wien

Ffrom Monday to Friday last week, I was in Vienna, Austria with my class :) It was an excellent trip and an invaluable cultural experience!

DAY 1:

The first day started early: 5:30 am the alarm goes off. We had to be at the airport by 7. Ahhhhh! Natalie had slept over at my place because Stine was driving her, Natasia and I to the airport before she went to work, so I had to climb over her to go and brush my teeth as she slept a little longer through the alarm than I did.

We arrived at the airport, did all the boring checking in type stuff, boarded the flight and took off. The flight was an hour and a half, so not very long at all which was nice. It's strange tot hink that an hour a half away they speak a totally different language and have such a different culture. Pretty much everyone slept or at least shut their eyes a wee bit due to the early start. We landed, and as I walked off the plane, who did i see but Will, a fellow kiwi AFS student in Denmark... in Vienna... what? Turns out his class was going on their study trip at the same time as us, to the same place, on the same fight. Freaky!

My whole class (except one) went on the trip with two teachers: Eric, who teaches German to half of the class, and Tuca who teaches English to the whole class. Thirty one of us all-together I think.

Once through customs, we sat in the airport for what felt like a lifetime waiting for Eric to buy train tickets to get us into the city centre, as the airport was a way out from Vienna itself. it was SO HOT. We were all geared up in winter clothes, as it was predicted to be freezing in Austria. But we all melted sitting there waiting for so long. To make matters worse, we were right outside a Macdonalds so the smell of cheeseburger wafted continuously past us.
We rode the train and metro to our hotel, the Adagio, which was a very pleasant place. The rooms were a little like apartments, we had a kitchenette, two double beds, a bathroom and a toilet. Four of us were sharing the room: Nikoline, Mathilde, Dorte and I.

Spot Lucy Bear!

After unpacking a little, we went for a wander around the city. We began with the cathedral, which was absolutely stunning. The stained glass windows, candles, and sheer height of the building were magnificent. It was almost as impressive as Notre Dame, but not quite. No flying buttresses! The church stood high above all the other beautiful architecture in the city, and we later found out that this had a religious symbolic purpose: the church was closer to heaven than the rest of the buildings and It was intentionally built that way.

We continued to wander along the main street until we realized that everyone had split off in different directions and we had no idea where we were going. A big group of us were with Tuca, who soon dismissed us to go and do whatever. So, we shopped a little, ate an early dinner (4:30, crazy early) and went back home to get fancied up for the opera. We went to see Flagermusen by Johann Strauss, a famous German three act comedic opera. In German. Haha. I didn't really follow much of the story, even though there was a sort of English commentary on a screen above the stage. But the singing was great! The costumes and set reminded me a lot of those three-tiered cakes you see in Marie-Antoinette, very pink and fluffy. The majority of us fell asleep at some point, for me it was in the third act. I lasted for most of it! I felt bad for sleeping because I really wanted to make the most of everything but my eyes were seriously like led. Even Eric and Tuca slept, so don’t judge

J

Afterwards, straight home to bed. I had been warned that Dorte, who I was sleeping with, snored, but I konked out so quickly that I guess I didn't hear a peep.

DAY 2:

7am wake up. Uggghhhh. You’d be amazed how tired walking around a beautiful old city can make you! We had assignments to complete on Tuesday, firstly, we had to do some research about the Viennese architecture  the old vs the new and things like that. We were supposed to interview people on the street ( in German lol what a joke) and film them on our i-Pads but ended up just talking to people in English and not recording it. Actually to be honest I kind of just stood around staring at everything and feeling really awkward because I didn't want to ask strange Austrian people if they knew anything about the old building that H&M was housed in. they’d probably just say it was old and had an H&M in it. Pretty standard. So anyway, we did that as well as we could and hit the shops. I told myself I wouldn't buy anything on the trip…. Nek minnit bought a coat. But coats are a good thing to buy because they are more of an investment than a purchase: you wear them every day (at least in Denmark you do, hoorah for subzero temperatures!) and because it was black, it goes with everything and makes me feel very European J

Feeling European outside the Sisi Museum

Our meeting point every day was outside the church at 1 pm. So we meet, and our next task was announced: go to a Viennese cake house and do some research, ie. go eat cake. YES PLEASE. We went to this place: and I savoured every mouthful of my first Viennese cake, a hazelnut cream cake, as well as every tiny sip of my hot chocolate. The best hot chocolate I have ever tasted. Legitimately. With whipped cream on top mmmm. 

