Exactly 3 Weeks Left

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THREE WEEKS LEFT!!!!!!!

I just cannot believe my time here is coming to an end. The people I have met while here are absolutely amazing and awesome. Never have I been able to talk about economics, politics and current affairs so much in every sitting. I will miss this for sure! I'm happy how it is coming to an end though.

I have my final 'big trips' finished now, and it's time to say goodbye to friends, finish up some work, and take in as much of Vienna as I can. It's only too perfect that I have these months as my internship. When I landed it was sunny and hot, and I was able to walk around in shorts and a t-shirt - sitting on patios eating delicious food with Allison and her friends until late at night. Then we moved into the fall. Fall can also just be called "wine harvest". Delicious 'sturm' (young 'wine') in all the markets. Dangerously delicious and high in alcohol content, you can waste away an entire afternoon and evening in a wine tavern drinking with friends and eating meat and cheese plates with all the bread you can imagine. My fall was also full of trips - Munich, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Budapest - where it rained in every location except Prague (in Budapest it did not rain, but it snowed - more on that later).

I now consider it to be winter. The Christmas markets are flooding Vienna, and you cannot escape from chestnuts roasting on an open fire, hot christmas punsch stands with Gluhwein too! The delicious drinks and hot food - amazing. I was told Vienna was a real Christmas city and 'they' were not lying. Beautiful Christmas lights adorn all the big shopping streets and the cute streets - it's a great sight. Plus the snow helps in convincing you it has already become Christmas. Thankfully we do not have the blizzard that is shutting down the airport in Dublin and causing all hell in London. But we do have a couple of inches and it's continuously snowing. So - perfect.

Now onto the news!

Work first? (just because its less fun

Well the Summit has hit! All my bosses left for Astana and we got a new job for the week. We were going to help out the Canadian mission to the United Nations. Can't say we were not excited to get to represent in the UN - see "The UN City" as we call it (tons of buildings and skyscrapers all within a very guarded gated area). Awesome enough, when we were given our security badges/passes, we were given "delegate" badges. This may not mean much to many of you, but there are a large variety of badges you get. Some for instance get you into the "UN grocery store" where you have imported EVERYTHING and its SUPER cheap. We got that privilege. No badges except the ones we had allow you to speak while in a meeting.

All in all, what I'm saying is we were not considered interns while there - we are legitimate delegates/ representatives of the Canadian government. This does not come easy however - for instance I was asked by representatives from the United States on how we felt on a certain policy. Unfortunately, it was my first day and I hadn't even a clue what he was referring to, so he got no answer from me. But in turn, I did have to run to them and ask them what THEY thought on an issue.

Anyways, tomorrow I have off to relax a bit, but on Monday work at the OSCE begins again, and I will be back to figuring out the budget for the 2011 calendar year.

Budapest

We left early on Friday (skipping work) and went by train. There were four of us: Eliza, Joris, Roxane and myself. We got to Budapest and had to find our (4Eur/night) hostel. We found it and immediately went out. We ended up going to citadel at the top of a big hill. It was proof how out of shape I have gotten - let's put it that way. Before that we had toured this church which was located INSIDE a cave. It was cool - then creepy as we found a bunch of old people humming like monks and staring at a crucified Jesus. After all that, it was very dark (but only around dinner time). We went to the Christmas market in the centre of town and drank some punsch, ate some dinner and looked at all the stuff being sold. We had to go back to the hostel to meet up with two others who were joining (they couldnt get out of work in the morning): Jonas and Monica. Once we were back, those two wanted to go have a drink somewhere since they had just come in - but the others were tired (I don't blame them). I was hungry, so I decided to go with them. That was the night of our first snowfall. It was very nice to have it in Budapest. The pub we were at was really cool too. Everything was made out of bamboo, except the nice cumfy couches. And a beer? 1 Euro.

