Valencia..aka...Valenthia...aka the place where oranges come from!

After a wonderful week at Katsdorf it's a little odd to be heading to a brand new country - new culture, new language, and new climate. In the space of a week my comprehension of German had improved out of sight...in spite of the Katsdorf dialect...and I could feel it all instantaneously rushing out of my head as we flew away from Austria!

So much for the new climate part of it -- the pilot announces that the weather in Girona, where I am landing, is in the negatives, raining and they are expecting snow showers that evening.

Spain colder than upper Austria? Go figure!

The destination for the day is Valencia, first a flight Linz to Girona, then train to Barcelona and then high speed train to Valencia where Jordi aka Georg aka my personal tour guide will be waiting :D

Although long, the highlight of the journey is the first class service on the high speed train to Valencia. When booking the ticket the special price for first class was the same as second class, so I booked a first class ticket. Big comfy seats with lots of leg room, a full dinner, endless drinks and nibblies, a newspaper and an hilarious movie on the TV screens made an awesome training experience - while the train sped along at upto 200km/hour.


In Valencia, as expected, Georg was waiting. Luckily the weather here knew I was coming, and was the warmer Spanish temperatures I had expected.

Wow...writing this all out, a month after travelling, is alot harder than it sounds! Let's just say there were lots of highlights. Spanish food is brilliant: the Spanish Tortilla (potatoes and eggs...yum!), the garlic sauce stuff with potatoes, the Paella...wunderbar!


Saturday's agenda was touring the city..this include the cool modern buildings, Americas Cup harbour and a circus!


Along with the old town of Valencia, very different to to the alstadts of the Austrian cities.


Sunday my curse involving weather had realised its mistake on Saturday - miserable, rainy and cold...but we had plans for lunch in a nearby lake. The lake was amazing - a shallow swamp like thing, with roads only wide enough for one car criss crossing throughout the kilometres long and kilometres wide 'lake'. With the horrible weather it was certainly a site, beautiful in a gloomy kind of way.

Easily the best of Valencia was the Gulliver, in the "River":


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Austrian Whitish Christmas

After November's anticipation of Christmas Carol season approaching, busy December passed with barely a thought of Silent Nights or Reindeers...not to worry, with the help of Youtube I make up for a month's missed festive sing alongs with the now annual viewing of White Christmas (classic!) and lots of classic carols from Bing and co.

So...after a hectic week at Uni the reality of Christmas being just around the corner started to sink in. The last minute rush of errands and Christmas gift buying was compounded by a miserable rainy, freezing cold Salzburg day, and Salzburg old town being jam packed with tourists....sigh.

But, I survive, and start my Christmas Euro-Adventure on a train to Linz - ready to celebrate Kat's Birthday and then Christmas, Katsdorf style.

Sunday is Kat's bday so we Saturday night is filled with cards, bowling and dancing...into the early hours of Sunday. While the weather is miserable outside - not cold enough to snow, but rainy and too cold to want to venture out - inside we spend a lovely afternoon celebrating Kat with a range of friends and family members coming and going in a kind of open house.

As Christmas was approaching I was anxiously waiting to see if my dream of a White Christmas would become reality. Unfortunately the Linz weather had no intentions of giving a pre-Christmas covering of snow...but I did get to make my first snow man in Europe! Kat and I headed to higher ground in search of natural spring water, snow and pretty views - and we found it...along with the mandatory snow ball fight and frozen bodies.


Keeping an ongoing record of the happenings when travelling is a good idea...unfortunately I didn't do that...so now the events of the week have no kind of chronological order!

Other activities during the week were meeting up at the Christmas Markets in Linz with some of Kat's Uni friends, many of whom have gone their separate ways.

Another night we went along to an ice hockey match - not quite as thrilling as watching footy back home, but entertaining nonetheless. Unfortunately Kat has a bit of a reputation for making Linz lose...every game she has attended they have lost, and the curse continued on this ill-fated night.


Finally the reason for the location was approaching - the Christmas festivities were about to begin...a day early! Strangely enough we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve :D

Kat does something like the Sunday School (but its not on Sundays) at her Church, and on Christmas Eve the children perform some kind of reenactment of the Christmas story - so off to Church we went. The Church was packed with families, although notably most only had one parent in attendance...the reason for this being that the Christkind will be visiting the home....

Unlike our debate about when the Christmas Tree should be put up, the Austrians have it much simpler..but I think not quite so fun :D The Christkind (some kind of feminine angel like being, no one has ever seen it, so we cannot be sure what it is) brings the Christmas Tree and the Christmas presents on December 24. After the Children's Service at Church they arrive home to find the Christkind has visited :D

First stop was Christmas at Kat's maternal Grandma's. The family sat around the table, singing carols, doing reading and some discussion about the significance of Jesus' birth for our own lives.

