Study Tour in Vienna

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Last Wednesday I left for my mini-field study tour to Vienna, Austria with my music class. We had to go to classes in the morning and then we loaded up the buses after lunch. My class took a bus to Cologne, Germany and then took a flight from Cologne to Vienna. Our bus ride was 3 hours long. From school we had to stop by our professor’s house and pick him up there and then go to Cologne. We were a little behind schedule so once we got to the airport we had to jump off the bus and grab our luggage and run to the check-in counter. We took a GermanWings flight. The plane was much shorter but wider. There were 28 rows and it was a 3 and 3 seat. There were 40 of us on the flight; 38 students and 2 professors. Our flight was only an hour and twenty minutes. As we speed up down the runway our plane wobbled from left to right. It was an interesting beginning to the trip. The flight was very turbulent as we were descending for landing. I can say I was very glad when we landed safely and arrived at our gate. Overall for my first flight within Europe it was not that bad. When we arrived in Vienna we got all of our luggage and got on a bus and headed to our hotel. Our hotel is very nice. Much better than any of the hostels we have stayed in so far. Emily and I have our own room. I must say I might be taking 20 showers for the 5 days I'm here because the shower is so much better than any of the hostels and even our house. We feel like we’re staying at a Ritz!! When we arrived at the hotel we had to put our stuff in our room and then we had to walk to our dinner. We had reservations for 9 PM. We started walking on all these back streets and down alleys (thank goodness there were 40 of us otherwise I might have been questioning where we were). We ended up coming to this little restaurant out on water in the middle of nowhere. I'm still not sure how our professor found this place, but it was a very good restaurant. It was a traditional Vienna meal. We had a potato soup to start. Then we had goulash for our meal (which is like a meat with spices and noodles. For dessert we had a traditional Apple Strudel cake. It was alright, not my favorite but not too bad. Thursday morning we had to wake up and be ready to leave at nine. There is a buffet breakfast provided for us. It seems like a five star breakfast compared to the bread with Nutella we normally eat. There are breads of all types, eggs, bacon, meats, cereals, fruits, coffee machines, and teas. I ate until I was so full I couldn't have another bite. Everything was so delicious. We got onto the bus and started our travels around the border of Vienna. We started our tour by going to Haydn's birthplace. It was a pretty small place so we all had to travel around in shifts. Our tour guide who was supposed to show us around ended up being in the hospital so our professor ended up just giving us the rundown on all the things in the house. There were some cool artifacts and the layout of the house was very interesting. There were corn stalks hanging on a wire from the ceiling of the outside porch, which was very interesting, though I still am not sure what they signify. I had never seen that before so it was interesting. After Haydn's house we got back on the bus and headed for a little town to a lake that is the border between Hungry and Austria. It was very cold down by the lake. Our professor went to this city in October and when he was there last year this town must have been a happening place with lots of things going on. Though, when we were there pretty much everything was closed. There were only two restaurants open and no shops were. So a large group of us ate at one of the restaurants for lunch. I had a traditional soup that is like a basic broth with some type of meatball in it. It was very good and helped warm me up from the cold weather. Then Emily and I split a Margarita pizza. It was different from any Margarita pizza I have ever had before. It had quite a bit of garlic on it, but the pizza was so good. It hit the spot perfectly. We still had quite a day ahead of us so we walked back to the bus and went on our way to another museum for Haydn. The sun started coming out so it made it a little more bearable to be walking around. We took a tour around and saw a famous concert hall at the museum. We were on a guided tour and it might have been the shortest tour I have ever been on (I saw this as a definite plus), but I think we were done with the whole castle in 20 minutes. Then we walked by another one of Haydn's houses. From there we walked to the town center and had 30 minutes to walk around and shop or get a coffee. Emily and I found this store/coffee shop and got a Valentine's coffee. It had vanilla and cinnamon in the coffee with whipped crème. It was so so good!! Then we walked around and looked in all the stores we had time for. We found the coolest boutique with the best shoes, purses and accessories. (Who would have guessed I would be attracted to a store like that?) It was all a little pricey so I ended up not getting anything, but if I had an endless supply of money I might have bought out the store!! We then got to come back to the hotel for an hour before we had to go back out again for