive - "i want you to do this... and then do this...". we see that a lot with some of our russian friends in bishkek. the woman has a defined role. the relationship is less of a partnership than what i like to think is the norm for american relationships. of course as i evaluate how jen bosses me around maybe we are more like them than i care to admit. i am not saying that he was a bad person (quite the opposite). the roles are just very different than what i am comfortable with.

the train ride to vienna was short and easy (which would be one of the joys to living in bratislavia... it is close to everything in central europe). once we arrived we bought a local sim card for our phone and squatted in a starbucks (ugh... america!) to get our bearings. we called our coach surfing hosts and made plans to get to their house. it took a bit of doing on our part to find the right bus (had to take the underground a couple of stops to get to it) but it was fair easy as the public transportation here is so convenient.

we had only talked to rainer and and not to kahlia so i think she was a bit taken back when we showed up unannounced (roland hadn't been able to get a hold of her). kahlia's mom and sister are here visiting from australia and it was a bit uncomfortable at first. i don't think the mom was too excited to be sharing her daughter and grand daughter (whom she doesn't get to see very often) for christmas with a couple of strangers.

after chatting for a while we dropped of our stuff and loaded up for a day exploring vienna. we took the bus back into town and just wandered around for most of the afternoon. found a great christmas market where we had some famous austrian cider. ate lunch at a sushi buffet (more on this in a later post). and discovered a great farmers market with fish, meats, fruit and veggies, lots of cheese and wine. reminded me of pike's market in seattle.

vienna is everything we thought it would be. historic old buildings and churches. narrow cobble stone streets. so different than cities back in the states.

we finished the night back at with the couch surfers where we ate a nice dinner and chatted for a couple of hours.

looking forward to tomorrow.