Then the exciting part - the Christmas Tree is covered in real candles, which are lit - making a very pretty Christmas tree. Then presents, followed by food - some special kinds of sandwiches that Kat was looking forward to all day!



Next stop is home...and the Christkind has been! The presents are under the tree, and the family gathers round. Kathi (Kat's Mum) lights the candles on the tree...another beautiful tree alight! Then the anticipated giving and receiving of presents, with much joy, ensues.

So...Christmas celebration count so far is two...and there's one more to come - Gerhard's parents place, just a minute's walk down the lane. Again the family gathers round the table (the kind of wooden table with seats built into the wall that all Austrian homes seem to have) to sing carols - granted, this time with a bit more volume and a little less solemness.

Again, my favourite part -the Christmas tree is lit...and then the presents are given and received.


But that's not all folks - we haven't been to Church yet! The Christmas service starts at 11pm - it's a long day! Interestingly the service attracts a very youthful crowd...and after the expected carols, reading, sermon and communion the reason becomes much clearer: we head across the street to the local for a drink, or two....only in Austria!

The temperature is getting colder...and there's been rumours of snow all week...but still nothing white falling from the sky :(

By the time we get back it's Christmas Day - but the celebrations are over as far as the natives are concerned. Luckily for me I'm just in time to catch up with the family for the real deal, on Christmas afternoon back home. After a long catchup it's finally time for bed...only an hour before Brydie usually wakes us up on Christmas Day!

A few hours later my chances of getting a White Christmas are running thin. Its a dreary morning, with no sign of snow. Convinced that I would wake up to white all around, I dejectedly go back to bed for an hour so....after finally getting the motivation to rise, I take a discouraged peek outside the window...and surprise, surprise, there is the smallest sprinkling of snow starting to fall :D The snow doesn't last long, and there isn't much of it...but that is barely the point! On the walk to Gerhard's parents place its cold out, and there is enough snow to make the ground, fences and roofs appear white - yay!!

Christmas Day is very pleasantly spent with Gerhard's family - grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins over lunch and then an afternoon of chocolates, gossip and news for the oldies and poker for the kids, before more food! Sounds perfect...unfortunately all my luck must have been invested in the snow fall, cause I win just 3 hands in 3 hours of poker...ruining my flawless European Poker record. After a day of sitting and eating we're in dire need of some exercise - as the sun is setting we brave the chill for a lovely walk in the icy lanes around Kat's home, through fields overlooking Katsdorf, with the setting sun in the background.

Boxing Day arrives and its time to head off for Spain - warm weather! sun! no, the weather has had it in for me since I arrived in Europe (something Jordi has a theory about) - its colder in Barcelona than in Linz! Snow showers are expected in Girona!

Mozarteis...what else would it be in Salzburg?

Tonight the girls that were left in Salzburg headed to the Mozarteis for a fun night of ice skating.


The weather had taken a turn just in time - there was snow all around....well it had started to melt, but there was still enough snow for snowball fights :D

Advent in Rif

Walking around Rif today I saw a heap of signs about Rif-Advent. From what I could gather they count the days of Advent with a party at a different family's home each night - what a cool idea! Tonight is number 13, and this house is the closest you could be to the Fachhochschule, so I took that as a sign and went along to see what the locals are upto.

The host read a poem and said some words...I couldn't follow much of it, as of course it was in German! I could make out a few words here and there and maybe got the gist of it...maybe not! Another one of those occasions when I really wish I could just speak and understand German! argh! In saying that, its hard not to chuckle when the gruff wife points to her husband and says "das ist mein Mann".
True to Austrian fashion the locals weren't overly friendly. Of course, ,the ones who were couldn't speak much English! There were about fifty people there, from tiny kids to barely standing oldies. The hosts had alot of Gluhwein prepared, along with chocolates, a range of sausages and bread. Everyone stood around the fires drinking Gluhwein and smoking, while the boys found sticks to play with the fires...

A really nice idea it seems...a different house each night in the lead up to Christmas :D

I'm Making a List..and Checking it Twice....

Last night Santa visited Puch, and wish awesome results.

The occasion was the Erasmus (Exchange) Christmas Dinner - most of the Erasmus students turned up, with a few rings ins. Everyone bought something traditional from their country for what turned out to be a massive feast. There was Pavlova (disupted origin..the Kiwis made it), Polish cake, Austrian cake, Swiss Macaroni, Czech potato salad, Norweigen fish stuff...the list goes on.


