CouchSurfing

Welcome Home and Happy Birthday!

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After meeting for the first time one year ago, and meeting many times since, Kerstin has become a dear friend of mine. She is, obviously, a Couchsurfer, and is one of the most active members of the Graz community.

When she left to spend the whole summer, nearly 4 months, to tour through North America, Georg and I of course came to say good-bye. It was a great weekend, ending in an amazing, unexpected (at least by Kerstin) farewell-scene at Graz airport.

And when Kerstin sent a message saying she was planning a welcome home party in Carinthia, we of course made all arrangements necessary to go there!

So again, we spent the last weekend in Carinthia, this time at Falkertsee, in a lovely little house, talking, laughing, relaxing. We walked around Falkertsee, we played Minigolf and Pit-Pat, we had a delicious Brettljause, chocolate cake, Linzer Torte, Limoncello, Weißwurstfrühstück, and – in my opinion best of all – home made Zirbenschnaps. Together with 10 others – family and friends, people we already knew and people we did not meet before – we had a great time.

Thanks a lot again for the invitation, Kersy, and see you at Sturm Graz 🙂

CouchSurfing

Bjarte

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Monday afternoon, I received a last-minute request for Monday night only. The message was really nice, and the profile looked fine, too. Bjarte seemed to be a good surfer and host so far, so I accepted his request.

In the early evening, after work, he met me and some fellow Couchsurfers at Rathausplatz. It is a great place to be, as there is always something going on: Film Festivals, Food Festivals, Sports Events, …

At the moment, there is a Film Festival with lots of Food Stands of different restaurants. They are open already from 11 a.m., so you can have your lunch there.

After having some great food, Bjarte headed back to his car to pick up his stuff. He had a GPS with him, so he would find our place without problems. It took him some time, though, to arrive, as he arranged some more things concerning his car and so on.

We went to Kino am Dach with some friends that night. In Summer, Vienna is full with open air cinemas. Kino am Dach is one of them, situated atop the main library of the city of Vienna. We watched “True Romance” and afterwards went for a beer.

The next day, after some sightseeing with Georg, he went on to Bratislava and then to Budapest. A short stay it was, but I enjoyed it very much and we had a good time 🙂

CouchSurfing, Other

Holiday Plans!

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I know, it is still some time to go, but: For my first semester break in February 2012, I already have made plans and booked a flight.

It’s an enormously cheap offer by Austrian Airlines: Vienna – New York for less than 390 Euros!

I will stay in the US for 2 weeks, with short trips to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. I already spent 4 days in New York some years ago, and I guess, I’ll have about one week this time 🙂

By the way, the offer by Austrian Airlines is only valid for the rest of today. There are also cheap flights to Toronto (around 450 Euros) and Washington (around 500 Euros).

Other

Looking for …

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a flatmate. Actually, two flatmates. One has already left the flat, the other still has to pass one final exam in October, so the second room will be available as of October.

Still, we are already looking for new flatmates now, as we want to get this done. One new flatmate is already pretty much fixed – and that’s, interestingly, for the room being vacant as of October. For the other one, we already had some more people over, but we’re not 100% convinced yet.

We will see.

Other

Condolences? Gratulations?

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I’m not sure which is more suitable to this, and so are my friends. Some are happy, some are sad, but it was unavoidable.

Due to regulations for the scholarship and some other stuff concerning my studies, I had to become Viennese. It’s official since Thursday, August 18, 5.15 pm.

I’m not tyrolean any more (at least in the population register).

Other

A Song of Ice and Fire

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Some weeks ago, I guess it was around the end of June, a friend of mine told me about this awesome HBO series he had discovered. It was called “A Game of Thrones”, and being totally new, was yet not broadcasted in the european area.

What should I say. I started watching the series, 11 episodes of 50-55 minutes each, and I finished within about one week. It’s a great series, with a wonderful cast, amazing landscapes and sets, and the storylines are really good. After finishing the 11 episodes, I checked the wikipedia article to see when the next season was planned to air.

2012.

How should I make it without knowing how the story goes on, until 2012? That’s one year!

But then I discovered this little sentence: “Based upon the novel >A Game of Thrones< by George R. R. Martin." Two days later, I had found and ordered the whole box, including three more books of the series, on Amazon. Another 3 days later, one day before my birthday, the box arrived.

What should I say. I started on July 15th, and by today, I am on page 193 of book four, "A Feast for Crows". Fortunately, book five, "A Dance with Dragons", has been published as a hardback shortly after I bought the box, so the paperback will come soon, too. Still, Martin has showed that he sometimes needs a bit longer to write his books than he plans to. Book 4 and 5 each took about 4 years to be published.

At least, in 2012 the next season, based upon "A Clash of Kings", will air.

Work / University

News of the day

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A successor has been found.

I don’t know too much about her until now. She’s from Tirol, and in case she accepts the offer, she will be moving to Vienna. I know her name, and her contact details, but have not met her or talked to her until now. She obviously was either the only person applying for the job, or the best, as she was the only one who came around for an interview.

We will see, hopefully she will start on September 1st.

CouchSurfing

Slovakia

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Long weekend short:

app. 750 km traveled
8 geocaches searched – 8 geocaches found
app. 5 castles visited
one night camping in the wild
one night in a hotel because of bad weather
3 sunny days, on rain during any day
a bunch of pictures

As soon as I got my pictures from my phone and the other guy uploaded all of his, I’ll post them. And in the meantime, I’ll try to write something longer and more detailed 😉