Halo von Österreich

So made it to Austria….here’s an account of my first days here.

Sunday morning I woke up at 4am, my flight left at 7:15 and I had to be there by 5:15. My first flight was to Miami. Unfortunately my bike box was over the 50lbs limit (actually by 33lbs) so instead of being charged $35 dollars I got charged $150 L but the good thing was I was given an emergency exit seat which meant more leg room.

Two guys from Tempe sat next to me and I found out John and Stephan were headed to Berlin to spend a month traveling Europe and as luck would have it were going to be on the same connecting flight to Dusseldorf from Miami.

The flight lasted about 5 hours and I slept most of the way. Besides briefly getting lost at Miami airport we (John, Stephan and I) made it to our gate with just enough time to buy an overpriced personal Pizza Hut pizza before boarding. Slowly I started to hear more German and it started settling in that I was in fact headed for Europe. The flight lasted quite a long time but we got a dinner and a breakfast on the plane. I slept for a good while and got to finish Angles and Demons (my third time reading it). We arrived at Dusseldorf and I exchanged contact info with John and Stephan and we decided to meet up when they travel to Vienna.

One more quick flight (1hr 45min) and I arrived in Vienna. Luckily for me all my luggage and bike arrived too.  Heinrich picked me up from the airport and we were on our way to Gratkorn, which is where his parents in law (Erik and Rosemary) live and where him and his family and I were going to live for the next week before their house in Graz is ready to move in.

The highway there gave way to some extremely beautiful views of the country side and to my surprise was exactly how all the pictures portrayed it. Everything is so green and the houses are typical. Farms scattered around with big fields of wheat and other crops; between fields are dense green forests and mountains. Quaint clusters of houses and with churches complete with their signature pointed tall spire.

Eric and Rosemary’s house is a tiny, comfy house with a beautiful back yard. So tiny that Heinrich, Andrea (his wife) his kids Ferdinand (3years) and Karoline (15months) and I have to sleep in a small room upstairs. But as I said it’s a comfy house and we are making it work so far.

Everyone was (and still is) so warm and welcoming, and the afternoon after I arrived I got to see everyone for the first time since they left Phoenix in January and February. Everyone just as warm as I remember them being.

Exhausted and tired bed time came at 9pm central European Time (9hours ahead of Phoenix time) managed to get a solid 12hours of sleep in my attempt to fight off the jet lag. After dropping the kids off at their babysitters house Heinrich and I headed to downtown Graz and grabbed a quick coffee with Andrea at her work. Downtown Graz is the largest and best preserved downtown in all of Europe. It was not damaged during WWII and is quite beautiful. I was glad to see so many cyclists everywhere. Next destination was Heinrich’s house where we had to do some work as well as pick up his old Kuota Kahn road bike he was going to let me borrow. I got my trusty Adamo saddle on it as well as my pedals and we headed to Rad Fuchs, the bike shop where I’m going to work at, to do some work on the bikes. Then back to Gratkorn for a solid ride thru the Austrian hills.

The ride was nothing less than spectacular. We rode on a beautiful country side road that could have been ripped right out of a fairy tale book. Complete with small hill side farms, tree canopies and the occasional tractor on the road. We rode up some great little hills, bombed down some awesome winding roads. All in all it was a tough ride trying to keep up with Heinrich is quite a challenge. Did I mention he’s a professional Ironman Triathlete? Needless to say it’s quite easy to fall in love with this place.  

After the ride I got a chance to Skype with my Mami in Phoenix. I wish my family was here to live these experiences with me but I guess the bird’s got to leave the nest at some point.

In the evening was a swim workout with Heinrich’s training group (he’s a professional triathlon coach too) in Graz, which felt good although it’s odd to swim in an indoor pool. Afterward everyone went out for a beer and dinner. Which brings me to something that I find interesting here, everyone always hears about the awesomely good beers that the Europeans drink right? But what people don’t know is that Austrian and Germans love to mix their beer. For example a “Radler” is lemonade with beer and there are many more such mixes. As a beer coinsure I was skeptical of such a mix but it is surprisingly good and refreshing. Anyway we had a couple of those after swim. The frustrating part of the night was that I only understood about 30% of the conversations since everyone went off the deep end with their dialects. I know it was only my second day here but man did I feel like an outsider sitting in there not understanding much of what was being said; an odd feeling I’ve never really had before. I’m going to have to be patient knowing that it will take a while before I understand their dialect…..

The cool thing is that I got to see the bike shop I’ll be working at and it’s pretty cool. Super high end triathlon and road bike shop, with Look, Ceepo, Argon 18, Cervelo and a couple of other European only brands that I’ve never heard about. The shop is behind the owner’s house, which is also an odd thing here in Austria since there isn’t a separation of residential areas and retail areas. Hannes Fuchs is the owner and he runs his shop very well, evident by its well organized show room and spotless repair area.  Can’t wait to start working there this coming Monday, I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot J

Today (June 1) I woke up to my 25^th birthday, the first birthday I pass without being with my family L . But I’m sure I’ll talk to them via Skype at some point and I’ve been told by everyone here that we’ll celebrate tonight J.

Tomorrow Heinrich and I head south to a “Trainings Lager” or trainings camp that he organized for his athletes. We’ll be staying next to the coast and riding and running in some of the most beautiful areas I’ve seen. It’ll be a small group of people but I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll be back on Sunday and then moving in to their house in Graz the next day.

I’ll get pictures up soon, camera ran out of batteries but I’m getting new ones today. Don’t know how often I’ll put up updates but stay tuned. I miss everyone back home very much. The door is always open though if you want to visit.

Bis Bald J

P.S I'm probably going to start writing some blog updates in German....I might or might not include translations so sorry ahead of time to those who don't understad German ;-)