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Monday, May 13, 2013

Oh dear. I was more tired than I expected.

When we got home last night and after I ate my blueberry muffin from Starbucks (I know...I’m doing a great job of immersing myself into the culture over here), I decided to take my Sunday nap & told the girls to wake me up in an hour so that I could finish some reading . Next thing I knew it was 1 o’clock in the morning. There was nothing to do but roll over and continue to sleep. When I finally did wake up, I had gotten just shy of 12 hours of sleep. How sweet it felt! 

Today was our “first” day of school. If you overlook the mild scolding from our bus driver for holding him up by a few seconds, we made it to our building without any snags & in record time to boot! 

For class we teamed with another class & went on an excursion to the Vienna Treasury where we saw A LOT of the Medieval relics we had discussed recently. Among the many things displayed there was the Imperial Crown of the HRE (the crown with which Charlemagne crowned himself with -- 1,000 years old!), the Imperial Orb, The Imperial Cross, The Holy Lance (Allegedly the spear that pierced Jesus’ side, and in which the nail that was hammered into his right arm is welded). Everything was mind boggling. Dress robes made out of gold and the finest silk, uniforms of the knights, Narwal husks, etc. Absolutely incredible. So much history that still effects the world today; most notably during WWII in the last century. Wow. If you really want to know more & are craving a lecture...ask me and then be prepared to put on your seatbelt.

The Crown of Charlemagne

So to end a good history lesson, what do you do? If you’re me, you go to another exhibit. 

Allison, Meredith, and I decided to go to the Sisi museum. If you read one of my earlier posts, you know that I kind of went a like crazy researching her story. The tour was a lot bigger & longer than we expected. We walked in and all we saw was silverware, china, porcelain dishes, gold & silver-gilded dishes...you name it, it was probably there. It was then that we realized that it was a tour of the dishware on the first floor, Sisi on the second, and the Imperial apartments on the third. We were there for a good 2 1/2 hours, but it was time very well spent. 

Kelsey met up with us after, and we thought it was time to branch out and explore a little more of Vienna. After wandering for a good twenty minutes, we found a beautiful fountain and park to sit and people watch for a while. When Kelsey left to find her parents, Allison and I kept walking down pretty streets & ended up back at the Opera. We treated ourselves to the Mozart Café & split a huge waffle cone, dipped in chocolate that was stuffed with vanilla cake, strawberry mousse, pieces of strawberries, & sprinkled with almond flakes. HEAVEN.

After that...it was definitely time to go home. I find myself just dead tired by 8pm most days...it is a real chore to stay awake any later than that. While sitting and waiting for my bus, a guy started talking to me in English. I must have given him the strangest look before I was able to process what he had even said. I’m so used to hearing German, that I hardly recognize English when someone starts speaking it to me! 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Today was just...different. 

Not bad - just not how I was expecting it to go. 

I’m usually a planner...I like schedules. I like schedules a lot. 

But now we don’t have anything planned for us until our weekend trip.

So today I went with the flow. No plans.

Kind of a weird sensation!

But it was really lovely. 

I had to register some paperwork with my class but was otherwise a free bird for the rest of the day. I had the chance to see some parks I had yet to visit & got to plop down on the grass and in the sunshine to get some reading done. And after circling the shopping district 3 times over, we finally settled on a light dinner & splurged on some dessert (of course).

While I don’t think I’ll spend another day like this (I still have many many things to cross off my Vienna bucket-list!), it was nice to relax, explore, and shake off the lingering effects of jet-lag.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Today was life-changing...I finally went to a zoo! I've been to the Animal Kingdom at Disney World, but this was my first time at a zoo-zoo. (I stand corrected...I've been to some, but was too small to remember :) And not only that, but I also tried the famous käsekrainer at the hot dog stand on the corner by outside the institute.

Its been a big day! 

But it goes without saying that the zoo was definitely a highlight. I saw koalas, panda bears, giraffes, leopards (my favorite!), elephants, monkeys, penguins, sea lions, zebras, hippos...the list goes on. We went in the afternoon when we thought that the animals would be a little more active & I was a little disappointed when they were actually all napping. But then I thought, its 2 o'clock, I'd want my afternoon nap too! 

The zoo is on the property of Schönbrunn Palace, so afterwards we were able to roam the gardens. We climbed the hill in the back and had a beautiful view of the palace and the city beyond it. Stunning! I now have a zillion pictures of Schönbrunn & I love it. On a side note: if you want to meet your fellow Americans in Vienna...this is the place to be. We met a couple from Texas and students from North Carolina...such fun!

On the way back down the hill there was a nice open grass area where we plopped down our things with intentions to study & read...but instead we all took naps and got sunburned. So worth it...you could't beat the view! We woke up when a rowdy bunch of kids came and sat near us, but it was perfect timing because we got to see a man come around to take pictures of his granddaughter with the palace. Probably the most precious thing I had seen all day. 

I had heard of a great restaurant called Della Lucia outside of the garden gates, so the group of us went there for dinner. We sat in their garden out back and got drinks, pasta, and dessert. It was more food than I had ever consumed before, but was SO incredibly delicious. If I kept a food blog, it would do just as good a job as this blog does in keeping up to date of my activities. I really only study, sight-see, and eat. Totally fine with that :)