Hello!!!
I’m not sure what has happened. I think I have writer’s block. I have no motivation to write this blog post and I can’t think of anything funny or witty to say. Fingers crossed I’ll start writing and it’ll be fine.
I’m feeling good apart from that though. Just got back from a couple of days in Vorarlberg; I stayed in Bludenz, spent Saturday evening in Dornbirn and also was in a supermarket in Feldkirchen for 10 minutes so that’s technically 3 towns I saw!!! What a treat.
It was also the first time I’ve been properly drinking in 2 weeks which was really great but also a shock to my liver. Thing is, I know my limits, I just choose to exceed them. Didn’t think I was going to survive Sunday morning. “At least she died doing what she loved”, they’d say. “Getting off her tits”.
But it’s fine, I’m still here, still alive, still an alky.
So here’s what’s been occurring this weekend in little old Austria:
I took the train from Saalfelden to Bludenz on Friday evening. I packed my laptop hoping I could plan some lessons for the next week on the train. But there was no wifi on the train, so that meant I spent the whole journey listening to some very weird shit. The only things I’d downloaded were my Songs to Sing in the Shower playlist and a German podcast called “Eine Stunde Liebe”. So I spent 4 hours switching between Motown/70s disco/Disney classics and a podcast about sex toys in the 20th century. Very bizarre.
Arrived in Bludenz at 5:30pm. I was staying with Victoria in her accommodation and I hadn’t seen her for 2 weeks since the training week in Hinterglemm. 14 days doesn’t sound a lot, but so much has happened on my year abroad so far that 2 weeks in Austria time is the equivalent of 3 months normal time. We had a chill night on Friday with pizza, popcorn, girly films and Hugo (that’s a drink not a man lol, shame).
Saturday morning we went for a hike. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I am incredibly healthy and I LOVE to keep fit. Lol. I’m not. I’m not fit at all. I get out of breath walking up 3 flights of stairs to my bedroom. I have already gained a considerable amount of weight since my year abroad began (less than a month ago LOL). I knew things were getting out of hand when one of my students asked me what my favourite fruit is, and it’s been so long since I had any that the only thing I could think of was Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Also, all the vegetarian meals here have cheese in them. I’m not really a big cheese fan (I get my RDA for calcium from Piña Coladas and Cadbury’s chocolate) so all this cheese is going STRAIGHT to my thighs. Anyway, that’s why this hike seemed like a good idea. I need to do loads of walking if I’m gonna drop back down to a size 10 by Christmas.
Hike was lovely – I’m sure you can imagine the stunning views. Austria is so breathtakingly beautiful it’s like I have asthma!!! But the hike was also 2 hours long. The plan was to take the path down the mountain and end up back in Bludenz, but we accidentally took the Bergweg (mountain path). We followed a family down said path, thinking if a 7 year old can do it then so can we? Oh God no. They must have balls of steel and thighs of iron because me and Vics were shitting it.
It was the narrowest, steepest little path EVER. Think of that scene where Shrek and Donkey are crossing the bridge and Donkey has to tell himself “don’t look down! don’t look down!” and then he does and screams “SHREK, I’M LOOKING DOWN”. I was Donkey in that moment. Here’s a video of me and Vics dicing with death/montage of things from Saturday:
Anyway, during our hike from hell we reached a field and took some The Sound of Music-esque photos and videos. The whole area was just stunning, honestly the views were unbeatable. So even though we nearly died on a mountain, we got some wonderful Instagrams out of it. Every cloud has a silver lining.
Saturday evening – me, Victoria and Megan met the other Vorarlberg assistants in Dornbirn. The plan was to meet by the river at 6:30pm and have a campfire and eat sausages and toast marshmallows and sing songs and it would all be lovely and Pinterest-worthy. Basically we missed the train (I was doing my makeup and we ran out of time), got on the next train, missed our stop because we were chatting, had to travel back and finally arrived in Dornbirn. The boys had told us to leave the station and walk down the river, we would see a fire and it would all be hunkydory. So that’s what we did – we crossed the bridge, walked along the river and found a group of boys by a fire. But they were not our boys, they were 3 Austrian whippersnappers who were not going to share their food with us. Basically, there was no path so we had to wade through the river (only 1cm deep but still), got to a deep bit, we rang Zach for help and he came and saved us. I did feel really panicky, but at the same time I do enjoy being at the centre of drama so I didn’t mind too much.
By the time we got to the fire it was gone 8pm and we were hungryyyy. But once we were there it was fab. A phenomenal amount of food and beer was consumed Saturday night. The (very generous) Vorarlbergers bought loads of snacks and booze to our campfire. Victoria fell in the river, got soaked and bruised her knees – amazing. Afterwards, we went back to Mitch’s and carried on drinking, hit a bar and ended up in a Kebab shop. Evidently the whole population of Dornbirn go there after a night out for a bag of chips and a fight. We then got the last train home at 2:30am.
I don’t want to sound like a melt but the Vorarlberg lot are so hospitable and kind and I had a really lovely evening with them and wow maybe I’m due my period soon or something but I suddenly feel really emotional writing about how nice they are and how lucky I am to have made such good friends !!!
Us post hike
Hmm, trying to think what else is new. Some of my students/people living in the boarding house have been reading my blog (so hello to you and thanks for joining). I absolutely adore my students. At first they were a little wary of me I think, like they are birds of prey and I was getting a bit near their eggs. But now they’ve got to know me they’re super chatty and they are no longer birds of prey but lovely chicks welcoming me into their nest of a school.
We’ve also booked our trip to Vienna next week wahooo! We’ve got 8 of us going and we’ll be there for Austria’s National Day. Trying not to think about how much money I’m spending on train tickets at the moment (it’s a lot). Am going to Munich tomorrow to see my Uncle (he lives there). I’m staying Tuesday evening & the whole of Wednesday as I have no lessons and it’ll be really really fun!
Speak soon!
Love, Rach x
Stats:
- Alcohol units on Saturday night: 22.3
- Time spent on train this weekend: 8 hours 30 minutes
- Fruits and vegetables eaten: 2 (but I’ve bought some pears from Billa so will eat them soon)
- Podcast of the Week: Weibliche Sexualität – Viva la Vulva!
PS thanks to everyone for reading my blog. Am overwhelmed by the number of you. Gonna have to start doing sponsored posts soon #ad #spon
PSS thanks Luke for letting me use your fabulous pun as my blog title. This is a good way to check if you’re still reading. Mad props if you are.
The hills are alive with the sound of Rachel 