a (not so) typical work day...

Hey guys!

I'm back!

The Vienna Book fair is over which means that I have my life back. In the past few weeks I stayed late at work, came home, ate, took a shower, went to bed, got back up, went to work, stayed late, came home, ate, took a shower, went to bed and so on. So there was no time for blogging.

On Friday, I had to walk around in Vienna to visit different venues and prepare them for readings, that took always place in the evenings. It was a beautiful and sunny day, quite warm for November and it was really nice to escape the office and have a stroll through beautiful Vienna. I want to take you with me on that walk. So let's go, through the inner district of this wonderful city!

I started with walking down the "Herrengasse", a shopping street where I never shop, as it's the home of all the luxury brands. Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton and similar. As I never spend much money on clothes (rather use the amount on books and yarn - you get much more for the same price!) this aren't shops where I will ever set foot in. But it's nice to look at the windows and ask myself who in the world would spend hundreds of Euros on clothes that look like they are second hand. And in very bad condition!

I walked past the Michaelerkirche. It's one of many beautiful churches in Vienna. The Vienna National Library has an Archive inside this building and I remember having a Seminar right under this dome when I was still studying German Literature.

Just right around the corner, you get the beautiful view of the Hofburg, where the National Library is situated and which is the former imperial palace of Vienna. Those two buildings in the background are the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Art History. The two buildings stand opposite each other and are identically built. Right in the middle is now one of the most beautiful christmas markets in Vienna. Though there are dozens of them taking place all over town right now.

I then had a stroll through the Volksgarten, a small park. During the warmer seasons, it smells really intense of roses. That is because there are hundred of different roses planted all over this park. I used to spend my breaks here when I was back at university, as it is just right around the corner of the campus.

And then I arrived at the Rathaus, the town hall of Vienna. I was there to watch over an award ceremony which I organized the last couple of weeks. Did you know that I used to work in a library in that building right before I stepped on a plane to Bangkok and travelled the world for the next four month? I have beautiful memories of those five working months there. Such a historical and wonderful building.

This is the room where the award ceremony took place. The town hall has hidden rooms like this all through the building. Beautiful, isn't it?

I wandered back to the office after that, spend the day on the telephone and then walked back to the town hall. The same route, but now in the evening, when it was already dark and the town as already lit up.

I was at a reading that evening which I had to supervise. Very interesting, it was bilingual, the author was from Romania and read in her mother tongue and of course we had a translator. It was really funny, though the book isn't about a funny topic of all. Those are the moments where I really love my job. Unfortunately, things like that mostly happen during the week of the Vienna book fair, when everyone is exhausted and worked out already. 

There is another christmas market right in front of the town house. I had some time before my train went back home, so I strolled through the stalls, breathed in the wonderful christmassy smell of baked goods, sweets, chocolate, sausages, glühwein (mulled wine) and everything else that belongs to a market like this. And I really looked forward to a calm and nice and relaxing christmas time.

If you've read until the end: Thank you for your patience.
Have a happy weekend.

Travelling Austria - a tour through the west

Hello lovely people, long time, no blog.

Austria had to suffer from an immense heat wave these last few weeks. During the day the temperatures rose to 39 degrees and it didn't really cool down in the night. We don't have air conditioning in our office, so I sweated day and night and wasn't really able to sit in front of my laptop and type up a post. 

But now it finally cooled down and I am able to take you to our trip through the western part of Austria, that my man and I took last week - prepare for a photo-heavy post!

When I was little, my parents always travelled to Tyrolia with my brother and me and I loved our week long holidays. My man and I decided to spend our  summer holiday in our own country this year and it was an amazing trip. 

We started by travelling by train (with our borrowed motorcycle on the back of the train - his Harley had to be repared so we had to borrow another motorcycle for this holiday) from the very east of Austria - where we live and where everything is flat as a pancake - to the most western city in this country. It took us all night to get there. It was the first time that I spend a night on the train and I loved it. I commute by train to work everyday, so I'm used to the motion and the sounds. Slept like a baby. 

the borrowed motorcycle. Not very cool or fast - but really comfortable!

