Resumé

Several days have passed since my last post, and I have had a blast the past days.

Wednesday: Stockholm derby between Djurgården and AIK. The game ended with a 1-1 draw after an equalizing goal by AIK in the last seconds of the game.



Friday: Oktober Fest in the city of München. A blast. A lot of beer. A day among new friends. A day to remember!




Saturday: Anxiety and eventually resurrection, wine with my American friends and later a visit to the Irish Pub of Linz.
Sunday: Hiking, indoor football at the Raab Heim and finally, Derby della Madonnina - The Milan - Inter derby game (which Inter eventually lost after a goal by Ronaldinho).





Monday: Kolpinghaus refuses to repay me my deposit (surprise?). I don't think they know what bad publicity means for a hotel. I will make them aware of that before I leave this country.

Thank you for reading!

Rainy Wednesdays in Austria suck

It's already Wednesday evening and I have almost been in Austria for 2 weeks now. My week has been OK this far. I was to receive my deposit back from the other place but they are not repaying me the whole sum. This story never seems to end.

Monday was an OK day. Long but OK. It was rounded off with a karaoke party at the university. I didn't sing anything, I just hung out with the American exchange students and had a few beers. They were really nice (as usual)! By the way, alcohol is so much cheaper in this place compared to Sweden. It's sick. It encourages you to have that one extra beer every time you're out :P.

Tuesday... hmm... A boring day with no action at all. I went in to the city for a short errand, had coffee with my mentor at a place called Cafe Opera, and returned home for a quick lunch before I eventually ran to my language course in the afternoon.


Today has been pretty much like yesterday. I had to go to the city (again) to meet my mentor (again). After that I stopped by at home, went to the university for some lunch and to visit the bank at campus. The teacher brought her dog to the lesson today, pretty odd, no?


Anyway, Inter - Lecce and Djurgården IF - AIK tonight. I'll be watching.

Reflections on a Sunday evening

Sunday is coming to an end. It's been a quite good Sunday this far. I had some bad luck on my way back from the city earlier today. I had bought the ticket, registered it and kept it beside my Austrian ID-card. Obviously I had forgotten to sign my citizen-number on the back of the card. It's a tiny box where it says "Ausweis number". What the hell is Ausweis number anyway? So the lady on the tram caught me, asked me for my name, surname and other details. I was waiting for her to ask me about my religion (like everywhere else) too. Then she gave me the ticket, 50 fucking EUROs for not signing my citizen-number.

Aside from that it was a nice day. I went in to the city to see my classmate from back home and to pick up some things from her apartment. Apparently she had a pretty intensive night at the nightclub last night. We made some jokes about it and I followed her to McDonald's to make her company while she was having her Sunday dinner.

I returned to the Julius Raab Heim to play football with the other exchange students. We played 5 a-side and it was great. I ended up in the same team as my roomies. Their everyday vocabulary is dominated by three words, "puta" (= whore), "culo" (=ass) and "maricon" (which I believe means faggot)

Inter won against Torino today. I was going to stream the game but I chose Chelsea - Manchester United instead. It was an entertaining game which ended with a fair draw (1-1). Kalou and Park were the goalscorers.

Anyway, Inter's win was important and I am happy to see them team winning and not performing nervously as the last few months of last season. I am a big fan of Roberto Mancini for all he has done for Inter during his four-year spell at Meazza, but Mourinho is somehow more solid and has the players' deepest respect. Every player praises him and his methods, and this far things have gone well.

Maicon scored a beautiful goal...




... and Ibra scored his second goal for the season.


Thank you for reading.

Sunday v2.0

Day nine, the second Sunday in this country. The last one didn't exactly spoil me so I am not expecting anything of this day. All the shops are closed, even supermarkets. The only thing that is running as usual is the tram. I am seriously considering to jump on it and see the rest of the city. I did it last week and it was pretty nice. It took me places I wouldn't go to by myself.

I ended up in a two-room (and not a three-room) apartment with two Colombians. We share the kitchen and the WC/shower. They seem like nice guys but no conclusions yet. This is my view.


Sometimes I really believe that I have ended up in an underdeveloped country. I mean sure, Sweden is great in many aspects and we are usually pretty spoiled when we're abroad. But this is not my first time abroad and it's not the only place I've visited on this planet. I realized yesterday morning that I couldn't lock the door to my room. The metal piece (the lock?) that is supposed to come out from the door and into the wall, simply did not. The hole was out of range for the metal piece. Great.

The heating element of the room was also out of order, so now I've caught a cold. I asked them to fix this things and they took care of the door, but the heating element will stay like this. I'll have to wear more clothes indoors.

We went to this great sushi place yesterday (and the day before yesterday). You sit beside a running band with small portions of Japanese food passing you. You pick anything you like and eat as much as you can. It was awesome.




Later yesterday we decided to go out. There were a couple of pre-parties around the Julius Raab Heim, and I paid 'em both a visit. After a couple of Bacardi Breezers and a great amount of wine I was starting to feel a little funny. My goal was to not let the sushi leave my stomach. I gave up. If I had followed the others out I'd make an ass out of myself. A high price to pay, I really wanted to go out last night.

