WELL this blog has been quiet!! I haven’t posted for 2 weeks! That is crazy to me, because I feel like I’ve been doing stuff, but none of that stuff is showing up. And then I remembered:

it’s because I’ve been too lazy to write it down.

And I have to do that now.

Dang it.

---

Last weekend on Sunday I travelled to Vienna. I had a flight out of Vienna early on monday, and if I wanted to be at the airport at a reasonable hour, I had to eaither stay the night, or catch a bus at like 4am on monday. And that didn’t really seem appealing to me – call me crazy, right?

So Sunday morning I got up early and got to the train station around 8:45. The train line that I would normally have gotten on a train at was under construction all weekend, and so if you wanted to get to Linz or St. Valentin or pretty much anywhere along the train line, there was a replacement bus that was running every 30 minutes. I had a train to catch in St. Valentin at like 9:40, and according to my OBB (train company) app, I would take this bus at 9 and arrive in St Valentin with 8 minutes to spare. Which is common – the transit system here is FREAKISHLY punctual. If your train is supposed to leave at 9:02, it will blow the whistle and leave at 9:02 – not 9:00, not at 9:05, right on time. And train stations are set up really easy and so 8 minutes between connections is pretty standard and not a big deal.

I got to the train station early because I had absolutely no idea how this whole bus situation was going to work. I didnt know where the bus would stop, how I was supposed to get a ticket, etc. So I showed up extra early in the hope that I would be able to figure everything out.

Tthe bus ticket fare was included in my train ticket that I purchased, so that was really helpful. And there as a sign outside the station that was for the bus, but it was unclear if the bus picked up there, or farther down the road at the bus terminal. So I stood outside the station with my phone and google translate app trying to read this dang sign so I could figure out where I was supposed to go. And it was not going well, to be honest.

Finally, I had to give up. A lady and her son were walking past me into the train station, and I just kind of stopped her, asked her if she spoke english (she said “a little”, which seems to be a very popular answer) and I asked her about the bus and what the sign was saying. She was also going to catch the bus, but she was catching it the other direction. When a bus showed up at the front, she asked the driver if he went to St. Valentin. She told me it was the wrong bus and that I should wait for the other bus. And then her and her son got on the bus and left.

She was super nice, and asked me about where I was going, where Ii was from, etc. You know, the standard exchange questions we all know and love.

I got on the bus, and I got to St. Valentin on time and everything was good.

I ended up getting to Vienna around noon, and I planned on attending church at the English Ward in Vienna at 1:30pm. So when I got to the trainstation, I made my way to the Hostel I was staying at which as about 5 minutes away – fun fact, its the same hostel I stayed at last time I was in Vienna as well. I wasn’t able to check in until after 2pm, but I could rent a locker and store my suitcase and such in it. So I did that.  I then had to figure out how to get to church. The building was on the other side of the city from me, and would take me over an hour to get there by walking.

Thankfully, I am familiar with Vienna’s subway/metro network, and by taking 2 lines I got as close as I could to the building, and then walked the remaining 15 minutes. I arrived at almost exactly 1:30, and sat by myself in the chapel.

There was a family sitting in front of me with 3 girls, and a mom and dad. The mom started talking to me before the meeting started.

It turns out that she is from Canmore, Alberta. What are the freaking chances of that?!?!?

I can’t remember her name, and I thought it rude to ask what her family was doing in Vienna, but it was crazy to me! Her family were super nice to me, and at the end of the meeting she showed me to the Gospel Doctrine class and her and her husband sat with me and talked to me. She had a call in YW, which totally makes sense, and she said she would look out for me as if I was a YW too. It was so nice!!

In RS, she had to go to YW, so I was by myself again, which was fine. And then a kind black lady named Sofie sat beside me and talked to me. She asked me about Steyr, about my classes, etc. She said “Are you visiting, or newly moved in?” and I said I was just visiting. She said “So you don’t know anybody? That’s why you’re sitting here by yourself?” and I said yes. She said “well I would love to sit here next to you if that’s alright.” which I obviously agreed to. She was really nice too, and gave me some gum.

I will say that it was super refreshing being in an english ward. This is the first time I’ve attended church since moving here, and it was really nice to sing the hymns and take the Sacrament and listen to the lessons. And everyone was so nice to me and I thought that was really great.

After church I headed back to the hostel to change out of my Sunday best before meeting up with my Irish friends Hazel and Niamh who were also in Vienna. We had planned to meet up that day as it was their last day in Vienna. They arrived on friday to pick up Niamh’s sister from the airport for easter break, and they had spent all weekend touring around.

So that evening we went to the Prater — the amusement park from a couple weeks ago. And in the evening it is much more awake than during the day. We went on the giant wheel, which is called the Prater.

(I posted a picture of this on Instagram, which you should definitely go follow right now! @ekpattz_ )

It’s actually a really big deal, and is counted among Vienna’s biggest sites, along with St. Stephan’s Cathedral and the Schönbrunn Palace. It was pretty much a big Ferris Wheel, so I don’t really get it, but whatever. We walked around a bit, and went for dinner. We ended up getting back to the hostel around 10:30, which was my bedtime. (Sidenote, I booked this hostel with them so we could hang out – it was planned haha).

---

It wasn’t really a super busy day, but I thought church was really nice. It was actually really nice to hear a familiar accent! Lots of the people there were American, and so the english was in an accent that was familiar. It’s “easier” english to understand for me, so it was nice to not have to strain to understand sometimes.

---

I’ll write about my easter break in a different post because I like to keep things seperated and organized, so that post will be up tommorrow…. 🙂

I hope everyone had a good easter! I hope you all travelled safe and had a nice weekend!

Shoutout to my main gal Katie who got married this past weekend  – March 26! I am so excited and happy for you, and very sad and sorry I could not be there to share this wonderful day with you. You rock! Love you lots!

I will catch y’all on the flip side!

 

emma.k