the concert. We went to the Vienna Opera House to watch the Amsterdam Orchestra perform. We had standing seats, which were interesting to say the least. When we got up to the standing area you have to squeeze between 20 people to find your 2x2 ft. area to stand. We were all packed in this small, hot area. When a few of us found a spot to stand this lady behind us tapped our shoulder and asked us 'Are you going to be moving forward because I'm going to be sitting during the performance?' So we move forward a little and are now scrunched even more. Eventually her husband came and stood basically on top of Emily and I. The concert was 2 hours so after the first 20 minutes we decided to sit in our little area (this created a small problem so we had to sit in very uncomfortable positions to make sure we weren't on top of anyone else) but then the lady behind us was not appreciating it so she put her feet all the way out and stretched out so we had now even less space. Finally we got our area and sat for the rest of the concert. It was fun to experience the 'concert atmosphere'. I wish we would have had seats so I could have seen all the performance but I guess you take what you can get. After the concert was over everyone was tired, hungry and hot. On our way to the concert we passed a T.G.I. Fridays. Everyone was so excited to see some American chain in Vienna, so we rolled up to Friday's with around 25 people and took over the place. I must say it was so nice to be able to get a hamburger with ketchup. Surprisingly it was very similar to the American Fridays. Everything tasted very similar as well. I'm sure the place loved all of our business. Friday morning Emily and I decided we would wake up a little earlier so we could go to breakfast and enjoy some more of the delicious food. Then we all had to meet and take the tram into the city center. From there we walked to a castle and walked around for 15 minutes. Then we took off on our 2 hour walking tour of the city. The weather was not in our favor! It was very cold and the wind was gusting me from side to side, which did make the hike around easy. We saw quite a bit of the city though. We then got three hours to walk around and do whatever. We got lunch and then shopped around at the stores. A majority of the stores we have in Luxembourg so we just roamed around and window shopped. A chocolate torte was invented in Vienna. It is called Sacher torte and everyone who comes to Vienna has to try it. So Emily and I had time left so we went by the Sacher factory and sat in and enjoyed a piece of the torte. Not only did we get some good cake, but we also got to escape the cold weather for a little while. The torte is like a chocolate cake that is more of the texture of sponge cake with a chocolate apricot jam in-between the layers. It was an interesting flavor, but it was good. It is also a Viennese classic so I'm glad I got to try it here. Then we all met up and went to tour one of Mozart's apartments from while he was in Vienna. We had a guided tour (and this one was MUCH longer, around 1.5 hours). Though it was interesting to see all of the artifacts and learn more information about Mozart. One of the floors of the tour was the actual apartment Mozart lived in so we got to see the layout and learn about how life was for him back then. Unfortunately during the tour I got a bloody nose and had to go take care of that. I think it is just because I have been blowing my nose so much that it is just so dry. But after our tour we had to wait for the other group to finish their tour and then we had the night off. So most of us went back to the hotel to relax and rest before going back out in the cold. We just hung around the room and got some stuff done and rested. Then we got ready and went back out into the cold to find some dinner. We walked around for quite a while looking for somewhere to eat. We picked a place and went in and found out that the chef was leaving so we couldn't order food. So off we went again on a search of another place to eat. We walked around a little more and decided on an Italian restaurant. We ended up coming through the back door so everyone was looking at us and we had to figure out how to navigate to find a waiter. I'm still not sure how we got to that door, because there was a sign leading us to that door. I got brushetta and split a pizza with Emily. The brushetta was almost more like pizza bread, but it was really good! There was just so much food I couldn't even eat it all. We closed down the place. We were the last ones to leave so he had to lock up behind us. Saturday we woke up and had another wonderful breakfast. It seemed to get better every day. Then most people were going to stay at the hotel and relax until we had to start our day’s activities so Emily, Lauren and I head into town and shopped around for a while. We went to this store called Zara. I could have spent two days shopping there. There were three stories and they had the cutest clothes. I was just wandering around looking at everything. It was a mix of everything between business and casual clothes. If I ever need to get a new wardrobe that is where I will be looking. I think we ended up spending a good hour and a half in the store checking everything out. After shopping we