American Schnitzel

Last week here in Austria was another Holiday, which meant pretty much everything would be closed even school! Two weeks before I had gone in to the OEBB office and was checking out some train ticket prices when I saw that no matter when you buy your ticket a two way ticket to Bratislava was only 14 euros. I figured, I can afford that and asked a freind the day before if she was wanting to come with me. So the next day we woke up and got ourselves ready for an excursion to Bratislava, Slovakia. The morning was starting off good until when we were buying our train tickets the woman in the office told us that we have about 20 minutes to make the train at another train station and not where we were. In Vienna there are more than one major train station and I got mine mixed up. I think if you would ask anybody that has traveled with me they would tell you there is never a dull moment! Between the running to get to the train's platform in time or just simply touring a new city. When...

Tipping in Austria is unlike in the States. Tipping in Florida is 10% of your total at a resturant and at a coffee shop the change given back goes into the tip jar. Waiters and Waitresses normally are paid lower than minimum wage and live off their tips. When I was living in the States I worked at a local smoothie bar and I know tips were what really made working with all the rude people easier and helped with the wages I was paid. I could right a whole post on how you are supposed to act around a tipping jar because after working at the smoothie bar for a year I saw some people that did not know what was proper. For example we had a few people steal our tips, we even had people search in the tip jar for the change when a order was 3.25 they would thumb around looking for the 25 cents. I believe Tips should not suppliment a low wage but rather reflect on the service itself. If that person went out of their way for you and was not rude then tipping is easy. When I was in France ...

Traveling abroad has always been ''The Dream'' for me. The big question I have always been asked from people find out when I was 18 I left the nest for Vienna and I have boyfriend in Vienna is ''What did your parents say or think?''. Which has alway been difficult for me to explain specially in German. So here is the awnser, I did not leave because of a boy, I picked Vienna because of that reason but my parents were not in a state of shock when I made up a date to leave. They were a bit worried for me since they didn't know what would happen and if my heart was broken I would be a bit out of reach. I have never been a wild child or have given my parents reason not to trust me and my choices. The thing that was actually suprising to me was when I told some friends and ran into people I knew a long time ago the question of what college I would be attending would come up. After telling them I got a scoff and the shocker ''Why does that not sup...

This past July was offically my one year mark of living in Vienna. I am proud for having made it one year on my own in a far off distant land.   Marabelle enjoying the beach. This past Summer has been filled with a lot of adventure and has been enjoyable. I flew back home to Florida for the first time since I had started living abroad. It was nice to go back and see my family and my dog it was also nice to be surrounded in what is most familiar. Also it was great to get away from the cold weather and also Vienna's Summers. Funny as it sounds Summer in Florida is much better than Summer in Vinna, here in Vienna air conditioning is not really needed since REALLY hot days are not an everyday thing. South Florida, we have a lot of humidity and the heat can be brutal, but the flip side is, we have ocean breezes, summer showers that last 10 minutes, and oh yeah every building has the a/c cranking and we love having fans everywhere. Drafts in Florida are a must and we grow accustom...

Me at the Life Ball 2011 I just want to start off with saying that for the past days Blogger has been funny and would not let me log in. So after changing my password 4 times finally got it to work. So this is a pretty late post, but better than nothing no? Last weekend was a really good and busy weekend, on Friday after my German class I went to go meet up with Vienna Expats at Sand in the City . Where I met some very lovely people and got some good tips as well. Saturday I went out with some of my German classmates/friends to Pure Living Bakery since it is a bakery selling Pancakes, bagels, waffels and cheesecakes. Now what I do want to say is that we had some troubles finding the bakery, and when we got there they had a lovely relaxing garden set up where you can sit and enjoy the weather we have been having lately. It is self-service and a bit over priced. My one girlfriend really wished for pancakes and since we knew there was pancakes on the menu we thought we would ...

This Summer the Boyfriend and I will be taking our travels and adventures to the States this Summer. Which I can not be more happy about! Looking foward to seeing home and being in an enviroment that I know very well and of course also looking foward to going shopping. On Mariahilfestraße on of my favorite stores has finally come to Vienna, Forever21. Just the problem is the same, money. The truth is I have a thing for finding clothes for dirt cheap so it is not normal for me to go shopping and buy whatever I find. One thing I think we both are going to miss (my boyfriend and I) is our trip to France this Summer. Last year was our first vacation together and we went back to the tiny village I had lived in for a month the Summer before. This village is special for anyone who visits it. We have spent time the last two Summers and we are kindof sad that we won't visit again. Lovely Amboise, France it is on a smaller scale compared to the surrounding castles in the Loire Valley. Pre...

This past Friday and Saturday I was with my friends from my German class in Budapest, Hungary. I can certainly tell you that it was more fun then I had imagined. We three have become each others foundation in the living far away from our homes but we all have different countries that we call home, so it makes traveling together certainly interesting. At the Parliment with the Danube behind us. Transportation: We spent around 50€ for two days in Budapest, that is including the wonderful Hostel we stayed in for one night and also public transport. We went from Vienna to Budapest since it is only a 3 hour drive away. There are many buslines in Europe which makes traveling around easier, the busline we used was Orange Ways  and found that to be the cheapest one for round ticket it costed 22€ and I do believe if you have larger bags it costs 1€ per bag. Since we had a very short stay we only had backpacks. Parliment The Hostel: We stayed in a very quaint and homey hostal Pa...