STILL HERE :)

As you probably guessed we've just been poking around the local area the last few days- and just lying low before the train (literally) pulls out of town again next Tuesday for Salzburg. Yesterday we went out on a peddle-boat (tret-boote) out on the Woerthesees- it was fantastic. We told the girl we wanted it for two hours for 11 euros and the time FLEW by. The first 1.5 hours it was pristine- the birds were chirping and even though there were boats on the lake they were small electric ones- and they were just gliding by us- we'd stop, sit in the stillness of the lake, take the mountainous Alp surroundings- and then glide on some more. A baby bird came up and practically ate out of my hand.

And then as we turned the boat to begin the journey back up the lake we saw this HUUUUUGE banana shaped aquatic apparatus in the water- from a distance it looked like it might be some kind of small building- and then we realized it was some kind of float- FILLED with about 8 teenage girls all ready to be pulled on a long rope by a large motor boat- and then they were OFF! Screeeeeaming teenage girls, the boat leaning into turn after turn after turn- and of course they didn't go off in a different direction- oh no- they circled all around us- so that in a minute or two- there we were cresting up and down, a ship in rough seas- all of a sudden the front of our boat went under water- and then emerged filled with water- we looked at each other and went, "oh oh"-- and you never saw two people peddle faster and faster and faster towards shore-

Thankfully the girls tipped over and by the time they got themselves back onto the monstrous Austrian banana we were out of their wake- and headed for the dock. But that's about it for the height of our excitement the last few days. Went for a bike ride today- and got caught in the rain- first rain in a few weeks- Tonight we are going to dinner with a couple of friends from the university. They are taking us to an authentic Austrian pub for dinner in the city centre of Klagenfurt.