blogabroadVienna, Austria? Okay, let’s go to Vienna.
That is basically my life here abroad. Want to do something? Okay.
Want to go to Vienna or Spain or just to the pub? Okay.
It’s not like I don’t have anything to do here, it is just that what I am supposed to do here is say ‘okay’ and do it. Without that, I’m not experiencing anything at all. Truly, I believe that. I’m truly sorry if you are reading this from work or school or even worse, the library, but studying abroad is essentially just living abroad. It is in these experiences, ask anyone, that you truly study abroad. The new experiences in the classroom and with professors and my workload is memorable and important (I enjoy the four courses I am taking here way more than the four I studied at Emory last semester, content and professors included for nearly all of them). However, what I do at night, where I go on the weekends, and the walks I take during the day and lunches I have with friends make studying abroad complete and for me, are the best moments.
So this weekend, I left Friday for Vienna, Austria. It was a trip organized by my school here, so it was about 40 of us in a hostel together. The four hour bus brought us to Vienna at 8 p.m. and we headed out for some dinner and drinks and some great exploration. While you can find a place to eat in Prague at any moment and on every corner, every corner, Vienna is a little different. It took us a while to find anywhere to eat, as it was 10 p.m. by the time we left the hostel and were all ready, so we settled for some Italian food. Now trust me, I am the last person who wants to eat Italian while visiting another country that isn’t Italy, but sometimes, especially when traveling, you just have to go with the flow, and I am so happy we did. This little Italian restaurant had definitely never served 10 American college guys hungry from a four hour bus ride. We had a blast with the owner, the chef, and the mysterious dog named Rambo who blindly (I think quite literally) strolled through the restaurant looking for scraps.
This was the first I time I had been on the euro, and it is quite simply, not a pleasant experience, especially for one studying in the Czech Republic. I definitely should note that the reason I include something about prices and the cost of food and travel in almost every entry is because that is hands down always a topic of conversation while traveling. How much does dinner cost? How much are flights? What is a cheap hotel or hostel? And as we all know, this doesn’t apply only to studying abroad, but all travel. However, when you are traveling with your family for a week in the summer or on winter break, it is a lot different than making your money stretch a little further when you are living, truly living, in another country for almost five months. So, I hope not to bore you or brag about the dollar store than can be the Czech Republic, but I always get emails about the cost of traveling and know that besides getting time off, money is the number one travel deterrent. Anyway…the euro is a little more expensive than the dollar and Vienna is about the cost of any smaller major metropolitan city in the U.S.
So Friday night we went to the Bermuda Triangle, which is essentially a triangle of streets lined with bars (all no cover and all welcoming everyone and anyone inside). We stayed in the area for a while before heading to Flex, an Indy-Rock club, techno, weird underground drug scene, dance place rolled into one odd, unforgettable venue. The place was a half mile from the Triangle and littered with great graffiti and located below ground, right on the Danube River. To the right was a cafeteria looking bar with hundreds of punk-rock Austrian students sprawled out on long wooden benches. We were told to wait around until 3 a.m. and “go in there.” “In there” ended up being through this little walkway leading to the largest club I had ever seen, lined wall to wall with drugged out teenagers and twentysomethings raving to a DJ that put on a performance as if he were part of a huge ten piece band. For me, it was straight out of a movie, but we jumped right in (excluding the crazy drug use and over the top head banging). The night continued like this until it could no longer be considered night, but full on morning…
We had a 9 a.m. wake up Saturday, on which we took a tour of the city. I didn’t know what to expect from Vienna besides Freud, Mozart, and Arnold the California Governor, but the city was incredible. It is a very wealthy city with beautiful museums and palaces on every corner. The Hapsburgs ruled this area of Europe for 700 years, a little more than 100 years ago or so, and their palaces are everywhere. There is a winter palace just down the road from a summer palace (each with about 2000 rooms) and gardens like Versailles in Paris. The winter palace (and these all have a name I swear) is in the heart of the city near Parliament and its backyard is beautiful courtyards that weave right into the middle of the main street full of shopping and restaurants. We toured the summer palace in the afternoon and then a few of us sat down at one of the famous Austrian cafes. Famous for encouraging, yes encouraging, you to stay and relax and not worry about how long you take or how little coffee you order, we sat and relaxed and watched the people and the streets for two hours late in the afternoon.
It was time for an authentic Austrian dinner, so we went to Centimeters, a place known for great Austrian food pilled high on the plate. Our waitress suggested the dinner for 6 and we agreed. Well, what we didn’t know was that the dinner was served on a sword thrown across the table and we were just told to dig in to Weiner schnitzel, pork, and other Austrian greats. We ate and ate and finally were able to stand and head back to the hostel to get ready to head out into the Austrian nightlife.
Yadda, yadda, yadda, the second night was just as fun as the first, just at different bars in the same general area, and yes, a stop at Flex around 4 a.m.
Sunday started with a trip to the Freud Museum, which is not impressive, don’t go. Fortunately, it was incredible outside, so we strolled through the parks and churches of Vienna, stopping at the Parliament for pictures, and at the Opera, museums, and into the Albertina (a modern art museum). The exhibits were fair at best, but the building itself was very impressive. Located right in the middle of the museum and palace district, the Albertina is an all marble palace sitting a full story and a half above the city, so hanging out on the balconies and watching the people stroll by on the main boulevard is a must.
The rest of the day was spent exploring and heading around the city, and we headed back around 5 p.m., back into Prague at 10 p.m. and in school again on Monday.
Right now, I am trying to put together a trip for this weekend, hopefully Krakow, Poland, and Auschwitz, as well as planning spring break without trying to break the bank.
I think I’ve worn out my welcome at this café tonight, so I’ll see you later. Have fun everyone, enjoy.
