Nic and Annelies, my hosts in Vienna

Normally I'm not a particular friend of large gatherings because I like to interact on a deeper basis. But the Vienna Calling was so inspiring and meaning: I just felt the endorphines flowing through my body!!!! I met many people with whom I just communicated on the net. Joking, drinking, hiking...name it!!!!! I met the LT or Leadership and Tech Team of Couchsurfing, some crazy guys but yet so down-to-earth.

I thought it was going to be difficult to find a couch in such a city like Vienna especially during this gathering!!! After sending out 4 requests, 3 hosts said yes and the last one who was about to embark on her travelling sent me a nice very personalised message. Nic and Annelies were probably the most caring hosts in my Couchsurfing life and we had so many good experiences!

Nic
Nic's apartment was cosy and perfectly organised with towels artistically arranged in a basket. I needed to be careful in order not to intrude into this harmony. As I arrived after midnight because the flight arrived late, she had already prepared a small table next to my couch. On this she put a bottle of water and a glass, a small bottle of shower gel in the shape of a turtle and the keys hanging around the bottle neck.

She could perfectly empathise with the feelings of a guest who arrived and even provided some cupboard space for my clothes. How grateful I was!! I don't demand space for my things from my hosts but how grateful I was not to live out of the suitcase. NIc had a wicked sense of humour and a lot of stories to tell, entertaining funny stories but a few things were food for thought........Nic was German but her accent as well as mannerism was more British I thought.....

We were supposed to attend a CS Vienna Calling gathering but I looked at the wrong page. As we arrived at the BBQ spot on the Danube Island there was only a CS sign but nobody there. After a long walk through the labyrinth of skateboarding and various ethnic groups of Vienna we realised what happened. Anyway we met a bunch of nice young people and still had a great day out together. An experience of the other kind on CS.

Annelies
The next host was Annelies. She was a sporty middle-aged lady who loved to entertain guests. In the past she had been travelling and she was a good French teacher too. The home-made Apfelstrudel or apple strudel spreaded the kind of scent that you only smell in the kitchen of an Austrian Großmutter or grandmother. She prepared it in front of my eyes and popped it into the oven. It was so delicious that I didn't realise that I nearly ate all of it.

I had my own room which was so big that I could do my morning exercise in it. But it was not necessary because I could go into the garden. She had a cute cat and I liked to play with him. We talked a lot about the Austrian school system and we went to visit her holiday house in the Wienerwald, a beautiful mountainous area about 40 km from Vienna.

Annelies cooked a few more Austrian specialties like Wiener Tafelspitz or gourmet beef soup with apple and bread sauces with horse radish. As an entree she served the typical Austrian with pancakes. She is good with the knife and I wish I could be as fast as she was. Our interests were quite similar and we visited the Heiligenkreuz monastery. We attended a meditative Gregorian chant evening mass. This monastery is a silent monastery and speaking is only allowed at certain times.

The time with these 2 hosts was lovely and I was quite sad as I had to leave Vienna....