Bora Bora in Bad Ischl

Amelia playing in Bad Ischl

On Monday after breakfast at another gasthof, (where, after no prompting from us, Amelia yelled ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ and Noah replied ‘Oi Oi Oi’, and then ‘hi mate, m m m maaate!’ – was very funny and embarrassing!), we took a drive into the town of Bad Ischl.  Firstly we visited the school I have been in contact with to meet the teacher so we have an option for somewhere for the kids to go if we decide to stay.  It’s a lovely old building and next to it is a huge barn of stinky animals!  It’s not wrong, it’s just different (this has stuck with me since Contiki!).  The teacher is German but speaks English so that was easy.

We parked in town and then had a walk around.  Very hot day, I think it reached 35 degrees.  As we have been without internet connection since we arrived, we intended on sitting in MacDonalds to use the free wi-fi, send some emails etc, but it was tiny and packed so that was out.  Instead we sat across the road at a nice café with a marquee eating area, thinking we might be able to tap into MacDonalds’ wi-fi, but it wasn’t to be.  So we ordered lunch. 'Maciek asked the waitress 'Sprechen Sie English?' and she said ‘of course’.  So to start with we ordered two bottles of water.  She did seem a bit confused, but after some discussion back and forth she seemed to  understand what we wanted.  We proceeded to try to work out the menu when the waitress returned, placing our huge (I mean HUGE) glasses of water on the table, saying, ‘your Bora Bora’.  We looked at each other a bit puzzled.  What was she talking about?  Another waiter came over and handed us English menu’s (yay!) and maciek asked for another water.  ‘Another Bora Bora’ nodded the waiter.  We started giggling as we began to realize what the misunderstanding was.  When he returned, placing the water on the table, he asked ‘why do you call this Bora Bora?’.  ‘We don’t’, said maciek, ‘I asked for “bottles of water” but she mustn’t have understood me!’  The waiter laughed, and walked away still chuckling! 

If you say ‘bottles of water’ with a mumbling Aussie accent, it does actually sound like Bora Bora!

From now on, we will always refer to a glass of water as Bora Bora!!