16. Mai

Sorry sorry sorry. It's been two weeks since my last post, and I've received several messages asking for updates. I'm always surprised by how many people actually read what I write. It really puts a smile on my face when I get an email from someone saying anything about my blog, so thank you for the feedback (even if it's just you telling me that I need to write).

I can tell you that life in Austria is not slowing down at all, and the speed is picking up with the end of the semester looming in the distance, which seems to be creeping closer and closer everyday. One of the main reasons that the time here is flying by is because of the seemingly ever-constant movement of my body. I'm always going here and there, to one country or another, to football tournaments and practice, and to class. I'm not actually spending that much time on the campus, rather, I'm moving around it a lot. My most recent adventure was a trip this past week to Bratislava...the capital of Slovakia...the unlucky half of what used to be Czechoslovakia...a country you've probably heard of but had no idea that it was split up and the capital is now Bratislava.

Some of you may have heard of Bratislava because of a film that came out within the past few years, Hostel. It's a film about youth traveling through Europe, who decide to spend some time in a little-known city called Bratislava. They stay in a hostel, which eventually turns out to be the worst decision of their lives because crazy scary people are waiting at the hostel to kidnap them and kill them. Nice, huh? It's a fairly grotesque film, so I don't really recommend it. This film was the only picture of Bratislava in my mind when I arrived in the Hlavna Stanica (main train station). You may be asking why I decided to go, and the answer is simple: I had a free return train ticket from a friend. Why not?

After exiting the station, I searched for the correct cable car I needed to get to my own hostel. I must've had a confused look upon my face, or maybe I just looked innocent and naive, because a strange man, carrying nothing but little slips of paper in a large duffel bag, asked me if I was interested in finding a hostel. Upon hearing his question, I pondered the possibility of the film actually being true, but I decided it was best not to see the truth for myself. I politely told him no and headed off in a direction that I only knew was away from him. I thought that was a great start to my trip to Bratislava.

The thing about Bratislava is, it was under Communist control for quite some time. The roots of that so-called equality can still be seen today in the dullness of the buildings, the public transportation straight out of Orson Well's 1984, and the lack of life in the people walking the streets. Everything was a bit cold and unfriendly. I'm sure the people were great, but they looked like they'd rather stay inside in stare at the wall all day than crack a smile every once in awhile.

We wondered the streets, snapping photos of old buildings, strange statues of humans placed randomly throughout the city, and groups of teenagers celebrating their high school graduation. It was a quaint city with not much of an atmosphere. Nonetheless, it was beautiful, something very different than anything I'd seen before.

Only two day were spent there, before we headed home. As we waited to see which track our train was, the same man approached us with the empty duffel bag. He asked us the same question without a hint of recognition, as if we were blank faces with a mouth to speak and money to give. Strange. The trip was short, but sweet.

We made it back to Klagenfurt in time for the final leg of the University Football (Soccer) Tournament, in which my team was lucky enough to have made it to the quarterfinals. In our quarterfinal game, we played against a team from Chechnya, barely pulling through with a win after two halves, two overtimes, and five penalty kicks. The semifinal round was against a team of refugees from Afghanistan. Again, we squeaked by with a close 1-0 win. For the first time ever, the dorm I was playing with made it to the finals. Our opponents were a group of Austrian-Slovenians (I felt like it was a mini-World Cup with participants from every continent, including whole teams from Slovenia, Germany, India, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Austria). Our streak ended in the final, losing 3-0, but it was great to participate in such a tournament.

My movement does not stop here, though. In a couple days, I will be renting a car and driving to Budapest, Hungary. I'm traveling with 2 friends from Ireland and a crazy guy from England. We will be staying for a long weekend, returning to Klagenfurt for a couple days, then I will be making my way to Venice, maybe Berlin. Crazy traveling. I may also be seeing a couple friends of mine in the next couple weeks. Two of them are making separate vacations throughout Europe, and one is studying in Italy. So much to do, so much to see, and so little time left. Before you know it, I will be back in Cedar Falls. So fast. I wish all of you a wonderful week, and remember to smile.