Not exactly helping the whole AFS (another fat student) reputation right now but I went to the gym yesterday and going again today, burning off one cake at a time! On the trip, I was also elected president of the diabetes club after eating an entire pizza to myself. I was hungry ok? Plus, I paid for it. Gotta get my money’s worth! So, after doing ‘research’ about cakes… Haha… We headed back to the shops and browsed a bit more, then went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit to ease our foot pain. Those cobbled streets are a killer on the ankles. About ten of us went out to a very classic Vienna schnitzel restaurant that night. We had to wait for about 20 minutes to get a table, but it was totally worth it! Of course, I ordered the classic Wien Schnitzel. With salad. To say it was enormous would be an understatement. Check it out. I couldn't eat it all but I managed to do something creative with what I couldn't eat, so I hope the chefs understood my appreciation for the excellent meal!

I was sad I couldn't eat it all...

But happy that it tasted SO GOOD!

DAY 4:

Wednesday, the cold begins. It had started snowing overnight and there was now a light dusting on the footpaths, cars and rooftops. And then there was the wind. Words cannot describe how much of a difference wind can make when it comes to the temperatures. I think it was -4, but the wind chill factor was -20. Humans should not be alive in those kinds of temperatures, I tell ya!

First on the agenda was the Sisi Museum, a museum dedicated to the former empress of Austria Elisabeth, whose nickname was Sisi. We had audio guides, you know those telephone-looking things where you press a button and a person waffles on with information about whatever you are looking at? And for the first 30 minutes or so we looked at millions of plates. Elisabeth had a plate for every occasion. Also a set of cutlery, china, gold and silver platters, champagne glasses, sugar cube picker-uppers made of crystal, and so on.

We got to the end of the plates, and we were back to the beginning. Obviously, we were all very disappointed that all we had learned about Elisabeth was that she had a lot of plates. But then, we saw a staircase going upstairs. More rooms, hurrah! So up we went, along with throngs of Italian tourists, and learned a bit more about her life.

She was not Austrian but from a Slavic country, and was married to Emperor Franz Josef in the mid 1800’s. He was actually supposed to marry her older sister but he met her and liked her better. Ha! Anyway, she was not a beloved empress during her reign, but afterwards she became a saint. She had a pretty sad life, her son killed himself, she didn't like Vienna and spent hardly any time there, and she got stabbed when she was 50 and died. Not the most pleasant experiences. But, she did have very long hair, down to her ankles, which took an entire day to be washed. (Interestingly, she was the first ever empress to have a PROPER bath. Prior to her, everybody used jugs and pots and porcelain bowls). There is a famous painting of her with her long hair draped across her back, with these beautiful star shaped diamonds in her hair. It was gorgeous, and you could buy the hair clips at the gift shop. I got postcards instead J

Then it was lunch, and meeting point at 1:30 pm today. Our afternoon assignment was to interview some tourists about why they were in Vienna, how they were finding the experience, etc. Our little group of girls wanted to go to the 100-room house, which is like a bohemian touristy place filled with shops and art and stuff. It was a few stops along the tram line, of which we had free reign with our week passes for the public transport. It was a very colourful place, and we definitely found some tourists, but it was also quite crowded and main stream in that respect. A lot of the things there were actually made in New Zealand, Tuca told me afterwards and I was quite surprised because I hadn't really inspected the stickers of anything I picked up. Intriguing. 

And then we stopped by Billa. Oh, the blessed Billa! It was a supermarket that was cheap, had everything, and there was always one nearby. My hungry tummy’s saviour <3

