So as I said before, it has mostly rained so we’ve come to explore pretty much everything that is the Hefterhof hotel. So our morning begins with us being unable to get up from our extremely comfortable beds. Feather pillows and knit sheets. It’s amazing. After the morning ritual shower fight me and my roommate have (about who gets to shower second and get 20 minutes of extra sleep) we get ready and groggily stumble to the Frühstucksraum (breakfast room). On the way, I usually inadvertently walk through some important Austrian meeting or business deal going on because this hotel is more of a mini conference center with a few rooms. As you walk through the cloud of cigarette smoke, all the Austrians look up and have this indifferent but kind of confused look on their faces. It wouldn’t be bad if they didn’t stop talking and all stare at you when you pass. After you survive the trial of 100 Austrian death stares, you finally get to the Frühstrucksraum and there with a big grin is Prof Gürtler who greets us with an overwhelming “Guten Morgen!” as he finishes off his 3rd or 4th cup of coffee (if you ask, he claims he has 8-10 cups a day then will laugh hysterically, this man is a god). Then, before you, you have a feast buffet. Every bread imaginable, cheeses, cold cuts, eggs, cereal, I love European breakfasts. As you feast (if you’re in the vicinity of Gürtler) you’re required to speak German but if you sit strategically away you can whisper in English. After breakfast, full of food, you waddle off to class and try not to fall asleep in a food coma for the next three hours. Then it’s time for lunch. Lunch is a full 3 course meal, with 3 different entrée options, and none have ever been the same since we’ve been here. From Gnocchi to Goulash, we’ve been fed just about every rich meal you can imagine. Just when you think that the hotel is fattening you up for their wurst, you feed off the fat you’ve accumulated during the first two meals for dinner because we’re on our own for dinner. All we have is an archaic microwave that nobody really understands how to use.
Hayley is quite frustrated with the Microwave
No words or keypad, just a knob and really misleading pictures that don’t seem to have anything to do with microwaving
and we have a minifridge. Even though we get a 6 euro stipend a day, we’re all trying to save for travel and most just eat a frozen pizza or 2 euro worth of fruit or nothing at all. Evenings are an interesting mix of frantically trying to go outside (if its not raining) and doing homework. We all live at the end of a hallway, in 6 rooms and you can imagine that it’s really easy to focus with everyone around all the time. Another interesting aspect about the Heftie is the rather haphazard room cleaning that goes on. Fresh towels and sheets are given at irregular intervals, and the blanket fold/pillow combination is different every day. Our favorite is when they chop our pillow. Essentually stand the pillow on its side and karate chop it down so its nice and pointy, kind of like a napkin folded into a swan at a nice restraint but with a pillow and a lot less complicated.
Also the nice cleaning lady always stops us in the hallway to speak to us when we walk by and we never have any idea what she is trying to communicate to us. We usually walk away extremely confused and trying to get her creepy smile out of our heads. Otherwise, this place is heaven and it will be missed greatly when we leave next week.
Usually just chillaxin is what happens when in the Heftie, however things do get exciting when there are bugs to be extracted. The walls also have holes in them that makes you feel like you're room is a hardware store.
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