Ich bin in Österreich!

Finally! I arrived in Austria yesterday around 6pm (Austrian time), 11am (US time) after a long, long day of traveling. My first flight left Minneapolis at 5pm, at least that is when it was scheduled to leave...once we had boarded the plane the captain announced we had to wait an hour before leaving because landing in Chicago would be nearly impossible because all the planes were backed up on the runway from the snowstorm delays on the East coast. We finally left MN 30 min late. I had to sprint through the Chicago airport, quite literally to catch my flight to Heathrow in London. After standing in a ridiculous security line, I ran with my shoes and bags in hand, barefoot to my gate...being pretty much the last person to get on the plane, they shut the doors and we headed down the runway. The plane was massive, a couple of hundred people easily fit. We took off on time and were served a dinner of salmon and pasta, vegetable salad, cheesecake and wine. I only was able to get a few hours of sleep, the seats were not as comfortable as I had hoped...and after the 7 hours on the plane I was definitely ready to get off when we landed in Heathrow. We were then bused to another terminal, where I had to catch yet another bus to drive 15 min to Terminal 3 where my flight to Vienna would leave from. It was a massive terminal, basically a full shopping mall with a bunch of flight gates extending in all directions. When I finally boarded the plane, I found out that my seat was located in the way back, and the front, back and each side of me were small children...I was sure this was going to be the plane-ride from hell, as half of the kids were already screaming and crying. There was a young woman next to me with her two boys. She was Hungarian, married to an Italian, and living in London...so she and both boys (both under 3 yrs. old) spoke all 3 languages. It turned out to be very entertaining, as the boys loved learning new English words for parts of the plane and all of the different things we would see out the window. Once we landed and began unboarding the plane, I met a girl from Green Bay, WI that had been sitting just a few rows ahead of me. She was coming to Austria to stay for one month, just like I. She was visiting her boyfriend who was also from Green Bay, as he plays professional basketball for the Klagenfurt Bulls. We left the plane together, and helped each other find where the heck we needed to go to check in at Customs, and then to get our bags. Johannes was waiting the the departure area at the Exit to the airport with hundreds of other people. Cameras were flashing, people were shouting and staring at us as we walked out...this must be what celebrities feel like all the time ;) I started crying because I was so happy to finally be in Austria! We left the airport and found Johannes car. It was a 1 and a half hour drive to Hartberg, and I slept most of the way. I met his parents once we arrived, and we sat down to dinner and soon headed off to bed since I was extremely exhausted.

This morning I woke up and headed upstairs to a kitchen table full of birthday gifts, flowers, and a topfentorte (a type of layered cake made of strawberrys, cheesecake, and poppyseed crust). It was fabulous! After breakfast, Johannes and I got ready and went walking through the town. There was a huge pedestrian area with cute little shops all around...just like the movies ;) We went into a few and then walked to the edge of the town to see the 800 year old section of the wall that used to surround the city.

After walking around and seeing a few other sites like the church and ratskellar, we headed to the center of town to the hauptplatz to the Christmas market. It was beautiful at nighttime! Farmers and artists had little booths setup selling christmas ornaments, gifts and food. We stood around one of the tables and had Glühwein (hot red wine with spices and fruit). The first alcohol I drank on my 21st birthday, and here I could have gotten it at 16! It was delicious and kept us warm for our walk back.

We stopped at a typical grocery store to look around and pick up a few things. There were a lot of differences in the setup of the store and the things you could buy, much different than the Walmarts of America! Once I think some more about the day-to-day differences I'll have to make another blog entry just about that. As for now, things are fabulous! I am still getting used to being completely surround by the German language, but I think I'm learning so much each day. Tomorrow we will head to Graz and see some of the city and run a few errands. Until then...Tschüss!