Trip to Vienna

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Wednesday

I woke up a little later than I had planned. I threw some wet clothes from washing them the night before into the dryer before heading to Edeka for breakfast. After I bought food, I went upstairs to DM to get some mini-things for our trip later in the day:

Mini...

Toothpaste, shampoo, lotion, etc.

I then ran back to my room, picked up my things from the dryer, and packed for our four days in Vienna! Impressively, I fit all my things into my backpack with some room to spare! I procrastinated for a while longer on my computer before getting a call from Hannah to meet her at the bank. I met her outside her building, went with her to the bank, and then ran back to DM so that Hannah could stock up on her mini-supplies as well! We spent some time in Hannah's room with Rachel before heading down to the bank once more. This time, though, we met with everyone to pay Zach for the hostel, as he was going to pay for it. We then boarded our bus and our journey began! The trip on the bus seemed to take forever, and it winded back and forth...stop and go.. the whole time! I really thought I was going to be sick, but as a plus, our bus driver's hair was crazy Mozart hair! The bus ride ended eventually, and I gratefully walked on solid ground once more. We found our check in, got our boarding passes, picked our seats, and went through security (which was the easiest security I have ever been through!). We then found our gate and sat and waited. We didn't wait long at our gate, got called to board, and then were told to wait five to ten minutes to board, because there was something up with the plane that they were checking. That's promising, right? And then Rachel started talking about how some airports actually repair their planes with duct tape! AHHHH! 

Hannah and Rachel waiting!

So, after they taped up the plane, we were able to board the shuttle bus to the plane. We then boarded, and took off in a short time. All of the announcements were first made in German, but then they made them again in English. The German announcements were easier to understand, because the English was a little muffled, but it was adorable. Kind of like this video that Hannah showed me:

The English interpretation was a little like this, because the sentence structure often times gets mixed up when translating from German to English.

Rachel through the seats!

Jake was super excited! Hannah a little less than.

Helina got to sit by me!

The flight was super scary, because it was cloudy and raining in Vienna. I was freaking out. The flight itself was short, and before long we found ourselves in Vienna! We found the train station and bought tickets (the machine actually ate Zach's money and he ended up paying ten Euros for one ticket). Also, the translation from German to English on the machine to buy a ticket, was hilarious.

In German it says, "Ok jetzt bezahlen".

So naturally, in English it translated to "Ok, I buy the ticket".

We found our train waiting for us at the platform when we went down the stairs leading to the station. We got on the train, and two girls started to sing. At first we thought that it was a joke, but when they finished singing, they walked up and down the train asking for money. And so began the begging in Vienna.

Our stop came, we got off, walked a little bit in the beautiful Vienna rain (I'm the only one who brought an umbrella), and found the restaurant we were looking for. We sat down and then the waiter came up and asked us if we wanted English or German menus. We said that we wanted German menus, and he went to go get them, as he had only brought English ones with him to our table. If failures bring about a giant DeMaris in the sky with a buzzer, I feel like on occassions such as this, we deserve a Fonzie in the sky giving us a big thumbs-up and a "Heyyyy".

Go us!

Jake, Helina, Hannah, and I ordered the wiener schnitzel, as we were in Wien (German's way of spelling Vienna). I have to say that it was the BEST wiener schnitzel I have ever had! 

Hannah with her menu and headpiece lamp!

Everyone with their wiener schnitzel, minus Zach and Rachel!

We ate, and then ordered some desert. Zach even found a gluten-free cake! 

Hannah showing off her Sissi cake!

She didn't realize she was in the picture the first time!

Zach's proof that there is a gluten free cake in Austria!

After dinner, we set out for the train again to find our hostel. We found it, quite luckily, without incident, and checked in before heading up to our room. We thought we were going to have to share a room with about twenty people, but when we got to our room, we were surprised to find a small, nice, clean, six-bed room with bunk-beds! Hannah, Rachel, and Helina got the top bunks; and Jake, Zach, and I took the bottom bunks. 

Zach unpacking, and the back of Helina's head.

Hannah excited about her bunk.

Oh these two..

There's my bunk!

Here is our hostel. On top of a big hill, might I add.

We dropped off our stuff, set out once more in search, this time, of face wash for Jake, but shortly found that everything was closed, so we headed back to the hostel. We then made plans for the next day, including breakfast at eight am. I took a shower, which was shortened due to the cold water, and went to bed after talking in bed with everyone for quite some time.

