Thursday, August 13, 2009

up next

I was planning on going to another WWOOF farm in Tyrol after Vienna, but I have changed my mind and now plan to go to Prague. I had been planning on going there and my plans changed and now I'm changing them back again.

I have about 12 days left of my trip.

My tentative plans are to spend 3 nights in Prague (I go there tomorrow!)
3 nights in Berlin
and the last 4 nights in Munich!

I just looked at my flight info and realized I'll be arriving in Seattle on the 25th! not the 26th! For some reason I thought I lost a day during my travels, like I did on my way here. but since I'm going through time the other direction I reach the west coast the same day I leave Munich, but have to stay overnight in LA because the connection was not long enough for customs. Oh silly airlines. But oh well I get to hang out with Caroline for a night!

So now that you are up to date, I'm going to look into Hostels in Prague and Berlin.

Tonight we are going to a wine tasting at a beach bar in Vienna with Irene's cousin Isabella. It should be fun and a good way to wrap up my time in Vienna!

Vienna

I arrived in Vienna on Saturday morning, a family staying at the Adam farm was heading up to the Vienna zoo and I got a ride with them.
Since arriving we have seen so many things, I can't keep track of what happened each day!

We walked around downtown Vienna, went to the NaschMarkt and flea market(I was excited for it but, it was more like a big garage sale where everyone was selling their old junk! It was more exciting to see what other people were finding interesting, that getting anything for myself.)
The NaschMarkt is kind of like Pike Place market, with a bunch of permenate stands selling produce, olives, fish, meat, cheese, wine. We got some dried fruit beacuse it looked so good and a woman kept giving us samples. Yum!

We went to a beach bar on the river, where they had brought in sand. Fun!

We saw all the major buildings downtown; the City Hall, Heldenplatz, the museums, the University, the parliment and the secession.

We went back to the City hall building on Sunday night, they have food stands from around the world and show operas, symphonies, plays and other concerts. That night we watched Europakonzert of Mozart, Bruch and Beethoven. We had drinks and dinner first from the stands then took a seat to watch. It was really fun! and it was surprisingly crowded!

We also went to Kahlenberg where you can look down the hill and see all of Vienna.

Then we went to the SeeGrotte, an underground cave where they use to mine gypsum and later used to film The 3 Muskateers and build airplanes during WWII before it was flooded in 1912.
Now it's a tourist attraction. You can walk through the upper caves and then go down below to take boat through the grotte. It was interesting and Irene helped translate what the tour guide said.

Then she took me a strange restaurant that has the best Weiner Snitchzel. It was good, but it was bigger than my head!

We went to the cementary where Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms and many other famous Vienitians are buried. It is a huge cementary and we only saw a tiny bit!

While she is at work, I get to hang out in her apartment, I've been watching Queer as Folk season one, and it's so good, I don't want to leave to go sightsee! haha
I have also posted lots of photos on Picasa, and you can see photos from everything I've been talking about there, just use the link for Pletvice Lakes below!

I have had a lot of fun staying with Irene, I hope she comes to visit Seattle again soon, I know my mom would love to see her!
Well Irene and I have been having a lot of fun! I almost don't want to leave. And I'm getting excited to getting home, but no about looking for a job. So I want to make the most of the time I have left.

Biohof Adam

I am volunteering at the Biohof Adam - the organic farm of the Adam's family. It consists of Franz & Maria, the father and mother, Hannes, Werner & Gerti (3 children in their 20's), 12 cows, ducks, chickens, turkeys and cats(Felix, Lily and a few others).

They have vineyards, animals and produce.

I had an awesome room with a double bed, a desk and couch, I had a beautiful view out my two little windows. I had my own shower and bathroom. I almost didn't want to leave it!

Because of the language barrier, we never discussed when I should get up for breakfast, when I should start helping or finish for the day, when I could take breaks and for how long.
So I just came down around 8, ate breakfast and sat in the kitchen until someone said to come help them. Or I wondered around the farm looking for someone working and asked if I could help them.
Other times I wanted to leave what I was doing to use the restroom or get some water, the son would ask oh would you like to take your break now? You don't need to hurry back.
One time I went to the bathroom and sat in my room reading and couldn't put my book down! I felt bad for being gone so long, but when I returned to help again, he said I hadn't been gone long at all!
So I guess they are just happy for some help and they aren't picky with how long you help or if you don't want to do something you don't have to.

For the first couple days we got the wine ready to bottle, then I helped bottle and cork wine. It was fun, but hard work. The next day my muscles were sore!
A bag or 500 corks cost around 150Euro! man I didn't know cork was that expensive, now they are starting to switch to metal screw top lids. Hannes' said they work just as well, are cheaper and have less problems than cork.
Did you know cork can have a bad smell and ruin a good bottle of wine?

I helped glue labels on juice bottles, and harvest potatoes.

One day I had to be down at breakfast at 7am, so I could go into town to help with shopping. I went with the mother and father, so I didn't really understand what was going on.
We went to one store that sold wine bottling supplies, gardening supplies, flowering plants, household supplies, some snacks and clothing! I couldn't figure it out! I guess that's what you get in a small town near wineries and farms.
We went to 2 different grocery stores of the same name, a pharmacy, and some other stores.

Since it's an organic farm, they don't have much machinery and we did most things by hand!

I went to a soccer game with the two boys, in Graz. Austria vs. Montenegro. It was a shut out! Austria won 5 to zero! It was a pretty fun game!

The language barrier kind of sucked at the farm. The parent's don't speak much english and I know very little german so we either had to have one of the kids translate or we used hand motions and I tried to do what they asked!

Overall it was fun and the family was super nice. We both love cats and Hannes and Gerti have even been to Costa Rica. The family does a lot of traveling and I invited them to come visit me in Seattle!

Graz

I stayed with Hilde for a few days, helping her around the house, washing windows, replacing the tire on the wheelbarrow, while I tried to find a farm.

She took me up to the mountains to try some local wine and special food from the region.

We went to a circus where her grandson was preforming breakdancing. Graz has a 3 week summer camp where kids learn circus tricks and then preform for their families. It was really fun and some of the stuff the kids could do was amazing! There were stilts, unicycles, juglers, tightrope walkers and more!

After the circus we had indian food, yum!

Hilde will drive me out to the WWOOF farm on Monday, I can't wait!

Monday, August 10, 2009

New Photos!

ok I spent all day uploading my photos onto Picasa for your viewing pleasure.

Please try going here:
You are invited to view Becky's photo album: Pletvice lakes national park

Pletvice lakes national park
pletvice, croatia -
Aug 10, 2009by Becky
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Message from Becky:
picasa photo album
If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser:http://picasaweb.google.at/lh/sredir?uname=beckstravelingagain&target=ALBUM&id=5368285806086021761&authkey=Gv1sRgCLbuj6TE3IWungE&feat=email

If that doesn't work you can go to google's Picasa and looking for me by my name or beckstravelingagain.