Topsy Turvy Time

St. Stephen's Cathedral 

The first week in Vienna was filled with getting to know the group of people I'm living with, orienting myself with the German language, and getting used to city noises and the time change.
The time change was probably the easiest thing to adapt to. The first day wore me out so I was able to sleep through the night. However, I live in the middle of nowhere at home and usually the only time I wake up to any noises at school is on the weekends when people are drunk and noisy. Now I've suddenly been dropped in a city where the garbage and recycling comes at 3 am every night, you hear millions of bottles being smashed simultaneously, police cars and ambulances jet through the streets at random, and dogs bark randomly at each other.
I have fallen in love not only with the city of Vienna but also the German language. I have to take a "German for Travelers" class while I'm over here. I figured that German was similar enough to English that I could get along well enough without needing to devote my energy to learning it. I was very wrong about that. Fortunately, German is similar to Spanish which helps with some things but I have found that not everyone speaks English as I had hoped. On the bright side I've rediscovered my love of languages through the process of learning German. I hadn't been fully submersed into a country of another language since tenth grade. When I travel I like to blend in so being able to actually speak the language helps a lot more with that, or at least navigating which bathroom is yours correctly (Damen - women, Herren - men). Also, turns out, we've all been greeting people informally which is not very nice. We've been saying Hallo instead of GruBs gott. Oops. 
I've come to love the people I live with in a short amount of time. It is great to have a small group to go on adventures with instead of a large group of people that are clearly tourists (again with the blending- I know). With smaller groups we can pop in and out of stores, find tables at cafes, make spur of the moment decisions, and make friends with locals more easily. 

Wiener Melange

Our first week was fueled by delicious coffee. We explored the coffee culture a bit around where we live. 
Here's an interesting tidbit - you don't need to rush at cafes in Vienna. In the states, you order drinks, then food, then you eat and you leave. You are not very welcomed to stick around for an hour without ordering anything else. Here though, you can order a single espresso (which comes with a very delightful cup of water) and just sit around for the rest of the afternoon with a book reading. No one rushes over to you or even asks if you want the bill, you're just welcomed to enjoy your day. At first this made me really uncomfortable. I sat down, I drank my coffee and I wanted to go. I felt like I was doing something wrong by just sitting there. Turns out, that's just the thing to do. Now instead of going to a library for homework we are all looking forward to grabbing a Wiener Melange and sitting down with our laptops connecting to WIFI. Also! Splitting an omelette two ways is completely acceptable! Same with just about anything else you want to share because your stipend for food is so small. 

In addition to the German language, I've found a new appreciation for street art. American definitely needs to start following this trend. Walking down a street and seeing beautiful works of art like this brightens my day immensely. 

 Belvedere Palace

 Belvedere Palace

(with Steph, Paige, Me, & Chelsea)

On Saturday, we were given a closer look at Vienna through our professor who we lovingly call Uncle Martin (behind his back).  Uncle Martin is the sweetest man who loves to show off the city where he grew up and has lived for many years. He also teaches elementary school children so he has an excellent demeanor and is excited for us to learn and explore. We had a few grimy spots on the wall that our own college professor pointed out in concern to him and our landlords. In response, Uncle Martin offered us a book of Klimt paintings he had for fifteen years to tear out and tack up so that we would have something nice to look at (we are refusing and are only holding onto the book for him as a favor, it will be given back intact at the end of our stay). Uncle Martin took us to Theresianum Academy where he used to teach. The school had been a palace for the royal family of Vienna. We then went on to the Belvedere Palace. Belvedere is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life. It is the ultimate idea of what regal is. It is surrounded by a beautiful artificial pond in the front and a number of fountains and manicured lawns in the back. 

Hofburg Palace

Hofburg Palace I've probably gone by about fifteen times at this point but the largeness of does not cease to astound me. I swear one of these days I'm going to break something by staring up at all this architecture. It too was an Imperial Palace and is now used by the prime minister of Austria as his offices.  

View from the Vienna Woods

After a quick swing by a gelato place where they make the most delicious raspberry gelato I have ever dreamed of, we ventured up into the Vienna Woods. All the pictures I have of this place does not begin to do it justice. There is something so ethereal about being in a quiet place after being surrounded by people and noise for more than a week. The peacefulness filled me up an rejuvenated me for more time in the City of Dreams. 

Vanille Kirkuchen

To end our day three of my friends and I swung by a small Konditorei (a bakery specializing in cakes) and split a vanille kirkuchen and a zitrone kuchen. 

Stadionbad

The next day, Sunday, we went looking for a pool we heard about from two of our professors. What we found were some professional Austrian football players (not soccer but American football) and an expansive water park that cost only three euros to get into. It had a wave pool, diving boards, a wet bar, a lap pool, and water slides. 

All in all, it was an incredible first week. Now we're getting into the swing of classes and planning weekend excursions. 

Auf Wiedersehen! 
Yours until the end of the Internet,
Eiggam

Vienna Waits for You

For about eight years my favorite song has been Vienna by Billy Joel. It's the song that I put on the first mix cd I make for anyone I care about and it's the song that I cherished in my darkest hours. But despite my love for the song, I never really dreamed I would end up here.
I took what I would normally fit into my SUV and trimmed it down to fit in a suitcase and a backpack.
I'm ecstatic but also scared out of my mind since I only know a few people on this trip and barely at that. The person who had been planning to join me on this trip backed out and I know that I would never forgive myself if I did the same. But so far everyone has been really nice and friendly so it's great!
On the flight over it hadn't hit me what was going on. It felt like I was just on a long flight to anywhere and there happened to be some people I knew on the plane. We were all lined up in a strange alphabetical order in the very middle of the plane so sitting down you might not even have known we all were a group. I didn't get any sleep on that first long flight to our connection in Amsterdam. We made it through customs and a second security checkpoint then speed walked through the airport to find our connecting flight at what felt like 1:30 in the morning. We waited to board and saw a beautiful sunrise as we sat there.

We were all pretty antsy to get on the plane to get to our final destination of Vienna. On the flight they spoke Dutch very rapidly and then translated it in English. I used to want to learn Dutch but German will have to do for now. When we got on the plane they served us chicken sandwiches which didn't make any sense to either of the timezones I was currently operating under. It was good and came in a little box with a windmill on it and instructions on how to make your own wheat bread (in English) but my stomach was hurting from the strange dinner I ate on the plane before so I couldn't really enjoy it.
Our group split up with six of us going to one apartment and five of us going to the other. We settled in and then journeyed out with our professor to go (as we later figured out) grocery shopping. It took us five minutes to figure out which water we were buying and then our professor told us which one was what we actually wanted before we bought it. Who knew there was "mild" water?

When we got back to the apartment I crashed like I never had before. I put on pajama shorts and before changing my shirt as I had been planning I fell asleep. After we woke up we went out to dinner with the whole group and were served a variety of things I couldn't pronounce but boiled down to a soup with "small sliced pancakes" which was surprisingly delicious (frittatensuppe), basically a fried dough with pork in it (weiner schnitzel), and an apple strudel with whipped cream (apfelstrudel).
It was all delicious and was a huge relief after eating plane food. Now I have plans to get breakfast at a cafe with the girls in the apartment and then plan the rest of the day.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Yours until the end of the Internet,
Eiggam