Well this week started off in the best way possible with a birthday party! On tuesday I turned 20 and one of my friends here, Ellis, turned 21 so we decided to get our friends all together to celebrate on monday night by having dinner at Charlie P's. It was a really lovely evening with lots of good food, a birthday brownie (thanks Caroline!) and good friends. Come tuesday, Ellis and I were both feeling the distance from home a little more than usual and so on tuesday evening, I introduced her and Caroline to the joys of Scottish culture via the medium of 'Chewin the Fat'! We got through just one episode before they admitted that they could understand only about half of it and didn't get most of the jokes as they were too Scottish. They did enjoy the accents though so that's good!
This week I've also managed to get back into a routine of classes, studying and going out which I've kind of lost over the past few weeks, so I've had a really good week. On wednesday night I went out for a drink with some class-mates after our German class, it was really good to get to know them a bit better and it's a really good group. It also allowed me to speak lots of German, which I have to admit I don't often get to do in a social situation as the common/preferred language is generally English.
Yesterday, Sarah invited me to her halls to have dinner since she often has to make the half hour u-bahn trip to mine and I've only been to her's once (to help her move in at the start of term) and so it was definitely time for me to do some travelling! I often forget how big Vienna actually is as I live in such a central part, the uni is less than 5 minutes away and everything I could possibly ever need (shops, museums etc) is no more than either a 20 minute walk or on the same u-bahn line. After a really awesome vegetarian curry made by Sarah and Erica (also from Edinburgh) the wine was flowing and the decision was made to head to a nightclub called U4 Diskothek, near Schoenbrunn Schloss. They were running a birthday night and so if your birthday was in September, October or November you got free entry for yourself and 5 friends as well as a bottle of sparkling wine. It seemed a good idea at the time! At 2.30 am, we had missed the last ubahn home and so had to negiotate the notoriously complicated night-bus system. Luckily I managed to find a direct one to Schottentor (the ubahn station nearest me) - I never did find out how everyone else got back home but I know I beat them to it by quite a lot.
It's no surprise then that today was spent in a hungover, wine-induced daze! I decided to cure my hangover with irn-bru and salt and vinegar crisps (the world's best hangover cure, if I haven't mentioned it before!) and so took a trip to Bobby's British Supermarket and literally bought their entire stock or irn-bru for Sarah and myself. Feeling suitably cured, I met up with some friends to watch the lights of the 25 meter Christmas tree at the Rathaus being turned on and visit the Christkindlmarkt there. It was incredibly busy since it was the first night but it had a great, festive atmosphere. The Rathaus park has been turned into a children's christmas village with pony rides and christmas train. The market itself has over a hundred stalls selling everything from traditional wooden and glass decorations to novelty santa hats. We took the chance to sample the gluehwein (for which I'm ashamed to admit I was IDed for - I really thought I looked older than 15!) and ate as much unhealthy fast food as we could find!
I have to say gluehwein on top of an already rather delicate stomach wasn't the best idea and so the rest of tonight is going to be spent doing nothing more than watching some films and chatting on skype so I can truly recover from this hangover! I've now booked flights to Zurich in order to meet up with Hannah and her friends from France at the Christmas Market in Basel on the 5th of December, as well as a flight to Paris at the start of the Christmas holidays to meet up with Edinburgh friends before all heading back to Scotland together. Next weekend is our trip to Prague and tomorrow we'll be booking buses and hostels over a big sunday pub-lunch. Life is good!
