Day 14 and half of 15: Speak "friend" and enter

From here on out I’ll probably only do a few days at a time, but I thought I’d at least describe our exit from Cairo and arrival in Vienna briefly.

Wednesday (the 14^th day) we rose about 8:30 and began putting the finishing touches on our suitcases.  Breakfast was the same as usual, and after spending a little more time organizing and making sure we had everything, we left the hotel about noon.  Our cab to the airport shared many qualities with my car at home.  It had the added bonus of a luggage rack on the roof where we put our two suitcases, but I’m afraid this only exacerbated the other issues.  Every time we went up a hill we got passed by a multitude of other drivers, and we never pushed above 4^th gear.  But, in the long run, we made it to the airport with all our stuff.  So I guess it doesn’t really matter how.

We checked in, and the guy at the Austrian Airlines desk was nice enough not to charge me anything for going over the weight limit, so I had two bags checked which meant I only had to carry around my backpack.  Our flight was reasonably nice.  The in-flight entertainment was Night at the Museum 2, which I decided to watch after missing the first 15 minutes due to sleep.  They served us lasagna with shortbread for desert (and tea).  After three hours we landed ten minutes early.  Pat and I picked up our bags and prepared to go through customs.  We followed the arrows to the area marked “Nothing to declare” and when we got there it was just a regular exit.  No one asked us anything; I’m not even sure there was any official airport people anywhere near the area.  Oh well?

Our bedroom at Dr Geissler's in Vienna

We took the CAT (city airport train) to the Vienna city center where we switched to the U4 to go to our hotel for the night – the Pension Dr. Geissler.  Unfortunately we didn’t have particularly clear directions, other than we needed to keep the river on our left until we turned right onto a specific street (after exiting the underground).  Due to this ambiguity, the lack of particularly clear street signs, and everything being in yet another language I don’t understand (though Pat knows enough German to find our way around), we proceeded to walk about ten blocks too far, make a loop, and discover half an hour later that the place we needed to take a right was actually at the underground exit, if not on the opposite side.  Anyway, eventually we made it, and compared to our last hotel this place was a mansion.  A bedroom separate from the bathroom (which was separate from the toilet), two comfortable beds with large, fluffy pillows, and a small tv (which we didn’t watch).

After getting settled we went out to look for food.  We found a fastfood area right around the corner, and each ordered some pizza and something to drink.  After eating we went and sat on a bench just to enjoy the 70-degree weather and people watch.  There we went through a significant amount of culture shock (or revert).  For starters, we hadn’t seen much more than the face of a woman for the better part of two weeks.  Beyond that, it was difficult not to notice that the women here are generally taller than they were in Cairo.  And by generally taller, I mean it felt like I was shorter than every other one who walked by.  At which point I realized that most were wearing heels.  There also wasn’t really an open-container law, which is significantly different from a Muslim country where alcohol isn’t encouraged, and in fact no one even sells beer during Ramadan.

One view from our window.  Pretty different.

Eventually we went back to sleep.  It was quite a different environment to doze off to than the noise of Ramadan in the streets of Cairo.  We got up about 9, showered, and went up to the Pension (the O is supposed to have an accent but I don’t want to figure out how to do that…alt plus something...) for breakfast that consisted of rolls, salami, cheese, tea, and strawberry jam.  They had cereal too, but I controlled the overwhelming urge to eat 4 or 5 bowls.  The internet café near our hotel didn’t open until 11, so we sat around the room for a while, and then headed out to get a bit of internet before we go meet everyone from IES.

Another view

Which brings us to now.  In a little bit we’re going to leave and head to the Hutteldorf station, at which point our orientation will begin.  It’s probable that I won’t have internet tonight or much of tomorrow, at least until we get settled in our apartments.  And even then, I’m not sure what the plan is for tomorrow night, and I may just want to sleep.  So this may not be updated for a couple days, and I may not be in touch, but the important thing is we made it to Europe, Vienna, and the next 4 months, and I’m really excited to be here and to meet a bunch of new people.  I’m sure we’re going to end up doing all the classic “ropes course” activities or whatever, but hopefully there are some interesting and fun people to be around.  Like I said, when I get the time to post about all of it, I will.  Thanks for reading, sorry there aren’t any pictures here.  Maybe I’ll take a couple of our room or view from our window and add them in later?