The DeMaris Checklist

Thursday

We woke up on Thursday to a bit of a sleepy start, but before long we were dressed and down at breakfast. Breakfast lasted about an hour, and we bought three day tickets at the main desk afterwards that could be used on any form of public transportation. After quick checking my emails, I got anxious to start the day and waited outside with Zach for the others to finish too. We then all set off for the U-Bahn and got off at Karlsplatz. 

Right near our hostel, at the bottom of the hill. We had to take a bridge over this and the highways to get to the U-Bahn.

The church in the distance.

Well hello there.

Here is the Karlsplatz.

Proof that I was in Austria.

Rachel was not so schnappy of a badger.

Austria, unlike Germany, wants to hydrate its inhabitants, and therefore offered free water. Somewhere the Germans are going, "Free?! NEIN!"

We walked around and just took pictures for a long time. The others wanted to to into the church, but decided not to when they saw that it was six Euros to get in. I was somewhat grateful, because anytime we go into a church, I am the first one out and end up waiting at least fifteen to twenty minutes outside while the others are still inside looking at God knows what. (Get it!?). Sorry.

We then walked towards the opera house, because when Professor DeMaris found out we were going to Vienna, she checked and found out what operas were playing. We walked up to the opera house, and found that there were people dressed up like Mozart, or just in old fashioned clothing, promoting/pushing the specific operas and plays to/on people. 

The opera house with a tram in front.

There was someone important in this car, because there was a whole procession escorted by police.

We found the box office, and asked about the opera. Mozart's Die Zauberfloete was playing on Friday, and we wanted to get tickets. The guy told us that there were only ten left, and that we would have to come Friday night about ten to twenty minutes  before the opera to get them...possibly. The others were a little worried about not being able to get them, so talked about going to see a musical later that night titled "Ich war noch niemals in New York". We ultimately could not make any decision, except that they wanted Starbucks, so we went to the Starbucks on the corner near the opera house. 

Busy street full of shoppers.

Main shopping street.

Helina and Hannah got something to drink, and we sat and made plans. Helina was going to visit a family friend in the evening, while Zach, Hannah, Jake and Rachel went to the musical. I had no desire to see this musical, and was not going to pay ten Euros to see a bunch of guys dancing, singing, and wearing more make up then I even own. I'm a little turned off from musicals, unless I know what it is, and know what to expect. Helina invited me to go with her and get a tour of the city from her friend, so I agreed. Everyone then wanted to use the bathroom quickly before leaving again, but found that you needed a receipt to use the bathroom, and both Hannah and Helina did not have theirs anymore. We left and walked down the main shopping street towards the church. We saw three H&M's and a glorious three story Forever 21. 

Unfortunately, we did not go in any of them... then. 

We made it to the church, 

and when we stopped to take pictures another opera promoter came up to me and asked if I wanted to listen to some Mozart tonight. I said no. He asked, "Don't you like music?". I said no and walked away. Maybe I have become "Kleine Schwester sagt 'nein'", but I was so sick of being harassed by people on the street.

This one's for you Papa!

If I wanted to go to the opera, I would seek it out and buy tickets! Anyway, we then set off in search of food, and after looking at several expensive restaurants, decided on just an Imbiss stand. Not all of us got food. I was just thirsty in search of cheap beverages... ha!

Pretty streets through the city!

We were walking further, as our next stop was going to be the Belvedere, when we saw a sign outside a music store that said they sold Zauberfloete tickets. 

Here we are after buying our tickets!

They had a mirror ceiling as well as a wall!

We decided to buy them for Friday night, and as I was looking at the different schedules of shows, I saw that all last week, this weekend, and next week there was Singin' in the Rain the MUSICAL! I got so excited, because that is my all time favorite! 

LOVE IT!!!!

But when I asked about the tickets, the guy told me that they were all sold out. I was so sad and disappointed! There is no musical I would rather see =[ !!

Then, we set off for the Belvedere, which is a palace converted into an art museum containing works of art from:

• Monet

• Max Klinger
• Caspar David Friedrich
• Gustav Klimt

This is The Kiss, by Gustav Klimt

and others...

We, however, got a little lost, ended up walking up to what we thought was the Belvedere, but what really turned out to be a hotel. 

The hotel we thought was the Belvedere... EHH! Buzzer on that one.

We found our way eventually, and walked up this long, inclining street lined with embassies.

French Embassy.

Some statue in the park across the street.

I told Hannah that she should live in that building and read books all day!

I photo-bombed Hannah's picture!

We were pretending to be the statues behind us. I think we did a pretty good job!

We found the Belvedere at last, bought our tickets, and walked to the end of the grounds to take some pictures. "Some" being a relative term. We ended up having our own little tourist photo-shoot! It was s o much fun! Eventually, and after some aching ankles (from the jumping shots) we went into the museum. 

