I
didn't love Vienna nearly as much as everyone else seems to have, but this was
no fault of the city itself. It was a rather nice place (except for the flower lady,
stay tuned), and I really want to go back one day and experience it right because
I feel like it didn't get a fair shot. But even so, this trip taught me that you can't expect every new European city you visit to be the trip of a lifetime. Sometimes it's just another city.
Since my throat felt a little scratchy
on Monday, it was no real surprise to me when we arrived in Vienna on Tuesday
and I felt like I'd caught the plague. We went on tour after tour that day, and
for the life of me I just could not pay attention or enjoy anything we were
seeing. My head hurt, my throat hurt, my nose was runny yet congested, I was
coughing up a storm, and to top it all off we were walking all over town for hours
and I was absolutely freezing. But it wasn't all bad.
The
best part of that day was definitely the goulash.
But the funniest/weirdest/what-the-heck-just-happened-est part?
Definitely flower lady.
Here’s some background info: one of the tourist
schemes in Vienna is when a woman comes up with a handful of roses and offers
one, then demands a “donation” for it. These women are very persistent and came up to our group many, many times over
the course of the week, but here’s the story of my first encounter.
Setting:
Random street in Vienna.
Scene:
I’m walking along, following the rest of the tour group when a couple ladies
come along with roses. They hand them to three or four people near me at the
back of the group, and we all just keep walking and joking about having the
guys use them to try to pick up some Viennese women. Before long I end up with
one of the roses and the lady approaches me from behind, asking for a
donation. I tried to give the rose back to her instead, and at this point all
of the other roses had been returned so she was especially annoyed and refused
to take it. But I just kept saying “Here” and offering it to her, making it
clear that I wasn’t going to give her any money. Eventually I put it directly into
her hand at which point she death glared me and said “Here, fuck you!” and that
was that!
Tuesday
was hands down the best day of the trip. Somehow I felt much better that day
and after one group tour in the morning we were free for the rest of the day.
Ibk, Izzie, Austen, Joseph, and I went to meet my host parents (my host mom was
born in Vienna and they'd already planned to visit for the week) and their
friend Elizabeth at Cafe Prünkel. After lunch, we walked to the Belvadere which
was formerly a palace, but now an art museum. My host mom got me in for free
(it's nice to look young!) and I was very much impressed with the art
collection. The landscapes in particular were my favorite pieces and I am
definitely imagining how good my future home is going to look with those
paintings converted to murals covering my walls. After the museum we went to
the Nachtmarkt and had a really fun time trying different foods and getting
yelled at by the vendors trying to sell their goods to us. Soon after that we said goodbye to the parents and went on the hunt for a pair of
jeans for Joseph and a swimsuit for Izzie. (Notice how neither of those items
were for me, yet I still ended up buying things! I'm cursed with an insatiable sweater
addiction. Oh well.) And here comes the part where for the first time since
being in Europe I actually felt lost.
Setting:
TKMaxx.
Scene:
I'd just left the dressing room because I was trying to help Joseph find some
pants when the fire alarm goes off. I start heading for the front of the store
when I realize I left my coat and my bag from H&M inside the dressing room
and run back to get it. I turn the corner and oh schaaade it's not there
anymore! Lady #1 starts shooing me out so once again I head toward the front of
the store. Lady #2 intercepts me and points me to a side door. (At this point I
am one of the last customers in the store, so I enter the stairwell alone.) I
go down the stairs a couple of flights and end up in a parking garage. A
parking garage from which THERE IS NO ESCAPE. Each exit sign led me to either a
dead end or a questionable unmarked hallway with other locked doors. Eventually
I ran into Nice Bilingual Lady who also came from TKMaxx and we both tried to
find an exit (to no avail). We did, however, find yet another person who DID
know how to get out! Helpful Man was a regular of the garage and had just
gotten out of his car, and I guess NBL was even more panicked
than me because he kept telling her to calm down, that everything was fine, and
that he'd lead us out (in German/Austrian of course, NBL translated it all for me). So yeah, he led us through a weird hallway, up some
stairs, down another hallway, and eventually out to the front of the strip of
stores. The path we took was so odd that I can confidently say I would not have
managed it myself, and honestly I considered that he could actually be leading
me further into the building complex and I'd have no idea, but luckily he was
indeed helpful, just as the name suggests and I found my friends shortly after
I got outside. It turned out to be a false alarm and they let us back into the
store pretty shortly after that, I found my belongings and both Izzie and
Joseph managed to find what they'd come to get, so all in all a successful
trip?? After that fiasco, we returned to the hotel to drop off our bags and the left again for a much needed night out. Juuuuust kidding. We did homework. All. Night.
Long. (Depressing, I know.)
After
about four hours of sleep we started on our Thursday activities and boy was I
tired! And once again, sick with the plague. So nothing really stood out to me
that day, I just kind of floated along. I was very happy that I got to visit
the Freud house, though. Ever since taking Psychology in high school I have
been very interested in the field and Freud is an extremely notable and interesting
founder of ideas.
On
Friday, I checked out the Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, or Austrian National Library, which was honestly paradise
for 14-year-old-me. The building itself was a work of art, much like the
museums and palaces I’ve seen, and books lined each wall from floor to ceiling.
Speaking of the ceiling, it was an art piece which I absolutely loved—it arranged
its scenes in ascending layers, making the dome seem taller than it actually
was. After that we went to my absolute favorite part of the whole
excursion: the natural history museum. If/when I return to Vienna, I will make
sure to revisit because there was so much to see but so little time. We only
had about 30 minutes to explore on our own after the tour we were on, but I
feel like I could've spent 3 hours in there and still wanted to stay longer.
That’s
about it for Vienna, a few hours after we left the museum I boarded my flight
to Budapest, but there will be more on that in a later post.
Other random
comments/funny moments:
The
public transportation system in Vienna was the best I’ve experienced so far—it
was extremely simple and easy to use.
I absolutely loved the tile work on the roof of the cathedral. I hadn't seen a gothic style construction with tile detail yet, so it really stood out to me.
Me:
Hey, Ibk, do I look better with or without glasses? I’m taking a poll.
Ibk:
Mmm, I don’t know. I think both look better!
Me:
Do you know the definition of better??
[Ibk,
Izzie, and I are walking through the Nachtmarkt with Austen]
Vendor:
Ooh, three girlfriends?! Lucky man!
We
were waiting for the U train when we see a lady literally lift her harnessed dog
up to her hands by reeling it in via leash. I don’t think I’ll ever remember
that without laughing.
Photo Dump:
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