No Kangaroos in Austria

Fun fact: In Germany, you knock on the table repeatedly when class is over to show respect for the professor or, in some cases, the student leading discussion that day. This is good for students that may fall asleep in class, because they know it's time to wake up and leave. Not like I have any personal experience with such things.

These days, most of my sleeping takes place on trains. Last Friday night I took a night train into Vienna, and splurged to reserve a bed so I could be wide-eyed and bushy tailed in the morning. I slept like a log--it was totally worth the extra 20 Euro. The way home, however, was not so fortunate. I only had a seat and an inconvenient pair of long legs to uncomfortably deal with on the ten hour ride home (I blame my frugality and genes inherited from Papa Q, respectively). But I would rather be dragging on Monday (did I mention I have no class three out of five days of the week?) than in the glorious city that is Vienna.

When I first arrived to the Wien Westhauptbahnhof, I still had another four hours or so until I met HKay, Hannah B, and two other girls, originally from Brown, that were also studying in London with Hannah at UCL--Megan and Kali. I decided to kill some time in a Kaffeehaus, seeing as how Vienna is the original center for cafe-culture. Or so I've heard...my 1900 Vienna course discussed this theme in detail last semester, and even took a field trip to a local cafe in downtown Middlebury (Carol's Hungry Mind--holla). I decided to get the so-called real experience, and, even though I am no coffee-drinker, go bold and order a 4 Euro coffee that, save for the whipped cream, resembles the volume of a souvenir shot-glass. I also had croissants brought to me, which I didn't order, and therefore ate (assuming they were free), only to disappointingly find them on the bill an hour later. I also drank freshly squeezed orange juice, which puts Tropicana to shame, and very well may be all I drink from now on (if I had an unlimited supply of oranges and time, that is). I also read Goethe while I sat in this Kaffeehaus, and would have looked pretty dang intelligent if it weren't for the pocket-sized Oxford German dictionary that spent more time in my hands than the actual book itself. But anyway.

I also got to walk around by myself a little bit through the main part of Vienna before London's finest showed up, and the map that I so diligently studied in this Vienna course magically came to life, complete with horse-drawn carriages for tourists and men wearing very ugly and old-fashioned coats selling concert tickets. Oh, the activity! I even got a Viennese man's phone number. He did not get mine.

Soon enough, it was off to the train station to meet HKay along with Hannah B and company. Purses were cast aside and lengthy embraces were shared in the midst of a Viennese crowd--Kodak and Hallmark really missed out on this advertising opportunity.

After checking into our youth hostel, the five of us decided to head to the Bellevedere. Even though I'm no artsy-fartsy type, it was well worth to go there and, again, see the works of artists that I had studied last semester, especially Gustav Klimt. "Der Kuss," or "The Kiss," is one of Klimt's most famous pieces, and, according to my professor last semester, is the most popular poster hung in a student's dorm room. Needless to say all of the gifts in the shop were centered around Klimt, and, more often than not, "Der Kuss." There was also a noticeable crowd surrounding the painting itself.

The Kiss

After wandering through the upper and lower buildings of the Belvedeere Palace, we made our way to a typical Viennese restaurant that, according to Hannah B's European travel book, was well known for its Wienerschnitzel. We all immediately fell in love with the place--both the atmosphere, the food, and the wine were all what we could have asked for, with the exception of the ambiguous tipping policy that no one in the group seemed to know anything about. But, regardless, I got to practice my translation (and interpretation as well--Austrian accents are thick, man), especially when asking about nut allergies for HKay. Unfortunately for her, Austrians really like putting nuts in desserts. Or maybe it was just that restaurant. Anyway.

The next day we all woke up early to go to mass--but not just any mass. This mass, my friends, featured the Vienna boys choir, aka voices from Heaven. I still am in shock, and cannot believe, that what I heard were actually boys from 8-11 years of age. Unfortunately the room that we were in was "listening only," and they meant it--we couldn't see anything that was going on without the help of the camera that recorded the mass and the choir and then projected images on the wall in front of us. But the visual wasn't what was important. Needless to say, our decision to get up early was not regretted. Mouths dropped open. CDs were purchased. Then, because we 20 year old girls had no shame, pictures with choir boys were taken (see below).

The rest of the day we spent just wandering through the city, taking pictures and stumbling into another cafe--but not just any cafe. This cafe, Cafe Central, was where Freud himself came to relax with a good ol' cup o' Joe, along with Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Arthur Schnitzler, Leo Trotzki, and Peter Altenberg, way back in the day.

Sadly, the energizer bunny took a vacation and left my camera depleted of energy at this point. But, thanks to Facebook, I have stolen photographs from one HKay Merriman to complete my illustration of Vienna. It was, however, quite unfortunate that the batteries ran out at this point, because we also paid a visit to another palace, Schoenbrunn. Although we didn't go inside, we walked around the perimeter, saw some of the gardens, and walked up a large hill that gave a gorgeous view of the city and Schoenbrunn itself. It was totally worth the thigh-burning work out.

Schoenbrunn Palace from the top of the hill




Schoenbrunn



Some crazy Americans--me, Megan, HKay, and Kali

Hannah B, me, Megan, Kali, and HKay in the Cafe Central

Me with Hannah B and Megan

Below, the building over looking Schoenbrunn from the top of the hill

Megan, Hannah B, HKay and I with two choir boys...I told you we had no shame

All of us in front of the Belvedeere

Cafe Westend...my individual cafe experience :)

Das Essen...und was zum trinken...

The desk of a genius (dictionary omitted)

So Vienna actually has a yellow-bike system that works, unlike Middlebury's failed attempt...for those of you that don't know what that is, basically you just take a bike when you see one, and leave it at another location--in this case, however, you have to put in some change and return it to another post thing. Still. Pretty cool.

A little pedestrian way that I found with some cute shops and cafes...

Statue right by the Museums Quartier, which I didn't have enough time to frequent (but hey, I'm here all year, baby)--free gummy bears from Germany to whoever guesses the saint's name first (I forgot to take note of it...Mark maybe?)

Museums Quartier

Museum of Natural History

Kunsthistorisches Museum-- Historical Art Museum--faces the Natural History museum to make a cool mirror-image

Museum of Natural History, again

Burgtor to Heldenplatz

Part of Heldenplatz

The Rathaus, or City Hall, from Heldenplatz

Bill Nye, anybody?

The outside of Cafe Westend--the first cafe

HKay!

The Belvedeere--if it weren't for washing the windows and the heating bill, I would consider it. Thoughts on investment?

MiddKids in Vienna

The garden inbetween buildings at the Belvedeere

View of the lower building (Belvedeere)

Staatsoper (Opera House) at night

Where we ate!

Desserts! 12 o'clock apple strudel, then, clockwise, plum tart and the housecake, which was a rich chocolate cake--DELICIOUS!

St. Peter's at night

Josefsplatz at night

Parlament

Where we sat to see the Vienna boys' Choir in St. Augustin's

Loos Haus

Vienna!

Outside of Cafe Central

We weren't sure about the name...but it's pretty!

Stock Exchange

Megan, Hannah, Kali and I by the Danube canal

Inside Cafe Central

So war's!

This weekend, I have big plans to reunite with Nathan, aka Ninja-Prank-warring partner in crime, and tee-pee the Eifel Tower. All in the name of Fink. Oh, yeah, we're also going to go running to train for our marathon in Morocco (or, in my case, half-marathon). As the German would say, wir haben ein Kaefig voller Voegel (in essence: we're crazy). Look out, Paris!

Peace, love, and election parties abroad,

Amanda