Horn. Horn?

I haven’t had a chance to write for some time because of our trip to Horn these past few days. So I am going to summarize this amazing trip in one post..here it goes.

Wednesday June 8^th, the day before the trip, we had our usual routine. We had class in the morning at the institute, where we talked a bit about the Succession and had a brief history lesson before heading over to the succession building to see the Beethoven murals by Klimt. They were absolutely breath taking, gorgeous murals. His depiction of the human body is truly unique and his color choices brilliant. I bought a few postcards and hopefully will be sending them out soon, so keep a look out for them. I had a kebab for a quick lunch but ended up getting caught in the middle of an unexpected torrential downpour and was soaked to the bone for the rest of the day. Tate and Alexandra took us to see the train location for our trip to Horn the next morning. Then we stopped by the Shakespeare and Company bookstore and I bought a Haruki Murakami book to read for the remainder of the trip. Afterward, we visited the much-anticipated Ring King, who lived up to all the hype. He had some beautiful creations and some funny ones. One in particular was a 14,000 euro gold monkey that latched onto your finger. It was a fun visit, very different from the previous ones but still very eye-opening. After leaving the Ring King’s studio, some of us headed to a café called Prince Coffee Lounge, where we soon discovered the largest cup of ice coffee you could probably get in all of Austria (slightly smaller than a Venti cup size in the States). I tried the carrot cake along with my coffee and it hit the spot. The entire space was really cute and reminded me a lot of a Korean Drama called Coffee Prince (I wondered if they are related in some way). We lazed around in the café until around dinner time and then Will, Kathy, Anna, Kevin, Adam, Angerica and I headed to Akakiko for some sushi. We had a really good time at dinner, but the packing for the Horn trip was not fun at all. I had way too much stuff I was trying to cram into a small bag, but alas after some major organization I was able to make it work.

The next morning, we got up bright and early to catch our train ride to Horn. We met up with the rest of the group at the station; I spent most of the train ride reading my Murakami book and after about an hour and a half we were in Horn. Our hotel room was really cozy; I shared a room with Anna and it took no time at all for us to fall in love with our fluffy beds. We had lunch at a Pizza place (I got a Hawaiian pizza, which could easily feed three people, and devoured every last bit) and then we were on the bikes. Within an hour, we were all strapped in to our bikes and followed Tate outside of Horn. I am so glad I invested in the padded bike shorts! The bike trail we took was about 10-15 miles; we rode for most of the day. The weather was beautiful, and the ride surprisingly relaxing minus the hills. I struggled up most of the hills… I was definitely not prepared for this bike ride at all but we all made it back to the hotel together. It was a glorious ride followed by celebrations at a restaurant called Flo, where I practically had a beast feast before hitting the sack. The hotel provided us with complimentary breakfasts every morning, which was amazing compared to what we get back in Vienna with out host families. We woke up bright and early the next morning; had a massive breakfast and once again we were on the bikes with no time to spare. We biked about 12-15 miles again to a castle ruins. It was a great ride, we got back super exhausted but decided we would have to see this pool that we had heard so much about from the previous Vienna groups. Very few us did decide to go, but it was definitely worth it. The pool, or rather the “plake” as we soon started calling it, was massive; three times the regular pool size you see in the States. There was a slide, water hammocks, logs, under-water light poles and numerous diving planks. We spent several hours in the water enjoying ourselves then we headed back to dinner. We went an Italian/Greek restaurant called Giovanni’s. I ordered Spaghetti Carbanera and loved it.

The next couple of days are all blurred together. We biked yet again for most of the day, had a picnic at a really nice park and saw the town parade for the military men. The next day the group split into two groups; some went to bike 60 miles to the Czech border and some decided to join Alexandra on a mysterious off-roading trail. I decided to go with Alexandra and what an adventure it turned out to be. At first we were all doing great, following bike trails but then we decided we wanted to see wild boars and decided to go up a trail not marked on the map. We found ourselves carrying our bikes up and down steep mountains, through thick trees and bushes. We got lost in the middle of the mountains for several hours where we tried to retrace our steps with no progress. We picnicked at the top of the mountain with a great view before trying to find our way back down, which we eventually did. We were all cut up and bruised up with major paranoia of ticks (horn is known for having a lot of ticks). Once we were back down and out of the mountains we biked for another two or three hours to some ruins past Rosenburg and back to the hotel. We visited the pool yet again but not for too long and then headed off to Giovanni’s yet again for dinner. They gave Alexandra and I desserts on the house and I enjoyed every bit of it.

The next day was super relaxing thanks to the rain. We originally had plans for yet another bike trip but because of the rain most of us stayed in. We watched Aladdin, read our books, walked around, picnicked out in the corridors of our hotel, had dinner and then headed to the soccer fields to laze around, play soccer and enjoy ourselves. We got in trouble for being loud as night time came around so we all headed back to the hotel.

We got back to Vienna this morning around noon. My host family wasn’t home so Anna and had lunch at Hit Mi yet again and strolled around town for a bit. So far today has been super relaxed. I am currently in McDonalds using their wi-fi, but will head back soon to get dinner and get ready for a really busy week.

Miss you all!!!