Part 3: VIENNA!

I arrived in Vienna on November 17th, around 5:00 PM. I traveled for about 16 hours total. I went from Dubuque to Chicago; Chicago to Warsaw, Poland (about an 8 hour flight); Warsaw to Vienna (about an hour and a half flight). I was picked up at the airport by a club administrator. After a quick stop at the gym to pick up my gear, we headed to a hotel (I would be staying here for a few days until an apartment opened up). I was dropped off and then told, "I'll pick you up at 9:15 tomorrow morning. Pack for two days." Apparently we were going on a road trip to Slovenia and Croatia during the next couple days. So I was picked up the next day and went to the gym for a morning serve and pass practice. After practice we hit the road. It was a 4 hour drive to Maribor, Slovenia. We got off the bus and went right away to play the match. I didn't play libero because I was a little bit jet lagged. But, I did get in a few times as a DS. We lost in 4. The next day we got on the bus again in the morning and drove another 4 hours to Croatia. It was the same routine here: get off the bus and play a match right away. I liberoed tonight and we won in 4. Still didn't quite have my legs under me yet but I did okay. After the match we got on the bus and drove the 7 hours back to Vienna. It was a LONG trip and we didn't get home until about 4. And because I was still on a completely different time zone, I couldn't fall asleep til about 5 and then (being the idiot that I am) slept til 2 :/ Which means that I didn't fall asleep the next night either. It took me about a week to get on the right time zone. I had to force myself to stay awake during the day and took some Tylenol PM to fall asleep at night.

After about a week I moved into my apartment...my tiny apartment. It has one bedroom/living room/dining room, a teeny tiny kitchen area, and a teeny tiny bathroom. But, I'm not really complaining about it anymore because I've made it pretty homey, and to be honest I don't really need much more that this. The only thing I would love to have though is a microwave...and maybe an oven :) I have a stove top with two burners, a sink, and two small counters. So, except for the things I can (and know) how to cook on a stove top, not much cookin gets done here. Want the grand tour? Okay here we go...

Here is the living room/bedroom/dining room. Picture taken from the kitchen.

I have lots of shelf and closet space which I love.

My sink and stove top. Yeah that's the front door on the left if you want to kind of piece it all together (not that there is a lot to piece together).

The other side of the kitchen. You can see the corner of the refrigerator at the bottom. The teeny tiny refrigerator :) Again, lots of cabinet space. More than I know what to do with. 

As soon as you walk in the door, the bathroom is on the left. 

Small shower. Like really small...

Told you it was small. 

View of the front door from the window in the living room/bedroom/dining room.

And lastly, my bed/futon/couch. Again, huge closets next to the bed. Yeah I brought my teddy bear, go ahead, judge me :)

I was a little disappointed because I thought my apartment would be right smack dab in the center of the city of Vienna. But, I live in the part of town that is called Schwechat. The best way I know how to describe it is "Asbury is to Dubuque as Schwechat is to Vienna". Make sense? Anyways it's about a 12 minute "U Bahn" (aka subway) ride to the city center and WOW the city of Vienna is absolutely beautiful. These pictures aren't of the exact center of the city but you can get a feel for the architecture in Vienna.

Gorgeous right? Needless to say, I look forward to the days that I get to go into the city. AND one of those days is coming up soon! Wednesday night, my teammates, Jenna Hagglund and Svenja Engelhardt, and I are going to see a production of the musical "Hair"! I'm so excited! And I'm even more excited that it's going to be in English! I also got to spend last night in the city, as well. Jenna and Svenja and I went to a few different places. What did we do? Well, we got into the Christmas spirit and went and checked out a few local Christmas markets! Each year during Christmas time, a bunch of different markets go up around town and they have a ton of booths that sell anything from ornaments and candles to paintings or hats. 

Ornament booth. All hand-made, I might add. They were very beautiful.

All the markets have places you can get food, as well. And of course, I'm learning that the biggest hit of the Christmas markets is the punsch! It is a hot wine fruit drink. There are normally several booths selling punsch at each market and majority of the people there can be seen nursing a warm mug. And I must say, the punsch is so delicious!

We went to a few Christmas markets yesterday. The first we went to was in front of the Schonbrunn Palace.

Amazing, right?

We finished up the evening at the Rathaus Christmas market. Wait til you see this...

So beautiful it doesn't look real. From what I understand (aka wikipedia told me), this is where the mayor works and they have city council meetings and all that kind of good stuff. Anyways, I got some orange punsch at this Christmas market! So good! 

I've been here for almost a month, and I'm very much in love with Vienna already. We have Wednesday off so before we go see "Hair" that night I'm planning on a day of shopping and being in the city! Can't wait! Then on Saturday we're headed to Budapest to play a match. The number of countries I've been to has rapidly grown in the past month and I'm sure will continue to grow. Very exciting. Next blog I'll tell you more about volleyball, but for now the inspiration from the city has taken over me :) 

Sending love from Austria!

Kayla

P.S. Here is your "The Office" clip. Backstory: Dwight is hosting a garden party. Jim wrote a book called "How to Throw a Garden Party" knowing that Dwight would buy it. In the book he wrote that everyone who entered the party needed to be formally announced. Jim has some fun with it.