Day 15 - Off To Vienna for the Weekend

Canpari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

I took a late afternoon flight to Vienna today.  I still get a thrill saying I'm going to another country for the weekend.

Class is going well.  In the "conversation" hour we each had to write a brief travel diary entry.  Our teacher. Donatella, then corrected what we wrote.  I'm very pleased with myself as I got mine mostly correct, without having to resort to Google Translate.  I conjugated an instransitive verb as a transitive one and got the gender of one noun incorrect but those are minor errors.  My only big error was when I tried to write the sentence "I had planned to go to Portugal but they weren't allowing Australian tourists in."  I got the first phrase correct but completely messed up the second half.  Donatella pointed out if I'd rephrased it as "Australian tourists weren't allowed to enter Portugal." it would have been easy - and she was right.  Must pay more attention to her.

 After class I went to the Osteria Da Fortunata with Kim.  This is a restaurant that specialises in Roman food.  We shared an antipasto platter of fritto misto and fried zucchini flowers to begin with.  Then I had strozzapreti carbonara.  We both agreed it was the best meal we've had in Bologna - and it was Roman food, not local food!  

I had a 7:30pm flight to Vienna but headed out at 4:30pm as 1) I was bored sitting around the apartment; and 2) I wanted to be sure I got to the airport in plenty of time.  Well, I did.  The walk to the railway station took 30 minutes, the train to the airport took 20 minutes (including waiting for it to arrive) and clearing security took 10 minutes.  Since I was travelling within the EU it was basically a domestic flight.  I ended up getting bored sitting around the airport instead.

Vanessa met me at the airport and drove me into Vienna where she had booked us a hotel in the city centre.  The drive in was a little exciting.  It was dark and raining.  Also, Vanessa's drivers licence has expired.  Plus, she has recently moved house.  In Austria, your car's licence plate is somehow tied to your address.  When you move, you need to get new plates.  She hadn't organised this yet so technically she was driving an unregistered (and therefore uninsured) car.  

We made it safely downtown and checked into our hotel.  Vanessa had had dinner with a friend while waiting for me to arrive and I was still digesting lunch, so we just had a drink at the hotel bar.  And then to bed.