South Tyrol

This monday, my boss Karmen called and told me "I book you for tomorrow, you accompany us to south tyrol" - Uups. Yeah, alpine pearls is always very spontaneous, but pretty cool. However, along comes some extra work and you have to postpone other things...but anyways, it's good. So, I drove with my bosses to Bolzano the next morning where we had a meeting. Then, it was a bit stressful, without break we moved on to Steinegg/Colle Pietra to the workshop with our Pearls from that region.

But the best thing of course was the dinner afterwards. As always in Italy, you drive kilometres and kilometres along narrow roads to the end of the world. And then, like a miracle, a perfect restaurant appears in the middle of the forest. We had a dinner called "Törggelen" - which means, everything that the farmers had in autumn times. Starting from pasta&knödel to meat, meat, meat, sausages, and more sausages (Blutwurst-igitt) and Kraut, and ending with sweet chestnuts. Filled up and strengthened by the food, we drove home. Me as the driver again. I was pretty tired and I think I fell asleep a couple of times on the Brenner Highway - but my bosses were sleeping too, so it didn't matter :-)

Work

So...some weeks ago I had a marathon of work. True!

Summary: more work, more drinks, less sleep, less food.

The waitress of our café Alpenperle was on vacation, therefore, we splitted the shift among us. I was happy, I could gain a bit money. But...what I forgot to think of is, that people take you out as a waitress on fridays and saturdays. I don't remember when I went to bed, but I remember having a look at the watch when it was 5.30am. It is not so funny to work on saturdays the whole day when you are more than tired and hungover ;-) Anyways, when my shift ended on saturday, I was fit enough to stay awake again. Not to mention, I am so nice to agree working on sunday morning from 9.30 on at the music band's event. And this event felt like it did not end... On Monday, I helped out again because Verena was too tired to work (wasn't I too?). And people seem to like my company and stay until early morning again. When my colleague Natalie entered the bureau the next morning, she asked me "Conny, are you sick?" - No...I'm just more than tired.

Haha, don't worry, I've recovered.

Forever Young (-->Link)

Okay...this is the worst new invention that artist have ever come up with:

Bushido feat. Karel Gott (!!!!) - Für immer jung

You gotta sample the flavour of this mixture thoroughly. 

Bushido, Mr. "mein Block - Gangsta Rappa", makes a song together with Karel Gott, whose name I only know because I participated in the local music band. Oh my god - what happened to the German music scene? And the best part of that whole bunk is this unbelievable imagination that both first-class musicians surprise the world with. Not only parts of the text/title have been covered, no even the melody is taken from Alphaville's 'Forever Young'. I never understood why musicians repeat themselves, because I think it is boring. But this example here is really enough!

Great Hike

Last saturday I decided to go on another hike - probably the last chance this year. Therefore, I got up as early as the sun and started....I listened to some music while walking up..and up...and up...and I looked at the beautiful landscape. There was fog in Werfenweng and the valley, but I was above it and I looked at the clouds like if I could jump into this soft bed. 

After 1h45 I arrived at the Werfener Hütte (you remember - where I was the week before) and made a short break. I couldnt believe that you can sweat so much in October! Well, then I continued up the most exciting and thrilling part. The part where you climb up on a rope and a latter. If you dont get a bit nervous there, you are really really good. Anyways, it was a funny experience. And the good thing was, the more I walked, the better it got and I didn't feel tired or exhausted at all. At the Edelweisshütte on 2300m I made a short break to have a little lunch. Climbing up 1400m makes hungry. But as soon as you stop, you notice the cold wind and you start freezing. And since I didn't know the route and couldn't estimate the time I would need, I rushed on. 

On the high plateau of the mountain chain you feel so free and easy. It's a real experience. I could look far over different valleys and could see the mountain peaks from a different side. After the first break, the path became easy. However, it was a constant up and down. By the time you begin to think of the reason of climbing up when you go down again in the next moment, just to hike up again... And after a couple of hours you notice that its getting a looong way, but you cannot go back. You have to keep on walking. Then I approached the famous mountain Eiskogel. Usually the path just passes it, but I thought I go there, too. Therefore, I added another hour and another 300 metres of  height (approx.).  On the Eiskogel I slowly came back to civilization because many tourists and inhabitants went up there to enjoy the phantastic view. 

After exactly 8 hours, > 24km and >1400m height, I was back at home. And I only had two blisters :-) I slept more than 10hours that night....

dont know...

