University starts

Today was a pretty busy day. Even though it is more comfortable that the earliest courses start at 9 a.m., it was really trying to have six courses from 9 a.m. till 7 p.m. without any longer break and especially because it was our first day of the semester.

Now I’m a bit tried and probably postpone my two homework as well as the 8 chapters pre-reading to tomorrow and go to sleep or out......I don’t know yet

So stay tuned....

Best wishes from Blagoevgrad and Довиждане (= dovizhdane = good bye)

Still alive?!

Probably you wondered why we didn’t send some information about your arrival?

However we are still alive, a bit tired I guess. Well it seems that I am having the best month so far. After one great biking-week in France and one at home, the Orientation Week in Blagoevgrad was the best way to continue this extremely awesome time.

The first impressions were overwhelming and inexpressible. Everything seems so comfortable and relaxed. We are having an extremely awesome time with students nearly all-over the world. 60 % of all are Non-Bulgarian students. Thus there is a really exciting mix of different cultures Everyone is very friendly, open-minded and cooperative. While we are having a Buddy System at home to assist our incoming/visiting students, they are having so call Resident Assistance (RA) here. These are students working and living in the dormitory (one at each floor) in order to provide assistance. They also arrange parties, sport games as well.

The Orientation Week is crowded with courses and information how to get things started here (course choice and registration, visa stuff, computer stuff….). The latter was really important to register for the Internet which was “a bit more” complicated process compared to our dormitory in Salzburg. That is the reason why we didn’t have access to the Internet for 3 day. Quite horrible for some who is so addicted to the Internet as I am.

Every night we have “activities” such as blanket party, pizza and karaoke night, sports night… So far we haven’t been able to stay at home and sleep “early”. We’ve been going out all nights, which of course will change at latest on Sunday.

The students here are not used to cook at the dorm. It nearly seems they do not cook at all. Consequently we try to explore the restaurants in Blagoevgrad and taste some Bulgarian food which was sometimes not to our taste. Recently we found something called “Cream Bavarian” on a menu card. As we haven’t been aware what that might be, we wanted to try it but it was out of stock. Probably we will try it next week.

Speaking of food, two days before I made an evil mistake. We wanted to drink White Russians again. The milk was nearly depleted, therefore I went to “Kaufland” to buy some milk, but mixed it up with yogurt. So we had to drink Black Russians which is not my taste especially because I am used to mix White Russians as Long Drinks with a lot of milk.

First pictures from Blago and a few from the vacation in France

Chris on the plane





















View out of the plane.





















Just arrived at the AUBG Mainbuilding (Teresa, Joseph, Christopher and me)























Buying a cab full at Metro (there are really small cabs in Blago)






















Phototrip through Blagoevgrad





































My bed and table





















The New Academic Building and the Library opposite of our room.



Now some pictures from our bike-holiday in Morzine/France
(c) Florian W.

Our flat with a big garden in the centre of Morzine (with almost everything TV, Internet, barbecue, dishwasher, microwave....)


How to cut onions....of course with googles - that is the way it is!



One of my favourite tracks...Günther close behind me



Nice little drop on the Mont Chéry trail


Beautiful panorama in the swiss part of Portes du Soleil


Switzerland again


Nice distraction from biking....it was really awesome


Great drop from my brother on the Mont Chéry trail again


3 times failed but finally I was able to do it



That's the result of one week biking in the sun while wearing knee/shin guards

Hey everybody,

as Markus was already very busy writing posts, I decided to write some lines as well! ;)

After my internship in Vienna (which was way too short), my friends and I enjoyed our beautiful lakes of Salzburg, which I missed a little bit in the Austrian capital. So my last week in Austria was a lot of relaxing, playing beach volleyball and football, swimming, and unfortunately a little bit of sunburn as well.

I am really looking forward to visiting Blagoevgrad and hope that i did not miss anything important and there will be not be the same troubles as during my last flight to Bulgaria (different story, hehe).

After a great breakfast with my family I am just finishing my preparations.

I wish everybody who decided to stay at home a great time in Salzburg and all the outgoings a great time in wherever you are right now.
Cheers!

The last hours in Austria

Well there are just about 16 hours left that we are spending in Austria. I’m writing now in English because I guess that some (Erasmus) friends won’t understand much otherwise.