went to a cafe to warm up. I got a hot chocolate. Everywhere I go they taste so different, but they are all so good! The cafe was a fun little place. Vienna is supposed to have some of the best coffee shops around; this one was pretty good so I could believe it. Though, I was surprised we didn't see more than we did. We could have been in the wrong area or there just isn't as many they are just better quality. They do have their own form of Starbucks too. I never went there because our professor said it was terrible not to even try it. After we were all warmed up we went to tour the Cathedral. The Cathedral was probably the warmest one we have been in so far, so that was a definite plus. Though I feel every city has multiple cathedrals and they all just start blending together. It's hard to decide what makes this one different or better than others. We then had to meet our group to start our day’s activities. We had to take two underground trams to get to Schubert's house. The house was very small; only two rooms so we all had to just file around and check everything out. We haven't learned about him in class yet, so I wasn't too familiar with whom he was before we went. I learned more information about him there, though I think I still have a lot of learning to do before I really understand his work and life. I was surprised though because the house was pretty bare for being a museum. There were some pictures on the wall and few artifacts around, but not too much. The house structure was very interesting. It was like a horseshoe shape and open courtyard between the three corridors. It seems from all of our tours that this was very common style of that time period. We then all had to take two more underground trams to a street tram to a bus to get to Beethoven's house. We arrived 40 minutes early so our professor took us next door to a restaurant and got us all drinks. This restaurant had just opened for the evening and I think they were a little overwhelmed with all 40 of us taking over their place. It was nice and festive. The waitresses were all dressed in traditional Viennese dresses. It was interesting, because people I guess still actually wear those around too. We then took our tour of Beethoven's house. It was very small as well. After Beethoven passed away they took an impression of his head and this was the highlight of the tour (I'm not sure if that says anything or not?). The tour was really short and we just looked around and read all the information below the paintings and such to learn about what they were. We were only there for 30 minutes before we had to jump back on the bus and start heading up the mountain. As we started going up the mountain there became more snow on the ground and it started snowing, as if we weren't cold enough already. So we had to bundle up once we got to the top. This mountain overlooks the city of Vienna. There were some amazing views. We could see all the sites we had been to over the week. We all took our pictures really fast and ran into the restaurant, Skyline, up there. (But, no it was not Skyline like in Cincinnati!) This restaurant was a very upscale place. It was all decorated for Valentine's day. We had to stay up there an hour before we could catch the bus back down for our dinner. So we took over the bar area. The staff of the restaurant probably had no idea what to do as they were getting ready for a nice dinner and we come strolling in to hang out before we go to our own dinner. I didn't even order anything so it was little weird just sitting around waiting, but there were great views. We then had to head halfway back down the mountain to our restaurant. It was located in the wine country and was a traditional Viennese place. It was an all you can eat, all you can drink buffet style restaurant. We were put back in the back room. Instead of having us all through the restaurant to the food area they just set up a mini-area back in our room. It still had all the same food in just smaller bowls that they kept refilling when we ran out. All the food was so good. They also served us all the wine, water and soft drinks you could want. When something was running low they came back with more. We started with soup, it was the same soup I had at the restaurant on Thursday. Though I did learn that what I thought was a meatball in my soup was actually a liver meatball. I enjoyed it when I ate it though; it always just changes the perspective when you know what it is. There also was a salad bar with everything you could want. I loaded up a plate. After we got that we could start in on all the main dishes. There was Wiener schnitzel, chicken, pasta, sausage and other dishes I had no idea what they were. But, I tried them all. My favorite was the Wiener schnitzel. It was really good and a very traditional Viennese dish. As you walk around the city there are street vendors all over selling food and drinks. Everywhere you go the main attraction to them is the Wiener schnitzel. We also had some amazing desserts; chocolate mousse and apple strudel. Though the chocolate mousse was my favorite, it was so yummy! The dinner was so much fun. It was probably my favorite activity of the week. Everyone was together just having such a great time. How couldn't you with free food and