Belvedere.

Full shot of it!

Hannah caught me!

Me in front of the Belvedere, freezing my butt off!

Helina and Jake.

Jake wanted to take pictures with everyone!

Crazy shot!

VALPO!

Hannah and Jake, hugging it out as always.

Around the other side of Belvedere.

They had their hands like that for some reason...

Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed, but take my word for it,  it was a very nice museum. I feel very "cultured" after going to it.. Klimt's "The Kiss" itself was amazing. I had no idea it was so big. Anytime I have seen a reprint or poster of it, it was always a low, rectangular shape, but in reality it is a large square. The picture itself is probably as tall as, or even taller than, me.

After the high culture art, the others walked through the modern art section at the base of the grounds. I waited outside with the bags, and everyone said that they were jealous that I did. Hannah explained the art to me: One of the pieces was a clock that goes on a wall just placed inside a box. That's it. It's art...

I'm sorry, but if my two-year old cousin can make it, there is no way that they can claim that as being art (not to say that my cousin could not be an artist, I am sure he could do it)!

Shortly after that, we left the Belvedere and stopped in a grocery store, where I found Milka bars with Oreos in them. Yum! After the store, we walked for a while back towards the main shopping street in search of dinner, when I encountered once more one of my newest-found pet peeves: Sauntering!!! When I walk, I walk with purpose. I don't like slow walkers in front of me blocking the way so I can't get by! It drives me CRAZY!

We debated going to McDonalds, but decided against it. Someone then suggested that we go to TGI Fridays. I quickly, and in less than ten words, ended any hope of eating there. We walked on, and found an Irish pub called Flanagan's that we decided to eat at. Me and Hannah both proudly ordered chicken fingers! It was delicious! During dinner, plans changed a little bit. Helina was invited to stay the night by her family friends', so I decided after dinner that I would just head back to the youth hostel. I said goodbye to the group after heading with them back towards the opera house, found the right train, and made it back to the youth hostel. I used the internet downstairs on my iPod in the lounge for a while, but then decided to go back up tot he room to write about my day. A big group of girls in high school moved in above me as I was walking back up, and found it impossible to write, as they were so loud. Our neighbors were also a bunch of high school boys, and every time one or two of them left the room they screamed, stomped, and banged obnoxiously on their door to be let back in. I put my iPod in, and fell asleep to my music.

Lessons Learned at the Opera

Friday

It took us a little longer to get ready in the morning on Friday. I got a little agitated, and headed down to breakfast before everyone else. We ate quickly, as we didn't have much time, and they had already stopped putting new food out. I checked my emails, and then it was off to the city by means of the U-Bahn. We went shopping for a little while on the main strip. We went to H&M, Forever 21 (where I got a necklace and some headbands), and to some bookstores to indulge Hannah's English major fancies. We then went into the church, quite happily, as it was freezing! It wasn't long after leaving the church, that we had to seek out a cafe to sit at for lunch, because it was so cold. After lunch, it was off to the Mozart house. We found it, as it was right behind the church, but did not go inside because it would have cost us money, and we were starting to feel broke. We went to the DM, where I got a pretzel for lunch/snack and then we waited outside the opera house for Helina, who had stayed the night at her friend's house. She had been with her friend all day, and we had to meet up eventually. We waited for a while, and I think by this part of the trip, everyone was starting to get annoyed with everyone else. We found Helina after a while, and then took the tram to Parliament. 

Parliament!

What a powerful pose!

Once inside, Hannah saw a pamphlet that said that the building was open to the public, so it was thought that we could just walk through certain rooms. We tried, but were stopped by security guys, and we found out that we needed a tour guide and had to pay for a tour. 

Rachel, Helina, and Jake with their headphones on.

This was the oldest assembly room. Most of the other rooms were destroyed in WWII, but this one remained intact.

This room is only used on special occasions, but was really cool to see!

Smaller room, and they were setting up for something the next day.

Final room, which had fake marble walls, which they were very keen on sharing.

The tour wasn't too expensive, and the tour guide spoke both German and English. She would first say everything in German, which I would listen to,  and then she would translate everything to English, which I would try to drone out. The best translation of the day was,

German: "Bitte kommen sie hinein."

English: "Just, come in."

The English translation sounded more aggressive, but she was really nice, so it just sounded funny.

After our tour ended, we split up. Helina, Rachel, and Zach wanted to go to the Esperanto museum, which is the museum about the language which was created in the hopes of making a new world wide Latin of sorts.

