Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Well its been a long weekend in Vienna...
Friday we moved into our beautiful new apartment. we are on Durergasse in the 6th district, and its about a 15-20 minute walk to the IES center. My roommates are Allie, Kay, Jess, Betsy and I share a room with Alicia! When we are in the apartment, we spend our time hanging out in the living room with three couches just talking, reading, listening to music or using our computers. Finally we are recovered from jet lag and are starting to settle into our home for the net 6 weeks. Our apartment is really nice...there are big windows, high ceilings, wooden floors, and pictures on the walls. It is furnished in all IKEA stuff too...tres chic! The best part of our apartment is its location 5 spiral-staircased floors (4 floors european) above the street level...there is NO elevator!
We went out Friday night to a restaurant where I got piece of bread with melted brie and green peppers. There was also cranberry jam on the side to spread...it was so tasty! The open-faced sandwiches are really popular and come in all kinds of combinations when it comes to dinner. Lunches are usually bigger and breakfasts are full of carbs! The restaurant had a casual, smoky and loud atmosphere and we got to go to the second floor and look out into the street. In the next room a group of guys wearing matching white tee shirts with something written on them sat at a long table and every now and then they would stop and sing or something and then cheer and drink from huge glasses of beer...it made me think of a fraternity.
Saturday was marathon day. We arrived at the center at 11 am and toured the first district until 1 or so, and then we grabbed a quick lunch (tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto. Then we went for a three hour bus tour...soo long for a bunch of jet lagged tourists! The bus tour took us through Wienerwald (Vienna's woods) and we ended up on top of one of the two hills right outside of the city, where we had our Heuringer or something. Whatever it is, it involved going into the country for a break from city life and eating from a robust menu of Vienna. It was a beautiful little house with a picnic area underneath grapevines and a wooden sort of pavillion. There I had my first drink of the trip: white wine that was delicious...and very strong. It was fresh and had a special name that meant "of the time" or "right now" or something because it was from a certain season or it was new or something. I don't remember, but we bought a bottle and enjoyed it with our chicken, potato/peas/carrots casserole, and some other stuff that I don't remember. There were these cute little boys that would come around and refill our glasses and take our trays...they were so into their jobs! One of them had a dog- benji- who became our dinner friend. He hung out by our table and we tried to get a picture of him and he kept walking away until the little boy gave us a ball. so we made a big deal out of a dog and then rode the bus and U-bahn into the city.
The U bahn is a pretty fun experience. It's also extremely expensive. When you are buying a ticket (1,70 euro for one trip, one way..yeah thats like $2.50), you finally agree by pressing the button "Okay- I buy the ticket!" We always laugh about that. Today we were getting on the U bahn and accidentally left Kay at the sketchy Karlsplatz station. We also went the wrong way! So Allie, Alicia and I turned around and got the other train and found Kay at our home station. Contrary to what this story tells you, we have a pretty good sense of direction here for only being around for 3 days, thanks to our extensive walking tour.
Vienna is a unique shape. Everything revolves around the central cathedral, Stephansdom, So the city is in a circle: all streets lead toward it, with lower number addresses and districts closer to Stephansplatz. The first district is everything within the famous Ringstrasse (Ring Street) and there are districts outside. These are also circular, so that as the number of the district gets lower, as well as the address you still move closer to the center. Districts 2-9 are directly outside of the ring, whiel the other districts (i think there are 23) circle outside of the first 9. At one point, the entire first district was enclosed by a big wall that at parts was 9 meters thick. When it was torn down and the leader of Vienna at the time decided that Austria would be a diplomatic state, the ringstrasse was created. Around the walls had been greenspace so that they could see enemies approching. That space was sold in portions to the highest bidders. From that sale, the state was able to build the entire space around the ringstrasse. This included a theater, courthouse, parliament building, church, home for the spanish riding school ( the famous Lippizanners that cost 25 euros to watch!!!) and the university. The most fascinating part of these buildings is that each is designed in the style that suits the purpose of the building. For example, the courthouse is in the gothic style because that style reflects a time when democracy was coming into light. The university is in renaissance style because it reminds us of learning...etc.
Outside of the center are the summer palaces of royalty, most notably Schonbrunn and Belvedere. When we were in the gardens of Belvedere yesterday we saw a couple getting married! At a palace! Apparently you can rent the space...geez what a life. The bride was wearing gold (she was older...is this a tradition to wear gold when you are not getting married before the age of 50? maybe their vows were being renewed...whatever) and they rode off into the sunset in horse drawn carriage and there were two old rolls royces sitting out front. The only out of place element to the wedding (other than the gold dress, fact that it took place at a palace/art gallery, and there were no other people) was a trombone choir to see them off. When i think classy in Wien, or anywhere in the world, I don't think trombones. Sorry.
So today we woke up early to go to a Kirchen (Church) and saw a Mozart mass performed in context of a catholic service (in German). The music was perfect- except for the tenor, as my vocalist roommates pointed out. It was in tune, and sounded awesome in the cathedral. After the music stopped, it just lingered for 5 seconds in such a huge space. The only space was in the back of the church where we couldn't see the choir or orchestra. I didnt realize that the choir was on the back in the balcony until the end of the service.
The rest of the day has been relaxing with my roommates. We went to a restaurant for some Viennese Coffee, but ended up with what seemed to be an espresso shot that came with chocolate...we ordered Kafe Mocca...ewwwwww we didnt drink it.
Tonight the roomies and I just sat around and enjoyed our apartment and getting to knoww each other. They are all really nice girls..I'm lucky to live with them! WE really do have a lot of fun getting our way around the city.
I guess that was a relaxing evening to my first weekend in Vienna. I'm finally starting to get comfortable and get over the fact that doing everything is so much more difficult than it is in the states!
Miss you and love you all <3 Classes start tomorrow!
- comments