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Published: September 21st 2008
First Glimpse of Vienna
The walls of the Belvedere, right by the train station.Gruess Gott!
I have decided that it is absolutely vital that every single person visits Austrian in their lifetime. It is hands-down one of the most amazing places ever, and now I shall reccount to you my adventure to Wien, die Hauptstadt Oesterreichs; Vienna, the capital of Austria. On the trip there was me, Elizabeth , Meghan , Libor , Dietlinde , Thomas , and George .
Friday I had class and we were shooting to make the 1:36 train. Naturally, Eva decided to keep us a little bit late, so we all literally had to fly home to grab our bags and meet at the train station. Of course, my bus to the train station picks up every single high school student in Graz, so I was literally so squished in, I was leaning against the doors. When we got there, we found out the train was actually 1:26. We weren't banking on this, and so Libor and Thomas ended up being late. We decided rather than beeilen uns , we'd just grab the next train which left about an hour later. We grabbed some food--I asked for a ham sandwich and the lady told me she
The Belvedere
Former palace, now art museum had no more ham, but offered me some other kind of meat. I was hungry enough not to complain, and I still have no idea what I actually ate.
We caught the train to Bruck an der Mur, and then from there had to umsteigen to Vienna. We almost didn't get seats on the 2nd train, it was so packed. We ended up sitting all over the cart with random people. It didn't matter, though, there was no need to talk, the view did it all! It was incredible. Graz lies at the very base of the Alps. In the distance, you can see the mountains starting to rise, but there aren't really any close by. Going up to Vienna, however, we wound right through the foothills, which were ridiculously huge, and it was amazing! In the middle of these enormous mountains, down in the valleys, lay little Austrian towns, truly something out of a postcard. On the tips of the mountains there was even snow! It was breath-taking!
We finally got to Vienna, and since Dietlinde, Meghan's roommate with the apartment, was coming later, we rented lockers and left our bags there. We then went out
Memory Lane
One of the streets Hillary and I got a little lost on by the Belvedere to explore the city! We walked by the Belvedere, which is right by the train station, and even saw the restaurant Hillary and I ate at
. It was such deja vue, and felt weird not to have Hillary barking at me to walk faster. We continued on and came out by Sankt Elisabeth, which we got a kick out of--who knew Elizabeth had a church in Vienna? We then found Karlsplatz, which was my and Hillary's stop on the metro, and was still just as magnificent. It holds Karlskirche, a church built following the Plague by the Emperor to thank God for sparing the citizens of Vienna--or those that were left, at least. From there we ended up on the Ringstrasse, which is the major "highway" in Vienna. Vienna is a perfect circle, as is the Ringstrasse. The Ringstrasse surround the Innere Stadt , which is the oldest section of Vienna, and were once the walls of the city. We walked along the Innere Stadt to Stefansplatz, where of course Stefansdom, the cathedral of Vienna and the major symbol of the city, is. It was more deja vue from my trip with Hillary. Oh, Hey
Hillary and I had had lunch here! We wandered around there for a bit, but night was quickly falling. We decided to grab some food
on the Ringstrasse, then headed to the train station to pick up Dietlinde. She'd been hiking with her class in Graz, so came later than the rest of us. After that, we headed to her apartment.
Dietlinda is from Texas, but her father is from Salzburg and her mother is from Linz. Her family has an apartment in Vienna, where most of her family still lives, so she's grown up between Austria and America. She offered to let us stay there, and it was amazing! It was right in the section of the University, literally two stops on the U-Bahn from the city center. Talk about centralized location. It was awesome 'cause the front door to the building was a humongous, stereotypical European door you have to throw your body against to open, and then up we went, two flights of spiral stone staircase, 'til we got to her door. Inside, you came into a hallway. Immediately to the left was a Sankt Elisabeth
Sankt Elisabeth room that had two smaller chambers with toilets & sinks. To the left was a hallway leading to the livingroom. If we go straight, however, you come then to the bathroom on the left which had the washing machine, bathtub, shower, and two sinks. Going further straight was the kitchen, which was small and classic. The next room was a bedroom/living area place, with a bed and a futon. Libor & Thomas shared the bed, and George & I shared the futon. From there you went left into another bedroom, her father's bedroom, which was huge and nice. She slept there. Then if you turned around, you came into the livingroom, which connected into the original hallway. Meghan and Elizabeth slept here, and it was huge and luxurious. The entire apartment was a perfect square, but was REALLY nice!
Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out for the Schoenbrunn, the Habsburg's "summer palace." It's located in the 12th District of Vienna, and the "winter palace," the Hofsburg, is located in the 1st. Huge distance to pick up and move, eh? It was originally a hunting lodge that just kept growing and growing and
Ein kleiner, netter Platz
A nice small platz behind Sankt Elisabeth growing...Needless to say, it's massive now and gorgeous . Before we went in, we grabbed some quick food at a little cafe right next to the Schoenbrunn, and there were birds there that kept flying all over us , and were trying to take our food! Regina would have been halfway to Russia if she were there.
Hillary and I went to the Schoenbrunn, too, it was actually right down the street from where we stayed. This time, however, we got to do more than I did with Hillary. We took a tour of the entire palace, which was just as I remembered it but still beyond impressive. The Habsburgs actually inhabited the palace until World War I, if you can believe that, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire really ended. We also had access to the gardens, which were ridiculously huge. I couldn't help but noticing, too, that everything was very nicely trimmed. Andy has forever ruined me, I guess. We wandered around there a little bit, though, and ended up at the Gloriette, which is sort of like a giant archway. You can go up onto the top, so
we naturally did. When you're walking towards the Gloriette, though, you're going up on a small but steady incline. When you turn around once you get to the Gloriette, it actually DOES take your breath away. You're much higher than the Schoenbrunn, and are looking over Vienna in its entirety. We went up on top of the Gloriette, and from there it's even more impressive views. It's amazing, too, because the buildings in Vienna seem so tall, even though they're only probably like 8 or 9 stories. On top of the Gloriette, though, it's mindboggling but reassuring to see the church steeples absolutely tower over everything. There is not a single thing that can even compete with how high the steeples are above everything else. Makes you remember that Vienna WAS a medieval city, and a Baroque city...hey, by the way, I also went into the room where Mozart played his first concert for Maria Theresa, the Empress of Austria, when he was 4 years old. He then proceeded to jump up onto her lap, kiss her on the cheek, and tell her she was a nice lady. How 'bout them apples?
From the Gloriette, we went and found
Wiener Strasse
Viennese Street the "Irrgarten," which literally means the garden to get lost in, ie, a maze. It was fun, we all split up and tried to find the platform in the center. Libor, Thomas, and I were victorious. The girls had some trouble. George was whiney and pouty the entire weekend because of walking and the weather . He didn't play. Just as well. When we were leaving the Schoenbrunn, we went by about the 400th tour of Asian people, and Libor quietly said to me, "Ich glaube, dass es niemand in Japan gibt, weil sie alle hier in Oesterreich sind!" "I don't think there's anyone left in Japan, 'cause they're all here in Austria!" Hit the nail on the head.
After the Schoenbrunn, we went to the Naschmarkt, which is a huge market in Vienna, and had lunch. It was a bit chilly to sit outside, but we braved it! Only in Vienna how often, after all? From there, we went to a cafe and met a friend of mine from UVM, Wolfi. His real name is Wolfgang, and he's actually from Italy. He grew up on the Austrian border of Italia, so always spoke German rather than Italian,
HUH?!
This threw me off. and now is a student at the Business University of Vienna, which is a partner with UVM. He was on exchange at Groovy UV last year, so we met and became friends. Really great to see him and we made plans for me to return in November/December, since he wants to show me some things around the city only there at Christmastime, and introduce me to Julwein, which is apparently a Christmas Viennese Wine. He's also going to come down to Graz, which will be fun!
After that, we went back to the apartment to get ready for our big night! Ironically, all 4 guys took showers, and the 2 girls chose not to . When we were all looking snazzy, we took off for our fancy evening out! We found the Volksoper , and headed inside. Even though everyone else was dressed nicely, I'm not going to lie, we totally stole the show. We were kind of high up and couldn't see half the stage at first, but then realized we had the wrong seats. After moving, we had a much nicer view and
Curve
Can see how the buildings curve, since Vienna is a perfect circle the show began! It was very difficult to understand the singing parts, especially the female singers--the men were much clearer--but all the speaking parts we actually understood. There were no subtitles, either, that was only at the Stadtoper. Oh, I guess I should tell you what we saw! We saw The Magic Flute by none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They threw in some modern little spins, though, little Austrian puns and cultural references, and what was surprising was that we all actually understood them. This time when we were laughing at the show, we were laughing because we got the joke and understood why it was funny, not just to fit in when everybody else was laughing! I guess we're becoming authentic oesterreicher!