Along with food everyone bought a gift for their Secret Santa victim. I was lucky enough to get some awesome Minnie Mouse slippers, just what I needed! From the looks of things most people were very happy with their presents, so the organisation was worth it!


To round out the evening Jordi and Rita played an awesome hour long video they have made of all the Erasmus students....and Roger! They had gone round knocking on doors unannounced, filming the results - sometimes this was hilarious :D they put the door opening scenes together with heaps of pictures and videos from some classic moments we've shared over the last three months -fantastic effort guys!

While it is great watching all the memories, it makes the end seem all to near - I have 3 weeks left living here with classes!!! There's 3 weeks away in Linz, Spain and Italy in between, but I am sure that is going to go extremely fast :(

Merry Christmas!

(I think there's alot of Gray in there)

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas...

Tonight was the Church Christmas Concert, and it came in the nick of time!

Following the first snow fall, before the official start of Advent, and the initial wanderings through the Christms Markets I had all but forgotten that we were less than three weeks out of Christmas - until Thursday night.

It was a freezing winter night - and right on cue, the snow began to fall shortly before we made our way to the Church. By the time I got back to Puch Thursday night there was a good centimetre covering the ground :D

The Christmas Concert itself was fantastic - carols and candles, a lovely Churchy atmosphere.

The anticipation of singing wintery carols where winter was the reality hit home, and awoke the inner Christmas junkie in me: now its Christmas Carols and anything and everything Christmassy for the next two weeks :D

Ps. Today was Michaela's Birthday - Happy 17th! We had a lovely afternoon tea at the Navis' home (these guys moved here from NZ over the last few months). She received the token sled - hopefully there will be snow to enjoy it in the near future :D

Smurfy!..and Silly Billy Mummy

Radio X-Stream held their second party this semester on campus - with a theme of Famous Couples/Teams. One bright Erasmus-student thought smothering ourselves in blue paint and wearing white sounded like fun, and found out that Smurfs do just that!

I, being me, wasn't too keen on the blue body paint business - but watching the girls get painted looked like too much fun to miss out on!


We marched two by two from the dorm to Fago, singing the Smurf song...or some kind of song!


The party was fun, but without a doubt the best part of the night was talking to home on Skype.

Somehow I (unintentionally) convinced Mum that I had turned blue because it was so cold..or something...and she began to panic! Dad was in the kitchen, and like me, thought she must have been pretending to panic, but then we realised she wasn't!

Oh dear...I don't know if that says more about my acting skills...or something about Mum....

December Weekend, Swiss Style

The hard life I lead took another amazing turn this weekend past, with 3 fantastic days in eastern Switzerland. Ditching the trains, as fun as spending twice as long getting somewhere in much less comfort can be, the equation was something like this:

2 Crazy Kiwis + 1 Awesome Aussie + 1 Silly Spaniard + 1 priceless Heidi (our GPS) = alot of fun :D

Saturday moring we were up early - I was up at 4am! For an early start, after saying goodbye to lucky Sandra (who is off to Australia for almost two months). Within the space of an hour we were in 4 different coutnries: Austria, Germany, Switzerland and tiny Lichtenstein - yes, it counts!

Our first stop with Lichtenstein - teeny tiny country with a reasonable castle. We drove up the big mountains behind the castle, an adventure in itself, with almost a foot of snow to trudge through, to find some amazing views and really test out the GPS.

The one thing we were definitely going to do in Switzerland was buy (and eat) good chocolate. With this in mind, our first stop inside Switzerland was the Lindt Factory at Kirchlberg...near Zurich. Lots and lots of pretty cheap Lindt chocolate, along with some free testers. The locals were stocking up big - many people buying hundreds of franks worth of chocolate!

Nachster halt....Luzern! It is safe to say we were all blown away by this little gem. We found our hostel, right on the lake near the Hauptbahnhof, and besides wishing it was summer, instead of the on-and-off rainy couple of degrees we werew being delt, the place was perfect!

For starters the city had a fantastic energy running through it. Old castle walls surround the city on one side, there is a strange wooden bridge, rebuilt to match the period after a 1993 fire....and a cool river with plenty of swans running through the middle. While wandering the streets we came across a brass band playing, christmas markets everywhere, and strange processions of people holding stars followed by people ringing bells dressed in white, followed by Saint Nicholas or something similar - not quite the Austrian Krampus!

On Sunday our destination was Zurich, with an impromptu detour to the delightful Zug - home fo Stefi. The town was buzzing with preparations for something called "Maerli", which seemed to involve fairtales and lamas...I wish we were there later in the day to see more!


Apart from that the town had some awesome statues of funny men above above fountains...