On Monday we arrived in Feldkirch at 8 a.m. We took the motorcycle from the train an started to drive to the next big city, Bregenz. Bregenz is located at the Bodensee and shares a border with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It's famous for it's annual opera performance where the stage is built into the lake. This is what it looks like this year: 

the beautiful stage

lots and lots of terracotta warriors

After a nice cup of coffee we decided to drive a little more this day. We stopped when we felt like it, for example at this refreshing river. It felt amazing to just sit there and tip your toes into the icy water, breathe in the air and look at the cows on the mountains. Being in the nature always calms me down and because the West looks so different to my home it's easy for me to stop thinking about work or other problems at home. So I really was able to get in the holiday mood. It was extremely relaxing!

isn't this beautiful?

We took a little detour through the North of Italy, to have our lunch. The North of Italy is called "Southern Tyrolia" as it belonged to Austria before WW1. The people there see themselves still as Austrian citizens and they all speak German there. It's a beautiful landscape. Just across the border we came across the Reschensee. It's an artifical lake - with a church tower in the middle of it! You can read a little about it here.

the church tower in the middle of the Reschensee

It was really important for me to visit the Krimml Waterfalls. These are the highest waterfalls in Europe. I've visited them with my parents two times before (though that was a long time ago) and remember that I was really impressed. We hiked 400 metres uphill - and hiked them down again. That may not seem much but we're really not used to it! It was really amazing and even my man, who didn't want to go hiking was impressed and talked about future hiking trips on various Austrian mountains!

part of the waterfall

a rare picture of me! ;-)

the proof that we hiked up to 1.400 metres!

tested the black and white option at our camera. I should use it more often!

the sun looked so beautiful!

constant rainbow, caused by the fine droplets of water that splash from the waterfall.

Speaking of Austrian mountains: Here's a picture of Austrian's highes mountain: The Großglockner. It's a glacier and it's 3.798 meters high. There is a street called "Großglockner Hochalpenstraße" which leads 48 kilometres around the mountain. A MUST for every motorcycle rider! But it was really great and you had such a nice view! Again - extremely impressive!

driving up...

that peak in the middle is the Großglockner.

We spend the weekend at my sister in law. Her little lady, now two months old, got baptised on Sunday and we were invited. We had three really nice days with them and all their kids (she has two boys, now aged 7 and 8!) and it was a nice round-up to a nearly perfect holiday. Though I'm back at work I still feel relaxed and calm and happy.

happy nephew!

But as we always suffer from wanderlust we're already planning our next trip. We're thinking about visiting Thailand in February. But that's for another story.

Where did you go for your summer holiday? Do you prefer holidays in your own country or do you love to go abroad and explore new countries and new cultures?

Travelling Europe: Malta. And the mug story.

It all started a few years ago, when I moved in with my brother. We both needed a new appartment at that time and so we thought it would be practical (and fun) to move in together. We found a lovely appartment in Vienna and began our little adventure together. My brother is three years older than me and as long as I can remember - I have looked up to him.

One of the first things that my brother bought for this appartment was a coffee machine. Not just an ordinary machine. Oh no, he bought a Jura machine. Rumour has it, that this is the Rolls Royce when it comes to coffee machines. And it was the best investment EVER! We loved this coffee machine (he still does, it moved in with his girlfriend. WHO DOESN'T USE IT!!! She drinks coffee, but prefers her Nespresso machine. I really like that girl, but when it comes to this, I just don't understand that woman!) and it was used daily. A few times daily, actually. He worked at a newspaper at that time and was a really busy journalist and I used to study back then and thought that I would actually write my master thesis. (which I didn't. But that's a different story).

Anyway, lots of coffee drinking means lots of used coffee cups. We both practically just moved out of our parents house. We took some used mugs with us that my mother didn't need any more. Needless to say, that these weren't the prettiest cups in the world.

And then came Malta.

In 2010, my parents asked my brother and me if we wanted to travel to Malta with them. Our last full family holiday was ten years ago. Then came our complicated teenage years and we were way to embarrassed by our parents as to travel with them. But now we were grown up. A little more, at least. And so we were very excited, not only because that meant our parents would pay for everything but because we actually looked forward to travel with the whole family.