After having spent more than 40 euros for the hairdresser, I still don't feel better. Next time I cut my hair myself again. It's much more fun, more exciting.
And no shuttle driver can say I look so pale beforehand and make me feel bad.. nooo nooo.

sacrificing

And then I told Waldtraut, our hiking guide, to go hiking with her on tuesday afternoon. It was such a lovely weather, i was allowed to go from work, everything was fine.

And then, this stupid camera man came because he needed to record some scenes of Werfenweng because Alpine Pearls did win a price - again. By the time, I cannot remember every price anymore, its getting too many. Seriously. And for this camera man, Karmen told us to be so attentive and careful. Therefore, I had to cancel my nice hiking tour on short time :-( I was soo sad.... Well....work comes before leisure.

We said we want to go next week, but when I look at the weather forecast now, it seems like we're not lucky with next week's weather. It's supposed to be rainy Dammit! :-( That's not fair. I want to climb up the mountains where there is no official path with our lovely guide. It could have been so nice...Menno!

Short hiking

It was so sunny and nice this morning (well...when I woke up other people would have already said "it's noon") that I couldn't stay at home. I thought I will walk around for short for a little bit. But I shouldn't trust myself anymore. For the last months, whenever I said to myself I'll have a little walk, I ended up hiking for a couple of hours at least - as it also was the case today. I finally ended up walking to the Werfener Hütte. Actually, it's almost just peanuts - there are many people going up and down there - it's only a normal path which leads to that alp. It's only a difference of 1050m of height. But I had neither food neither water with me. When I arrived there I felt really dizzy. Well, thats Helfmann-style :-)


(half way)

I survived and had fun - that's the most important part. However, I felt so weak. I thought I could go up there more easily. I became so lazy by the time. In summer I was much more sporty....or was it the wine the night before???

15-17.10.08:Symposium about public transportation and traffic

I was supposed to take care about the stand at the symposium "6. Salzburger Verkehrstage" at Zell/See, a town which is about an hour away from my home. I haven even recovered from France yet but I needed to go there. So, I was supposed to think of everything that was neede there for our stand - every brochure and stuff.... and then I was supposed to go there and build up everything. In the end it turned out to be more relaxed than I thought it would - thank God.

As a whole I can say that I am really happy that I could participate in that programme here; it helped me to get to know some projects and to see different points of view. And of course it was a change in work which made it pretty interesting. All in all - I enjoyed driving to Zell am See for three days. I was very tired; I havent recovered yet from France. I almost fell asleep during a presentation on thursday afternoon...but well..that's how it goes. University ain't better eihter ;-)

So, I was responsible for everything. To make the stand, to talk to people, to explain what the association is about etc..that means my boss' trust me to be able to do that work - that gives me self-confidence. Now, they ask me to prolonge my internship and even ask me what I want to do after university. Well...I gotta think about that precisely.

Can you imagine how happy I was when I unloaded the car on friday evening? I had two full days for free - without work - in front of me. Cool. Although I like work, it seems I'm not so ambitiant to give up my whole free time,...hm...the problem is, I like to sleep long. haha!

30 Seconds to Mars (this is a link)

I mean, I really love that Band "30 seconds to Mars". I love almost every song of them. However, I've just seen a video by chance. It was the song "From yesterday" - one of their best songs and one of their most famous ones.

BUT: Can anyone explain the video to me? I have no idea what's the point?

I think, it's not the sense of a video to confuse people. It should be used to underline or clarify songs which sometimes are not easy to understand when too literarily. Therefore, why should you make a video that has a totally different plot than the song? People won't even remember it then...

Les Gets, France

On Sunday 12th and Monday 13th we had the Alpine Pearls General Assembly in Les Gets, France.
I'm happy it's over. It was a pretty stressful time. I basically spent the whole week before to organize the hotel rooms, who is actually coming?, organize a shuttle in France, make nametags, translate the Budget etc.. and we were working even 11 hrs in a row on friday, packing the van on saturday and leaving at 6am on sunday -where was the weekend??

After 9hours driving we arrived at Les Gets and we went straight to decorate the hall. And THEN we went to the hotel. By the time, the majority of the others arrived and we went to see a little museum about "mechanical music" (barrel-organs etc.). BUT, I was appointed to translate everything! Aaaah! I realized how bad my French became. Well, at least, I could help out a bit.

We went back, had an Apperitiv, and then went to the dining room where we first listened to a presentation of the village Mallnitz in Kärnten, Austria, which applied to become member of Alpine Pearls. Then we had a wonderful dinner and we had good times together. It was really nice to get to know and meet people that you work with and sometimes had already contact with via e-mail. Around 1pm, after another presentation with real simultaneous interpreters, and a full stomach, we went to bed.

