ICC Newyear’s Party 2014

A couple of weeks already, we kept talking about an ICC reunion party to again bring together some of the people involved into ICC 2014, however, it turned out to be a rather difficult task.
First of all, in order to get an event like that organized, we’d need a lot of know-how, a place where we could come together, some sort of plan what to do during this reunion party, etc etc.

The result was a small and privately organized ICC reunion party which should take place in Vienna by the end of December and last over newyear’s eve. A small group of people got together to get everything organized such as the stay in the hostel, as well as some activities we all voted for. In other words, we were good to go!

On December 29th, 2014 I departed early in the morning with an ICE train from Hamburg to Vienna. Fortunately, they offered WIFI until the Austrian border, so I at least could keep myself busy for most of the time. Nine hours after departure, I finally arrived in Vienna, where I was picked up by Adrian and Sarah, who brought me to the hostel.
After everybody arrived and arranged him/herself, we spontaneously decided to go to Subway for dinner. After that, we returned to the hostel to hang out at the bar and have a chat before going to sleep.

The next day after having breakfast at the hostel buffet, we went to the Stephansdom for a guided tour. We actually planned a city tour before doing the guide dom tour, but we decided to sleep a little longer as, in some cases, the night was a little longer. 😉 Therefore, we decided to stop by at a caffé instead, before we went to the dom for our guided tour.
Unfortunately though, the tour didn’t take place, as nobody felt responsible for guiding us through the dom. Therefore, we consulted Wikipedia for some information before seeking for a restaurant with enough room for 13 people. We could have also reserved a table in a restaurant every day, but we were just too spontaneous for that. Nevertheless, it somehow worked anyway; it just took some time and perhaps a little more effort to find something.
We spent the afternoon in the city for some souvenir hunting and decided to have dinner at the hostel bar, where we met another hostel guest and, again, went to sleep quite late.

On December 31st, we came to the conclusion that we should rather stay in the hostel and rent a conference room instead of hanging around in the crowded city of Vienna. Therefore, some of us went to the supermarket to get some snacks and drinks to take with into the conference room. We splitted up the price for the drinks, snacks and the conference room fee.
We then followed our original schedule and went bowling! We splitted up into two teams occupying two bowling alleys and had a good laugh indeed!
After that, it was time to go to a steakhouse we reserved a table at for this evening and I tell you, the food there was delicious!
Back in the hostel, we got everything arranged for the newyear’s party and had a great party.

The next day was, more or less, free of activities. We staid in the hostel, hung out at the bar for lunch and had our final farewell-dinner at Kolariks Luftburg, another great and recommendable restaurant. Eventually, we killed the rest of the remaining time with chatting and laughing, as well as trying to find a place where we wouldn’t disturb anyone.

To summarize the outcome of this event, it has been a great pleasure to be part of it, and we really had a hell of a great time! I was happy that I could meet so many people from many different countries again and, although some activities didn’t work out as they were supposed to, we didn’t bother at all! Sure, it probably was a bit of a hassle especially for the people who organized everything; but as long as we were together having fun anyway, everything was all right, regardless of where we were.
Furthermore, the constilation couldn’t have been better. We were 6 partially sighted and 7 blind people, which made a lot of things a little easier to handle.