After the show, we caught the tram into the Innere Stadt and went to the Sacher Hotel. If you don't know, the Sacher Hotel is famous for its chocolate, and we sat down for a slice of cake and some hot chocolate . The chocolate was very rich, but very good. We were sitting there laughing: we'd spent a night out in
Karlskirche
Karlskirche, built to thank God for sparing Vienna from the Plague--or at least allowing for some survivors Vienna, Austrian, seeing an opera by Mozart, followed by enjoying ourselves until midnight in a high end cafe, sampling the local sweets. It felt like something out a movie, and still hard to believe it happened!
Today we woke up and headed out for the Belvedere, which used to be a palace in the city but is now an art museum. After grabbing a coffee in an Italian cafe across the street from the Belvedere, next to the Greek restaurant Hillary and I ate in, we headed in. We wandered around the place, seeing mostly Austrian painters of course, and came upon Gustav Klimt's "Der Kuss," . I don't personally care for it, but it's a ridiculously famous painting. I was more interested in the exhibit on the Middle Ages, personally, but that's just me. Anywho, we spent a good deal of time getting more Viennese culture, and then headed out for the Hundertwasserhaus, which is a haven for artists. It's a wildly designed apartment complex, which was pretty cool to see. It reminded me a lot of Gaudi's works in Barcelona. I played tourist and bought myself a shirt there, which is white and red
Karlskirche
Karlskirche and proudly says OESTERREICH.
After grabbing an Austrian bakery thing for a quick snack--it's called a Necke, it's kind of like a cinnamon roll, but not--we headed off for our final Viennese undertaking, das Rieserad. Das Rieserad is the giant ferris wheel in Vienna, another one of the symbols of the city. We went through a little exhibition about the history of the ferris wheel--over 100 years old--had to have a lame posed picture taken , and then we were off! It was almost like a trolley car we were in, just on a ferris wheel. It went 64 meters in the air, I don't know how much that it is in feet, but I know that's high, from personal experience. It was amazing, though. Even with the rainy weather, you could still see the entire city and it was gorgeous. Personally, I prefer the view of the city from the Gloriette, but it was still very cool to see it from yet another Viennese landmark.
After that, we headed back to the apartment, grabbed our bags, and headed for the train station. Grabbed a ham sandwich for
Pool
The pool in front of Karlskirche the train ride and we were off, headed back to Graz. It was a fairly uneventful ride, with another change in Bruck an der Mur. Our last 20 minutes before Graz, though, things got interesting. The 7 of us were sitting together in a little group facing each other , and there was a girl right behind us. Well, she for some reason or other decided to turn around and start talking to us. We talk to each other in German since Libor and Thomas don't understand English, so she just jumped right in. It was clear, though, that she had one intention in talking to us all, though, and that was to talk to Libor. She kept asking "the group" questions, but would only seek a response from him. "Ohhh, the Czech Republic, that's soooo cool. I'd LOVE to learn Czech one day." "Ohh, you're an engineering student, you must be sooo smart." She also wanted to make sure she was "17, but going to be 18 REALLY soon." She kept this up until we got off the train and were literally heading out into the city to head back to our respective apartments. I
should probably mention she spoke with a heavy Austrian accent and spoke very quickly, so it was hard to always understand her. She finally went off in her own direction, and he came over to us and told us, "Sie hat mir meine Telefonnummer gefragt, und ich sagte, 'Tut mir Leid, ich verstehe nicht, du sprichst zu schnell!' Und sie hat mir noch einmal gefragt, aber ich sagte, dass ich sie nicht verstanden hatte!" "She asked me for my phone number, and I said, 'Sorry, I don't understand, you speak too quickly!' And she asked me for it again, and I said that I still didn't understand!" It was pretty funny, since he totally understood everything. We got a good kick out of it.
That's about it, though, was an awesome weekend on all accounts! I was also invited to the Czech Republic for Christmas with Libor, so that's a cool option to have. Overall, things are great here, it's still difficult to wake up every morning and believe I'm actually living in Austria! I hope you enjoy my pictures, I sure do! I have my DeutschIntensiv final tomorrow, and class ends on Wednesday. After that, I have a
Reflection
Karlskirche's reflection in the pool week of vacation, so plans are in the works: Croatia? Salzburg? Innsbruck? WHO KNOWS?!
Bpa bpa!
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Peter
non-member comment
Wein,Wein, Wein
Great pictures. What a great time you must be having. Ican feel your enthusiasm and excitement as I read the blog. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. P.S. or maybe PiSS: Grampi knows more than you give him credit for.