The month of April has flown by, and I find myself facing the scary thought that my time in Klagenfurt is coming to an end! Phil (the American basketballer in town) went home last week, and some of the volleyball guys are filing out as well! In fact, Kristina and I spend this afternoon (of amazingly beautiful awesomely Californian weather) at Pumpe with Ryan in celebration of his departure tomorrow morning. When Kristina leaves on Friday, it'll just be Sophie and I left in our Kinoplatz Granny mansion!
That being said, I'm doing the best I can to maximize my time in Kfurt. Since my last update, after 40 days of mono death (I gave up doing anything besides sleeping for Lent), I was cleared to play once again, and I got to play in our last two matches of the season. After losing to Linz, our team was knocked out of the championship, and we were set to play against the team from Hartburg for 3rd/4th place. After beating them 4 sets at home, we played them for the second time last Saturday on the road, where we won again in 5 hard-fought sets! It was bittersweet to be at the end of our season, but we were all excited to go out on a high note!
After we won at Hartburg, Kristina and I were set on making a year-end trip to Rome with Ryan, but mother nature apparently wasn't in on these plans! With most European flights grounded after the volcano craziness, we found that all the trains from Kfurt to the Eternal City were booked for the dates that we were planning on going! In a last-ditch effort to salvage the trip, we decided to book tickets to Munich instead, and we took off last Monday morning for a 2-day field trip to the capital of Bavaria.
The trip to Munich was anything but well-planned, and when we got off the train in the early afternoon, we looked to each other while asking "Whelp, what now?" Fortunately, we were able to find our hostel pretty easily (a nice change from the experience in Venice), and after dropping off our bags, we took off on foot to see the city! Randomly, OP (from the men's team) and his brother Phil, who were also in Munich that day, were able to spot us during our first trek across the city to the Hofbrauhaus, and we had a little reunion! We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking the famous beer (or Radler for me: half beer, half sprite!) and chowing down on yummy pretzels. We then toured the BMW museum and also the Olympic Stadium, which were both pretty awesome.
After dropping the Kjos' off at their train to Salzburg, the three of us went to another beer hall at the fairgrounds where the world-famous Oktoberfest is held each year, and we then spent the evening walking around town and enjoying the beautiful night. To finish the night, we ended up at the Hofbrauhaus once again, and shared a lively conversation with two British Airways pilots who were stuck in Munich til the ash cleared, and we had a great time!
The next day brought us to the Englischer Garten, which is basically like Central Park, only it's bigger, has a safer reputation, and there is a section for nudists between the several beer garden areas. We saw the spot where brave city surfers ride on a continuous wave, and reluctantly walked through an area where some people (one old man in particular) were enjoying the freedom to wear their birthday suits!
We then attempted to tour the rest of the city on foot before heading back to the train station to catch an evening train. We had a great time during our short stay in Munich, and it was a great way to celebrate the end of the year all together!
Since getting back from Munich, Kristina has started packing in earnest, and we are trying to finish all our Klagenfurt bucket-list. She celebrated her 24th birthday last Thursday, which was extremely fun, and we spend Saturday evening at Rosa's house, where her mom cooked us delicious Dutch pancakes and we played "Activity," which is kind of like charades. We all had a great time, and I think it's one of my favorite memories of the year!
Yesterday we played knockout (bucket list item) and at at Nordsee (another bucket list item). Tonight is Kristina's real going-away party at our coach's house, and it'll be really fun to get all of the girls together one last time.
In other news, Saturday afternoon was spent at "the ranch" with Marco's family, and it was entirely entertaining. After catching two huge trout from the pond the day before, his dad soaked them in salt overnight and smoked them for lunch! His mom is apparently an expert fish dissector (is that a word?) and we all feasted on smoked trout sandwiches. I then got to watch in awe as the Breithuber men took on a variety of challenges for their own entertainment, from shooting arrows, to walking across slacklines to climbing trees (grandpa!?). The afternoon ended with the entire group working together to hoist Marco's dad up in climbing gear, which was absolutely comedic! I had a great time as always, and I'm laughing just thinking about the hilarity of the afternoon.
Trying to soak up the last little bit of Kristina's time here, then I'm off to Paris on Saturday til Monday evening! I'm excited to see the City of Light for the first time, and with any luck I'll be able to rendez-vous with Emily, my kindred spirit from my club volleyball days so long ago! She's studying some crazy art history stuff at Cambridge (a little over a year ago I visited her there!), but spending several months in Paris doing research and having a grand old time. Can't wait to reunite once again!
Love and miss you all!
XOX
Anna