Another thing that I have been thinking about during my short stay here is (as I've mentioned earlier) the neverending number of stripclubs and funhouses. We passed by at least six or seven on our way to a furniture shop (which happened to be named XXX-Lutz...).


Torino - Inter today. I'll probably have to sneak in to the university and use their WLAN connection if I want to see the game in motion. The cable connection I have at Julius Raab is not sufficient.

Thank you for reading.

Friday night at the Julius Raab Heim

After one week in Linz I am now settling down in my second crib during my short stay down here. In a few weeks I might be moving in to my third crib. We'll see about that. I've learned one thing down here, and that is to not take anything for granted, even if someone makes a promise. I am so used to the open and honest people of Sweden, and now I have to adapt and recalibrate myself in order to become accustomed to drunk personnel behind desks and counters. Yesterday I was promised a new room in a little more than two weeks. I woke up early in the morning just to call and check one last time if I was to get the new room. A few hours later some administrator at the dorm tells me that I might not be able to move in the new room in two weeks. This was said to me 35 minutes after I had cancelled my stay at the other place. I returned my key and I am waiting to receive my deposit back. For some reason I don't feel that things will happen smoothly. Nothing has this far.

So now I'm sitting in my new room at the Julius Raab Heim. It is cold, the light is not very nice and the other guys are out partying. The refrigerator is empty, and I have a feeling that the few things that I had bought for myself will be gone pretty soon. This time I can't call the embassy and complain though.

Anyway, there is no saucepan, no pots or any dishes whatsoever in the shared kitchen. I wonder how the fuckers who live here have been surviving without these things.

I have had the time and opportunity to make some new friends down here. I am still waiting for my German skills to improve. I find it hard to speak but I understand almost everything I hear and read. The Austrian accent is one exception though. I can barely understand a word.

The American and Canadian exchange students have been the easiest ones to communicate with. They have all been very friendly and kind. There are a few scandinavian exchange students here as well. We're only three (maybe four in a few days) swedish exchange students, but there are more finnish students. Most of them speak swedish perfectly well and some of them understand swedish. Two norweigan students are here but no danish students have been seen yet. The scandinavian students around have all been pretty nice.

Tomorrow I will have to go to the city centre, buy some plates etc. Hopefully we'll be able to go to IKEA.

Thank you for reading.

One week

It's almost been a week down here which is pretty amazing. I think (!) I have another 40 weeks to enjoy.

I called the embassy yesterday and obviously things tend to happen much smoother when diplomacy and threats are involved. It didn't take long before I got a phonecall and an offer to move to another room. Unfortunately I can't have it before 5th of October, so I'll have to share a three-room apartment with 2 other students that I haven't met yet.

The whole process has been a long wait and completely unnecessary. If I would have known last Friday that they would bitch with me like this for a whole week I would have called the embassy right away. When I think of my conditions in Linköping (and all other students as well for that matter) I realize that it is very good. On some levels not even comparable with this.

Still, I'm here for the action and not the glamor. We went out last night and I got home 3.30 AM. I had four hours of sleep before I had to get up in order to make the last arrangements before my move to Julius Raab Heim.

I am leaving this:


for this:

Fooled by the landlord

Bad news. My room was never changed. They fucked up big time here at the hotel and they offered me a bribe to shut up. They tell me that they're willing to repay me my deposit and to forget about this months' rent if I get the fuck out. This means that they are aware of their mistake. Yet they don't have the balls to admit it. I am going to run a shitstorm on them and their company. Bad publicity is never good for a hotel. I have my camera and I will document how I have been unfairly dealt with. I am too tired to tell the story but briefly: They promised me a new room today but they fucked up and now I am planning to take legal action. They are charging me for something they haven't delivered and for me that is very hard to accept. I will make noise (and perhaps make an ass out of myself), but I won't let these people ride on me and my rights without getting away with it.

Austria is a catholic country but still I've seen more strip clubs here than in Sweden. Sweden is a protestant country and the population is on top of that very secular (amen for that ;)) but still you usually don't see many places where they openly offer lapdancing and tits.

Austria is special. It is not like Germany (which I had suspected before I arrived). They have a very special accent and architecture. It's beautiful (as long as the Soviet influences are excluded).

Finally connected

After a few days of being offline I am finally found back here. I am sitting in Linz, northern Austria and I have been writing about my stay in a document. The following content is an excerpt from these reflections.

Friday, September 12 2008, ~22.00

It’s a few minutes past 7 am and I am sitting in Linz. The first night was horrible due to a huge mistake by the people that were to handle my accommodation upon my arrival. They gave me the keys to a double room with no kitchen, a shared bathroom (with some asshole that I haven’t met yet) and they expect me to live and study here. The whole situation becomes even more bizarre when I look at the marketing fliers and the information they provided us with before we even came here. They promised Internet connection, kitchens and single rooms with private WC and bathroom. I tried to complain, with the help of some Austrian students, but the moron behind the counter wasn’t too keen on helping me out. The only answer the idiot could give was that a change was impossible at that time, I would have to wait until Monday. Great.