drinks. There was an ochordian player that came and just sat in our area the whole night and played for us. People would dance and some even serenaded the group. I'm sure by the time we left the restaurant was loving have back some peace and quiet. But hey we all had so much fun just mingling and hanging out. It was a traditional long European meal. We were there for four hours just soaking up the atmosphere. Sunday we had to wake up and unfortunately pack up our stuff, get breakfast and load up the bus. We only had one activity planned for the day. We had to go visit the cemetery. This cemetery was where Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert were buried. It was a very large cemetery, almost a little overwhelming. The tombstones were very elaborate and large. Some were statues, stone carvings and some even mini-buildings. There were no traditional tombstones you think of in America. There were gold figures on some and paragraph etchings. They were all beautiful, just very intricate. It was a little bitter-sweet. I loved seeing the stone work and designs, but it was a little bizarre to end our trip at a cemetery. After we walked around we headed off to the airport. We had three hours once we got to the airport so I got some food and hung around for a little while. Then we went to check-in and Emily and I asked the lady at the counter if we could get seats next to each other and the lady looked at the lady next to her said something then went back to work. I had no idea what was going on so we just waited and finally got our boarding passes and realized we didn't have seats next to each other. So we politely asked her again like oh sorry we were just seeing could we not get seats next to each other? She looked at us and then told us that they don't do that. I still don't believe her. That is the hard part about being in a culture where you don't understand the language. I never really understand what is going on when people talk to me I just have to give a blank stare because I don't understand. Though I think I finally have down...Je ne comprends pas and Je parle anglais. After we checked in there was a lot of duty free shopping so we walked around all the stores. They were mainly high end designers so I didn't buy anything, but I enjoyed walking around and looking at all the clothes, bags and accessories. We went through the general type store and a lady was passing out chocolate samples, so we made sure to pass her a few times. We still had to sit around a little before we boarded our plane. When they started boarding you had to pile into a bus like packed sardines and we took a 5 minute drive to our plane and then loaded up there. This time I was at the very back of the plane. Before takeoff the flight attendant tried to tell me something, but I had no idea what she said...I guess now it couldn't have been anything too important. The flight was much smoother this time, not as much turbulence. I found it interesting that on the flight you don't get a drink. You have to buy it; they are not free, or cheap. Once we landed we met the bus driver and he led us on what felt like a wild goose chase around the airport to get to our bus. We loaded up and took our three hour bus ride back. We got back at 10 to Luxembourg City. We only had to wait for 20 minutes to catch our bus home. Once we got home we had to unpack and shower and then I passed out I was so tired. This morning we had class nice and early. Unfortunately today is a really long day for me. We have a make-up class today until 8:30 which means I won't be getting home until around 11 by the time we take all our forms of public transportation. It is also midterm exam week this week so I have quite a bit of studying to do. Luckily I only have two midterms this week, the rest of mine got pushed back until after Carnival and mine this week are only on Thursday and Friday. I guess I just have to think Friday I will be jet-setting to Dublin for a whole week of travel around Ireland, Scotland and London.

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Photos

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at the airport

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Haydn

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Haydn's crib

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the water well

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the corn stalks

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at Haydn's house

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some of Haydn's music

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more music

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Haydn's piano

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Haydn's house

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the front

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The whole house from the front

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where we stopped for lunch on Thursday

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around the town

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again

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a statue in the middle of the town

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Emily and I