You Can Afford to Lose a Day or Two

First of all, everyone should be planning a trip to Vienna right now! Vienna is one of my favorite places for sure and I want to go back soon (soon as in a few to several years). A lot of the places I’ve been to I feel like I don’t need to go again, but not Vienna. There were so many things I didn’t get to do there, mostly because I didn’t have enough time or I was dinking around wasting time. You have to have a game plan to see everything you want to see in these cities! I also want to come back and see Salzburg too, since I don’t have the time/money for three trips to Austria this year.

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Vienna Pictures

The Vienna adventure began on Thursday afternoon when about 100 students piled onto two cramped buses and departed for a 12 hour ride to Vienna. Getting from Florence to Vienna by bus means driving through over a third Italy and almost all of Austria, it was a long drive.

We arrived at the hostel in Vienna at 4am! We had to check in and all that before going to bed. I did not get very much sleep before I had to get up again at 9 to start the tour of Vienna. I took some pictures during the tour. Pictures are on Shutterfly. Sorry this post doesn’t have any with in, next time! The tour took us along the Ring of Vienna’s old town and we saw a lot of buildings from the Hapsburg era. The weather was pretty icky. It rained almost the whole time. Being a true Oregonian I refused to carry an umbrella.

The last place on our tour was St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Only a few of us decided to continue on to the amusement park at Prater. We rode this really awesome Ferris Wheel. The Ferris Wheel was built in the 1890s, survived WWI, but was destroyed during WII. In 1947 it was completely rebuilt exactly the same. Riding it was really cool. It was a lot different than a normal Ferris Wheel, you ride inside like a train box car thing, so you aren’t outside. (I took pictures, go look at them!!)

We continued around the rest of the amusement park, but we were basically the only people there so there weren’t a lot of rides open. We only found two others to ride. Go Karts and one called the “Extasy.” I rode the latter and it was so fun! One of the best rides I have been on, ever. We spun around completely upside down!

After the rides we eventually made it back to our hostel and I had time for a nap before heading to dinner. We had a group dinner with Austrian food. It was not as good as the food in Innsbruck. This was more like food from Poland on Opening Tour where everything is fried and/or pickled. But it was ok for one meal. The dinner took a really long time and we didn’t get back to the hostel until after 11, I was so tired, I just went right to bed!

Saturday morning I got up early and went on the tour with Peter to the Naschmarkt, it’s a food and flee market. It wasn’t as cool as it sounds, but I still enjoyed it. After the market people started splitting off in different directions to see what they wanted and get to the meeting place at 2pm for the Schonbrunn Palace with the big group. I decided to go to the Leopold Museum to see some Austrian artists. But first I stopped at Starbucks, and thank goodness too because it was starting to pour, a serious, the-world-is-ending-head-for-cover down pour! I knew at that the moment the Starbucks across the street was a gift from God. The Leopold was a really good museum, I was very happy with my choice. But there are so many museums in Vienna, it was hard to pick just one to go see. A lot of people went to the modern art museum and said it was very strange.

Met back up with the group to take the bus to the Schnonbrunn Palace, but when we got to the palace I decided it was too expensive and didn’t go inside. About the time some friends and I were getting to the metro station to go back into downtown, the storm started up again. Apparently there was a hurricane somewhere and really strong winds came to Vienna, or so I was told. But the storm actually uprooted some trees (there’s a picture of on my Shutterfly Vienna album).

That night I decided to head over to the Opera House and try to get a standing ticket for the night’s performance. The opera started at 8:15pm and standing tickets would be available starting at 7. I left the hostel at 5 because I wanted to buy a skirt since I didn’t have anything nice to wear. I found a cute and inexpensive skirt by 5:45 and I wanted some tights because it was freezing, but all the stores were closing at 6, so I didn’t get any. But it was ok. (I changed into the skirt in a metro bathroom. It was called the opera bathroom and it played this really weird music.) I got in line for standing tickets by about 6:40, so I guess I didn’t really have time to buy tights after all. The line started moving at 7, by 7:15 I got to the window, gave the man 2 euros and I had my ticket. Then I went to stand in another line on the stairs before we were allowed to the standing spots.

The standing tickets basically put you behind a rail behind the seats five balconies up on the far side, so you can’t really see anything at all. But it’s the Vienna Opera House for 2 flipping euro! It was worth the 2 euro just to be inside! The Opera House is breathtaking! And all the people were dressed up in tuxes and ball gowns (except the standing room people of course, though most did try).

That night was the premiere of “La Forza del Destino” an Italian opera. That does not mean I understood one word of the thing. Opera is hard enough to understand when it’s in English! Also, I ended up leaving at intermission because my feet were killing me from walking around all day and then standing for all the opera. Before getting on the metro to go back to the hostel, I went to Starbucks one more time (before the next time I go to a country with Starbucks). I changed back into my jeans too.

The next morning we got up and spend about 12 hours on a bus back to Florence. This time we drove through Austria in the daylight. Such a beautiful country! I just wanted to bust out some Sound of Music around those mountains!

This weekend I am kicking it in Florence. Next weekend: London. Then: Scotland for Easter. Then: Munich, Southern France, Finals, Mom and Dad, home! What a whirlwind!

As for school, I just had midterms about a week ago. I did okay on my tests. I have a finance test this Monday and its pretty complicated stuff (how to value capital and whatnot). I don’t really like finance that much. I mean accounting isn’t fun and games but I find so much more satisfying. Yes, I know I’m weird like that, that’s how I know I can be an accountant.

I have been scouring the internet looking for internships and jobs for this summer. Being abroad it’s really hard to find something because I am missing the on campus recruiters and almost any chance for a face-to-face interview so I have gotten the snub from several companies. So anyone know of any job I should try for this summer? One of my fellow accounting major friends told me to look for bookkeeping if I get really desperate. Dad wants to put me back in the factory (YUCK). You would think after three years of college I could something other than make parts packs for $9/hour!

Final Note:

Thank you Billy Joel; Vienna did wait for me.

(lyrics to "Vienna" are in the previous post, go read them!!)