Natalie, Lisa and I went up at 6am to make use of the swimming pool in the hotel. It was a good wake-up. I think, I would have fallen asleep otherwise at the general assembly in the morning. But we better not remember that the receptionist came into the changing room... Well, the assembly lasted looong. Straight from 9 to 14.30 *yawn*. There were a lot of formal things to discuss, which was a pity because at the end when it became more interesting, we lacked time and had to hurry. But we can now officially pronounce Mallnitz as a new member - the three guys were pretty sympathic anyways :-) And you felt so important with your nametags and headphones to listen to the translations - all in all, it was cool.

Of course it was us who cleaned up. We left around 4pm. Peter drove to Bern where he and Karmen left us (business), and I drove from Bern to Munich. Somehow I like this VW Van and Giovanni is a good co-driver. 3 girls and Giovanni in a van are funny anyways, with lots of chocolate and many ideas to laugh about. We arrived at Werfenweng before 2am!

Snowhiking 5.10.08

What a day! I think I might not be the person for extreme sports...
Well, we had snow the day before, but today it was so sunny and warm and the snowy mountains were shining bright. I couldn't just look at the mountains but needed to go there. So, I started walking. The higher I got the more beautiful the view over the landscape was. After passing the last Alp, the path became smaller, steeper, muddier and finally covered with snow. Although I know the path because I've been hiking there already 3 times, it was more difficult this time and I was so much slower. It was slippery and somehow dangerous. And whenever I walk along the steep rock wall I hear rocks breaking down, like it was the case once and we ran into the herd of cows :-) Well, this time it was only melting snow and icicles. I never imagined falling icicles being that loud! I got pretty scared sometimes but I couldn't miss the chance of an adventure; therefore, I kept on walking.

The first time I broke into a snowfield up to the knee I was afraid..but after breaking in a couple of times I got used to it and walked further in the snow. However; I did not make it to the very top. It was one of the very few times that I really gave up short before the goal. I was too scared alone in the snow where there was noooobody. And the climate is so different on top of the mountains than it is 500metres further down. When it was too steep and there was only knee-high snow and there was nothing I could hold on, I decided to turn around. But then I noticed in what kind of stupid situation I was. I asked myself "Why did I walk so far?". I was really afraid of walking back, but I had to.

(this was a short and easy part)

You can't imagine how happy I was to be back on only slippery, less steep, less deep snow. And even screep was easy to walk on, which every hiker usually hates. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the phantastic view from where I got. And I know the view from the very top because I've already been there in summer. Yet, I had the feeling that walking back home took twice as long - maybe because I was only hungry and cold. At least I gained a bit richness due to a new experience.

Oktoberfest 27.9.08

In the early morning (6.00!!) I had to get up to go to Munich as early as possible. You can't miss a thing as the yearly Oktoberfest :-) At the trainstation I met Yiu and because Michael and Nils had overslept, we went to their place. The good thing about that was, that we got an excellent breakfast. Something very important when you plan to go to the Wies'n. Then we went there and enjoyed the atmosphere and different smells of sweets, beer, "Hendl" (chicken) or smoked fish. We had the first Weißbeer at the carousel. A turning carousel not for kids but with a beer bar - very traditional place. We tried to get into a tent, but then lost each other. Therefore, I went with Yiu to drink some more Weißbeer and we finally made it into the Beergarden at Fischer Vroni's. It was very funny, especially with the American couple from Cincinnati, Ohio next to us who looved the Oktoberfest and who loooved talking to us. And since it was the "Italian weekend", of course there were quite many Italians at the tables around us. After some Maß and a "Hendl", we left again to meet Michael and Nils...But we never found each other, so we went back to the beergarden. And the American ordered more and more...Yep, we had a lot fun.
How come that we had to ask a Korean for the way home??? lol...


And the next day we slept soo long and watched stupid Wies'n shows at TV with Schlager-songs. Well, it did fit well to the situation. Finally at around 4pm we went to have breakfast at a Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately it took quite long which meant that I missed my train. But who travels a lot, knows that there can be worse things. I just took the next one..who cares?

First Snow - Autumn Time

Last week the cold did hit in. The air became crystal clear, the cows and sheep are back in the valley, it is always wet outside and you can see your breath. On tuesday the snow was only about 150m above the village. Unfortunately, I still had no time to buy a jacket. But I doubt it as a reason for my sickness on thursday and friday ;-) I even stayed home one day but I am totally recovered now.


On saturday I helped at a little event when 30 mayors came to Werfenweng. And we could eat from the perfect buffet from the "Bauernladen"-Lady who knows everything about herbs. But we had never expected to spend so much time there. We expected around two o'clock, but it was five when I got home. It was a good day anyways. And a Finnish girl married a guy from Werfenweng. I thought there are only so few Finns in the world - but they are really everywhere!