Jake wanted to nap; Hannah wanted to read; and I didn't want to go to the Esperanto museum, so we all went back to the room. We all made plans to meet up at the opera that night, and we passed out the tickets. We left a little later than we had hoped from our room to get to the opera. On the train, there was a guy that was sobbing and begging for money. It was really uncomfortable. We arrived just at seven, which is when the opera was supposed to start. We ran up, had our tickets checked, were told to check our coats, found our seats, and found that we only missed the beginning part of the opera where they play the music. 

Chandelier at the opera.

The curtain was rising for people to get back to their seats.

The very artistic backdrop/curtain.

Hannah read her book during the intermission.

Everyone at the opera, minus me and Hannah!

The cult people and the animals.

The opera was really good, but had some very strange points and ideas behind it.

Here is what we learned at the opera (please don't take these seriously):

• Mozart may have been a racist, as was stated by his lyrics of "White is beautiful" and that all of the bad people were black and the good people were white.
• Mozart was definitely a sexist:
• Women should not leave their social circle, otherwise bad things could happen.
• Women first need permission in order to talk.
• If the man you love doesn't talk to you, it is a justifiable option to kill yourself... just hope that you have a little chorus of boys dressed as Mozart will be handy to talk/sing you out of suicide.
• If you find out a man is in love with you, you should automatically love him back, because you really, at that point, have no other choice, and your opinions and feelings don't matter.
• You must find someone with a similar name as you in order to love/marry them.. it doesn't really matter if you've met one another before, as long as your names are similar.
• Never lie and say that you slayed a dragon when you didn't.
• It is perfectly normal to dance with hippos, giraffes, cows with abnormally high utters, and other animals.
• Airbenders, Waterbenders, Firebenders, and Earthbenders are always useful!

Airbending slice! (This one's for you Matty!)

I really did like the opera though, and the woman who played the Queen of the Night had an AMAZING voice! Here's the one song that was so good, if you go to 2:45, you'll know the song right away.

After the opera, which I really did like (despite these somewhat funny lessons that we learned from it!), we all crammed into a train and stopped to get Helina dinner at an Imbiss before heading back to our hostel. When we were back, I enjoyed the benefits of the fifth floor showers, even though we were on the fourth floor. The water was hot, and it was wonderful! After my shower, I wrote until going to bed.

What Didn't We See?

Saturday

We woke up late once again, and went down to breakfast. After eating and checking our email, we set off for the U-Bahn once again. Today our first stop was, Schoennbrunn garden and palace. This was one of the palaces of the Habsburgers. We walked through the beautiful gardens, and took lots of pictures of the palace.

The gardens at Schoenbrunn!

Path we walked on!

The palace!

They started building the palace up on the hill, but then realized it would be too much work to carry things up the hill all the time, so they restarted at the bottom!

From left: Helina, Me, Zach, Rachel, Jake

Me and the gnome made it so far together!

I caught a bird in motion. Watch out, it's coming for you!

Pan's Labyrinth?

 I will always think of this dude when I hear that word... I'm scarred for life.

The palace.

Zach posing next to the lamp.

Some lady kept taking pictures while we were, so her shadow is not a part of my memory.

We did lots of posing.

After taking pictures, and stopping in the gift shop so that Hannah could buy some Sissi bling for her phone, we headed to the train again for the market right near the Secession. 

This statue was right outside the Secession, and right when we came up from the tunnel, we saw it.

The Secession.

Outside the Secession.

The Secession.

Rachel and Zach always talk about how wonderful Wisconsin is, that I had to take a picture of this. Look, the heavens are even smiling down on cheese land...

Rachel and her Schoko Muffin, which was wrapped like a flower.

The market was really crowded and full of saunterers, so I was quickly put in a bad mood. After walking the market and getting something to eat, we headed for the Secession, which we had learned a lot about in our German class with DeMaris. On our final for that class, we had to draw out the Beethovenfries, which is the Secession's main exhibit. The Beethovenfries was created by Gustav Klimt, and depicts man's journey to happiness. The artwork itself, is supposed to go along with the Ode to Joy and Beethoven's 9th symphony.

Here's Rachel, pretending to be a piece of the museum.

Little turtles had their work cut out for them.

Here is the final piece of the frieze.

We paid our admission, went down to the basement where the frieze was kept, and admired it for a while. I walked around the exhibit, and then waited outside with Hannah and Helina while we waited for the others. Rachel, Zach, and Jake all walked into this other room, that I did not realize was open to us, and explained the "modern art" that was in the room. There was a flattened toothpaste box, and that was art; an air conditioner turned too high, and that was art; and other ridiculous things, that claimed to be art. Now, I had a real problem with this. The Secession is supposed to hold great art, such as Klimt, but now it just holds boxes of toothpaste and other crap. I'm sorry, but that was a bit of a disappointment.