Now I've travelled a lot in the last years. I've been to France, to Spain, to Croatia, to Hungary, to the Czech Republic, I've visited Dublin and Paris and Greece and I've travelled around the world.
But this one week family holiday in Malta was probably one of the greatest holidays I've ever had. It was lovely, to spend so much time with my family. We did everything together and really had a lot of fun. In the following winter my mother got really sick and will stay sick for the rest of her life. So the memories of this holiday are even more precious with us, because she was still healthy and still says, that she is so thankful for this great holiday with her family, before our lives changed so drastically.

Here, have a look at some of the picture my very talented brother took at this Malta trip: I've been there a second time ever since and will definitely visit it again. Never again had a holiday destination such an impact on me. I can't really explain it. It's just such a happy and great feeling I get, whenever I think about this little island.

The "Hera", we took a round malta cruise with this beauty! 

the dingli cliffs, the highest cliffs in Malta

Comino, Blue Lagoon

The Azure Window

Hera, again

Golden Bay

View from our hotel pool

Me.

Beach in Sliema.

Beautiful, isn't it? And so it shouldn't come as a surprise, that I wanted to take a souvenir back home with me, to always have something to remember this special holiday.

I looked and looked, wandered through shops and markets, but somehow nothing seemed right. Everything was just junk or made for the tourists. Nothing special. Until one day, I strolled by a little shop. The woman there sold the most lovely ceramics. And that's where I spotted THE MUG!
A pretty, yellow-blue coffee mug. "It's perfect!" I shrieked. And it was.

And thus began my collection! Everytime my brother and I travelled, we brought home a coffee mug. This way we had something to remember our holidays, but not just another pretty object that sat in a corner and accumulated dust, but something that was loved and cherished and used everyday.

I present to you, the MUG with which it all began. My MALTA MUG:

It is one of my favourite mugs, until this day. Three years later, my brother and I moved out of our appartments. We divided our mug collection. Whoever bought the cup, took it back with him/her.

I now live with my man. We have a little used Nespresso machine (though I'm planning on surprising him with a Jura, as I saved a little money in the last few months) but we still love to drink our coffee. And I love to use my travel mugs. I plan to introduce them to you. One by one. Because every mug has a history behind it, tons of memories attached to it and with every sip I take out of it I can close my eyes and travel away for just a minute.

Travelling Europe: Hamburg, Germany

FINALLY I've figured out my technical difficulties and am now able to tell you about my time in Hamburg. I've written the post after I came home, two weeks ago. But what's a post about a holiday without holiday pictures? So - enjoy! :)

After two wonderful holiday weeks and 6 days in Hamburg, I'm back home in Austria and back home in my normal working life. The transition from being at home to being back at my desk in the office is never easy, but it didn't went as bad as I thought. That could be linked to my newly adapted "everything is positive" attitude towards life. I've been to an exhibition which was based around the heart and living healthy and I learned, that people who think the glass is half full tend to have healthier hearts and fewer heart-related diseases. So away with my slightly dark and negative me. Hello to all full glasses! To be honest - I have this attitude since Monday and I had to remind myself about it about a hundred times so far. But I'm trying. That has to count, hasn't it?

Anyway, I actually want to tell you about my trip to Hamburg in this post, so here we go!

It was my second visit to Hamburg. I visited my friend J, whom I met when we both studied in Vienna, four years ago. She soon quit studying and moved back to Hamburg and we promised, to visit each other every year. 2014 was my turn again. Two years ago I made my first trip to Hamburg and J made sure, that I saw every single tourist attraction that you should see when you stay in Hamburg. This time was different. I saw the Landungsbrücken, I already made a harbour cruise, we climbed the bell tower of the Michel and had a long, long evening at the famous red light district .Reeperbahn So there was no need to do all of this again and so it was possible to see Hamburg from the view of someone who lives there.

The weather in Hamburg is pretty much unpredictable. When I left Austria, I was prepared for days of rain and cold weather. When I stepped out of the plane it was warm and sunny. As we didn't know how long this nice weather would last, we started my holiday with a day trip to the Ostsee, the Baltic Sea. It is just a one and a half hour drive. It was very windy that day, so we felt rather chilly. The sea was rather cool, so we didn't dare to go into the water. But we layd around in the sun all day, drank coffee, talked, read a lot, listened to music, napped...all the things you need to do for having a successful day at the beach - at least in our account. That's the great thing about travelling with J - we are totally alike. I'm a person who's constantly hungry. That often causes difficulties when I'm out - as no one needs to eat as much as I do. Except for J. Definitely one of the reasons we like each other so much. 

