Weekend in Pochlarn

Hello from the library : ) I'm writing before mass, which is in about 20 minutes. I decided to stay back this weekend, but it so far has been an excellent weekend. Yesterday I decided to get a VorteilsCard, which is an Austrian discount card, but we had to go to Pochlarn, a bigger town about an hour away. My household sister and I went on an adventure together, not really sure what we were doing... We left at noon making it to Pochlarn by bus and train at 13:15 hours. We didn't know how to pay for the train, some young boy told us that it was on the train we were to pay. We were thinking some man would come through and we'd pay, but that never happened so we got to Pochlarn and still hadn't paid. In getting off the train we figured out how to pay, which was good because the fine for being caught without a ticket is pretty steep. After getting our VorteilsCard we walked the city in about 20 minutes, seeing various cafes, internet cafes, a museum, a statue of a saint, and best of all we stopped in the Church and gave thanks for making it safely. Not much to see, but a cute town. We went to a cafe and sat there for a few hours eating, reading, talking to my mom, planning trips, it was great. In Austria, I have found that people are expected to sit in the cafes for various hours. We were tempted to sit there and wait until the waiter gave us the ticket, but after a few hours we had to catch our train back so we caved in and asked for it. Something I wasn't expecting was the amount of people that smoke here. On the way back to the train station we stopped at the bakery, which was just so cute and everything looked so delicious!! I bought my roommate a little something : ) The country side is so beautiful here, all the snow. The houses have very steep roofs and one has to watch out because "avalanches" off the roofs are quite common. Probably one of the best parts of the day was getting off the train in Kienberg Gaming and asking an old man and his son where the bus stop was to the Kartause. They understood very little English, but essentially they said that "bus you pay, we give ride. Farm long past Kartause." So we got a ride!!! We were told ahead of time that it is safe to hitch hike here in town, so I wasn't really nervous, it was exciting. I was so overcome by the end of the day at how generous all the people we had encountered were. I felt so grateful that all these people we encountered throughout the day (the bus driver, the young boy at the station, the waiter, the bakery lady, the Vorteils vendor - who gave us a map of the city) were just all so kind and patient with my mad German skills (HA!!!). At each encounter they could have been rude or impatient, but instead they were very kind and patient with me. One of the best parts about Austria is that the common greeting is "Gruss Gott - God bless" so I get to say that to every person I pass!! It is great and I love it. I have to keep myself from smiling so much when I'm on the street because people will think I'm crazy...hehe... Today is a full day with sledding, homework, birthday party, and a Gaming town festival all planned for the day. I send much love and greetings to all!!