Coming home: Vienna to Madrid

I awoke to my phone alarm at 4:30am on Sunday, August 31. As is my unintended custom when I have to get up early for something, I hadn't slept much or very well.

Veronika got up with me and made us coffee while I dressed and finished packing my bags. We stood in the kitchen chatting as I drank my coffee and ate the croissant I'd had the unusual foresight to buy the previous afternoon. Though I don't remember now what we talked about, I remember it was a pleasant and interesting conversation, and that I was grateful for her company.

Around a ten after five, I hugged Veronika goodbye, reassured us both that I'd left the keys to the flat on her entryway bench, and left her flat for the last time. With a pack full of clothes on my back and my purse and another backpack full of computer and notebooks, I went down the stairs and out the front door into the quiet, still-dark street. As I rounded the corner I heard a voice above me. "Yes, that is right!" she said. I looked up to see Veronika had poked her head out the window to make sure I knew the way to the tram stop. We waved to each other and I continued on.

Last week in Vienna

It only took me one weekend in Prague to forget how to do tipping in Vienna, and it took me most of the week to remember to answer the server with a new total.

At a Heurigen with classmates

In other news, I went out several times with classmates and/or our German teacher last week. As a result, I got to see an entirely different side of Vienna. Up until going out to her favorite bar with my German teacher, Vienna had seemed to me a subdued city with unfriendly servers and people who don't smile much or interact with random people they don't know. But at Jetzt (the bar), the servers and other patrons both were friendly and willing to chat. 

The bar itself reminded me a bit of my favorite bar in Portland, The Florida Room, in terms of lighting and quirky décor. A beat-up billiard table in the back. Plenty of regular clientele. The main difference was that I don't think there was a single person in Jetzt above the age of 40, whereas you can find people of all ages at The Flo' Ro'...but it could've just been the fact that it was a Wednesday night.

Heurigan feast!