We woke up early on Saturday and went to catch a free walking tour. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to eat. Thinking it would be an hour long tour, we didn't really care to skip breakfast. Turns out the walk was 2.5hrs and the Arctic winds were blowing! It was insanely cold, and our entire group was freezing. But the tour was really good. We saw numerous statues and what they meant, and how they were still symbolic to the citizens. We went up another hill and saw some look out points, and ended in a cave labyrinth. We were told to go to the Museum/house of Terror. We thought about it. We ended up FINALLY grabbing food, and then went back to get our bathing suits. Time for the famous Turkish bathing houses. We got there, and it was amazing. Outside pools, but it was really cold out. So the steam hovered right over the pools, and the hot water was just amazing with the cold air. Saunas and the cheapest (and worst) massage of my entire life. It was a great place to be. Eliza and I headed back to the hostel early (starving) and waited for the others who would join us about 30minutes later. They wanted to go eat, so we went to this huge tourist trap and they ate the worst looking food I have ever seen, beer that was 4 times the price it should have been, and we were forced to listen to an untalented keyboard player - absolutely terrible experience. But afterwords we went to a bar - there last night being open. It began with jazz and was a very nice evening, then it turned in a DJ. Before we knew it, it was getting late and it was time to go home. During our trip I had left my wallet right on the bar (no one took it!) Eliza had roughly 20Euro ripped off from her by the bartender, and we all had our first (and last) try at the Palinka (kinda shnapps drink I think). We bargained with the taxis outside, finally getting one that would not rip us off. Home sweet home.

Sunday morning we woke up early again. We all checked out, and went to the coffee shop in the mall to get some coffee and breakfast (at this point we were all going through caffeine withdrawal - good ol' politics). We finished our breakfast and went off to the Museum of Terror. Probably one of the best museums I have ever been to, they managed to keep your attention the entire way through - even though most of the signs weren't even translated from Hungarian to English (or any language for that matter). The museum was all about the Hungarian citizens while under the occupation of Nazi Germany (which it voluntarily joined) and the Soviet Union (not so voluntary). A great museum, it did a good job of making you want to avoid any sort of that 'slavery' again. It was not pretty. After the museum, we walked around and checked out Parliament. With it, the flag with a hole in it (The hungarian flag used to have the hammer and sickle, but they wanted to commemorate the fall of the Soviet Union, and they simply cut out the symbol in the middle and leave the flag on the Parliament property flying on the pole - with a giant circular hole in it. Afterwords we returned to the Christmas market to check it out again and buy a few things, and headed back to the train station.

Our final memory of Budapest (when we arrived at the train station infact) was the metro ticket people who check for your valid tickets. They knew we were tourists (and corruption does really exist there) and so they tried to take our money. Long story short - after a long fight and about 1/4 of the money they were asking being paid, we simply told them off and left with them yelling after us. Not the most pleasant note to end on, but it did create a story to tell. The train ride back was uneventful, and we were back around 10pm in time to sleep for work the next morning.

The Way Forward
First, allow me apologize for using OSCE terminology for the title of this portion. I'm just used to it now.
The next three weeks will be some sad ones for me. I have made a few dozen friends in Vienna, and most of them I will probably never see again. Others, I hope to see again in Europe or in Canada. Some are already making plans to come to Canada - others want me to join them in the Caribbean for a sailing trip (very tempting).

Eliza will be going back home, and she's leaving the 15th. So I have to see her a whole lot before she leaves. I really need to see my ol' Bishop's friend Allison a few more times (very rare to see her in Canada). And I need to see EVERYONE ELSE.

I have Kyle and Krystina joining me in Vienna on the weekend of the 10-12, and my sister is coming to Vienna from the 5th -9th. So that will be a VERY busy week. I am also planning to go to Bratislava which is about 1hr away by train, super cheap and small enough that you can see it in one day. And I also have to see ALL the Vienna Christmas markets, the Spanish horse show and at least 2 more museums!

All-in-all... I think I will have A VERY VERY VERY busy three weeks. But hey - didn't someone once say "You can sleep when you're dead."

Ciao!

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