The last days were pretty awesome. One week in Morzine / Portes du Soleil (France, near Lake Geneva) were we used approximately 15 cable cars to spare us the uphill part of your biking tours. We were also spoiled with a fabulous apartment directly in the centre of Morzine with an own garden, two bathrooms, barbecue, microwave, internet and a lot of other things.
Nevertheless after six day in this bike park region our hands were very maltreated. Thus it was great spending the last days biking in Austria, uphill as well, which I really missed after six days in France.
Result 11 times biking in 12 days, 27 h on the bike, 3 flat tires, at least 5 harmless crashes, a broken gear shifter and brake lever among other things.

This might seem monotonous but it wasn't of course. We were enjoying the fine weather, beautiful nature, good food and beer as well spending time with friends and as other activities; to tie up loose ends of course preparing for Bulgaria (packing, health certificate, fight widgets etc.)

Of course the bid farewell part is also important, which was a bit complicated because my student colleges seem to be quite busy but that might be another story and would take us too far from our story.
But there are still some things to do like eating a Leberkäsesemmel (very delicious Austrian snack) and breakfast with Bavarian veal sausage tomorrow in Munich.

So nun die deutsche "Übersetzung" für diejenigen die nicht (meiner) englischen Ausdrucksweise mächtig sind.
Es sind nur noch knapp 16 Stunden, die wir in Österreich verbringen und es gibt noch immer was zu tun wie beispielsweise eine Leberkäsesemmel essen und morgen ein Weißwurstfrühstück in Minga etc.
Die letzten zwei Wochen waren genial, u.a. eine Woche in Morzine / Portes du Soleil in Frankreich, südlich des Genfer Sees. Wobei wir es genossen per Lift den Berg bezwingen zu können und daher umso mehr (Höhen)Meter bergab bewältigen konnten. Nebenbei wurden wir mit einem extrem lässigen Appartement mitten im Zentrum von Morzine verwöhnt mit u.a. zwei Badezimmer, Microwelle, Griller, eigenem Garten, Internet etc. Körperlich war es daher vor allem für die Hände anstrengend und schmerzhaft….
Daher war es wieder schön die letzte Woche in Österreich wieder selbst per Muskelkraft den Gipfel zu bezwingen (mein Enduro ist auch eher dafür gemacht…).
Resultat 11 mal biken in 12 Tagen, dh 27 h am Bike, 3 Patschen, 5 relativ harmlose Stürze, ein kaputter Schalt- und Bremshebel etc.
Obwohl dies eventuell ein bissl monoton klingt, war es natürlich nicht so, da biken ja nicht den ganzen Tag dauert...abgesehen davon habe ich (wir) die Landschaft genossen sowie etwas geschlemmt...und ein bissl mit Freuden relaxt. Nebenbei konnte ich noch ein paar unfertige Dinge zu ende bringen und natürlich mich auf das Auslandssemester vorzubereiten (Packen, Health Certificate ausfüllen, Fliegdingsbums regeln etc.)
Der Verabschiedungspart war relativ kurz und mit meinen Studienkollegen wurde es etwas kompliziert was vermutlich auch an mir lag, aber das würde jetzt zu weit führen....

Btw: Fotos folgen hoffentlich bald…

Zum Schluss noch ein Auszug aus meiner Packliste, die unanständigen Dinge wurden gestrichen *g*, hoffe nichts vergessen zu haben:

Preparing for Bulgaria

So jetzt ist es noch eine Woche hin und realisiere langsam, dass der Abschied nicht mehr fern ist und das wo ich gestern gerade aus Frankreich (Portes du Soleil) gekommen bin.

Flug ist schon gebucht (München 9:25) und Quartier ist schon seit Monaten fixiert. Organisatorisch muss ich noch ein Stipendiums-Dings und mein Krankgeschichte abschicken....

Es gilt also die letzte Woche in Österreich noch zu nutzen, den einen oder anderen Bikepark (Ebensee, Saalbach) zu besuchen, mit Freunden "ein" Bier zu trinken und ev. mal zu packen....

Ah ja und irgendwie sollte ich den Herrn Lipp noch wegen der Abreise kontaktiert...Christopherrrrrrrrrrrr

Bis denn dann
Markus