So, finally, nearly 2 weeks late, here is my personal recap of Couchsurfing Vienna Calling 2012 🙂
On Wednesday, our first Couchsurfer for the weekend, Verena from Berlin, arrived. She even brought presents: self-made jam made of rhubarb, combined with banana and strawberry. YUMMY 🙂 In the evening, there was the Welcome Party close to my place. 3 different live bands were playing, and it was just great – a lot of people whom I met via Couchsurfing and who have become good friends, arrived in time for the party. It felt a little like a class reunion 🙂
Also, this time, I finally really hosted Imre, not only his bags 🙂 2 years ago, I last-minute hosted him on Sunday night and gave him my keys so he could go to the afterparty while I had to sleep because I had to work on Monday. When I got up Monday morning, he was lying on the couch, still dressed. His answer to my “When did you get home?” was – “Ahm… 10 minutes ago 🙂 “. This time was different, he accepted my last-minute offer, came home a bit later than we did, and really did sleep on my couch 🙂
On Thursday, after a short visit to the Base on Donauinsel, I last-minute decided on participating in the underground walk, which was REALLY cool. We even ran into another group taking a tour down there – only they did pay and only saw a little bit of the tunnels, and we got the tour for free and saw the whole thing. A little after lunch, Manu & Iris from Augsburg, a couple we met at last year’s “Sounds of Salzburg” meeting, and also at “Couchburg in Augsburg”, arrived. They also brought lovely gifts: 4 bottles of awesome bavarian beer. Also VERY yummy 🙂
Manu and Iris went off for the Heurigen Tour (which was not that good, from what I heard), and we only met again during the free Sommernachtskonzert (Summer Nights concert) of the Vienna Philharmonics. We did not hear too much, because we were at the back of the stage, but we had an awesome view and a lot of fun with Stefan and Nathy.
On Friday, it was time for my Cemetery Tour. After touring Zentralfriedhof for over a dozen times in the last 2 years (and also twice during Vienna Calling ’10 and ’11), I had decided to go to another cemetery this year: St. Marx in Vienna’s 3rd district. It’s a lovely small, romantic and overgrown cemetery that hasn’t been in use for over 130 years. I didn’t have as many attendants as last year, but that might be because there was a city tour that ended just a little too late for some to make it to my meeting point. After the planned tour at St. Marx, I spontaneously decided to accompany some couchsurfers to Zentralfriedhof and give them a short tour there. Well – there is no such thing as a short trip to Zentralfriedhof, and we walked through there for about 2 hours.
On Friday evening, the plan was to stay at the Base, maybe go to Prater for some rides, and just relax. Unfortunately, the Prater plans had to be abandoned due to torrential rain that also doused the BBQ. We had to relocate that night’s meeting to Flying Pig, and also the next day’s location for the general meetings.
After a relaxing day and the Main Party on Saturday, I met with some couchsurfers on Sunday to go and give Free Hugs in the first district. All in all, it was a really exhausting weekend, and good fun 🙂