...a pretty Church and Castle, a lovely lake with an amazing, albeit cloudy, view of the surrounding enormous mountains and a bakery with cool cakes and bread in various shapes including a mouse and a man smoking a pipe!


This place goes pretty close to taking the cake as my favourite place we saw in Switzerland....

Soon enough we find ourselves in Zurich..the biggest city we will be visiting this weekend. We are off to a good start, parking our car in an expensive lot when we could get street parking for free, but we are round the corner from the famous Spruglis!

Of course we get some classic truffles - milk, white and dark chocolate - to sample, and boy, these things are amazing!


After this Zurich was a little on the down side with first impressiosn - every pretty historic building was covered in scaffolding or had a crane ruining the view..the weather was cold and there was nothing too fancy to see. But after some walking we came across the older parts of the city - cool little cobbled laneways and tiny walkways along the river redeemed teh city pretty quickly :D

Then..the big winner...some crazy event where teams of people were swimming from one side of the river to the next. Keep in mind that it was only 1 degree outside, if that, and these guys and gals were swimming in speedos...not wetsuits!

After an interesting lunch - some strange pastie type thing with curry (ie Indian style) tofu, coleslaw and tomato - which tasted suprisingly good; we toured the Museum of Modern Art....which was akin to beating a dead horse in my opinion....:P


We rounded out the day by taking our hired Peugeot for some good-ol'-fashioned bush bashing in the dirt roads at the top of the Zurichberg...and finding an amazing view of the city, lake, moon and stars :D

Later that night, after finding our accommodation at Neuhausen, we each had a little turn at driving on the wrong side of the road...and for me, driving a manual for the first time in too many years...but the car was in one piece, so all was good!

Monday goes pretty close to being the best day of the trip -- a late start after sleeping in, then we checked out the Rheinfall by day. Next stop is Shaffhausen - a fantastic castle and overall a lovely historic village with more pretty statues of funny men.

Our final Swiss destination is Appenzell - the best part of this place is the route Heidi takes us on - up and down, round and round snow covered mountains and valleys, with gorgeous views... :D

Pinch and a Punch for the First Day of the Month

Another month...and what a biggie! I could be referring to November just passed, or December hurtling full speed towards me.

The past week has been quite eventful - in small ways. No new countries or strange languages, but getting into a lovely routine of life - just in time for this life to be nearly over!

Saturday night we saw a Krampus (see here) parade at Gnigl (suburb of Salzburg)...a little disappointing as the Krampus really did just parade through, scaring here and there, but with the barriers and masses of people shorties like me couldn't see much. The Krampus still scared the younguns though - the little kids found their way through the crowd to the front of the barriers, then when the Krampus came and did their thing masses of little kids scurried out like mice desperately searching for their parents!


Friday night was Sandra's going away party - the poor dear is heading to Oz for 7 weeks for a holiday...lucky duck! She's going to have a fabulous time, how can you not in the greatest country on earth? Oz is a popular destination it seems - there's half a dozen different friends with plans to head to Australia in the near future.

Backtracking further Thursday night was Roger's Birthday party - the Kiwi girls hosted a fantastic Mexican dinner. Almost as exciting is what I bought in Libro Thursday afternoon - Gilmore Girls! My theory is that if I watch it in German, or maybe German subtitles, it will count as studying ;) Also good news on the shopping front is that Interspar at Hallein has both rice milk and gluten free pasta....still no nice gluten/dairy/soy free biscuits or sweet things to be found in Salzburg though.


Wednesday was the usual Bible Study day, with Women's in the afternoon and Student's at night, and my first Indigo experience - somewhere decent to eat in Salzburg!

Looking forward - this weekend we are heading to Switzerland, as Monday is a holiday. Lots of Uni work to be done between now and Christmas too, but classes are getting interesting - when I can keep up.

Getting excited about my Christmas plans now too - Christmas with Kat and the fam in Katsdorf, then on to Barcelona for 5 days including New Years - followed by 10 days with the Kiwi girls travelling through northern Italy - it's bound to be a great time :D

After that I come back to finish of the semester for 2 weeks - then it's all over! Time has flown, and I have a bad feeling it's going to go pretty quick between now and then too.

I'm also getting motivated to think about what I'm going to do come January 23. My next (and last!) semester of Uni doesn't start until July - it would be a shame to waste the opportunity of a few months in Europe, to see Spring and then Summer come after the cold, hopefully white Winter.....at the moment the top contenders are getting a Working Holiday Visa for Germany and finding some kind if employment somewhere in that country....or finding a job here in Salzburg and attempting to get a residence and work visa..although I am not sure what that entails at this stage.