Not the wittiest of blog titles

Oh dear, a lot to catch up on and it has only been 4 days. I need to do less or write more. I will now recount the past four days in this newfangled 'chronological order' thing I've heard so much about.

Thursday I had 6 hours of lectures. Hmmm. Starting at 9am as well. I was left rather exhausted, partly as I need to get back in the swing of lectures, and partly because 6 hours of geowissenchaftliches Deutsch as opposed to English definitely tires the brain a little more.

But what are my courses like? Applied Environmental Geology seems pretty cool, all stuff I haven't really learnt before, definitely not too easy, and I can understand the lecturer easily. This was actually the hardest lecture + practical as I was learning new words rather than figuring out the German meaning of old ones. Isotope Geology actually seems annoyingly similar to a course I took in 2nd year at UCL, but I figure I deserve a little bit of slack what with everything with being in German and all, plus this course will take a bit more of a detailed numerical approach which will be very welcome. Petrology seems the best of the three so far, engaging lecturers and the potential to learn lots of new complicated interesting things. Plus I even answered a question in it.

What's the best way to rest after 6 hours of lectures?? If you answered a) 'go to the house of your Polish friends and drink polish vodka/wodka with them', you would be right. Not much to say apart from POLISH PEOPLE DRINK VERY FAST. Luckily while I got very drunk, I was (as always, haha) reserved enough that I did not get into any difficulties. Once we had drunk lots of wodka and learnt a polish drinking song/toast called 'Sto lat' we retired to a nearby halls to a party. A very good evening was had by all.

Friday I had no lectures, which was excellent planning on my part. As far as I can remember I did nothing with my day, then went off to a friends for drinks, then straight to a big Erasmus party inside a massive mansion type place. I guess Vienna has so many lovely buildings they can afford to use some for clubs. A surprisingly fun night in comparison to some of the Erasmus events, the DJs played many UK favourites like Blink 182 and Blur, and then magnificently segued into Ska-P, (Europe's best left wing Spanish ska-punk band) and various other Ska-Punk-Reggae-Balkan gems. Did not get to sleep till veeeeery late. Consequently spent much of Saturday daytime lazing around again. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen!

Saturday evening saw a woeful party organised in the basement of our building, which most people quickly realised was a waste of time. It was selling beer for way more than it cost in nearby shops, playing far worse music than we could generate in our own flats, and was also an overheated, smoke-filled, poorly ventilated and unattractive basement. I thus retired upstairs with a group of (well, 2) like minded people, where naturally we talked about god, the meaning of life, the finer points of the New Zealandish, Finnish and English educational systems and the British concept of class until 4am.

I was very tired today (see a theme here?) but managed to be sufficiently awake by 3pm to go and check out the Belvedere, one of the many stately homes and gardens around Vienna. On the way we passed the incredibly large fountain by the soviet army memorial. The fountain kicks up so much spray that when the sun breaks through the clouds a bright rainbow forms in front of your eyes. Very cool, although soaking. Took some great photos, but I think Vienna makes anyone look good at photography tbh.
The Belvedere park was amazing of course, parks just aren't going to seem the same for me now without a vast stately home filled with famous art at one end... There was a great view over Vienna, all the spires of the churches of Vienna, the Stephansdom, the big wheel, the hills behind. Wow. There were also some mysteriously violent classical statues which I will research someday because seriously, why would 2 cherubs be subduing a woman and making her vomit water (ie it was a fountain). Also, why is the man below wrestling a crocodile??
Inside the Belvedere were vast marble filled rooms, painted ceilings, and a very lage amount of world class art, ranging from giant mythical tableaux to small landscape paintings, by way of expressionist Egon Schiele, impressionist Monet, and I'm not really sure-ist Gustav Klimt, including Mr Klimt's rather famous picture 'The Kiss'. This city really is spoiling me I think. When I get back to London I resolve to stay in this tourism habit, I have seen less of the treasures of that grat city than I have of Vienna. Bad Tom.

As we left the Belvedere at closing time the sun had just gone down and wispy clouds were hanging over Vienna. Very nice.