That night, we went to see a musical based on the Empress Elisabeth’s life. I thought it would be good. I was wrong. Don’t get me wrong, the actors were great, and they had great voices and sang so well and were very talented. But the story… Jesus Christ it dragged on forever! The second act could have been half of what it was. It was also very melodramatic and reminded me of Star Treck for some strange reason. Also, in the middle of the second act, there was this number where all these Nazi’s came out and started dancing with three men dressed as Hitler and waving flags and Heil Hitler stuff. Didn't that happen in a different century to when the play was set? I’m pretty sure Elisabeth died before 1900… Anyway, even if the Nazi’s were around then, I felt it was a bit unnecessary and also a little bit frightening – it’s not a nice thing to think about let alone see a choreographed singing interpretation of. And then. In the curtain call, the actors all clapped. You never clap for yourself if you are in a professional production. School shows, its fine, but just… no. In general, I think that Elisabeth had quite a sad life and I don’t think it was the greatest thing to make a musical about. It was hard to put any joy into it because there was always this sad undercurrent of how unhappy she was. I think a play may have worked better and been taken more seriously. But anyway, enough of me being a drama snob. Best part of the show was dis guy:

DAY 4:

I didn't think it was possible, but it got even colder. Our morning task was supposed to be market research: exploring local markets and interviewing people. Those who hadn't gotten sick of shopping yet went anyway, to discover it was closed due to the cold. But, I was tired of shopping, so Natasia and I went to the Albertina, Vienna’s art gallery. There was a beautiful exhibition upstairs filled with works from Picasso, Monet, Degas, and even some from Miro and Magritte who I studied in art history, so it was cool to see them in the flesh (figuratively, because paintings aren't made of flesh). None of them were works I had seen before but I recognized the styles of the artists long before I saw the name plate, which made me feel very intelligent! They also had distortion mirrors heheheehe. 

Downstairs there was a HUGE Max Ernst exhibition, with works from every genre of art he had explored. And he explored a lot. It was really fascinating to see the progression he made from start to finish and all the different techniques he picked up over time, and due to the context he was living in. So nice. 

We met outside the church again and made our way to another art gallery a few metro stops away. It was modern to say the least. In one room upstairs there was a piece of digital art that was a film of about fifty people standing still, talking in German and saying things you can only really understand (or come up with) if you are on some whack as drugs. I didn’t understand it.

Downstairs there was a frieze that covered all four walls of the room. Eric explained what everything meant and I understood a little of it (he spoke in Danish so..hmm..). It was to do with Medusa and the afterlife and sexuality, all that kind of thing.

And then, more cake. Apple streusel for me. I feel as if I made the song ‘my favourite things’ from the Soundound of Music into a to-do list.....

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes:
Saw some of those in the opera, night one
Snow flakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes:It snowed and got in my eyes and I cried and my mascara went everywhere
Brown paper packages tied up with strings: 

I sent postcards, does that count?
Cream coloured ponies: (it's coffee cream ok?)

And crisp apple struesels:

Doorbells: Prank calls from Jonas pretending to be room service
Sleighbells: Ok no sleigh bells...

Schnitzel with noodles:

I also ate takeaway noodles for three euros but I didn't take a photo. 

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings:

There were a lot of pigeons.....?

It was our last night, so we went out to a lovely Viennese restaurant together with the whole class. I ordered a Wien sausage yum yum. And also cake afterwards. Yolo. We went to a bar that night for a few hours as well, but I left relatively early and didn't party hard AT ALL because I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Plus, I felt like I was getting a cold. Uh oh. I'm glad a few of us did leave early, because the bar tenders were very unprofessional and got all the tabs mixed up so there were 46 euros still owed after everyone paid for what they had. Drama. Anyway, I was chilling in the hotel room showing everyone my hidden talent: fitting my fist into my mouth, which was recorded on Dorte’s i-Phone without my knowledge. Woops!

DAY 5:

Friday morning was another art gallery, very beautiful and filled with works from Austrian artists. The gift shop was interesting, a lot of books with photos of naked men among other things. My camera died so no photos unfortunately :(

Then, it was lunch, last minute shopping and back to the hotel to pick up our suitcases for the trip home. The plane was delayed so we sat for a relatively long time waiting, but we made it fun!

Overall, I feel like the study trip was really valuable for me, both in terms of learning academically and developing socially. I felt a lot more comfortable around people by the end of the week, and also understood SO much more Danish  which was a pleasant surprise. After being in a country where I knew absolutely NOTHING about the language apart from “dankeshun” and “gutentag”, I could see how far I have come in two months.

Tomorrow, I have a four hour maths exam. Wish me luck. I'm going to go and watch hours of gossip girl to procrastinate and then go to sleep, wake up and realize that I have an exam and freak out. Ciao for now :)