Blogging
From Abroad

Yesterday was another great day, after getting lost (not literally, figuratively) downtown, I met with Hannes to go mountain biking in the Wienerwald or Vienna forest right outside of town. Our ride first took us through many types of neighborhoods. The income difference of the residents there was very clear, at first we saw streets dotted with new Audis and BMWs (my favorites), then tons of duplexes, and then more or less small, single family homes near the countryside. It was fascinating to see this for me, and the homes, every single one is different, I mean completely different. I don’t think they would even know what “cookie cutter house” means around here (it is a suburbia word meaning quickly built, all identical houses).

The next thing I noticed was the people, there were people everywhere on the trails, making their way through the mud! People of all ages, even the elderly assisted by walking sticks. It was just astounding to me to see how active they are here, I loved seeing it. Hannes even told me the trails were not very crowded that day. I think a large part of that has to do with the population in Wien, there are 1.8 million people, I guess recreation destinations can get saturated, I cannot imagine usage in the summertime :-)

At first, the trail was nice and dry, but the higher we went, the wetter it got! Here is a photo after the last part of “Gatsch” (Viennese word for mud). By the way, funny side note- those pants I am wearing belong to Hannes, I did not bring nylon pants to Austria, I was tying the drawstring for them and it broke! So we McGyver’d a solution to keep them up, albeit I got some strange looks for them as they were falling down on the ride back to my place (-:

It was a nice treat to engage in one of my favorite hobbies, and I continue to be glad to have befriended Hannes. He was kind enough to lend me his bike and pants. I cannot express how grateful I am to have a good friend in the city. He is even letting borrow his bike for a while, so I can get around town easier, nice fella.