Weekend in Vienna

Vienna at night

Thursday morning I got all of my things packed up and we headed to the train station around 3pm. The train ride was about three hours long which wasn’t too bad. I watched a movie with Matthew so the time went by pretty fast. We got to Vienna and went straight to our hostel. It was called the Wombat hostel and it was really nice. All of the girls were in a room together and then the guys were split between two rooms. After we dropped off our stuff at the hostel we went and got dinner as a group at a Turkish restaurant. The food was actually a lot better than I expected. I had a Beyti Kebab which was basically little wraps of lamb, lettuce, tomato and sauce. It was really good! After dinner we walked around the city for a little bit. It was cool to see all of the buildings lit up. It was really beautiful at night. When we got back to the hostel we decided to hang out in the bar that was attached to the hostel for a little bit. We played some foosball which was fun because Megan P and Jeremy played against Aimee and me and when we were playing two guys came over and asked to play the winner. Well, Aimee and I won so we played these two guys from Hungary. We ended up beating them, twice! It was a lot of fun and it is always good meeting other people from different countries. Most of us then headed to bed around 12am.

Group at St. Charles Church

Friday morning we all got up and had breakfast at 7:30am which was a little too early for all of us. We were pretty tired even though we did not do much the day before. At 8:45 we met up with Robert Mevissen who graduated from St. John’s and was living in Vienna on a Fulbright Scholarship. He took us around the city and we walked everywhere! He actually knew a lot about the city and he was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of cool buildings and the only one we actually went into was St. Charles Church. We had to pay to get in but it was beautiful! They had an elevator and stairs which brought you all the way up to the very top of the dome. The stairs actually really freaked me out because it is basically scaffolding which goes really far up and would shake with every step. It was cool though because you could see all the paintings a lot better. It was just kind of weird because the stairs and elevator in the middle of the building kind of ruins the look but at the same time it is cool you can go up there. After that we went to a café for lunch which was called Café Ramund. It was a really cute café but it took forever to get our food. There was only two women working – one in the kitchen and one serving. There was also confusion with ordering the food and it was kind of a mess. After about an hour and a half of waiting we got our food and it was really good. I got baked schnitzel with cheese on top and potatoes. It was delicious! Then we said goodbye to Robert and headed out on our own. We went to the Hundertwasserhaus which is an apartment building that some artist designed. It has no straight lines at all. It was pretty crazy looking. You can’t go in it because people actually live there but we saw it from the outside. It was pretty strange actually but cool to see. Then we took the street cars to Bellevedere which is a big place where royalty would stay. We did not go inside but we spent about an hour walking through the gardens which was nice. It was not as pretty because they are starting to take out the flowers and water from the fountains because it is getting cold. It was actually really cold this weekend. When we got back to the hostel we went to the bar again for happy hour. They had 1 Euro beers then at 8pm they gave away free beer until the keg was empty. It was kind of crazy. We met two people from London, Andy and Rachel, who were really nice. It was fun talking to them. The group then wanted to go out to a place so Andy and Rachel came with us. We didn’t really know where to go but we found a couple places that were not all that great. There weren’t very many bars just more like clubs which were kind of snooty. It was fun but not the right atmosphere. A few of us went back around 12:30am and went to bed.

Schonbrunn Castle

Saturday we had a lot of free time. We woke up again at 7:30am to have breakfast. I felt so bad because the girls in my room said they heard me sleep talking again! Ugh! It is so embarrassing and I feel really bad for waking them up. They of course said it was no problem but it still is a little embarrassing. After breakfast we met up to go to Schonbrunn Palace. The Palace was really cool to see! We took an audio tour of the place and it was beautiful. After the tour we were on our own and Aimee and I walked through the gardens and took pictures. The gardens were huge! We seriously spent about 2 hours just walking around. Later we met up with some other people and we went to the café in the gardens. After we had seen everything we got Kebab for lunch and went to the Art History museum. We were told we had to go for our art class (which we found out we really didn’t) and it was actually really cool! The building was beautiful and I enjoyed seeing it. Aimee and I left the art museum and decided to go back to the hostel. We were both pretty tired but couldn’t resist stopping at the cute ice cream shop on the way home. It was delicious! A group of people were at the hostel just relaxing so we decided to plan some more for our week break. We didn’t really get much done but it was alright. At night Aimee and I went to the Pizza Palace down the road to get dinner. After dinner we had to go back and get dressed nicely because we were going to a concert at the Kursalon. I don’t know if it would really be called a concert but it was an orchestra playing Mozart songs and every once in awhile people would come out and dance or sing. It was actually pretty entertaining. At one point, the crowd started clapping along to the song. I of course got the giggles because it was supposed to be a nice performance and here everything is clapping to the beat. It was pretty funny. After the concert we went back to the hostel bar and had a drink then went straight to bed.

Sunday was an interesting day. We had the whole day free to do whatever we wanted. My director told us that the Vienna Boys Choir would be singing at a mass in the morning so Chris P, Jen and I decided to go. We had to get up really early in order to get a seat. We left the hostel at 7:30am and the mass started at 9:15am. We got there with plenty of time to spare and when we got there someone was selling tickets for 19 Euro but she said standing was free so we decided just to stand. When we actually got to the entrance another man said there were other seats available for a cheaper price. We decided it would be worth it to pay 5 Euro and get to sit down. It was weird having to pay for a mass but I guess since the choir was there it was a bigger deal. We had to walk up a bunch of stairs and down a bunch of hallways until we got to our seats and once we did I cracked up laughing! We ended up being in a tiny side room that was connected to the church and had a window overlooking the church. It was like a crying room and the best (or maybe worst) part was we watched to whole mass on TV! It was ridiculous and we just couldn’t help but laugh. My friend Chris leaned over to me at one point and said “Nickie, we woke up really early to sit in a tiny room and watch TV. And the worst part is we paid for it!”. It was the funniest thing! So the mass went on and we watched it on the two little screens. It was an interesting mass because some things were said in German, Latin, and English and then some were just said in German and some just Latin. It was kind of crazy. Then during the middle of the mass another thing happened where I just could not stop laughing. Chris again leaned over to tell me that the little old woman sitting behind us was using binoculars to watch the TV! So crazy! I just could not hold back (as many of you know). Anyway, the choir sounded really great and it was worth seeing but man was it an experience! I will probably remember our seats over the choir but those kind of stories are always good. Haha! After church we went to a bakery and got some food. All the little bakeries around Austria are so cute and it is just something we don’t have at home pretty much at all and they are all over in Austria. We then walked around town for a little bit but it was raining so it wasn’t that enjoyable. Then at noon we met up with the rest of the group and got lunch at a restaurant called the Centimeter. People had gone there before and wanted to go again because they give you such huge portions of food. Most people share and that’s what I did. Matthew and I split Cordon Bleu which made for a cheap meal and it was definitely enough food. It was actually really good. Then we went back to the hostel to check out and get to the train station. We go to the station really early but we got on the train anyways. The six of us in our compartment watched How to Train a Dragon so that helped pass the time. I fell asleep for the last hour of the trip because I was so tired! I was happy to be back in Salzburg and was not looking forward to all the homework I had. I had to write a paper and read for art so it was not really a good night. I wouldn’t say Vienna is my favorite city but I was glad that I got a chance to go there and I had a really fun weekend!

P.S - Pictures to come! Image downloader was down