Backing Up

Ok so I missed a bit between Friday afternoon and now. I talked about Loves of a Blonde but after that I stayed in the dorms to do laundry and get ready to leave Saturday morning for Vienna. I tried to watch The Unbearable Lightness of Being which is an American film based on a book by the same name by a Czech author, and filmed in Prague. It features a young Daniel Day Lewis which I thought was weird. I was watching down in the basement with a couple of the guys and it was a slower-paced kind of romantic drama so we were making fun of it the entire time. The film runs 2 hours 44 minutes, so we stopped it early and decided to watch Pink Flamingo. That is a really strange movie. Two words, John Waters.
Anyway, I got to bed a bit late on Friday night then woke up at 5 on Saturday morning. I miscalculated my time and after showering and eating breakfast I decided to sleep for another hour. We got to the bus for a 5 hour ride to Vienna.
Part way there we made a stop and I went with my roommate and 2 other guys to find a quick lunch. Unfortunately the only things near the bus terminals were casinos and bars, so we popped into a Tesco Express. I got an ice cream bar and a chocolate croissant. Healthiest lunch ever.
When we got off the bus in Vienna I realized I made a terrible miscalculation. It was really hot. I forgot to look up the weather, and when some other students mentioned it was going to be warm, I didn't really believe them. Luckily I packed a flowing kind of tank top, but my pants are super warm. Granted, it's probably only in the 80s, but compared to Prague it's really hot.

 Our hotel (it was split up into 2 sections across the street from each other):

Once we got to our hotel, Ali and I decided it was too warm for clothes so we got in our swim suits and decided to take our teacher's advice and go to the Danube. It is only 3 metro stops away, and it's like a long island in the middle of the river with sitting areas and ice cream vendors and such. There were so many people out sunbathing and swimming in the river. Our group of 4 was just sitting by the river for a while, I had dunked my feet in but it seemed really cold. Eventually I decided I needed to jump in. I didn't want to run and jump, or dive, so I kind of hung off this ledge and dropped in. I scratched my forearms and elbow on the way down. As soon as I hit the water I think my body went into shock because I couldn't take a full breath. It was freezing. I got back to land quickly enough and I don't understand how there were people swimming.

The "Vienna City Beach Club" is a small area of sand that they brought in with some chairs and a bar:

 The Danube:

After a few hours we made it back to the hotels and then met for dinner at 7. All the teachers and students met at 7 Stern Brau (a restaurant the teachers really like). I had kasespatzle. It was like a thick pasta shell with cheese and bacon bits. It was hearty to say the least.

After that a small group of us went walking around. We went to a reflecting pool. It was beautiful in the dark. There was also a dance floor set up and what looked like a dancing class with a bunch of couples doing ballroom dancing with different kinds of music playing from speakers by the floor. I got some great video. We all headed back to the hotels and I was so happy to fall asleep.