Vacation!

   This travelling and semester abroad stuff is hard work- so what better way to escape it all than with a vacation! The Fakultäten (departments) at TU Graz have a tradition of taking interested students on Excursions during the semester to show them applications of what they are learning. I signed up for the Wasserbau (Hydraulic/civil Engineering, paid €25, and was swept off on a 2 day, all inclusive tour of water projects:
Montag, 23.05.2011 (click read more)

Diagram of the dam- we were inside!

• 7:00 Abfahrt: TU Graz, Institut für Wasserbau und Wasserwirtschaft We were given a sack breakfast of fruit, snack bar, and two Austrian-style breakfast sandwiches (cheese and meat on fresh rolls) and loaded onto the bus. I sat next to Rosie, a girl who I had met at the Wasserbau stammtisch a month or so before. She preferred to speak German, so we did! Fantastic!
• 8:45 Ankunft Speicher Koralpe (1) A rock fill dam with asphalt cutoff wall in Kärnten/Carinthia 
• KW Lavamünd (2) The power plant (KW is short for Kraftwerk) is part of a project which pumps water up to a series of reservoirs and then lets it down through turbines. Relatively green energy storage!
• 12:15 Ankunft Mittagessen, Lavamünd A video presentation of the construction of the KW that we had just toured at a Gasthaus. Schnittzle and pommes all around- the lady didn't understand vegetarian and brought Rosie a mountain of french fries. I took the schnitzle plate and gave the meat to the guys :)
• 15:30 Ankunft KW Moste und Zavrsnica (3,4) Slovenia's oldest dam. The origional powerhouse is still there as a sort of museum- reminded me of Grandpa's shop, somehow!

Cremeschnitte- my weakness

• Einchecken im Hotel Krim (Bled), Ljubljanska cesta 7, 4260 BLED Three star hotel on the main drag, short walk from the water, and I scored my own room. I also scored at a store sale in downtown Bled- 3 shirts at 60% off

• ca. 19:30 Abendessen: Bar und Restaurant Chilli Big fantastic dinner with my friend Lars and a couple of Austrian guys, finished off with Cremeschnitte and and sitting out on the patio with KWB classmates. 

Dienstag, 23.05.2011

• 8:30 Abfahrt Hotel Krim (Bled) Woke up early to sunrise over the east edge of the alps and went on a stunning morning walk around Bled. Breakfasted with department chair Prof. Zenz, Geog, Johann, and another Cremeschnitte. We talked in a mix of english and deutsch- Geog told me that if I really liked staying here so much I needed an Austrian boyfriend ;)

• 9:30 Ankunft Universität Ljubljana (5) huuuge model that Prof Zenz laughed at me when I spashed through the huge  model river with my rolled up jeans and chacos. 
• 12:15 Ankunft Mittagessen in Ljubljana MORE amazing lunch. Strudel for dessert. Yikes!
• 15:50 Ankunft Grenzmur (6) Basically the waterway had been heavily straightened, they put it back in a natural state. and then built a huge double helix tower so that people on the bike path could check out their work.

• 19:20 Ankunft TU Graz, Institut für Wasserbau und Wasserwirtschaft  the bus was sooo hot... 

It was really hot, but for me the vacation was just what i needed. I spoke more deutsch in 2 days than I do normally in a week, saw so many cool engineering things, ate too much really good food... My body was exhausted and stuffed, but my mind was refreshed :)