Know hope.

Where has this week gone?! It's zoomed by so quickly... not that I'm complaining because in a week I'll be meeting my sister for a weekend here before flying back home to see my boyfriend and family, all who I've missed like crazy! I've also missed walks on the beach! Wherever I end up living will have to be near the sea (helloooo south of France?!)

Last weekend 'Haus der Musik' made me fall in love with classical music (if the men dressed up as Mozart on the streets didn't), after watching the following:



So so so brilliant, I have been humming Strauss all week!

After this, I went to a restaurant all on my own! Something I've never really felt comfortable about doing before. I know this comes without a second thought to some people, and I love eating at different places, but on my own?? I would always worry what people thought of me/where should I look if I have no one else to talk to? Wouldn't people think I was weird/staring at them? However I got over these silly thoughts and enjoyed a nice Italian meal with some wine and Sacher torte for dessert, yum! I felt a little invincible... one small step for man...

It's all in the palm of your hands

I am exhausted. It's never good to think too much.

I've not updated for a week or so as we went on holiday to a farm on a mountain... having no internet was a killer! The week consisted of a lot of table tennis, seesawing, a wood museum and a 2 hour ride on a steam train! We had to extend our holiday by one day as the whole family, apart from me, caught a virus, not so much fun!

Burgenland adventure

"Ce qui doit arriver, arrivera"

On Saturday I went to Neusiedler See which is about 2 hours away from here, dubbed the Austrian's Med, it's a huge lake which would take you the whole day to get all the way around. We approached it from the east before enjoying the view at Neusiedl as the sun set. We walked along the jetty which had a jazz band playing. Everyone was sitting at the edges with their glasses of wine, taking in the view, the sky's hues of blue and pink reflecting off the still water....

Yesterday was about 35 degrees in the city... I couldn't even spend 10 minutes in the sun... Cue lots of ice cream and frappucinos... it had to be done!

Hold on tight to your dream

This song has everything you could want from a song, it makes you feel great, you can dance to it AND some French. Perfection!

This song means a lot to me and it came on yesterday when I was in a Heurigen (wine tavern) having lunch (schnitzel, of course!) and it instantly made me feel ten times better!






Here are some photos from my day spent going westbound alongside the Danube through Lower Austria. The weather wasn't the best, rainy and very windy, about 13 degrees so jeans and a jacket (which I've only had to wear about 3 times since getting here!)

We visited Grafenegg'scastle and gardens, where there is an outdoor stage 'Wolkenturm' for concerts. Then onto Dürnstein's church and ruins, meandering along cobbled streets where I overheard some English(!), then onto the gardens and abbey at Melk, which seems like a perfect setting for a wedding!

My sister has just told me that she is able to visit me in August so I've got the task of finding us a hotel and planning our weekend jam packed of sightseeing, good food and drink, shouldn't be hard to do in the coffee capital!

You and your heart shouldn't feel so far apart

The perfect end to a pretty perfect day was arriving home and seeing the little two year old's face beam up at me.

After a pretty low low, has come a pretty high high.

Over the past month I have learned a lot about dealing with different types of people. I have really accepted who I am, I will do what I am comfortable with and not worry about other's opinions of me, good or bad, I'm not looking to seek acceptance from anyone else. I can't control what other people think about me and it's futile to dwell on what has passed.

Life can seem to have it's problems, but only if we allow them to be. We can label something as a problem, or we can accept it and move on/deal with it. We can choose to worry, or we can choose to be happy. No, it's not 'easier said than done', it really is easy. Plus, think how better you'll feel once you realise you can be happy all the time, whatever your circumstances (who decides what good/bad circumstances are?)

"Tell me what can you want, when you've got it all?" - The Libertines
(don't we already have everything we need?)

