...Aaaand i'm back!

My blog died almost immediately after I had started in September. That was partly due to the unbelievable fact that it's impossible to upload photos from the blogger-app (thus making it hard to update while waiting for the bus) and mostly due to my work hours. After a 60+ hour week I was unable to do much but work. 

But apart from the hours I found the work enjoyable and I loved the city. 

In October I left Hamburg, but decided to come back for the premiere of part two of the Ring in January.

November came and went and my mother decided to get me airplane tickets for Christmas so that I really could visit Hamburg.

I restarted applying for jobs and remained unsuccessful until, in the afternoon of the 23rd of December I got an invitation to come for a job interview on the 29th at the Kammeroper in Hamburg. I was incredibly exited (and so were my parents, my sister and her husband) all through Christmas, and even though I thought my chances were slim, I was happy to be invited. 

I stayed with two friends and their wonderful puppy in Hamburg and though I was a bit pessimistic about my chances they were not. And they turned out to be correct. I got the job and was asked to start work on January the 7th. 

The new year was spent, not partying with friends but packing up my apartment together with my mum who helped me a lot. And now I'm back. After only two months, back in Hamburg where I have made a lot of friends and back working in a job I really enjoy doing.

Leaving my family and friends in Austria was difficult. But at the same time I knew this was the only way forwards. 

Viennese Coffee on the Alster

Having slept most of the day away yesterday, I am now up and about in Hamburg. Finding my way to the city centre really wasn't that hard (however I now do realise that wearing my brand new brown boots to walk into town probably wasn't the best move...). But the walk really was beautiful, and my first view of the Alster gave me a wonderfully warm feeling. And that even though it was raining part of the time and constantly cold.

I also managed to get a prepaid card for my phone and am now reachable there. Should you need my number leave a comment here or message me on Facebook (I now even know what my number is, and it only took me 10 minutes to figure it out).

Now I am sitting in a viennese cefé, the Julius Meinl Kaffeehaus right next to the Alster, looking out at the water, the ships and the seagulls. And it's really a very viennese café. It took the waiter almost 20 minutes to get me my melange and he was unfriendly and slightly haughty. It's like home away from home. I'm wondering if I should give him a big hug and tell him that his misanthropy really made my day. The interior could be less modern and more grand-café though so I will have to continue to look for a better option. However they do have a free wireless network here (for which I am certain to get the access key any day now).

Apart from that nothing much is new. I am acclimatising and wondering why my second melange here is about half the size of the first.

By the way, I realise this would be far more interesting with pictures. So I will start including some soon.

Arriving in Hamburg

Well, here I am. In Hamburg,  sharing a flat with three women, two cats and a large number of fish. My mother once said,  rather unflatteringly as I thought, that the kitsch that wouldn't fit into my flat still has to be invented. Well it has, it's all here and it's wonderfully comfortable. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The journey here was ... well there was a family with three daughters below the age of 10 in my sleeping coach and a gang of six 40+ drinkers next door. Peace, quiet and the possibility to sleep? Ha! The kids were up till all hours, then the parents decided they should go to bed at the same time as our neighbours started getting rather more drunk than was good for them. Unsurprisingly the girls couldn't sleep with all the partying that was going on. When that subsided and the girls finally could have slept they were too energised by their lack of sleep and so it was about 2 in the morning when I was able to get some sleep. At 5:30 the kids apparently had slept enough and started climbing up and down the ladder in our compartment and whispering at the top of their voices (which woke me up only after it started giving me nightmares - one of the girls was named Rebecca. I know some of you will understand that). The parents woke up about half an hour later and though they were really nice about it,  I realised that sleeping was now a thing of the past.

Soon I heard that, instead of arriving at 7:50 (as my ticket claimed) or at 8:28 (as the ÖBB had claimed) or even at 8:37 (as the DB had claimed) we were instead 90 minutes late and thus not to arrive in Hamburg before 9:20. We had our breakfast and after that the girls soon got rather loud and excited once more (and the men next door were firmly back in the grasp of their beer), and since the beds were gone anyway and rest not to be thought of,  we started playing "Guess what animal I'm thinking of". That went well for about 3 rounds and then the screaming and jumping restarted. Ah well...

