The Vienna Connection Part 1 – A chaotic start

At 6:30 am on Saturday, the alarm went off. Damn! Only 4 ½ hours of sleep? Oh yeah, we came home at 2 am from TBF’s and we still had to pack and clean up a bit before leaving for Basel Airport to Vienna. We were vising our very dear friends, Pinki and Andrea and were going to have a blast at their annual summer party.

We arrived at Basel airport and looked at the departure screen. What??? Where’s the flight to Vienna? We checked the printout of our e-ticket to see if I hadn’t made a mistake when I booked. Date: July 28. Check. Departure time: 10:45am. Check, we’re here on time. Look at the electronic board again: No flight to Vienna.

So we went to the Swiss information desk and asked what was going on and showed our E-ticket to the lady at the booth. She made a quick check in her computer, frowned and said: “I’m sorry, but that flight has been cancelled… since June 26th. You mean you haven’t been informed?” By then, I was fuming! Double WHAT??? June 26th? That was over a month ago!! And NO, I received no information from Swiss. The friendly lady behind the counter shook her head in disbelief and started looking for alternative flights for us. The next flight from Basel was at 6:40 pm! No way! We had friends on their way to pick us up at the Vienna Airport and they had already driven 3 hours to make it to Pinki’s party. We ended up having to drive to Zurich to catch the 12:40 flight. We thanked the nice lady for her efforts and she promised to file a report about this and told us to send a complaint to Swiss in writing as well. You bet we’d do just that!

So off we were to Zurich, called Ernst to tell him that we would be arriving approximately 2 hours later, then informed Pinki of our delay. No problem, he said. The summer party starts around 4 pm, so we wouldn’t miss anything. We finally arrived in Vienna and were happy to see Ernst and Helga, who greeted us with hugs and kisses. These two are absolute sweethearts.

We arrived at Pinki’s in Bad Fischau around 3:30 pm and he, Andrea and his mom were already waiting for us to arrive. We were so happy to see each other again! It had started to rain, but that is not a reason for Pinki to cancel any party. His basement is one big party room and the grill and a few tables could be moved to the garage. Although Mama Pinkernell and I saw that the skies were clearing up, but the boys started to take the grill, tables and benches from the terrace to the garage anyway. Half an hour later, the rain had stopped, we had blue skies again and the sun was quickly drying up the terrace.

Ernst, Helga, Pinki mom and CS

Great! The party would take place outdoors after all. Soon after having moved everything back onto terrace and garden, the guests started arriving. After a few drinks and meeting a lot of new people (all in all 58 adults and 14 children!), Pinki started the grill and little after, the scent of grilled sausages filled the air. The guests seemed quite famished, because the 100 sausages we gone before you knew it! Later that evening, Pinki contacted a friend – who just happens to be a caterer – and ordered some pork chops for the hungry guests.

I hope he won't turn the sausage with that thing!

Andrea takes over the grill.

It was a great party with lot’s of music and a variety of interesting individuals ranging from artists/musicians to top management; exactly what we love. Around 2am, OrangeX and I could hardly keep our eyes open any longer and decided to call it a night. Just then, three musicians arrived and took out their guitars and played all night. We thought of staying up a bit, but then again, the need for sleep was stronger. I must say that whether Orange nor I heard anything of the loud music although they were playing just above our bedroom and our window was tipped. We slept through it like babies and woke up to find… Well, more about our trip to Wiener Neustadt and Vienna will follow shortly.

You'll find the first set of pictures here.