Sunday, August 18, 2013
Short European Trip - Mon to Friday Training
Mon
Lovely sunny day. Cold though. Nice enough breakfast although the one in Bratislava at President Hotel was better. Strange Internet connection - one pass required for each device even though it doesn't cost anything.
Training today - this was a work trip after all. Walked as a group to the training centre and discovered that there were quite a few people attending. Pretty full-on day from 8:30 - 5:30 but they served a great lunch. If you'd told me that you could put eggplant in lasagna and it would taste nice I wouldn't have believed you.
City tour at 6:30 - Leoben has quite some history including visits by Austro-Hungarian royalty and being founded in 904 (mentioned that in the previous post). Even when building a new shopping centre they enclosed an old Dominican monks' house. There is a statue of the fourth and last time the plague struck Leoben in 1716 and another statue for St Barbara (for the miners). The Jesuit church is impressive. Tour lasted for an hour and I was really glad that a local took us as it made it all the more informative.
We met at a bridge before heading to dinner at Gasthof "Zum Greif". Great buffet and a chance to introduce ourselves to other colleagues. Time to go back to the hotel at 10.
Tues
Up very early with the usual facebooking and emails before breakfast. Frau still asked me for my room number. Very interesting training from a man passionate about our products. Nice lunch again. Went to the office to catch up with some of my Austrian colleagues.
Out to Antonio's Pizzeria for dinner. Garlic bread was a bit weird, pizza not tasty and strange dish with fish, octopus, salad, etc was well, weird. Linguine was splendid though but by that time I was nearly full.
Weds
Same breakfast/morning habit as other except that I went to the office by 8am. Spent some quality time talking to a colleague before the training started for the day. Great training again with a late finish.
Dropped my gear off at the hotel before going for a walk around the river surrounding the centre of town. Was very surprised to find a China Town with sister cityhood. Ate dinner at a pizzeria - quite nice wiener schnitzel (pork) but the salad drowned in vinegar wasn't particularly nice. Shocked to see Cafe Billabong and a cigarette vending machine where anybody could buy cigarettes.
Thurs
Usual pre-and breakfast activities. Another great presentation. Dinner was organised which included curling from 6:15pm. I went for a walk along the river in the south direction in the afternoon, after discovering that the washing returned to me was not my own. Had almost walked all the way to where we were headed as it turned out.
Think the restaurant was call Erisbacher. Indoor curling on pavers - an interesting concept and loads of fun. Finished equal 5th out of 27 so did something right. My first attempt, in practice, ended up on its side and only halfway down the pitch. Wonderful dinner of schnitzel, meat, veges, chips and Kaiserchmarrn. Late night. Some later than others.
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Friday
Up at 6am - first time the alarm woke me up although I hadn't slept through the night properly. Emails, Facebook, brekkie, etc and just made it by 9am for training. Some interesting things to learn about the business. Early finish as people had planes to catch. Temperature even reached 15C after a 2 or 4C morning.
Grabbed my luggage from the Kindler Hotel and walked to the office to share a taxi with a colleague to Graz. Airport was a few kilometres from my hotel but that was no bother. No door key required - just a code. Room looked budgetary. Checked Facebook and emails.
Wandered about to find something to eat. Steierischer Rostbraten mit steirische Kernöl und Spätzle caught my eye - absolutely delicious. Schrödingergaße nearby.
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