Ostalpenquerschnitt

And so we come to my last weeks in Austria. Not much to write home about really, just the usual horrible rush to say goodbye to people and feelings of time slipping away without the ability to see EVERY art gallery/ Wuerstelstand etc etc. I really feel like I only just properly got into the swing of things, with friends, routines, knowledge, language skills, everything. But people say that about leaving anywhere, right? That seems to imply we are always 'getting better' at living wherever we live, which is pretty cool really. I don't think I'm going to do a summary post of the whole year though, because what would I say? This whole blog is the shortest summary there's going to be. It's a year for goodness sake!

Oh , before I left I did get to go to the Donauinselfest (massive FREE festival on the Donauinsel) and see Wheatus play live, which wasn't exactly on my list of life goals, but was pretty cool anyway.

Directly after that I embarked on my last gasp Austria tour/ field trip for my regional geology course. One whole week spent exclusively trying to speak Austrian while hanging out with native speakers was a big challenge, but I return armed with bucketloads of handy slang. In some ways that was the best part of the whole trip actually. Alpine scenery is of course stunning, but as we were travelling in a (mercifully air conditioned considering the 30+ degree heat) small coach we didn't spend much time hiking around up at the treeline or whatever. Drive by geology trips run the risk of being 70% driving, which can depress the enthusiasm of even the most seasoned geologist by turfing them out of a coach just after they've finally got comfortable enough to sleep. That said of course there were also some super cool rocks (just don't mention marl to me in the near future, ugh) and a drive along Austria's highest road (up to 2500m!) the Grossglocknerstrasse. Pictures are as always readily available by clicking some green looking words. I have tried to make the rock pictures interesting even for you non-rocky types by explaining them a little bit.

Several people have asked what I will do with this blog thing now. I'm not sure, I am inclined to keep adding to it but I don't see much value in just listing stuff which has happened to me that almost everyone reading it already knows about. Mostly the motivation to continue stems from not wanting this to be another of the hundreds of dead blog relics you can find by clicking that endlessly fascinating 'next blog' button at the top left. I will probably put my accounts of live music up here if/when I start doing them again, and write about trips I make. Coming up soon is a brief sprint to visit Peter in Cornwall, then a trip to Islay and finally a return to Austria to check out Vorarlberg in September. Fingers crossed for the weather!

As for the title, I'm keeping it, though once I've come up with something witty enough I'll change the description bar. A quick pronounciation note though, Wien = 'Veen' NOT 'Vee-en', as apparently some people (*cough* Tim *cough*) have been reading it wrong all year in their heads. Naturally this is the end of the world.

Bis Bald,
der Tom.