Here is a nice picture my parents took when I took off heading to the United States! 🙂
Here is a nice picture my parents took when I took off heading to the United States! 🙂
Last week, I traveled to Salzburg and Vienna to enjoy the Austrian way of life one last time for the next months. I just walked through the cities and enjoyed the sights, coffee and dinner. On Wednesday I had the last party with my friends. Florian had his guitar with him and we sang Austrian songs. We spent the end of the evening at Rox. Thank you my friends for coming!
So I am in Atlanta with a bulk of luggage, a lot of pictures from Austria and a head full of nice memories from my homecountry and time with my friends!
Header photo © Peter Holler
Today, we finally cycled from Passau to Linz. We planned it for a long time, but every time something has cropped up. Elli and I took the train REX 1728 at 07:12am from Linz to Passau. We arrived back in Linz at about 6pm. The tour was about 100km. Cycling time was about 5 hours – we did a lot breaks for lunch, ice-cream and cake. It was a nice trip! Here are the pictures!
On Thursday my grandfather and I went to Vienna for sightseeing. Particularly, we were interested in the guided tour at the Hofburg Vienna Imperial Palace, which was offered because of the 50 year anniversary of the congress center. The tour was stunning because it took us to parts of the palace which are normally closed to the general public. Another chance to see nearly the same would be the Wiener Kaffeesiederball which of course would give you a much more festive impression of the former imperial place. At a much different price point and without stories though… Further, we climbed the 343 stairs up the south tower of St. Stephen’s Cathedral which rewarded us with great view especially over the first district. After that we had brief stops, mainly for photos at the Votivkirche, Burg Theater, Parliament and Schönbrunn Imperial Palace. The weather was very much in the photographers favor! Blue skies. No clouds. Here are the pictures!
The last few days a lot of work for my exchange program was completed. On Tuesday last week I got notified that I will receive full credit for all GBS (Goizueta Business School) Emory courses making them transferrable to my curriculum. Having that prerequisite completed, I applied for the exchange scholarship right away. On Monday morning, not even after a week, I got an email that my application was accepted. They handled it quite promptly!
My appointment at the consular section of the US embassy was last Friday. They took all my ten fingerprints! Today I got my passport with the visa returned. It’s looking stylish! 😉 I also purchased a translation of my driving license.
The last major thing is to find an apartment. Work in progress…
Last Saturday we (nearly) cycled around Lake Neusiedl. We took the train from Vienna South Train Station to Neusiedl am See, where we started our bike tour. In Illmitz we had a break for lunch. Afterwards we took the ferry to Mörbisch am See. Unfortunately, it started to rain heavily. So we stopped cycling already in Purbach and took the train for the last kilometers.
This was our tour: Neusiedl am See -> Weiden am See -> Podersdorf am See -> Illmitz -> Mörbisch am See (by ferry) -> Rust -> Oggau am Neusiedlersee -> Donnerskirchen -> Purbach am Neusiedlersee -> Neusiedl am See (by train)
This evening it was the last time to go out for karaoke with my friends in Austria before I leave to the US. It was great! We had no camera with us. So here is a picture from a former karaoke evening.
Sorry guys, but this has to be written in German:
Der Ritter Kunibert,
der hatte ein sehr langes Schwert!
Und weil es ihm beim Reitern stört,
setzt er sich verkehrt aufs Pferd!
(It is about the knight Kunibert, which sat on his hourse upside down, because of his long sword.) The Czecks are really cool guys 🙂
Our first sightseeing day in Prague started at 9 am at Wenceslas Square next to the museum. We walked across the sqare and then to more streets to get to the Estates Theater, where once the debut performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni took place. Our next stop was at the Old Town Square where we watched to the hourly play of the astronomical clock. Then we walked through the old town to Charles Bridge. Before we went up the tower, Eugen showed us the oldest part of the bridge.
After passing the bridge we walked along the river Vltava to the bridge Most Legií where we got back to the old town at the National Theatre. Now it was time for lunch. We had it in the Beerhouse of the restaurant “U medvídkù” (www.umedvidku.cz). After our break we walked again through the old town and through the Lesser Town, where we visited St. Nicholas Church, up to the Prague Castle. There, we viewed St. Vitus’s Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George’s Basilica and the Golden Lane with the Daliborka Tower. Still, we haven’t finished the tour! We took the tram and funicular up to Petřín, where we enjoyed the excellent view over Prague at the lookout tower. Afterwards we visited the mirror labyrinth. After this exhausting – but awesome – day, we had a grate dinner at Šárka’s place.
This afternoon we did a short trip to Sàzava to see the really nice church Sázavský Klášter. Quite funny, there was a monument with a German inscription. Afterwards we enjoyed beer and a few other drinks.