After the Secession, everyone wanted to go tour the UN building, so we set off on the train once more. 

Here is one of the long escalators that we had to take to get up and down to the trains!

 Hannah explains the different agencies for us all!

When we got there, we found that the building was closed, and that it was only open during weekdays. Fail.

From there we went to the Hofburg palace, which was home to Sissi, the most beautiful woman of her time. She was empress of Austria, and lived a very tragic life. Everyone learned this through their tour of the apartments, but I learned this by saving my ten Euro and reading it in a book in the gift shop. While everyone else was on their hour long tour, I walked around for a while. 

The Hofburg Palace!

There were a lot of protests going on wherever we went.

Pretty horses.

Carriages all lined up to drive the tourists around for obscene amounts of money.

Church in the distance. Got another bird in this shot too!

The inside courtyard.

Carriage going through the pretty gate!

More Photo Bombing!

And Again!

Please, be nice to Fluffy!

 Yes, Fluffy. Wonderful.

Back side of the palace.

The back side of the Hofburg castle.

Emily's wanderings.

During my walk, I turned down this street!

Some statue..

I ended up sitting on a bench falling asleep for a little bit. When I woke up, the people dressed as Mozart were laughing and making fun of me for sleeping... how can they laugh at me though, they're dressed like Mozart...

I met back up with everyone, only for our group to split up once again. Rachel, Zach, and Helina wanted to go to the Esperanto museum, as they did not get to go the other day. So Jake, Hannah, and I went back to the hostel again. We met back up later at Schoenbrunn station. Each group was at a different end of the station, and we each thought that the other was late. It was pretty embarrassing. We then went to the same restaurant that we went the first night to have once more some delicious wiener schnitzel! After dinner, we headed back to the hostel to get to bed early, as we had to check out in the morning.

Back to Tuebingen

Sunday

We woke up Sunday on time. We packed up our things, headed down to breakfast, and then checked out. We checked our emails one last time in Austria. We then set out with all our things to the U-Bahn again to head to the city. Once there, we found ourselves freezing again, and Jake just wanted to go to Starbucks and read (as did Hannah, because she needed to read over a thousand pages in less than two weeks before Monday). We went to Starbucks, where I took a nap, before leaving everyone to go walk around one last time. I walked down to the church again, and then stopped at a bakery for lunch. I met everyone back at Starbucks at 1:00, and then, after Hannah, Rachel, and Jake went to get Burger King, we left for the train that would take us to the airport. The only things we did not get to see in Vienna, were the Ferris Wheel and the graveyard with all the famous dead people in it, but I'm am not sorry to have missed that one... dead people are normally on my list of things to see when visiting foreign countries.

Here is the train that Rachel wanted to take:

The weasel!

We took the train to the airport, found our check-in, found our gate, and waited. In the bathroom at the airport, they had those awesome hand dryers like they have in Costco. Just thought I had to mention that.

We got on our plane and before long, found ourselves in Stuttgart. We were also surprised to meet someone else from our German course that was on the plane, and she told us about a bus that would take us back sooner than the one that we were going to take. We all waited for the bus, and after having difficulty with the bus driver, paid and got on the bus. The whole way back, we talked about how customer service is different in Germany. I do not know how many times I have gotten a "Sorry, too bad, just live with it here", where at home I would have gotten a "Oh, let me take care of that for you" or "Sorry, did I mess up, let me give you a coupon"! After feeling very sick from the bus ride, we all went back to my place and got food before splitting up for the night. 

This is what I came home to:

I need to get a "Keine Werbung" sign for my mailbox!

I had classes today, Monday, for the first time. My first class was a theology class, and I understood maybe about 2% of what the professor said... God help me... I have this class four hours a week. That's four hours of being totally confused and wanting to cry my eyes out. Ugh! I cannot wait for my English classes, and even my German class, because at least they will be at my level. It is just frustrating, because this class is meant for native speakers, and basically the professor talks for two hours, while the students take notes. I do not understand more than half of what he says, so I just sit there trying first to understand, and second to write down what he says, but by the time I figure something out, I can't remember to write it, because he's moved on to the next thing! AH!

I am also getting sick now. I went out to Edeka after my class, and bought some OJ, because my throat and head are killing me, and my nose is stuffy. I have now spent about two hours typing this all up, and need to take a nap. I am exhausted from this past week, and the two hours this morning of utter confusion and frustration.