Crazy Busy April

I'm having a really hard time with the fact that we only have a couple more days left in April, although I think I knew going into this month that it would be crazy packed, but I'm not sure I realized just how packed!  I also can't believe I haven't blogged since the very beginning of April...oops...I really need to be better about jotting down things even if they're just super short and quick, although recently I'm not sure I've even had time for that.  

The second weekend of the month my dear friend Jenee came to visit, which was wonderful!  We've been friends since we were 11 and she's now living in England which thankfully made this weekend trip possible.  She'd never been to Vienna so we ran around and did all the proper touristy things and hung out all weekend.

Donau Insel

That weekend also happened to be Steiermarkdorf at Rathausplatz all weekend, which was excellent timing on her part.  The entire square was filled with booths from Steiermark (a state in Austria) and all sorts of people dressed properly in their lederhosen and dirndl enjoying food and wine and music.

my friend Philipp kindly being our "local" guide for the evening

the next day was marathon Sunday! we cheered on several of my friends who were running 

After that, spring came! It was basically overnight it seemed, we went from absolutely bare trees (it snowed earlier in April...) to now nearly full leaves everywhere.  Everyone's allergies are going insane, but we're happy that the weather is warmer and we can be outside more and enjoy it!

warm evenings mean outdoor dinners along the Danube, my favorite.

Outdoor elective classes.  If you have to be in class for 9 hours for two days in a row, might as well have some discussions on the terrace at school.

Our wine society at school is back in full swing, we took a trip to Klosterneuburg last week to see their wine making (yes, I've already done this myself...but I wasn't about to turn down an evening out there)

Our Klosterneuburg trip capped off with dinner outside at a Heurigen around the corner from the winery, I'm so excited we're getting back into this season of yummy simple Austrian outdoor dining again!

Yesterday my church put on a "Festival of the Senses" at a villa in the district where I live.  We had lots of international food, a wide range of great musical performances, artists displaying their work, booths of jewelry and soaps and all sorts of fun things for sale, and an afternoon of various activities and demonstrations from around the world. 

Latvian dancing lessons

Several of my friends from school came too, which was really fun!

Martial arts demonstration

This villa also houses the museum for the district where I live, and it was open later in the afternoon, so a couple of us popped in to see what it was.  I need to go back sometime, it has an amazing collection of photographs and artifacts, and since my school is also technically in the district where I live, they had a large display about the history of Kahlenberg and the old train that used to run up there, and the old hotel on the property.  Super cool.

There was also a guy at the Festival doing caricatures and I got talked into having mine done.  He actually competed on basically the Austrian version of the X-Factor with his talent, so it was really cool to have him doing caricatures for us too.  

So I suppose that's a broad sweeping overview of the past few weeks, I actually also had my first Schnitzel making lesson but I think that'll get its own post soon once I go through those pictures.  Thankfully May has several holidays and a reading week for us, so I can perhaps get back on a normal track.  Although in 2 and a half weeks I'm off to the US to celebrate the wedding of some good friends which I'm super excited about, but that will probably make May a bit nuts as well :)

Not Exactly Spring Yet

Easter has now come and gone and it still looks a bit like December outside, although thankfully we now have much longer daylight than we did back in mid-winter, a bit bizarre though for it to still be light outside at 7:30pm while it snows.  I do realize that warm weather will come eventually, but since our first snow was in late October (on my birthday actually) now that we've flipped our calendars to April and I'm still watching the snow fall outside my window as I'm writing this, it seems like we're stuck in some sort of weather trap.  

Anyway, the Easter markets once again were set up, and despite the weather people went out and shopped for meticulously painted eggs and little craft and food items, and instead of it being time for glasses of wine and chilled punch, it was still very much glühwein weather, and people seemed ok with that.

No flowers yet, but still a lovely afternoon at Schonbrunn

I did take another quick evening trip out to Klosterneuburg with some friends for a lovely little concert that another friend was playing in, such an easy trip over there that I definitely need to do more often. 

This is one of the few times of the year that the Rathausplatz is totally bare, no more Christmas market, the  skating rink has been taken down, and we're not quite ready for all the warmer weather activities yet...

On Palm Sunday my church had a visiting high school choir from New Jersey sing much of the service.  We have several of these little choir loft windows around the second level, so they spread out among them...definitely a lot of choir music flashbacks.

And then it started snowing again...and hasn't really stopped for the past week or so. 

There is a noticeable influx of various iterations of these "Vienna" hats around town.  Sadly I'm not sure this is what tourists had in mind when they thought of a nice Easter break trip to Vienna.

Lots of snow covered outdoor eating areas...a bit too early still I suppose...

Beautifully painted eggs covered in snow...I think it's weird they don't attempt to cover them at all...but people were dusting them off and buying them.  A few with less permanent paint on them were looking a little sad...

Easter Sunday! We had the kids decorate this greenery cross, super adorable.

And Easter Brunch! My friend Lidija kindly hosted a few of us at her apartment for brunch, so we had plenty of warm food while we watched the snow all day from inside.  She and I spent much of Saturday cooking and preparing things which was really fun; I'm always up for any time I get to use a proper kitchen to cook in! 

Now I'm back in full school mode, although April and May are jam packed with lots of fun things...including a good friend coming into town and a whirlwind trip to the US...plus all sorts of more normal things here...and hopefully being able to enjoy being outside without being quite so bundled up!