SALZBURG, Austria – Vienna is waiting for me.

I’ve been listening to and singing Billy Joel’s song all week in preparation for my first multi-day excursion.

The entire BGSU group is traveling to Vienna this weekend. We’ll already be there by the time you’re reading this.

My plans for the weekend are not intense. I have only three museums on my list (they’re all art museums), in addition to the two palaces and opera house we will be visiting as part of our tour.

I’m trying to not be too ambitious, like Billy Joel says in the song. I need to slow down and take everything in.

Plus, I’m going to be spending time with some friends that I have not seen for a long time, and that’s more important to me than any museum.

Two weeks after Vienna, I’m going to Venice.

I just bought my tickets and I’m as excited as a little kid in a candy store.

The Austrian train system offers specials to big cities throughout Europe for as low as 29 Euros if you’re willing to spend the night on the train.

I’m probably going to stick to visiting places I can get to with these tickets, like Prague and Krakow.

I am most excited about Venice because it is such an important glass city. And, I can’t wait to see the canals and bridges.

Even though I could write about my travels for this entire column, I really need to share some of my recent Austrian experiences.

First, my laundry.

The washing machines and dryer in my residence hall do not operate on a pay-by-the-load basis. They run on time.

So, I pay 1 Euro for two hours of washing machine time. When the time runs out, the washing machine stops.

Part of the problem I have with this is the washing machine does not have a timer on it, so I don’t know when my load will be finished. Nor is there anywhere for me to sit in the laundry room, so I can’t watch the machine and wait for it to stop.

Because I didn’t know when my first load would be finished, I had only 45 minutes left when I started my second load. This would be enough time for an American washing machine, but here, it isn’t enough.

My load stopped with water still in the machine, so when I took my clothes out, everything was soaking wet and I had to wring it out before putting it in the dryer.

I also spent about five minutes scooping out the leftover water from the washing machine.

The time in the dryer really didn’t do much, so it was a good thing my roommate and I filched a community drying rack from another hallway.

Unfortunately, the one we took is broken and there aren’t any more.

It doesn’t stand up properly, so we set it up as best as we could and let my clothes air dry.

Second, my bicycle.

The tire pump I brought from home really wasn’t cutting it.

So I took my bike for a bus ride (the tire was too flat for a good ride) to one of our local palaces that has a bike repair station with tools and a heavy-duty air pump.

Aside from the fact my back brakes don’t work, all is finally well in my bicycle world.

Third, my German.

Some days my German is better than others.

I wasn’t having an especially good day on Wednesday, even though it was one of the few times where I voluntarily said something in German in Czech class.

When I got to the train station to purchase my ticket to Venice, I decided I would speak to the salesman in German regardless.

Sometimes this doesn’t work out so well.

For instance, I might get asked to speak in English so I don’t have to stumble for words. But that doesn’t help my German.

Other times, like when I went to the post office to pick up a package, the clerk saw that my mail was from the US, so she spoke to me in English.

I kept responding in German and she kept responding in English.

But at the train station, the salesman never asked me to speak in English and never said anything in English.

It was the first time where I had a relatively long conversation with someone I didn’t know entirely in German, and I didn’t have to think in English what I wanted to say. I just talked.

So, as they say in Austria, wiederschauen und bis naechste Woche!