Saturday, March 28, 2009

Stories of March 28th

So last night I could not fall asleep for a variety of reasons. First, I believe jetlag set in so I didn't actually fall asleep until approximately 8 AM. But the second more encompassing reason for my lack of sleep was the fact that I had read an article on European travel and they mentioned watching out for bedbugs and I proceeded to get very paranoid and feel very itchy in my bed. Which I'm sure is not full of bedbugs but according to my 2 AM brain, I was being completely reasonable.

I then got up this morning at about 8:30 because I was meeting my friend Erin (from high school), since she is also studying at the moment in Vienna. Boy, can I tell you it was nice to hear someone in this country speaking American English! Who knew! She showed me the Naschmarkt, which is quite cool. On Saturdays, it is a flea market along with a regular market. It seems you can find anything there: fish, meat, fruits, vegetables, spices, hummus etc. We bought breakfast (I bought a chocolate croissant and freshly squeezed juice which was delicious).

We then proceeded to try and find the Skull Sauna, which she had seen before. We were both quite horrified that it had either been moved or completely removed! How dare they. That was going to be part of my Skull montage that I currently have 2 pictures for! One from Venice and one from Vienna! 

Anyway, she then headed back to go to a concert and I finally found an ATM. Aka  Erin showed me what they look like. I went back to my apartment to return my coat because it was getting excessively hot in my jacket. However, when I returned I also got very tired and needed a nap, since I'd had very little sleep. So I took a nap which I KNOW is forbidden for jet lag but it was necessary!! It was just for an hour or so...

Then I decided to go out again since it was such a beautiful day. When I checked the temp it was 64 degrees and probably got warmer than that! Again, I found some very awesome sites and my pictures turned out great with the lighting! I found Peterskirche and the area around that which is quite awesome! Lots of little squares and statues/fountains which are really beautiful! 

After about 2 hours or so, my foot started to hurt and I could tell I was getting a blister so I decided to head back slowly to my apartment to get a bandaid then go grocery shopping. At the Opera House there were a TON of police cars and people shouting and waving signs, which I thought was weird. I saw one of the signs said "schweine" which means "pig" so I just kept going to my apartment. On the way there, there were a bunch of streets blocked and by the time I was near my street I could see that they were stretched all the way there! That meant that there were a LOT of people demonstrating (I heard later it was a large group of vegetarians.) As I'm walking down my street van after van after van with 8 policemen in each van drove by heading to the demonstration. Of course they were demonstrating on the street where I needed to go grocery shopping.

I decided to lay low a bit in my apartment. My housemother said that occasionally groups of people will get together to demonstrate and the police go on either side of them just in case. It was quite interesting though! Once in my room, I took off my shoe and might I say my foot was disgusting (see pictures) and I had definitely bled a lot in my shoe. I used handy wipes to clean my shoe out and my foot which I'm hoping doesn't get infected because that won't be fun. And you may be thinking, "Oh it's just a blister it can't be that bad" but NO. It is gigantic and awful. My mom asked me how I was even able to walk back to my apartment. I then went grocery shopping and bought real food and had a normal dinner that wasn't icky! woo! (don't worry I'm sure not all food in Vienna is icky. just what I had for dinner at my apartment last night. It had crunchy sausage that's all I'm going to say).

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Vienna%20Day%203/

Here are my pictures from today! there aren't as many of them as yesterday so will be a lot faster to look through!




And for those of you who haven't noticed, if you have commented on one of my blog posts, I most likely have responded to the post under the same comments section!

6 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness that blister IS terrible, hopefully it heals fast! And of course you must know that your mother and I will now be in constant worry about your possible bedbugs! : )

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  2. Wow that is some blister. You need to get something on there. Have you found a pharmacy near you? Stock up on supplies before you need them so your prepared in case you get sick and can't venture out...I know...I am mothering you...just can't help it! But it does sound like and look like your out there and having fun...just glad you weren't carrying your sausages as you passed thoes Vegans! Anna and Adrienne, Allison and Thomas are all watching Mulon right now...they're all breaking out in song..well not Thomas...Love your Blog.

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  3. Lauren, take it from your blog followers: That blister is heinous and must be treated! Have you NOT heard of flesh eating strep??! Go out there and get some sort of antibiotic cream!

    In other news: Did you notice in picture #2 featuring the vegetarian demonstrators -- there's a sign pointing the way to McDonalds right over their heads? Ha ha!

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  4. Tralynda: I'm also hoping it heals fast!! it's icky and hurts! And i will also be worrying about possible bedbugs along with you! just a few thousand miles away! hehe.
    Elice: Thanks for the mothering =) Tell Adrienne Anna and Allison that I was singing "lets get down to business" in my head." heheh
    Mother: I did not notice that. that's kind of hilarious!

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  5. first off this is Allison


    ok we just watched Mulan I cant believe you were singing that song! hahaha and mom spelled it wrong ahah, silly. anyways your apartment is way sweet! as is that blister. rub some dirt in it, eat a steak it will be fine. Make sure you see the riding school, or wait till I get there! ahah

    are you watching antm on youtube?

    do it, we will have discussions : ]

    I hope you are having tons and tons of fun! Meet new people! woooo

    Miss you!

    love Allison

    PS I had to use adriennes accoutn cuz I cant remember mine

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  6. ALLISON! I need your email address! I accidentally found the riding school it's way sweet! i haven't done in but the outside is really cool! So when you come visit me I will show you!! yes i am watching antm on youtube...well i watched the pictures from last week. woo. I also was able to watch the office on youtube and not wait a couple weeks! yay! I miss thee too! send me an email or give me yours here and i will email you!

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