Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Blogger Meet-up: Vienna, Austria Edition

There are lots of bloggers I'd love to meet IRL (heck, if I read your blog I pretty much want to meet you!) but given how disperse we all are, it often seems unlikely that we'll ever be more than Internet friends. High up on my list was Tanja, another Haflinger owner, over at Dressage Hafl. I mean, another Haffie doing dressage... and one that has better hair than Paddington? How could I not?!?!

Alas, she and Hafl live in Austria, so I figured it would never happen... but then I was asked to go on a work-related trip, flying into and out of Vienna, Austria. We exchanged a bunch of emails making arrangements, and were finally able to meet this last Saturday!

Tanja and I, sipping beer at one of Vienna's most famous beer gardens

Tanja and her family gave me a wonderful tour of Vienna's famous (and enormous) garden/park, which includes a rather large horse stables, racetrack, soccer stadium, veloway, tennis courts... basically any sport you want to do, it can be done there. After walking (and talking horses, naturally) for probably an hour, we stopped to enjoy a raspberry soda in a lovely old building that was used for hunt meets, well-timed during a short rainfall. Tanja's family was just lovely, and her Mom especially made me feel right at home! I'd brought them a few "typical" Texas goodies (BBQ sauce and salsa), and explained that really, (most) Texans do not ride their horses to work, wear jeans with big belt buckles, and carry guns on their hips. We exchanged amusing travel stories and just had a wonderful time - I felt like I'd known them forever.

Barn in Vienna's garden - sorry no pictures of the horses, I felt like such a stalker with my camera out!

After refreshments, we headed off to the beer garden near the Prather (big amusement park). It was an enormous place - so big they had an assembly line with 6 guys working to fill beers! I had weiner schnitzel (of course) that was really, really good - I love a good schnitzel and they are so hard to find in the States. Tanja and I talked horses a bit more, and then I called it an early evening at around 9, since I was super jet lagged from the flight over.

Hopefully I will be able to come back to Vienna again and will be able to have more time to visit - I'd love to meet Hafl in person! I'm also trying to convince her that Austin is a lovely place to visit - muahahahaha!!!

26 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It's nice to be able to mix work with fun!

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  2. That is so cool, be sure to let me know if you ever come up this way!!!

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    1. I sent you a PM to your gmail account. :)

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    2. Oh no i didn't see it, sorry. I don't think I have it any more ��

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  3. Very cool! I'm off to check out her blog - can't imagine better hair than Paddy.

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    1. Oh it is possible, I assure you!

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    2. ahahahahahahaha he indeed has LOTS of hair - just like me ;)

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  4. Haha, I can't even imagine the culture shock of coming to Texas. It's a whole different world. What a fun meet up!

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    1. Fortunately Austin is unlike most of the rest of Texas. However we will definitely have to go shopping for boots, and of course eat lots of BBQ... :)

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    2. I would love to see it :D already checking flights ;)

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  5. Mmmm weiner schnitzel. Whenever we go to Germany I stalk all the barns I can stalk.

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    1. Yes, the schnitzel is awesome! Love that stuff!

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  6. Meeting other horsey bloggers is lots of fun :)

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  7. thanks again Jen for the visit! It was such a pleasure! Here is a VERY LONG post on what I need to say about it ;)

    http://www.dressagehafl.com/2014/08/when-horse-bloggers-meet-in-real-life.html

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  8. It's nice meeting on-line friends! Hopefully next year I will meet some more :D

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    1. Such a great opportunity not only to meet new people but meet especially people who share the same passion!!! :)

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  9. A great story! The Classic Equine Equipment team loved both articles from Tanja at Dressage Hafl (http://www.dressagehafl.com/) and Jen at Piece of Heaven 1951 (http://pieceofheaven1951.blogspot.co.at/)! The articles are very interesting and a lot of fun to read for horse lovers, bloggers and foodies. Great pictures too; they'll make you want to go to The Schweizerhaus in Vienna, Austria for some Stelze and then travel to Austin, Texas for some Franklins Barbecue Brisket (it's well worth the line: https://franklinbarbecue.com/).
    http://www.dressagehafl.com/2014/08/when-horse-bloggers-meet-in-real-life.html
    http://pieceofheaven1951.blogspot.co.at/2014/08/blogger-meet-up-vienna-austria-edition.html
    http://pieceofheaven1951.blogspot.co.at/2014/08/international-tack-ho.html
    Thank you for sharing your adventure with all of us! Happy Thursday!

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    1. Thank you! It is great to make friends with people that you very likely would have never met in real life!

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  10. Such a cool experience!! Glad you had fun! Paddy and Hafl need to have a hair off!

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    1. ahahahahahahaa I guess Hafl's or Paddy's flight will be a bit expensive ;)

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