Hallo again peepz...
I am extremely tired after a very busy few days, but am going to the effort of staying up to update you all on my progress in IBK as opposed to hitting die Sack (or watching the next episode of Damages; which, by the way, after 3 episodes is shaping up to be pretty much the best thing ever)...so sit back and relax, this may take a while...
Anyways, wo waren wir denn? Yeah, so, moved over on Saturday, and after seeing the UK off in style (full english and itBox in spoons at the airport anyone?) the plane journey itself was pretty eventful. I was fortunate enough to end up next to THE most ridiculous spanish woman in the world, who spent 300 euros on shit from the Easyjet catalogue thing, before proceeding to scream at the top of her lungs every time the plane hit a spot of turbulence. So, with a splitting headache, I touched down about (and I'm making this up now, because I have no idea what time it actually was) 2.45pm local time, and I was genuinely stunned. This is going to sound like the most gushing thing ever, but just looking around on the runway was breathtaking...everywhere I glanced, I was confronted by mountains, and
blue sky, it was pretty amazing, but more on that later...
Having succesfully negotiated the local public transport system (see previous post), and in spite of the attempts of the fattest bus driver with the most ridiculous mullet EVER (Me:"Muss ich ein Karte kaufen?" Driver:"Ja, naturlich". Cheers mate!) I arrived at the flat to be greeted by Stefan, my new housemate, who I soon got to know over a few of the local beers on the Balkon. After a quick trip to one of the millions of supermarkets in the city on the back of a vespa, and a bolognese, we hit one of his friend's for a partay, where I struggled through a few stinted conversations (the accent, it turns out is ridic), and got a wee bit merry, before topping off the evening Manchester styley with a doner on the side of the road (people actually eat kebabs here for lunch when they are sober, it is weird).
After a long lie in on Sunday morning, I awoke to glorious sunshine, and decided it was the perfect opportunity to hit the town and got some exploring in. I've mentioned it before, but this place is genuinely stunning. Just on the way to town (a ten minute bike ride courtesy of Stefan's old bike), there were about a million picture opportunties, which wouldn't have looked out of place on a postcard. At some point I'll upload them on here; but see facebook in the mean time if you can! After eventually finding the centre of town (I decided against taking a map; where's the fun in that?!), I did the sights, like the Goldenes Dachl, and had a McDonalds, as it was easy to order, and then pretty much wandered around!
First impressions of the city itself: compact, not too touristy, quaint. It was WELL hot, (as it has been pretty much every day), so I kind of felt like I was on holiday, which was cool. But yeah, was very worn out, so I headed back to the flat after a couple of hours or so, and was made to watch Star Wars in German.
Yesterday Stefan went back to work, so I was left to my own devices, and I had shitloads to sort out, so I got up early (10ish), and decided some cheap Swedish furniture was needed in order to make my room a little more homely, so I hit Ikea, again on the bike, which probably wasn't a good idea. After nearly getting lost in there (I decided to be a massive reb and go against the arrows; what's the worst that could happen? I thought), I emerged a whole THREE hours later, with a rug, 2 towels, 2 cushions and a bin to show for my heroics. Now the tricky part; getting back to the Wohnung on the bike with my purchases. It was the rug (it is MASSIVE) which
unsurprisingly proved to be the main thorn in my side, as I swerved all over the place, and nearly got killed about a million times on the 10 minute cycle back here. But I made it back in one piece, and having sorted out the room with afore mentioned items, decided it was time to attempt my first big Austrian food shop; "big" being the key word. I may have got a bit carried away, and ended up spending 48 euros (I blame all the exciting new brands and types of meat and cheese, and Kaiserschmarrn and stuff!), so I now have the most food in the world, mmmmmm.
Today I decided I should do the really important stuff, like opening a bank account, and going to the zoo. You'd have thunk they would have been difficult and easy, in that order. You'd have been
wrong. Opening a bank account literally took about 10 minutes, during which the nice woman provided me with free coffee and chocolates, and gave me a free mug (which I am now using to store my change), so I was back in the flat by about 11, and decided to have a nice afternoon out at the zoo. Despite only being like 5 km or so away, it took me the best part of an hour and a half to get there, as I decided to go against Stefan's advice, and take the bike;
"it ish up a big hill, you should take the bus".
"hill schmill" I replied (in my head).
So after half an hour of plain sailing, I noticed the road begin to wind up, and (not so) gradually get steeper and steeper and steeper, before it became literally impossible to cycle up. Resigned to defeat, I got off and pushed the bike for what seemed like days, before I finally reached the main entrance of the Alpenzoo. Absolutely shattered, I took comfort in the knowledge that the way down would be a lot quicker, and that I could stare at animals while walking around drinking beer. But basically, long story cut short; they were pretty shit chat, and were all pretty much hiding away from the heat, it was like 25c I think. But I got to see the bears (BEARS!), and then decided it was a better idea to have frankfurters and a beer on a bench overlooking Innsbruck,
(than to continue walking around looking at what seemed like empty cages) so that was nice, and pretty much made up for the arduous journey up there. Ah, and then I came back here, and ate a lot. Was going to hit up one of the Irish pubs for the football, but I am SHATTERED, and so will go tomorrow instead maybe.
And that pretty much brings you all up to date, although there is DEFINITELY stuff I have missed out. So yeah, plan for tomorrow is to maybe get the Nordkettenbahn (cable car) up to the top of a mountain, and take some nice pictures. Also, looks like I may have just been (excuse the pun) roped into some proper mountain climbing on Saturday, which should be interesting, so long as I don't die, but yeah, more on that later...
Right, I'm off for a kip,
Bis bald,
Will
xx
