I know it has been a couple of weeks since I've posted, but the week before last was a pretty quiet week. The highlight of my week (even though it was not necessarily a good thing) was probably what happened to me on my way to school on Tuesday. I was waiting to cross the street while a Strassenbahn (Vienna's streetcars) was going by in front of me. All of a sudden, I heard a huge thud and the Strassenbahn had gone off of the tracks! I couldn't figure out why that would happen, so I walked around the streetcar to cross the street and saw that it had smashed straight into one of those giant tour buses! It was crazy...there was glass everywhere and the front window and door of the tour bus were completely smashed in. Luckily, there were lots of construction and city workers everywhere who had the door pried open and people out within minutes, and nobody was hurt. But my German professor told me that a Strassenbahn accident happens very rarely, so I saw something that doesn't happen often in Vienna!
the Strassenbahn accident
On Friday night, I went to a brewery with a couple of my friends. We went to the Ottakringer Brewery, which is one of Vienna's most popular local beers. The brewery turns into a sort of night club about once a month, so there were 5 floors of dancing with a different genre of live music on each floor. We stayed on the Rock floor, but I'm sure the other floors were really cool, too. (There was a hip hop floor, a techno floor, and I forget what else.) It was a really neat place to see and it was fun to go somewhere different on the weekend. Other than that, I had a pretty uneventful week. Even though it was somewhat quiet, I still had a fabulous week in Vienna!! :)
This week was a little more eventful. Last Wednesday, I went on another walking tour with my Vienna: Past and Present class. We visited St. Stephan's Cathedral, which is probably the most famous church in Vienna. We also saw the Jesuit University, which is still located in the city center by St. Stephan's. It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen here yet. After that, we went inside the oldest pub in Vienna, which is a cute little restaurant that has signatures on the ceiling of famous people who have eaten there, including Mozart!! It was pretty cool to stand in a pub where Mozart had eaten!
the inside of St. Stephan's
This is my professor...Dad wanted me to take pictures of my crazy professors!
the inside of the Jesuit University
On Friday night, I went to The Barber of Seville at the Opera House. I went with about 10 other people from my program at 5:00 to wait for standing tickets to the 8:00 show. It was totally worth it though!!! We got standing spots in about the 20th row (in a HUGE opera house) and had an incredible view! Once you tie a scarf around your seats, you are free to leave, so we went to the grocery store and bought food and chocolate and ate a yummy dinner before going back to the opera house. The actual opera was amazing! It is one of the few that I learned about in my opera class, so it was nice to know what was going on and recognize some of the arias. It was definitely one of my most memorable nights here so far...it felt like a typical Viennese night! After the opera, we went over to someone from my program's apartment instead of going out to a club. We all had so much fun because it felt more like we were at home at a friend's apartment instead of struggling to brave a foreign city and foreign nightclubs. We all agreed that a quiet night of hanging out was a nice break from the crowded nightlife of the city.
the inside of the Opera House...we were so close to the front!
This morning (Saturday morning), I went on an all-day excursion with my Vienna: Past and Present class. We took a charter bus to Klosterneuburg, which is one of the most famous monasteries in Austria. The bus ride took us about 45 minutes outside of Vienna, so we got a beautiful view of the mountains. We went on a 3 hour tour of then entire monastery and then drove about 15 more minutes to Castle Kreuzenstein where my professor gave us a tour of all the rooms of the castle, its courtyard, and its weapons room. That castle was used in the movie The Three Muskateers and now makes most of its money by being used as a movie set. After the castle, we went to a Heurigen, which has traditional Austrian food and Austrian wine. Everyone was required to order a drink and something to eat, so I had a piece of bread with this delicious orange cheese spread (I can't remember what it's called!) that tasted kind of like the Hawaiin cheese dip that Mom and Grandma Sandy make and a glass of white wine. The wine was super bitter, but it was apparently really fancy Viennese wine, so I felt very authentic. :)
one of the areas of Klosterneuburg
the outside of the monestary...it was so pretty!
the outside of Castle Kreuzenstein
the courtyard in the castle
Other than that, I'm just going to be working on a 45 minute presentation that I have to give on Thursday and I haven't even started...gotta love studying abroad! And my foot is almost back to normal, so no more hobbling around Vienna! All in all, it's been a good couple of weeks :) Auf Wiedersehen!
Loves the Vienna Past, Present Class!!!
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