Yesterday Austria, Today Slovakia, Tomorrow Hungary

 The advantage of living in a landlocked country is the potential to travel to a different country each day if you feel like it.This was recently the case for me as one day I explored more of Vienna, the next Bratislava and the day after that, back to the familiar Sopron. As much as I miss the coastline, it's quite refreshing to live in a landlocked country and be able to travel elsewhere by train instead of by plane.

 

Slovakia

Earlier this year I had actually applied for a job in Bratislava, having never been there before but

being attracted by the job advertisement and the curious unknown. Slovakia also appeared as my fourth country of preference in my Comenius application (after Switzerland, Germany and Austria) and I was just lucky I didn't end up in some small-town Slovakian school with one of my main goals of Comenius to learn German. That probably wouldn't have worked out so well.

But there was something charming about Bratislava. It has a raw authenticity that's not as easy to find these days in a central European capital. Try speaking in English or German and hope for the best. For 15€ return from Vienna with the ÖBB Bratislover deal, including public transport in Bratislava, it's worth a visit! 

Thomas and I went there rather unprepared, checking Wikipedia on the way there to see what might be of interest. Sometimes this is a more fun and adventurous way to travel - just go there and see what happens. When we arrived at the train station our first mission was to find a map. With the only one available being more than 6€, we figured we could do without it. So we found our way into the city by bus and stumbled upon a hostel. From experience I have found that hostels are one of the best places to ask for information and this one provided no exception. They had free city maps and a friendly smile, so we gladly accepted a map and asked where exactly we were.

From there we could orientate ourselves and take a walk through the sweet, little old town and enjoy the street cafe atmosphere. We stopped at an adorable wee cafe and treated ourselves to some organic tea and cake before moving on to explore more. We were impressed by the hospitality industry and the great service we received in the hostel (where we didn't pay a cent - they have euros in Slovakia), the cafe and later a Slovak pub that was recommended to us. 

Feeling energetic, we proceeded to climb up a hill to the castle in Bratislava, anticipating that we would be rewarded with a worthy, spectacular, panoramic view of the city. Well, we were but just not quite as I was expecting - picture block after block of industrial,

post-Soviet looking flats painted different colours as if in an attempt to make the most of what they have to please the eye of the tourist. It's almost the complete opposite of the city view of Vienna, just 1 hour away. But I'm sure there is more to Bratislava than what first meets the eye and I wouldn't be surprised if I find myself back there again.

Austria

The advantage of living in a big city is that there is always something happening; events and festivals every weekend it seems. I took the opportunity to check out a few of these, including live opera screening, the harvest festival Erntedankfest, Salsa goes Donaupromenade and the Buskers festival. I love the busker culture but I have to say that I prefer a decent busker on the street playing some kind of string instrument and singing with a voice that's easy on the ears than the one's that play to the audience at a festival. 

I had never experienced any exposure to opera before and I can imagine it would be quite enchanting if you could understand what is happening or be able to read the subtitles (in this case, my German proficiency is not quite high enough to understand the subtitles to an opera.) Nevertheless, the atmosphere and interest from the crowd of people also watching outside was enough to make it enjoyable for a short time.

It's really the atmosphere of these kinds of festivals that entice me. And the possibility to meet interesting, new people or discover new things, or simply people-watch. People watching can be fascinating at any kind of festival. At the Erntedankfest I put my German skills to the test by attempting to hold a short conversation with an elderly couple while waiting for a Wiener Schnitzel. These are tiny moments of joy when I can make myself understood in German, not caring about the grammar mistakes. The Salsa festival was also interesting to check out and made me want to take some dancing lessons with Thomas - that's one for the future! 

The most recent event I joined with two fellow Comenius Assistants here in Vienna was a closing party for an awareness campaign day promoting awareness of refugees in Austria. There were many other happenings as part of the campaign including exhibitions, cooking classes and football tournaments in an attempt to educate Austrians on the lives of refugees. I'm not sure if we got the message from the closing party but it was a great opportunity to discover another new area of Vienna and a useful one too!

Before making it to that party, the evening began with some unexpected drama. In the middle of cooking for the three of us on my tiny, two-ring hob, I plugged in the kettle and blew the fuse, resulting in all the electricity going off in my flat! It apparently couldn't handle too many things plugged in at once (the fridge, hob, radio and kettle) and left us with the dinner half made and no light. Somehow though, while attempting to solve the problem, I managed to salvage the food and we could enjoy a candlelit dinner of sweet potato mash and spicy, crunchy vegetables. It all worked out rather well in the end and together with my landlady, we replaced the fuses and electricity was restored to my flat before we went out to the party.

One thing that I don't think I can get used to is the fact that people smoke in bars, restaurants, cafes and pubs. Granted, it doesn't happen in all of them but in quite a few those I've been in I feel like I'm taken back in time when it was impossible to have a night out without coming home with a sore throat and the smell of smoke engrained in every strand of hair and every garment of clothing. I don't really understand the rules in Austria. It's strange that here you can be fined if you cross the road when the traffic lights show a red man for pedestrians, even if the road is clear of traffic, yet there’s no such thing as smoke detectors in people’s homes and the smoking laws are not well enforced. Wikipedia refreshed my memory about the confusion of the smoking ban in Austria - basically, some places have it, some places don't and some places don't seem to care.

Nevertheless, at this time of the year it is worth going out to a cafe or pub to enjoy the seasonal drink, Sturm. I didn't know what Sturm was until very recently but it turns out it's a special kind of fermenting, cloudy wine that is only available during the autumn season and it tastes good! My preference is the red Sturm (since it is made from grapes, it can be offered in red or white, just like wine.)

Hungary

The reason for going to Hungary this time was during a day trip in Burgenland – Eisenstadt (Eszterhazy palace), Mörbisch then Hungary via Lake Fertő, specifically to enjoy winetasting in Sopron. Of course I had spent a summer in Sopron and knew it quite well but I had not experienced it much as part of a group of foreigners and was happy to experience a new side of it. 

Winetasting was something that I wasn't sure I would enjoy before living in Hungary but in this region around Sopron and Vienna, wine, in my opinion, is the best choice of alcoholic beverage. I had pictured winetasting to be appreciating tiny sips of wine, tasting it briefly before spitting it into some kind of bucket. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we could try five different types and enjoy them as a typical glass of wine. The final, fruity red that we tried was my favourite. 

So that was Yesterday Austria, Today Slovakia, Tomorrow Hungary - New experiences, new people, new places. What will be next? Your guess is as good as mine!