On monday I was recovered to go jogging, which really worked well. But it is getting really cold and dark soon. And now my knee hurts. I shouldn't run up and down the hills too much. Maybe I should have listened to the teacher Mr Murray who disapproves jogging? hm...no...stupid teacher. At least, I have a reason to eat muuuuch chocolate now.

Today I watched TV and some 3rd-class-star said: "We guys get the most and hardest problems because of girls" hahaha. I really had to laugh. You just can't cope well with a little problematic stuff. We are not born to make your lives easier so that you can sit and rest.
And now I've finished the book "Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world" from Murakami. I know, Chrissy, you would never read it. But for everybody else I recommend this book. It is very extraordinary. It has its own world. I'll order a new Murakami book soon...

Vienna 11&12.09.08

The reason for going to Vienna was the invitation to Karmen's company's (ÖAR) 25year anniversary. And because all of us three "pearls" were invited, she also set up an Alpine Pearls team meeting in the morning. This was all to happen on Friday. Therefore, I wanted to spend a day longer in Vienna - I have never visited that place before. But then we had a problem in WW. Who should work this saturday afternoon? Natalie wanted to go home; Verena wanted to play music and Stefan wanted to play football...pfft...okay, as nice as I am I said "I'll work". Therefore, I could go to Vienna already on Thursday...

It was a boring train ride to Vienna and the coffee was expensive...The good thing was, that I found my hostel fast. I never imagined that. Usually it takes me a while to find houses in cities :-) And Vienna was so warm, so hot, and humid. (Well, by far not as sticky as Rome!) But WW always has a breeze of fresh cool air to breath deeply. Then, I made my marathon through Vienna. First, I went to the palace Schönbrunn where Sissi & Franz (lol) have lived. I have never seen such a huge - an endless - garden. There was a hill from which you could look over the city. Then I continued in the city. The nice receptionist gave me a map but in the end I just followed the stream of people and my intuition which street seemed nice and interesting. Vienna has many old palaces and gardens. After walking for a while in the main shopping street, I felt like being back in Rome, walking along Via Cavour (there the Colosseum comes around the corner) and Via del Corso to shop and taking the Metro at Piazza d'Espagna. But my favourite place in Vienna is "Museumsquartier". Here, in the evening and night, the youth hangs out, coffees cost only half and people have this "alternative student attitude". After having a little snack, I watched a movie about the Alps and Water at the city hall and then took the tram back to the hostel, drank some beer with Swiss guys and started my blog. I fell asleep around 1am and woke up in the sticky hot room around 6am when construction workers began their shift on the street. My only thought was: I'll never become a construction worker in Vienna if I have to get up that early every day. Never.

Then I met the other 2 "pearls" Natalie and Lisa at the train station, we had breakfast together and then went to the meeting with Karmen. Cause I'm now working for Alpine Pearls it was a good wrap up for me. Then, Natalie felt like going to the hairdresser (how cool, in Vienna!); therefore, Lisa and I went to see the museum about historic arts (Kunsthistorisches Museum). Unfortunately we only made it to look at the Italian and French artists before we had to go. But at least we saw a Jesus acting like a rockstar and showing the peace sign. Never thought that art could be so funny. We met again at the ÖAR 25year anniversary where also Ken and Giovanni and our Mayor showed up and we had good dinner and nice conversations and wine of okay-quality. We had to leave around 11pm to catch our train. We had about 5min to get from the underground to the platform and picking up our luggage from the storage room. Luckily, the train was late. Therefore, we met an American who was rushing through Europe in 2 weeks and we could even convince him of the work we do. Then we tried to sleep....The train arrived around 3 in Salzburg and stopped there for about an hour, so I could stay in the warm train a bit longer before taking the next train to Werfen. At 5.30am I arrived at Werfen and drove by car through the cold and wet darkness back home, directly falling into my bed.

Not to mention that I was working that day :D

TourNatur / Düsseldorf

04.09.2008:
Mattafix: Big City Life
I'm sitting in the back of the VW van, staring at the motorway while the village mayor drives with more than 160km/h towards Düsseldorf. Then, hard breaks - traffic jam ... *yawn*....one hour jam around Würzburg...and again around Frankfurt. I'm happy that I already completed my duty to drive. I chose a good part: the beginning. Because Austrian motorways seem to be always free. And now we're getting into a hurry. The fair is opened for cars only until 10.00 pm and it is past 7 pm when we pass Frankfurt. But we wanted to unload and build up the most important stuff today.
Yep, we made it. We were fast. We sacrificed dinner for the fair. Then we drove to Mr. Budde and his Neighbour Mr. Schlingermann where we will stay. They are nice, we drink a wine, but also a bit annoying. Therefore, we went to bed early. We've been tired anyways.

