Euro-Roadtrip '09 - Vienna

Trip Start Aug 2008

Trip End Jul 2009

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Flag of Austria Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Sunday, March 15, 2009

We decided that there was absolutely no way we could continue in our present state of being. So, we called the school and asked if we could drop off "a few boxes" in order to make our trip "a little safer." By the time we managed to get everything into the car and find somewhere to get directions (not very good ones) it was already 1:00pm. We had to be at the school in order to get a key by 6:00pm. So, I drove.
The directions we saw said it should take about 4.5 hours for the journey. I tried my very best to make it less (read: Speed). However, Austria's highways are monitored like crazy! They have cameras and sensors EVERYWHERE. Once while driving, I saw a flash from one of the boxes, so we think we may have a ticket coming to us. Oops!

We probably would have happened, if we didn't need to stop for gas. According to the highway signs we only had 40km left, but the car only had 30km of gas left in it. Plus, when we pulled off the highway, there was a passport check station. So, we got flagged to the side of the road where they ran our passports. By the time we got gas, we only had 13 minutes left to get to the school. We thought we should still try to find it, in case someone stayed a little late in order to meet us. However, our directions were absolute crap! We drove around Vienna for an hour IN THE DARK, before we gave up and looked for a place to stay.

We spotted a little guest house sign, and rented a small apartment unit from a crazy-German speaking guy. We had to check-in inside of a bar ... it was a little bizarre! We bought some beers off of him, got some dinner, and proceeded to our nightly ritual.

The next morning we packed up early and headed to an Internet cafe to figure out where the school is. We were only about 2km away! It was so annoying! We got the keys to our new apartments and unloaded the car as fast as humanly possible. It. was. so. awesome. We tried out the restaurant that is below our apartments (I had my first weinerschnitzel). We grabbed some groceries (read: booze) and then went up to school to return the keys since weren't allowed to actually check-in until Friday.

We met up w/ the head of our department for a cup of coffee. He's actually from Indiana. We got started talking about his undergrad degree, which was from Butler and proceeded to talk about Indiana/Purdue. For some reason, I just kept ripping on Purdue (Sorry, Lisa!). When we finally got back in the car, I asked Annie and Chris if they knew where he got his other degrees from ... they said Purdue! CRAP! Good thing he's not teaching any of our classes this term!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He did point us in the right direction for our next leg of the trip ... Graz ...