The baltic sea. And my feet. 

"Strandkorb", really typical for the North of Germany and surprisingly comfortable! 

Being by the sea reminded me again of how I love to be there. It is my dream to someday live by the sea or at least have some kind of holiday home there. There's something about the crushing of the waves, the smell of the water and the reflections of the sun that never fails to make me incredibly happy and calm.

In the evening we visited Bad Segeberg, which is famous for its Karl May festival. I have never read any Karl May book or saw any of the Winnetou movies, but J goes there every year since her childhood and she really wanted to show me. Horses, fire, intrigues, drama, fights, death...everything you need for a good cowboy story. Well. Let's say it was interesting, but I'll probably never see anything like this again! ;)

the horses were pretty, tough! ;)

We did some shopping the next day, wandered around town, read a book in the park and went to a musical in the evening. No pictures of that, I'm sorry. The musical was called 49 1/2 shades of grey and it's a parody on the book 50 shades of grey. I read the book simply because I know we would go to that musical. I didn't really like the book but the musical was hilarious! They picked out everything I didn't like about the book and the music was lovely too.

On Saturday we did a little tourist-tour. We had a lovely pancake breakfast in the morning and went then to the Elbstrand. It's a beach near the harbour on the Elbe. Again - lying in the sun, reading (I did a lot of reading in those few days. I managed to finish one book and read half of another!) watching the people and the really big containerships which made their way in and out of the harbour right in front of us.

The "Elbstrand"

After that we visited a submarine. It's a former russian spy boat which was turned into a museum in 2002. It's kind of a inside tip, not even a lot of Hamburg people know that it even exists. We had a little tour throught the submarine and were really impressed. I can't imagine that people LIVED down there, under water, no windows, no fresh air, no SPACE, no privacy. Amazing what human beings can endure!

The submarine as it's laying in the harbour of Hamburg

the inside. What you can't see in this pictures are the beds that are under the floor. Scary thought, having to sleep buried under the floor while being under water...

As the weather on sunday was pretty cold and wet, we did nothing all day but hung around in J's appartment. Again, there was some reading. J reads even more books than I do, so we both were perfectly fine with hanging around on the couch and put our noses in our books.

In the evening I had to watch the world championship finale. Mind you - I hate football. It doesn't interest me the least and I of course know nothing about it. But J is a great football fanatic so she dragged me along to watch the game in a very nice bar with a lot of her football-fanatic friends. No pictures here either. I was too busy with making the most of the cocktail happy hour while J and her footbally-friends talked and talked and talked and I had nothing to contribute to the conversation! Interesting, how fast a glass can be empty if you just listen and drink without talking yourself! ;) 

Monday was my last day in Hamburg and we were a little tired from the previous night. (If you didn't hear it - Germany won the finale and is no world champion. Needless to say that the whole town (probably the whole country too, but I didn't see that of course) celebrated. It was madness all around. I'm so glad that my man hates football at least as much as I do. A match made in heaven.)

We visited the Körperwelten exhibition which wasn't as creepy and shocking as I expected it. If you haven't seen it - try to do so! It's really interesting to really see how our body looks inside and underneath our skin and how our organs work. Sounds a little dull but I promise - it isn't! 

I made my way back to the airport after that. Though I was a little sad to leave already, I was also looking forward to come back home to my man. We had our share at long distance-relationships (5 months, when he was travelling the world and I worked to have some money to follow him. A story I have to tell you sometime!) and I was glad to be back home. 

I did some crafting and a lot of reading in my holidays as well - but these will be the topics of two separate posts. For now I'll leave you with this beautiful picture of Hamburgs harbour and the famous Landungsbrücken and a few random pictures I took. You really want to go there yourself now, don't you? Do it. You won't regret! I promise!

a park where we spent the afternoon. In Hamburg you find water everywhere. That's why I love the city so much!

The Planetarium. Perfect for a rainy day!