05.-07.09.2008 The fair "Tour Natur":
The next morning we laugh at ourselves about our sleeping rooms. Karmen has to live in the basement; probably a former boy's room with dumbbells, a strange toillette, no keys to lock and a really strange picture on the wall above the bed which could scare oneself. What are the three soldiers without face doing with that person in the middle?? Well, Natalie and I share a nice room; we're reading the bachelor thesis and tax reports of Mr Schlingermann. - No, we didn't. We only listened to the airplanes landing at the airport closeby. We two girls from Werfenweng, grown up in rural areas are not used to that anymore.

The fair though was really interesting. I wish I had soo much time to hike through all lands and paths that have been exhibited there and I wish I could wear all these comfortable shirts and hiking boots and stay in tents. Natalie and I were most of the time at the stand, standing and speaking 8 hours in a row can be pretty exhausting. Therefore, we allowed each other a little break to walk through the fair. But since our give-aways were apples and bread and cheese we could not have starved. BTW..I even met a Finnish girl. The world is a village...

In the evening, our boss and mayor invited us to dinner. The first night we went to a fish restaurant run by Italians: excellent! The second night we drank "Alt Bier" (I know,...all Cologne lovers are gonna kill me) and Mr. Budde wanted to show us a typical Düsseldorfer restaurant. (Un-?)fortunately it was packed and we went to a steak house. It was okay. But the best was the Live Jazz club to which we went for a couple of drinks afterwards. The band was awesome, especially the Sousaphone player, and the atmosphere great. So we didn't mind the presence of Mr Budde who left early without thanking for the invitation and of "Mr Lüsner", the owner of the Lüsnerhof hotel in South Tirol from the stand next to us and who seems to like Natalie, too much.

However, it was exhausting. But again, we were so quick on Sunday evening that we could leave with all things packed around 18.15 already and head back towards Austria. Though, we did not drive back to Werfenweng but we arrived at 2.00am at a motorway hotel at Wels in Austria. After a few hours of sleep, I took the train back to WW and the others headed to Vienna. Sometimes, I'm happy to come back home...

Birthday Present: Chrissy

31.08. - 04.09.2008
...and then my best friend Chrissy came to Werfenweng again to see me. Last time, we got drunk, got invited to "look" at a new bar, ran back home and even made it 400m up to the Bischlinghöhe.

This time we were even lazier:
We cheered with sparkling wine, we had dinner, we "carefully looked" at the formerly-new bar, we got invited...and invited..., Chrissy got drunk, we made it to pay only one beer, and we walked a 3 times longer way home.

The next day we went shopping (I always have to take advantage of a car), back to bed...

The next day we drove through the landscape, went shopping at "Zell am See", enjoyed the sun, layed in the grass, went to a bar, Conny got drunk,...how did we come home?

The next day we went to the lake, enjoyed the sun, layed in the grass (didn't we have that before???...), made many many stupid pictures of us, went for a traditional dinner with WW inhabitants, found some shots in front of us again...but didn't get drunk and even walked home early and normally!

When will you come back Chrissy? ;-)

Impressions

These pics and the slideshow aside are some impressions for everybody to enjoy where I'm living at the moment - the beautiful village Werfenweng in the "Salzburger Land". Some are from the beginning, some from now - just mixed. I'll post more information soon, but since I'm in Vienna right at this moment I don't have much time. But I thought that pictures sometimes say more than words...enjoy...dream...and think whatever you want to think of it.



Do the pics look boring? I can tell you - life in WW ain't. (I wish I got the cam earlier to show you some hiking tours... anyways, thanks to my homies for the cam!)

Welcome

Hello everybody! "Griast Euch!"

Some days ago, I had the idea to make a new blog. The old one from Helsinki, Finland does not make sense anymore (cause Anja is not with me) so I thought I'll create a new one to let everybody know what I'm doing, thinkin, and feeling while I'm living ...somewhere :-)

I know, it's been 3 months now that I have moved to Austria already and I'm surprised myself again how fast the time has past; although I have experienced this feeling a couple of times before, every time again it is like a new experience. During the next days I'm planning on posting all experiences and events that have happened so far and my thoughts and findings and whatever comes across, here on this blog. First of all it is for you, family and friends, but it is also for myself to get my thoughts and memories in order. And of course it especially is for staying in touch.

greetings! "Pfiat euch!"