The mother and I played on valiantly and then, finally,  we approached Hamburg.  I dug out my phone to call my hostess and suddenly realised that I had forgotten to transfer her number from my old phone to the new one. Clever, huh? Now what... I tried to send a message via Facebook but for some reason I couldn't get through to their messaging system. Also checking old messages, I was certain that she had once sent me her number there, was impossible. We arrived in Hamburg and I still hadn't reached her and thus was unsure what to do.

I checked my map of the city hoping to remember the street she lived on so that I could have taken a taxi, but without success. Then l finally managed to start data roaming and, joy of joys, she had already sent me a message wondering where I was. It took less than 5 minutes for her to pick me up and for her to be shocked by the amount of luggage I was carrying. In her apartment, which is shared by the aforementioned two other women, two cats and the fish, I moved into a cozy little room, just wide enough to fit in a bed, that's stuffed with books from floor to ceiling. I feel right at home. One of the cats has adopted me and is now sitting on my feet as I am typing this in bed. The Internet is, alas, down but it should be fine by Wednesday. Before then I'll try to get to a café with free internet so that I can post this. :)

Most of my bags are packed, I'm sort of ready to go

I have spent the last 3 to 4 days packing unpacking and repacking. Now all that I am taking with me is standing in my parents living room in 2 large bags and 2 small bags. At least i hope so. There is still the option of taking it with me a large shopping bag for any extra stuff i might have forgotten. A friend of mine will be taking over my apartment for at least some of the time, so I have had to tidy it up more than I usually would (which as most of my friends know means not at all) and empty out at least some of it (and take all the things that needed to be taken out of the apartment over to my parents place and up to their attic). And all of that during a bout of summer flu with my energy at an all-time low.

All that remains to be done now is washing the floors and closing the door behind me. Then I'll go to my parents place, tidy up there and be picked up there by a friend of mine who will take me to the train station. Then it's on to Linz, meet some friends at the train station (one of whom just informed me that she bought me a pair of wonderful green shoes) and then hop onto the night train to Hamburg.

This is probably an opportune moment to say thank you. To my parents for their support and for making this trip possible. To my friend in Hamburg who has, with her unending energy, made this trip possible. To her friend who was wonderful enough to secure me an internship in Hamburg. To all of my friends who where at my farewell party and to those who could not make it. To those of my friends who have made me a gift of the cheesiest and yet most lovable pillow I have ever owned. To my friend in Vienna who has a sworn to me that I will not need a new shirt for every day of the month. To my friend in Graz who has sold me the tablet I am now working on and who has been one of the foundations of my life for the last nine years. To my sister who has been a never ceasing source of encouragement and moral support.

Even though my mother will make fun of me for saying so: I will miss you all (well not those in Hamburg who I will be fortunate enough to see almost every day) and am already looking forward to seeing all of you again!

Well, I'm off now to Linzbichler to get some chocolate for people in Hamburg, and then I'm off and away! Think of me! ;)

Why, hello!

Hello fellow internet-user!

I'm an Austrian who, for reasons that will probably become clear in the course of this blog, is going to live in Hamburg for the next 3 months or so. Not a huge reason to write a blog you say? Well maybe you're right. But for me, who doesn't keep a diary and doesn't usually write a blog, it's supposed to be a means of keeping my friends and family all over the world (well mainly Austria, Australia and the US) informed about what l'm doing and how I am. I hope.

So yes, this is probably mainly going to be of interest to those who know me . But you never know! It may well be, that there'll be a bit of useful information to those planning to live here too. I won't promise this, I can't even truly say that it is planned. But it may happen, you never know.

So have fun browsing this, or have fun leaving in disgust and going somewhere else. If anything happened to be of interest please do leave a comment and if you found anything to be terribly offensive,  well... maybe tell me that too. But don't expect me to get into a huge argument about it.

As always, have a wonderful day and stay happy.