Wein (Vienna)

 So a quick summary of Vienna and then off to bed. It was great. Let me expound upon this idea a little more in depth. The plane ride was a success, with ease of transfer and time schedules being met. The weather was sub-par, cold but not raining or snowing. The accommodations were surprisingly nice. Me and my partner in Crime John from Pennsylvania, found a nice cheap spot outside of downtown that was reasonably priced as it was out of seasonal travel time. The food was wonderful. The first night we had a classic Vienna dish at this pub that also had a special Austrian beer, Ottakringer, both were an absolute delight. The next morning we set out to explore the city, after a delicious breakfast of bread and cereal. We then plotted out our route and were on our way. The  buildings beautiful. Vienna has this wonderful museum district with a large amount of either original buildings or post WW2 reconstructed buildings. As shown here 

After much walking we stumbled on one of the most fantastic finds yet, a gentleman's shop of sorts. The store was one of the most aesthetically pleasing stores with a posh selection of menswear only a little out of my price range (a small understatement there). Nevertheless I was able to justify buying a one of a kind scarf there and was very pleased with my purchase, hopefully I will be back for more some day. 

We then journeyed on to see the Museum of Modern Art which was surprisingly to my liking with a well designed layout and informing exhibits, plus it was the only one that was free. A couple of my favorites.

We ended the day by finding a local bar to try another local brew in but first made a stop by the University to see the place Freud and many other important men and women had studied over the years. 

Our final day was filled with traveling and staying out of the bad weather. We then had a uneventful flight back to our home city, after a short photo-op on the famous Blau Danu river or in English, Blue Danube. Famous for the waltz by Johann Strauss with the same name. Cheesy photo-op that is. All in all an amazing trip and a chance to get to know the east coast better, learn to appreciate modern art, and class up the wardrobe a little, All without the help of the Johnster would not have been possible.  See you in July Vienna.

Hum drum

If you are an avid blog reader of mine I would say firstly I am sorry for not posting more often and secondly thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings and sometimes pointless drivel. You also might be asking yourself why has he not written more in the month of November. Well to be honest there really has not been much going on. That is to say I have settled down into a routine and am not traveling as much now to save money for later excursions. This weekend I will be going to Vienna on a special that the local airline offers called blind booking. Basically you have six options and from those options they "at random" pick one of the destinations. The funny part of this is that of six of my friends that have done this, all of them have gotten Vienna but at 19.99 euro the price is right. Other than this I have applied for several jobs, had an interview at one that went pretty bad but mostly because I had applied for the wrong job, thank you German language and advisors with horrible advice. This being said I am very happy that I did not get this job as the company was not that great and the person I would have been working with/ under was not the kind of person I would have liked to work with. I hope that this next job opening that I have applied for will be better, and lesson learned, I made sure the translation of the job description was right. I will say that trying to get a job in a foreign country is by far one of the hardest things I have ever done, as the challenges are not merely confined to language barriers but also contract differences and also interview procedures. I do think that the German system of education does offer more opportunity with German businesses to further grow and that internships are much more readily available as every Bachelor student in the Hochschule must complete one and a thesis on how the company they worked for could be improved. It is a very open system to constant change and improvement and I think that this is the way that Germany has remained so competitive worldwide in the export of their quality products. Today I am on my way to BMW manufacturing in Munich for a tour of the plant and hopefully one of the museums. This is a very exciting day for me as the BMW headquarters has always seemed so far out of my reach and today I am finally going to be stepping through the front doors of the hallowed ground that produced some of the greatest cars ever known to man. I have been feeling a little more homesick than normal but I think this is simply from the fact that I have a large amount of free time and do not really know what to do with it. I have been going to more lectures, workout events at the gym, running in preparation for my marathon in May, and yoga. It is nice to finally say, “I have so much spare time, what should I do with it?” hopefully I will make the most efficient use of this time. I miss everyone very much and hope you are doing well and if you would ever like to chat, I am only a skype call away.