It really pissed me off because the whole trip had gone perfectly well with no delays and smooth transports. The city of Vienna was beautiful (the little I got to see from it) and Linz seems like a cozy place, not far away from other interesting places in Europe.
I am hoping to solve this matter as soon as possible and to have them cut my rent
(maybe even compensate me financially). The room is dirty and it smells really bad because of indoor smoking. I didn’t want to use my own sheets in that bed because if I would, the stench of cigarettes would probably never leave. I am going to have to deal with this room for another three nights.


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Saturday, September 13, 09.30

I’ve had breakfast and it was OK, nothing more. I think I can deal with it for a year. I also took that shower I was talking about and I feel much better now. I’ll probably pass out later in the afternoon, I practically had no sleep last night. The bed has no sheets (I brought my own), but it really smells awful in here. I don’t want my sheets fucked up by this dirty bed.

I found a computer with internet access 30 minutes ago and I paid a little to log on into my inbox. I found the room reservation document, the room confirmation and an e-mail from one of the responsible people at the international office. I was right, they fucked up and not me. It says that we both have reserved one single room respectively. The manager and his turkeyneck secretary show up on Monday morning and they gave me a hard time last night for calling them and reminding them of their incapability and lousiness. The fuckers didn’t understand that I, after an eight-hour trip, was exhausted and that I (with my deal and deposit) expected what I was entitled to. I won’t let this incident pass unnoticed. I am supposed to report about my studies to people back home and I will make sure to pull the right strings so that this hotel (or whatever the fuck it is) gets some bad publicity. This is totally unacceptable.

Enough. I have two nights left in this shithole, and hopefully they’ll hand me my right room on Monday.
Today we’re going out to explore the city a little bit. We need to purchase some stuff for our stay here (I have to wait, I don’t even have a kitchen and a refrigerator at the moment).

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Saturday, September 13, 13.09

I came home a while ago after some shopping and a late lunch. We went to buy some dairies, bread and fruit. After that we were really hungry and the smell of pizza lured us into a Turkish place with Italian ambitions. What a terrible idea that was.

I was looking at the menu and I felt that I wanted something with vegetables. I ordered the Pizza Gemüse (Pizza with Vegetables). The image on the menu (I fall into this trap every time) illustrated a juicy pizza with fresh vegetables. I got a dry one with a little cheese and a lot of broccoli. The broccolis never appeared on the image and the vegetables from the image never appeared on my pizza. Now I know at least one place to avoid next time I’m hungry.

I’m tired but bored at the same time. Classes begin on Tuesday, and I am more or less a prisoner in this hotel until my room is rearranged. We are going out in an hour or so, just to take a walk, see more of the city and probably buy important stuff we might need. We were talking about getting a second hand refrigerator because people obviously enjoy stealing food at this place (surprise?).

Anyway, we saw some funny things downtown. A few nuns, a titty-wagon and funnylooking people. I couldn't take shots at all of them but I managed to catch the nuns and the pornotruck.



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Sunday, September 14, 15.39

It’s a rainy, cold and sleepy Sunday in Austria. I woke up pretty late, had a light breakfast and prepared myself for a public tour on the tram. We caught the tram sometime around 12 and we came home sometime around 15.00. We went to the both ends of the line to see how the city looks like outside the core (which is the only thing we had seen before our trip). It was nice and cozy at one end, but completely different at the other end where the university is located. It looked like some old eastern bloc city with only gray houses and no signs of joy whatsoever. We saw another porno club called Moulin Rougue and it looked very much like the original!

Yesterday afternoon we had no clue what to do. We sat and talked about various uninteresting things and we tried to make time go faster. Both of us are looking forward for the studies to begin so that we can focus on something instead of chasing something that occupies our minds. We are in the same situation today, and we don’t really know what to do for the last hours of this day. We have to get up early in the morning tomorrow, so going out is not on our agenda. We went out both the night we arrived but also last night with a Dutchman and a Norwegian guy. It’s really nice to meet people from other countries and to make new friends.
Tomorrow I’ll hopefully get the problem regarding my room reservation solved (I am really really really hoping that it will be fixed!!!). We are going to be picked up tomorrow morning for an introduction to our new campus and course enrollment.

Ready for departure

I've packed my bags and I'm leaving. The next update will be posted from Austria. If I wasn't nervous before, I certainly am now.

Wish me luck.

Reflections on a rainy Tuesday

It's Tuesday evening and it's raining outside. It's pitch black and the days are much shorter now. I remember when I sat in a restaurant a few days after midsummer eve, having a superb dinner with a friend, and I brought this matter up. I told him about the depressing fact that the days were from that point onward getting shorter and shorter. His response was more or less a dismissal of such thoughts. But in the end I guess he was right.

Friday is getting closer and closer. I am glad to be having some prior experience of departures of this stature, but I still feel a little funny about it. I try not to expect too much as I am afraid of being disappointed. I wouldn't want that.