Moving onto today... I went into Vienna, wandered around Naschmarkt, got interviewed for the Austrian radio and fluffed up my grammar, discovered cobbled streets and a tiny gallery with beautiful paintings where I chatted to the old artist who tried to tempt me to buy a 5euro card "this is real... and this is fantasy". I headed to Belvedere which is amazingly beautiful, however I am sure I am going to get a crick in my neck from constantly looking up in awe at all the buildings! There I met Georg, a student and we strolled through the gardens and into the Innere Stadt for lots of coffee (Melange) and a few games of chess (I lost) whilst occasionally chatting to some people at our table. That's the main thing I love about Vienna/Austria, is that you can strike up a conversation with anyone, it feels effortless and everyone seems to generally care/be nice, who knew?! I feel in Britain we are perhaps too wary of strangers, or maybe other people in general(!), but here you are greeted when you go into any shop, it's just a nice touch.

So if I can't explain myself and my newfound carefree attitude, I'll let Jack Johnson do it........ now I really want to go surfing :)

ich und ich

Just outside Spitellau's U-bahn station, you stumble upon a brilliant Hundertwasser building, for.... *drumroll* a waste incineration plant (producing electricity). I think it is a great idea to draw attention to the plant and renewable energy/recycling, something that is very big here! Most houses out here in the country have solar panels and of course we have various coloured bins for various materials. I even went to the local tip - just a huge site filled with skips but oh how everyone seems to care so much... "oh no some wood in the metal skip".... On one hand, I thought "who could be bothered to go to all this trouble?", but on the other hand, it doesn't take long and you feel good for doing your bit, Britain take note!

Last Thursday was a free day (Feiertag) so I decided on a trip to Vienna was in order! However with the dad off work and no Kindergarten, tis surely should've registered in my tiny head that NOTHING WOULD BE OPEN and buses would be s p a r s e. You can say that again.

Realising that I couldn't get into Vienna in under 2 hours, I decided to take the bus for an hour (also very annoying but the bus drivers here are charming!) to St. Pölten, which is the main town in the county (Land) of Lower Austria (Niederoesterreich). Beautiful, but also with only restaurants and café's open, I took so many photos and sat myself down at Café Schubert and whiled away an hour or two with a few latte macchiatos, writing in my diary and reading my French book, 'Les Sept Pechés du Diable' (The Seven Deadly Sins). Very hip!

Sadly, I got caught in a crazy storm on the way home and SOAKED. I think this, or perhaps the fact I left my memory card in my laptop overnight, must've deleted all my photos from the day.(I need to find the German equivalent of 'GUTTED'!)

On Sunday I went to the Donauinselfest, a music festival that lasted the whole weekend. It was nice even if I was on my own! Sunny and not too crowded, I flitted from stage to stage with an ice cream in hand, nabbed a free body lotion sample (highlight of the day, rock and roll!) and tried to spy any German rock stars to no avail.

As I've worked all day today, I'll have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off so I am taking full advantage of this and hounding people on Facebook to be my friend, can't go wrong eh?

Ich wunsche mir...

Graffiti in Vienna. 'Wir greifen immer mehr und begreifen immer weniger', translates as 'we want more and more and understand less'.

It's 10pm and I still have my bikini on under my vest and shorts, got a few tan lines after spending 5 hours at an outdoor swimming pool in 32 degrees heat (we applied suncream by the bucket load!) It should've been more exhausting, constantly going up the stairs to slide down various slides with the 5 year old as well as teaching him how to swim, but I think my inner child came out to play and I had just as much fun as him! The most tiring was trying to get the 2 year old to not try and escape from me and find his Mum... I keep worrying when he screams for his Mum and pushes away from me that people will think I'm kidnapping him, especially as he has bright blonde hair and doesn't look like mine!

Also today, one of the parents' friends, Tony, a farmer (very jealous of his tan from being outside all day!) came over today and asked me to give him English lessons. He speaks the dialect and not Hochdeutsch so it's gonna be interesting!

I go through phases of wanting to be more chatty/confident and thinking about what I 'should' be, when all I really 'should' be is me, maybe a bit on the quiet side, or maybe just a good listener?! Though I would often think that wasn't good enough. Good enough for who? As we all know "those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter" and I am coming to the realisation that you can't really change some people's opinions of you, especially if they take a dislike to you for no reason!

Tomorrow I don't need to work so some exploring in Vienna is on the cards! Really need to make some friends though, I am going to exhaust all Couchsurfing and Facebook options!